Sempati Air delays appointment of new chief

Sempati Air delays appointment of new chief

JAKARTA (JP): PT Sempati Air, one of the country's six
scheduled air carriers, has delayed its plan to appoint a new
president to replace the outgoing top executive, Santun
Nainggolan.

Sempati spokeswoman Rima Novianti said a shareholders'
meeting, which should have been held yesterday to appoint a new
president, was canceled because several commissioners did not
show up.

"Another meeting has been rescheduled for Monday," she said.

Sempati is owned by the Humpuss Group of Hutomo (Tommy)
Mandala Putra, President Soeharto's youngest son (15 percent),
Armed Forces holding company PT Tri Usaha Bhakti (25 percent),
Malaysian-Indonesian joint venture Asean Aviation Inc. (40
percent) and timber tycoon Muhammad (Bob) Hasan, one of the
President's closest friends (20 percent).

Humpuss spokeswoman, Asriningati S., said some Sempati
commissioners were unable to attend yesterday.

"Just tell reporters that today's (yesterday's) meeting has
been delayed for a week," Tommy said as quoted by Asriningati.

She said it was not clear who was unable to attend the meeting
yesterday.

Nainggolan said over the weekend he would resign from Sempati
for personal reasons. The 44-year-old Nainggolan was appointed
president last December to replace Hasan M. Soedjono.

"This is for personal reasons and there's no dismissal,"
Nainggolan said, adding he did not have any background in the
aviation industry which might have caused unsuccessful teamwork.

Nainggolan, whose resignation became effective yesterday, has
to continue his post until next Monday.

Aviation sources said president of Mandala Airlines,
Soebagijo, would likely replace Nainggolan, while Fauzi Ma'ruf
would replace Sempati's financial director, I Cenik Ardana.

Mandala is also partly owned by Nusamba and two other
foundations related with the Armed Forces. Ma'ruf is an executive
of the pulp and paper producer PT Kiani Kertas owned by Bob
Hasan. (icn)