Humpuss grows into giant holding company

JAKARTA (JP):The Humpuss Group, which started business 10 years ago, has grown into a giant holding company of widely- diversified businesses with total assets of more than Rp 1.05 trillion (US$491.11 billion).

Edwin Hudioro, the group's finance director, said here over the weekend that the group's total sales reached almost Rp 1 trillion in 1992, giving it a before-tax profit of Rp 600 billion.

This profit figure is far higher than the Rp 100 billion reported by the Swa magazine recently.

Edwin said that the Humpuss Group, which is controlled by President Soeharto's youngest son, Hutomo Mandala Putra, 32, who is known as Tommy, currently consists of 20 companies, six of which are still in the process of establishment.

The group, which is organizing celebrations to commemorate its 10th anniversary, also has minor shares in four companies.

"We expect to gain more income from two new important projects, which we hope will raise our assets and revenues by almost 50 percent within the next two or three years," he said.

Projects

The two projects are a methanol plant in East Kalimantan which was launched last November by PT Kaltim Methanol Industri and PT Humpuss Terminal Peti Kemas's container terminal at Tanjung Priok port, which is expected to start operating in 1996 or 1997.

The group's Media Humpuss internal magazine reported that Kaltim Methanol Industri's methanol plant has a production capacity of 660,000 tons per year, of which 60 percent is for exports and the remaining 40 percent for domestic sales.

Bernardino M. Vega, the group's planning director, said that during the first five years of operation, the group's line of business was mainly in transportation services.

"Our transportation subsidiaries during the time included PT Gatari Air Service, an air charter company, and PT Humpuss Sea Transport, a company specializing in the shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and methanol, which will soon add two new tankers to its present nine-ship fleet," he said, adding that an affiliate of the group, PT Sempati Air, operated in scheduled air transportation.

PT Marga Mandalasakti, an affiliate operating in land transportation, is currently carrying out construction, and will soon be managing a 77.4-kilometer toll road linking Tangerang with Merak, both in West Java, in cooperation with PT Jasa Marga, the state-owned company authorized to manage highways throughout the country.

"In May or June, Humpuss will also launch repaired double- decker buses, which are presently managed by Jakarta's Public Bus Transportation Company (PPD)," Bernardino said.

He said that over the past five years, the Humpuss Group has established new companies operating in the petrochemical and oil industries.

Its companies operating in the oil industry include PT Humpuss Patragas, which explores for oil and gas operates in Central Java, and Perta Oil Marketing Ltd., a Hong Kong-based company selling Indonesian oil to foreign buyers.

Core

"We are now focusing our operations in three core businesses -- transportation and the petrochemical and oil industries," he said.

Bernardino said the group recently restructured its management to improve efficiency.

He said the group now has one president, two directors -- one as planning director and the other as executive director -- and five managers. The previous management consisted of one president, one executive director, two assistant directors and eight managers.

The restructuring also caused a shift in the role of the holding company from an operating holding one to an investment holding one, which will concentrate on making guidelines for the group's overall policies, Bernardino explained.

A spokesman for the group said the group's assets steadily increased from Rp 100 billion in 1987 to Rp 175 billion in 1988, Rp 275 billion in 1989, Rp 700 billion in 1990, Rp 800 billion in 1991 and Rp 1 trillion in 1992.

Its sales rose from Rp 180 billion in 1987 to almost Rp 300 billion in 1988, Rp 900 billion in 1989 and Rp 975 billion in 1990, but decreased to Rp 900 billion in 1991 before rising back to Rp 950 billion in 1992. (10)