22 Hero outlets damaged, looted in riots

JAKARTA (JP): At least 22 of PT Hero Supermarket's 50 retail outlets in the capital and nearby towns were damaged during the recent riots, an official of the retail chain said yesterday.

The company's corporate secretary, Maurice Pawadi, told The Jakarta Post that the company was still calculating its losses.

"We have not finished calculating the total loss but it will be hundreds of billions of rupiah," he said.

Following the death of four Trisakti University students on May 12, thousands of angry rioters vandalized shops and buildings the following two days, with goods looted from the damaged or destroyed properties.

As a result, Jakarta was paralyzed and business activities ground to a virtual halt.

Kontan business tabloid estimated that Hero might have suffered a financial loss as high as Rp 150 billion (US$15 million) from Jakarta's worst rioting in decades.

Hero, one of the country's largest supermarket chains, has a total of 70 outlets operating across the country with 50 outlets operating in the greater Jakarta area.

Maurice said yesterday that of the 22 affected outlets, some only had minor damage while others suffered extensive damage or were totally gutted by fire.

"We do not have the exact number of outlets that were burned and looted but hopefully we can announce it to the public by the end of this week," he said.

Chairman of the Indonesian Retail Association (Aprindo), Steven Sondakh, who is also a director of Hero, said from Singapore yesterday that association members might have lost over Rp 1 trillion from the two-day looting and rioting spree.

Hero and other leading retail chains like Matahari Department Stores and Ramayana are members of the association.

"The members of Aprindo are likely to face a total loss of over Rp 1 trillion," he said.

PT Matahari Putra Prima, the owner of Matahari Department Stores, and PT Ramayana Lestari Sentosa, the owner of Ramayana, were not available for comment yesterday.

Matahari's communication official, Rinasanty H. Arya, only said that the company was still calculating its losses.

"We are still working on it," she said.

But Kontan reported that Matahari may have suffered losses totaling Rp 200 billion due to the riots in which 14 of its outlets were either burned or looted.

Ramayana Lestari Sentosa is estimated to have sustained a total loss of Rp 200 billion from its 13 stores which were burned and 11 looted outlets.

Most of the companies have already reported to the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) management and Capital Market Supervisory Agency (Bapepam) on the impact of the riots and looting.

JSX director Felia Salim said some of the listed companies, including Matahari, Hero and Ramayana, had reported they were affected by the riots.

"But we have not received any reports on financial losses yet," she said. (aly)