Who is Chairul Tanjung ?

Chairul is a self-made billionaire from Indonesia who made his fortune in media, banking, property, retail, entertainment and other business diversities.


Forbes magazine lists him as 634's world's richest person, with total assets of more than 2 billion dollars.

Chairul Tanjung

Net Worth

 

$2 B As of March 2012

At a Glance

• Age: 50
• Source of Wealth: Diversified, Self-made
• Country of Citizenship: Indonesia
• Education: Medical Doctor, University of Indonesia
• Marital Status: Married, 2 children

Chairul Tanjung rebranded his Para Group as CT Corp in December. He paid a reported $70 million for country's biggest online media outfit, Detik.com, in August 2011. The group opened its second theme park in Bandung this year and plans to open its biggest yet in Jakarta by 2014. A trained dentist, he got his start selling study guides while in school. He has since made a fortune selling to Indonesia's new middle class. His conglomerate Para Group has interests in banks, TV stations, theme parks, retail. CT has a stake in retailer Carrefour Indonesia. It also owns franchise rights to Baskin-Robbins as well as high-end brands Armani, Jimmy Choo and Valentino.


Chairul Tanjung was born at Jakarta on June 16, 1962. He is an Indonesian businessman who ranks 18th in the list of Indonesias richest people.^[1] He is the Chairman and founder of CT Corp (Indonesia). He obtained a bachelor degree at Faculty of Dentistry, University of Indonesia.

Business

He bought Bank Karman and changed the name to Bank Mega. He expanded his business interests into insurance and securities. Chairul now involved in the television business, founded Trans TV and acquisitioned TV 7 from Kompas-Gramedia group. In addition, Chairul owns property projects, such as Bandung Super Mall, Batam Indah Prospertindo, Para Bali Propertindo, and Mega Indah Propertindo. He also plans to be involved in the airlines business. He has made numerous visits to countries like UAE, Singapore and India. He has been seen meeting a Guru in Bangalore named Yadavendra.



Detik's acquisition
Detik.com, the first and most popular news website in Indonesia, has been acquired by Para Group. Well, rumor on the acquisition has already started spreading a couple of days ago, thanks to Rama and his team at DS.

Para Group is owned by Chairul Tanjung, one of top 150 richest Indonesians (24th to be exact, according to Globe Asia magazine) with over $900 million in wealth. He also owns a number of businesses, such as Bank Mega, Trans Corp, and Carrefour Indonesia. Para Group has been wanting to buy Detik since two years ago, but for some reasons it has been delayed until now.

According to Bisnis.com, the other investors in Detik (besides Detik itself) are Tiger Investment (39%) and Mitsui & Co (2%). They wanted to sell their shares in Detik as they hoped to use the money to expand their business elsewhere. Their dream has finally come true after two years.

With rumor stating that the acquisition sum could hit around $60 million, this could be one of the biggest acquisitions ever in the start-up scene in Indonesia (beside the Kaskus acquisition by GDP Ventures).

Detik.com was founded by Budiono Darsono and Abdul Rahman with 100 mil IDR (approximately $11,700), and has since become the largest news site and one of the top 10 mobile sites in the country. With this acquisition Detik will be put under Trans Corp’s wing.

It’s certainly a promising sign for other start-ups and internet companies in Indonesia to witness an acquisition of this scale. If things continue as we think they might, we could very well expect to see more of such news from Indonesia in the future.


Garuda stock purchase


Ending weeks of speculation, businessman Chairul Tanjung has bought a more than 10 percent stake in Garuda Indonesia for more than $150 million, sending shares of the flag carrier to their highest level since their trading debut 14 months ago. 

Eko Yuliantoro, chief executive officer of Bahana Securities, one of three brokerage firms that owned shares in Garuda, said they sold their combined 10.3 percent stake in the airline to Trans Airways, which is owned by Chairul’s CT Corp. 

The Garuda shares were priced at Rp 620 apiece, Eko said, and the deal raked in Rp 1.4 trillion ($152 million), according to Jakarta Globe calculations. Eko did not confirm the calculation. 

“That was the highest bidding price, offered by the buyer on April 12, based on Garuda’s closing price on April 11,” Eko told reporters in Jakarta on Friday. Shares of Garuda traded at Rp 600 on April 11. 

The acquisition by CT Corp, announced before the market closed at 4 p.m. in Jakarta, sent Garuda’s shares soaring on Friday. The stock jumped 9.2 percent to Rp 710, the highest level since the shares first traded on Feb. 11, 2011. 

Eko said Garuda’s estimated price-to-earnings ratio was 10.6 times for this year and 7.8 times for 2013. That’s cheaper than regional peers Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines and Qantas Airways, he said. 

Still, CT Corp’s acquisition price did not match Garuda’s initial public offering price of Rp 750. The $532 million share sale was marred by political interference in its pricing. 

Bahana and two other state-controlled brokers, Danareksa Sekuritas and Mandiri Sekuritas, were stuck with Garuda shares after they couldn’t sell them all during the offering. The government owns a 69 percent stake in the carrier. 

“With the deal, the selling pressure on Garuda shares is gone,” Eko said. 

The government had always planned to facilitate a sale of the brokers’ shares in Garuda, but things have not gone as quickly as hoped. 

In March, State Enterprise Minister Dahlan Iskan launched a massive sales campaign, which involved discussions with Indonesian businessmen such as Chairul, Sandiaga Uno and Anthony Salim. 

Executives at the brokers on Friday declined to disclose whether Sandiaga and Anthony offered to purchase the shares. Sandiaga, co-founder of private equity fund Saratoga Capital, bought a controlling stake in low-budget carrier Mandala Airlines in February. 

Garuda’s president director, Emirsyah Satar, said on Friday that he had not received an official report on the acquisition. 

“This is a national company. If the buyer is as reported, then we’re just glad the new investor is local,” he said. 

Not much information is publicly available about Trans Airways, but the Garuda acquisition would add to CT Corp’s travel and tourism-related portfolio. 

CT Corp, which changed its name from Para Group on Dec. 1, 2011, has interests from banking to media. It is chaired by the 49-year-old Chairul, who is also chairman of the National Economic Committee, which was created by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to advise him on economic issues. 

“They know the potential is big compared to other airlines in the region,” Emir said, comparing Garuda’s performance to other airlines such as Singapore Airlines and Qantas. 

Garuda’s revenue jumped 39 percent last year, better than Singapore Airlines and Qantas. 

“Investors have a positive perception of the company’s growth prospects,” Emirsyah said. 

He said Garuda was still aiming for 20 percent growth in revenue this year. The airline will release its first-quarter income statement on Monday. 

Chairul has become more aggressive over the past two years on the acquisition front, including purchasing a 40 percent stake in the Indonesian unit of the French retailer Carrefour in a $400 million deal in 2010. Last year CT Corp bought news portal Detik.com.