Jakarta. Sovereign wealth fund Danantara wants more Indonesian state firms to crack into the Fortune Global 500, a closely watched list comprising the world’s largest companies by revenue.

Every year, business magazine Fortune draws up a list of the world’s largest corporations by revenue, but so far, only two Indonesian state-owned enterprises (SOEs) managed to secure a spot, according to Danantara’s chief investment officer, Pandu Sjahrir. They are the utility firm PLN and oil producer Pertamina. 

“We only wish for one thing. That is how we can make our SOEs improve, but become champions not just at the national level, but also regionally. We even hope they can thrive globally. We only have two companies in Fortune Global 500, but we believe there should be more,” Pandu told a business forum in Jakarta on Wednesday.

Pertamina ranks 171st in the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list. The energy giant -- whose subholdings also operate in marine logistics and refining -- is the third-largest company by revenue in Southeast Asia. Its revenue reached approximately $75.3 billion last fiscal year, according to Fortune. 

PLN secured the 469th place at the 2025 Fortune Global 500, marking the first time for the company to join the list. Short for Perusahaan Listrik Negara, PLN is the only electricity provider in Indonesia, and boasted $34.4 billion in revenue in the previous fiscal year.

The fund is also setting this ambitious target amidst major overhauls of SOEs. Danantara is looking to slash the number of state businesses from the current 1,000 to just above 200, among others, by merging similar companies. As a case in point, Danantara is mulling consolidating the flag carrier Garuda Indonesia and Pertamina’s commercial airline subsidiary Pelita Air -- a plan that remains under review.

BP BUMN, the regulatory agency for Indonesian SOEs, also gave more details on the possible merger of the construction engineering firms. They would reportedly include Waskita Karya, Hutama Karya, and Wijaya Karya, among others.

“We are still evaluating the merger of construction firms, but it should be done in December,” BP BUMN’s deputy head Aminuddin Ma’ruf told reporters later that day.

Danantara is now in charge of all SOEs, many of which are offering similar services. Danantara’s senior official, Febriany Eddy, described the intense competition between SOEs as “cannibalism”. These companies would even go to great lengths to drop their prices as low as possible in public procurement tenders, regardless of the profit margin, to take out other SOEs and secure the project.