www.prospektif.com

Monday, 29 May 2006

After selling his family shares in PT HM Sampoerna Tbk to Philip Morris,many businesses that were going to be entered into by Putera Sampoerna. Starting from infrastructure, power plant, agriculture, forestry, pulp and paper, up to the telecommunication. Unfortunately, most of those projects went by without any clear explanations on its progress. What is the reason behind the failure of the new proposed projects of Sampoerna? Are there hidden agendas behind the failure of those proposed projects?
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The clock ticks at 09.30. The office of Sampoerna Strategic located in Jl. Jend Sudirman Kav 45, South Jakarta (ex Danamon Bank building). As we all know, after Sampoerna family sold its shares in PT HM Sampoerna Tbk to the Philip Morris, Sampoerna family that previously maintained their office in Bapindo Plaza – also in Jl. Jendral Sudirman – now moved to Danamon Building.
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This new office of Putera Sampoerna is indeed located in strategic location. Even, we can call this an intelligent building with its sophisticated information technology facilities. In the building with its 30 floors and complete with its luxurious interiors, Sampoerna family now maintaines their office.
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“Mr Michael Sampoerna (the son of Putera Sampoerna, red) takes this lift upon his arrival,” said one the building security officer who refused to mention his name while pointing to one the lift in that building. Michael has his office on the 25th floor. ”Mr Michael usually comes around 9.30, accompanied by two bodyguards,” said that officer. ”But, it is not clear on what days, since sometimes he does not show up at all,”answered that officer when asked about what days usually the Sampoerna family comes into the office.

For three days (Tuesday, 16 May until Thursday 18 May 2006) PROSPEKTIF waited for the appearance of Michael Sampoerna the President Director of PT Sampoerna Strategic in his office, but failed to meet him. Although, his secretary named Yanti met the PROSPEKTIF and mentioned that Michael Sampoerna is in overseas. ”I am sorry, I can not help you with this current reporting, since Pak Michael is in overseas at the moment,” said this woman when asked for her confirmation about the interview request that has been forwarded. ”His schedules are quite full. He is always moving from one place to another,” she added without elaborating in details.
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According to this woman with the straight hair, Michael currently does not show up very often into his office since he has many matters to attend to overseas. Then again she refuses to elaborate more on this one. Yanti only promised that upon Michael arrival, she will immediately inform Michael about the interview request from PROSPEKTIF.

The regular absence of Sampoerna family in Indonesia may be because they have other businesses to attend to overseas. In the early 2006, it was reported that Putera Sampoerna has become the owner of giant online gambling company called Mansion – which is headquartered in Gibraltar. Putera Sampoerna was reportedly also bought the exclusive Les Ambassadeurs casino in London for 120 million poundsterling. At the same time, it is reported that Mansion will succeed Vodafone as the club sponsor of Manchester United for the period of four years and with total contract valued at 60 million poundsterling. But then it was later reported that the contract negotiation failed to materialize. Another report, as mentioned by Mansion, it is finally managed to become the sponsor of Tottenham Hotspur – which is also the member of Premier League in England. Even if we look at the new logo of Mansion, it reminds us on the famous letter A that appeared in the box of Sampoerna cigarettes.

From the business perspective, what Putera Sampoerna did was very strategic in order to gain profit. Just look at how Samsung successfully able to lift its sales performance in Europe after becoming the sponsor of Chelsea. O2 also experiencing increase in the sales of its product called XDA and PDA after becoming the sponsor of Arsenal. So, judging from this, Mansion is projected to record sharp increase in the profit, since it is an online gambling company which does not need production cost to operate.
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The Cancelled Business ProjectÂ

To reflect a little bit into the past, just soon after the Sampoerna family sold its shares in March 2005, many speculations were riped on the business sector that will be entered into by Sampoerna family using the proceeds totalling Rp 18.6 trillion. At that time, Sampoerna family admitted that they will make investment in the area of infrastructure (electricity) and agriculture.
At that time, the desire of Sampoerna family to make investment in the agricultural sector, namely in the sugar cane plantation in Papua, received overwhelming supports from the government. Â Even, the government issued their guarantee to provide incentives to the Sampoerna family if they can realize that sugar cane plantation in Papua.
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The intention of Putera Sampoerna to enter the agriculture business is not surprising considering that he once had agricultural business. Prior to joining his family business, Putera was the owner of one agricultural company. After graduating from his university in overseas, Putera Sampoerna did not immediately join the cigarette company founded by his father, rather with his wife, Katie – a Chinese American – Putera lived in Singapore and managed his company that dealt with palm-oil plantation.

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