Acquisition of Salim asset in question<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Acquiring assets owned by the country's one-time biggest
\nconglomerate, the Salim Group, is still proving difficult.<\/p>\n
Business group Makindo complained on Thursday that it had yet
\nto gain full control of a former Salim sugarcane plantation and
\nprocessing mill in Lampung more than a year after it bought them
\nfrom the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA).<\/p>\n
Makindo president Gunawan Yusuf said at a media conference
\nthat Makindo, through its subsidiary PT Garuda Pancaarta and PT
\nIndoLampung Perkasa, bought Sugar Group Companies, which control
\nthe sugarcane plantation and sugar mill, from IBRA for Rp 1.161
\ntrillion (US$130 million) in November 2001.<\/p>\n
Yet it is still unable to gain control of the sugarcane
\nplantation because the National Agrarian Agency is denying it a
\npermit to use the plantation on the grounds that the land was
\nstill a subject of dispute.<\/p>\n
Gunawan said that Salim still claimed title to most of the
\nsugarcane plantation despite the November 2001 deal.<\/p>\n
Makindo has thus far only been able to gain control of 3
\npercent of the 54,000 hectare plot, Gunawan was quoted by
\nDetik.com as saying.<\/p>\n
Gunawan, who was accompanied by his lawyer Hotman Paris
\nHutapea, said his company had sent a letter to the agrarian
\nagency, warning it of legal action by the company should the
\nagency continue withholding a land-use permit.<\/p>\n
The Salim Group, which was founded by Sudono Salim, dominated
\nthe country's business sector for decades during former president
\nSoeharto's era thanks to his close connection with the palace.<\/p>\n
The business group lost its most important protector in the
\nmiddle of 1998 when Soeharto stepped down, but it is believed to
\nstill have considerable sway within the country's corrupt
\nbureaucracy.<\/p>\n
Under the Master Settlement and Acquisition Agreement (MSAA)
\nsigned in early 1998, Salim agreed to transfer most of its assets
\nto IBRA as part of the settlement of its debt to the government
\ntotaling Rp 52.7 trillion.<\/p>\n
The assets were transferred to PT Holdiko Perkasa established
\nespecially to collect and sell Salim assets.<\/p>\n
Gunawan claimed that the sugarcane plantation belonged to
\nSugar Groups, which it bought from Holdiko in November 2001.<\/p>\n
\"It's like buying a car. It's impossible to buy a car without
\nthe engine,\" he said.<\/p>\n
There is a lot of evidence proving Sugar Group's ownership of
\nthe sugarcane plantation, he said.<\/p>\n
One of them is a letter signed by Holdiko director Scott
\nCoffey on March 2, 2002, stating that the sugarcane plantation
\nwas an integral part of Sugar Group.<\/p>\n
The Salim Group, he added, also stated in the MSAA that it had
\ntransferred all its assets to IBRA and it had no more assets,
\nincluding land, except for those explicitly stated in the MSAA.
\nThe sugarcane plantation was not among the list of assets stated
\nin the MSAA as still owned by Salim.<\/p>\n
Gunawan regretted that rather than putting his weight behind
\nMakindo, IBRA chairman Syafruddin Temenggung sought to persuade
\nMakindo to negotiate with Salim to settle the matter.<\/p>\n
\"It is really regrettable that in a country that claims to
\nrespect the law, there is a man like him (Syafruddin),\" he said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/acquisition-of-salim-asset-in-question-1447893297",
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