Like Bakrie Group, Bhakti Group is now an important political player by virtue of Harry Tanoesoedibjo’s position at Nasional Demokrat (Nasdem) Party. How about Lippo Group, a long-time political player, Adaro Group, Djarum Group, Rajawali Group, or Gudang Garam?
Like Bakrie Group, Bhakti Group is now an important political player by virtue of Harry Tanoesoedibjo’s position at Nasional Demokrat (Nasdem) Party. How about Lippo Group, a long-time political player, Adaro Group, Djarum Group, Rajawali Group, or Gudang Garam?
Bhakti Group’s crown jewel is MNCN, parent company of RCTI, Global TV, MNC TV etc. Despite Bhakti Group’s investments in energy (oil & gas, coal) or finance (brokerage, insurance, etc), media generates most of the profits to the group.
We can’t just sum up four companies of Bhakti on IDX, because of ownership structure. But, we could safely say that BHIT is parent of the group with total assets of US$2 billion, substantially smaller than Bakrie, of course. While MNCN generated almost US$120 million profit last year, BHIT’s profit was only US$33 million.
Once again, we can’t just use profit-loss statement to measure one group’s capacity in political operations. Bhakti has the previlege of controlling airwave through its TV broadcasting companies. We all know that political campaigns need substantial control of airwave. If you watch TV stations controlled by Bhakti, you will see political campaigns have started by Harry Tanoesoedibjo for Nasional Demokrat Party, pretty much like Aburizal Bakrie and Golkar at TVOne or ANTV.
| BHAKTI | Assets | Liabilities | Revenues | Profit-Loss |
| (US$ Million) | (US$ Million) | (US$ Million) | (US$ Million) | |
| MNCN | 956 | 213 | 586 | 119 |
| BMTR | 1643 | 467 | 780 | 86 |
| BHIT | 2050 | 723 | 839 | 33 |
| KPIG | 212 | 15 | 8.8 | 5 |
Lippo Group is not as big as Salim, Sinarmas or Bakrie Group, but we can’t discount this group’s political activism. Once again, it’s not only about money. Compared to Salim or Sinarmas, Lippo’s business is mostly focused on property and retail. The group has also expanded into bank (re-entry actually) and mining, but they’re not substantial.
Lippo, however, is one of key media players in the country. It controls Suara Pembaruan (evening newspaper), Investor Daily (business paper), The Globe (including The Jakarta Globe), and Berita Satu (TV News Channel). While the media division might have been struggling to generate profits, other business units of Lippo were doing pretty good, especially property and retail.
| LIPPO | Assets | Liabilities | Revenues | Profit-Loss |
| (US$ Million) | (US$ Million) | (US$ Million) | (US$ Million) | |
| LPKR | 1985 | 962 | 455 | 77 |
| LPCK | 222 | 133 | 98 | 28 |
| MPPA | 1120 | 503 | 961 | 11 |
| LPPF | 263 | 557 | 511 | 50 |
| KBLV | 401 | 140 | 113 | -4 |
| total | 3991 | 2295 | 2138 | 162 |
In this category, you may add Chairul Tanjung (owner of Bank Mega, Trans Corp, Detik.com, TransTV, Trans-7, etc) with expansion in lifestyle and retail business. Ban Mega generated net profit of about US$117 million last year. But, Chairul’s biggest contribution might be from his media empire, including Detik.com, the most popular news portal in the country.
Real ‘political financing’ needs huge cash. Sinarmas and Salim are considered cash-rich. But, there are some other major cash-rich groups like Djarum (Hartono Family), Gudang Garam (Wonowidjojo family), Rajawali Corporation (Peter Sondakh), or shareholders of Adaro (Boy Thohir, Teddy Rahmat, Edwin Soeryadjaya, Benny Subianto) and coal people (Kiki Barkie, Dato’ Low, Indika, etc).
Some of them have invested substantially in Demokrat Party or SBY-Boediono campaign. Some might try to maintain support Demokrat’s financing in the coming years, but others might invest more in other political parties.
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