Indonesia New President owns interests in Bumi Plc, Visi Media; Who said Indonesians are poor!

Reuters Top News RPT-INSIGHT-Presidency beckons for Jakarta's rags-to-riches governor Sun, Jun 02 16:51 PM EDT (Repeats story sent on Sunday, no change to text) * Jakarta governor Joko Widodo a wildly popular leader * The standard bearer among a new crop of Indonesian politicians * Widodo made his name transforming the Javanese city of Solo * Fixing Jakarta's problems an enormous challenge * Wants to focus on Jakarta, not presidency; his party might have other ideas By Kanupriya Kapoor and Andrew R.C. Marshall JAKARTA, June 2 (Reuters) - Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, the governor of Jakarta, might well be the future of Indonesian democracy. Here's why. On a recent afternoon he visited Tambora, a densely populated area of west Jakarta, to inspect the aftermath of a slum fire. Within minutes, the narrow streets were a moshpit of jostling well-wishers. Women embraced him. Men kissed his hand. School children chanted "Long live Jokowi!" Unattended by bodyguards, Widodo edged through the scrum wearing a spotless white shirt and the sort of unfaltering grin that makes a normal man's face ache. No wonder he's smiling. He is a wildly popular leader in a country where scandal has tarnished or toppled almost every leading politician, including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and those vying to replace him in next year's election. His rise has been formidable. So, too, is the task of fixing a city whose problems are holding back one of Asia's largest and fastest-growing economies. Widodo, 51, is a former furniture salesman who grew up in a riverside slum in Surakarta, better known as Solo, a once-declining city in Central Java where he was elected mayor in 2005. Over the next seven years he cut crime, revived the local economy and gained a reputation for clean, can-do governance that propelled him into Jakarta's City Hall last October. Widodo's plans for the Indonesian capital are even more ambitious. He vows to solve its chronic flooding, alleviate its maddening traffic and re-house more than a million slum-dwellers. "My inspiration is the people," he told Reuters. "I think we can solve our problems here." Jakartans think so too. Widodo is mobbed by crowds during his daily visits to low-rent communities, feted by the media and feared by underperforming city officials. That Widodo's simple formula - competence, transparency and the common touch - seems so revolutionary is a testament to how corrupt and remote most Indonesian politicians are. In a country where political parties are distinguished not by policies but by personalities, Widodo seems a shoo-in for president - if he decides to run. For now, he says he will concentrate on Jakarta. His Indonesia Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P) may have other ideas. Its leader is former president Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of Indonesian independence hero Sukarno. "Megawati doesn't want to stand next year," says a senior party official, a Megawati confidant who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We don't want to announce it yet, but . . . it's clear that in the party, everyone has Jokowi in mind." While Widodo's popularity is rare for an Indonesian politician, it is far from unique. He is only the most celebrated of a new batch of popular and pragmatic leaders who could revolutionise the way Indonesia's young democracy is run. GOOD, BAD AND UGLY These leaders are products of Indonesia's decade-old experiment with decentralisation - a process more often blamed for creating corrupt local elites. "It's important for Indonesians to understand that it's not just Jokowi," says Marco Kusumawijaya, director of the Jakarta-based urban studies think tank Rujak. "What we're seeing is the emergence of new types of leaders." Many of them hail not from the bureaucracy - the usual source - but from other professions. Kholiq Arif, the mayor credited with revitalizing the Central Java city of Wonosobo, is a former journalist. Mayor Herman Sutrisno of Banjar, another Javanese town, is a doctor who still performs vasectomies as part of his family planning programme. Capable regional leaders often win attention and funds from the central government, as Widodo did in Solo. Bantaeng in Central Sulawesi was picked for a pilot national healthcare programme after its mayor Nurdin Abdullah improved the city's welfare services. "Indonesia should have more of these leaders," says Tri Rismaharini, the mayor of Surabaya, herself praised for reviving Indonesia's second-largest city. "We've been independent for over 60 years and we should have advanced further by now. We are rich in natural and human resources, and we need leaders who understand this potential." But for every mini-Widodo there are local leaders who have used decentralisation to misrule and plunder. Syamsul Arifin is serving a six-year jail sentence for embezzling nearly Rp 10 billion (US$1 million) during his time as governor of North Sumatra. Banten, a province run by Indonesia's first female governor, Ratu Atut Chosiyah, has become a byword for nepotism. Her husband, son, daughter-in-law, sister and sister-in-law all hold senior political posts. Other local politicians have passed Islamic bylaws that oblige women to wear headscarves or be chaperoned by male relatives when going out after dark. "SHINING WITHOUT CORRUPTION" Widodo's father was a truck driver, his mother a bamboo seller, and his childhood home a shack on the banks of the Kalianyar River in Solo. Later, his father ran a small timber business, and Widodo studied at the forestry department of Universitas Gadjah Mada in the nearby city of Yogyakarta. He was the first member of his family to attend university. It taught him a valuable lesson: poor people who don't understand the value of education remain poor. During his walkabout in Tambora, he not only inspected burned-out houses but also handed out free books and school bags to children. "Study! Study!" he urged, as they mobbed his departing car. Exporting furniture made Widodo a millionaire and a prominent Solo businessman. But it was the city's deteriorating state that lured Widodo into politics. Riots during the 1998 downfall of the dictator Suharto razed homes and businesses in Solo and wrecked its economy. The city was also notorious as the home of radical Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, considered the spiritual leader of the bombers who killed more than 200 people in Bali in 2002. "Investors didn't trust our city," he says. Campaigning with the slogan "Shining Without Corruption", Widodo became Solo's first directly elected mayor in 2005. His signature achievement was unclogging Solo's streets and public spaces by relocating thousands of illegal vendors to new facilities. He did this through incentives discussed at dozens of meetings with the vendors, often over lunch or dinner. "He kept on talking until he convinced them," says Widodo's friend Mari Pangestu, then Indonesia's trade minister and now its minister of tourism and creative economy. "He's very persistent - not pushy, but persistent. If he believes in that idea he'll keep coming back to you and follow up." After revitalizing Solo's traditional markets, he attracted new business by setting up a one-stop shop that allowed investors to cut through bureaucratic corruption and red tape. Corrupt officials were fired. Widodo and his then-deputy Hadi Rudyanto also improved slums and access to healthcare services, and boosted tourism by promoting Solo as a centre for Javanese art and culture. They were re-elected in 2010 with 90 percent of the vote. Widodo abandoned his second term as Solo mayor to run for Jakarta governor, easily beating the Jakarta-born incumbent, Fauzi Bowo. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT Jakarta, home to 10 million people, should be famous for its rich Betawi culture and thriving arts scene. Instead, it is notorious for biblical floods, sprawling slums and soul-crushing gridlock. Floods have grown more frequent over the past decade, killing scores of people and causing millions of dollars of damage. In mid-January, days of heavy rain transformed the city into a grim imitation of Venice. The grounds of City Hall, a white-painted Dutch colonial building in central Jakarta, were shin-deep in filthy water. Jakarta has a shabby and chaotic public transport system and no subway, which forces more people - especially Indonesia's growing middle classes - into private vehicles. Jakartans buy more than 440 cars and 1,400 motorbikes every day, says Widodo. Then there are the slums: more than 4.7 million Jakartans live in them, he says. Widodo's big-ticket public transport projects are the city's first subway (which was first proposed 24 years ago) and a monorail (14 years ago). He promises the subway, or mass rapid transit (MRT), will be completed in seven years - he formally announced the $2.4 billion project on May 2 - and the monorail in half that time. He also plans to add more buses and dedicated bus routes, and to squeeze motorists with stiffer parking fees and congestion charges. Many of Jakarta's problems are interconnected: its lack of green space, for example, means lower absorption of flood waters. But then so are its solutions: remove refuse-producing slums from the banks of rivers and canals and flood waters drain more easily. Another example is street vendors. In 2004, Jakarta had about 90,000 of them, mostly illegal, says Hasan Basri Saleh, Widodo's top economics advisor at City Hall. Today, there are more than 270,000. Getting these stalls off the roadsides and into purpose-built markets will ease traffic congestion. Some 4,000 can move into unoccupied kiosks at Jakarta's 153 existing markets, he says, but new markets will have to be built for the rest. Jakarta's burgeoning population has overwhelmed city planners since Indonesia won independence in 1945. This explains why many of Widodo's solutions involve moving people. His immediate goal is to transfer more than 100,000 families from slums into public housing during his first term. That's about half a million people. His longer-term plan is even more ambitious: to re-house a total of 370,000 poor families. Widodo says the city will buy up hundreds of hectares of land, mostly from private developers, to build not just housing but also parks and flood-prevention infrastructure. The plan is "really massive", says economics advisor Hasan. "I don't know of any precedents." Widodo says there is "more than enough" in the city's $4.9 billion budget, which he vows to double in two years through a more efficient tax system. "NEW STAR" Widodo's reflexive populism can get tiresome. Who are his political advisors? "My advisor is the people." Biggest achievement? "Ask the people." We get it. But Jakarta people aren't like Solo people, says Fadli Zon, vice chairman of the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) and a long-time Widodo associate. With a population twenty times larger than Solo's, Jakarta is a "mosaic of different religions and ethnic groups" with a highly critical middle class impatient for change, he says. "It's a very, very difficult position." A free healthcare scheme was widely criticized for overwhelming the city's hospitals, clinics and medical staff. But the response to Widodo's walkabouts suggests his popularity is undented. When President Yudhoyono made an impromptu visit to a fishing village in Banten province in January, the Indonesian media accused him of trying to boost his flagging popularity with a distinctive Widodo tactic. "Jokowi is a new star," Yudhoyono told Reuters in April. "He could be a contender for the presidency someday." But he said Widodo needed more time as Jakarta governor to learn how to run a large organisation. Even so, the PDI-P will announce Widodo's candidacy as late as possible, says the senior party official. "If we announce it now, everyone will make him a target and gun him down between now and next year." Many supporters still hope Widodo will save any presidential bid for 2019. "Jakarta still needs him," says Budi Adiputro, 26, one of dozens of journalists now on the City Hall beat. Urban planner Marco Kusumawijaya is less concerned. "In this country, where there is such a shortage of good leaders, we should let him go as high as he can," he says. "We shouldn't keep him to ourselves. And he might manage Jakarta quite well, even as president." (Editing by Dean Yates) ==================== Yudhoyono's own scandal-plagued Democratic Party offers no credible rivals. Widodo remains more popular than any other declared presidential candidates. Aburizal Bakrie, the billionaire leader of the Golkar party, lacks his rags-to-riches backstory and common touch. Prabowo Subianto, the Gerindra party candidate, is sullied by human rights abuses committed by Indonesia's special forces, Kopassus, which he once commanded. Bumi Plc Rothschild scion Nat Rothschild's Bumi Plc (BUMIP.L) lost in a battle against the powerful Bakrie family over control of Bumi Resources (BUMI.JK) amid allegations of corruption. Aburizal Bakrie is likely to be the Golkar party's presidential candidate in elections in 2014. Indonesia's MNC group to buy Bakrie-owned TV firm for $500 mln-sources Wed, Jun 19 05:43 AM EDT JAKARTA, June 19 (Reuters) - Indonesia's biggest media conglomerate, MNC Group, is set to buy free-to-air television station ANTV, owned by Bakrie group's PT Visi Media Asia. MNC Group director, David Fernando Audy, confirmed the company was in talks with Visi Media and hoped the deal could be closed by the end of the month. He declined to elaborate on the details. MNC will pay around $500 million, three sources with direct knowledge to the deal said. "The deal has been agreed in principle and they just need to work out some details," said one of the sources. The sale will help the politically powerful Bakrie family finance a plan to buy back its coal assets from London-listed Bumi Plc after a failed joint-venture with British financier, Nat Rothschild. The sources said the Bakries originally wanted to sell Visi Media, which has other TV and news interests, but ended up only selling PT Cakrawala Andalas Televisi (ANTV), in part because the two sides were unable to agree on a valuation. Another issue was that the Bakrie family wanted to retain control of Visa Media's 24-hour news channel, TVONE, which will be important for family patriarch, Aburizal Bakrie, in his campaign for next year's presidential election, one of the sources said. The sources declined to be named because details have not yet been made public. MNC Group is controlled by media tycoon Hary Tanoesoedibjo who earlier this year gave his backing to another presidential candidate. Visi Media declined to comment. (Reporting by Fathiya Dahrul and Janeman Latul, Editing by Jonathan Thatcher and Matt Driskill) == Rothschild faces showdown at Bumi shareholder vote Thu, Feb 21 03:47 AM EST image By Clara Ferreira-Marques and Janeman Latul LONDON/JAKARTA (Reuters) - Shareholders of coal miner Bumi Plc (BUMIP.L) will vote on co-founder Nat Rothschild's overhaul plan and a bid to oust the current board on Thursday, in a public showdown between the financier and his one-time partners. The outcome of the vote, which will decide the short-term future of one of the world's largest exporters of thermal coal, hangs in the balance after a last-minute stake sale by a major Indonesian investor earlier this week. That sale freed shares previously frozen by regulators. The stock, roughly 10 percent, is now held by two hedge funds and an Indonesian media mogul, who could swing the results. They are expected to abstain or vote against the proposals. Rothschild, the 41-year-old hedge fund veteran known for his bulging contact book, set up Bumi with Indonesia's politically connected influential Bakrie family. But the partnership, intended in 2010 to bring promising Indonesian assets to London investors and to unlock value by applying UK governance rules, soured within months, and the two sides have been locked in a bitter battle since. Tensions between Rothschild and his Indonesian partners came to a head last year, after Bumi announced an independent investigation into potential wrongdoing at its Indonesian subsidiaries. Weeks later, the Bakries said they wanted to draw a line under the London adventure and pull out their assets. All sides agree Bumi has been a disastrous foray. Its shares are down 67 percent since a 2011 listing, even with a recovery since the start of the year, as board room battles added to the impact of falling coal prices. Many investors suggest the coal venture has bruised London's reputation as well as that of Indonesia. While the London market has long seen successes and failures, Bumi has highlighted corporate governance failures elsewhere in the oil and mining sectors, and it contributed to regulators' decision last year to tighten listing rules. All sides also agree on the need to part ways, just not how. The current board struck a $640 million deal last week which would see the Bakrie family exiting their share in the London company in exchange for cash and a minority stake in Jakarta-listed Bumi Resources (BUMI.JK). But Rothschild argues the board has not defended shareholder interest, or done enough to focus on operations. He wants a split, but says the current agreement does not solve underlying issues, nor is it secure, as the Bakries need to raise funding. A Rothschild victory and his own return to the board, though, would scupper the Bakrie's current exit deal. "That is the risk people are worried about - that Nat can't cement a deal with the Bakries," said analyst Cailey Barker at Numis Securities in London. "The right idea would be to keep Bumi as clean as possible and move on. But whoever wins, the damage is done and it may take a big PR and corporate exercise to restore investor confidence." NAIVE? Rothschild has said the increasingly acerbic fight is about investment and not personalities. But his involvement in spearheading a campaign against his erstwhile partners - punctuated by lengthy press releases and full-page newspaper adverts - means it would certainly be perceived by many investors as a personal loss. "One can say all sorts of things about Nat Rothschild - that he's naïve and foolish, but he has been very brave about backing his original investment with more investment," a fund manager at one of Bumi's top 10 institutional investors said, who declined to speak on the record because of the sensitivity of the issues. "He's tried to do the right thing I think, he's tried to replace a board and a management that, whether they were complicit or not, allowed things to happen on their watch." Others are less generous, questioning Rothschild's nous. Adding to the complexities, Thursday's vote will also pit the families of one Indonesian presidential candidate against another. Aburizal Bakrie, patriarch of the Bakrie family, is running for the Golkar party in 2014 elections, while the brother of Rothschild backer and would-be board member Hashim Djojohadikusumo - former general Prabowo Subianto - is a rival. Shareholders will vote on Rothschild's proposals to oust 12 of 14 directors, including Indonesian directors with links to the Bakries, the current chairman and chief executive. They will also vote on his proposed new team, with the former boss of Australian construction firm Leighton Holdings as chairman, and himself as executive director. (Additional reporting by Sinead Cruise in London; Editing by Bernard Orr) ======== Rothschild defeated in Bumi showdown Thu, Feb 21 14:24 PM EST image By Clara Ferreira-Marques and Sarah Young LONDON (Reuters) - Financier Nat Rothschild, co-founder of Bumi Plc BUMI.L, lost his bid to oust the coal miner's board on Thursday, after a public showdown with his one-time colleagues and Indonesia's influential Bakrie family. Shareholders voted in favour of keeping Bumi's chairman and chief executive and most of the current board, rejecting 19 of the 22 proposals made by hedge fund veteran Rothschild. It was a key step in the unwinding of Rothschild's venture with the politically connected Bakries, set up in 2010 to bring promising Indonesian assets to London investors. The partnership rapidly soured into a battle that has involved two rival candidates for Indonesia's presidential elections next year. Rothschild's own bid to rejoin the board, as executive director, received the least support from voting shareholders. Rothschild, however, called the board's victory "pyrrhic", pointing to support from the company's heavyweight Indonesian shareholders. He said in a statement issued after the vote that the current independent directors had lost the confidence of minority shareholders and should resign. "I only have one aim - and I have around 36 million shares in this company, together with my cousin - I want the share price to appreciate," Rothschild said before the results were released, flanked by his mother in a show of support from the banking dynasty. He had wanted to oust 12 of 14 board members and bring in a new team which included himself, proposals which he said would have helped draw a line under past dramas and revive a share price languishing at a third of its June 2011 level. The current board, though, says it has already agreed a split with the Bakries - something all sides agree is critical - in a deal that would have been jeopardised if Rothschild returned to the board, and says it is already reviving one of the world's largest thermal coal exporters. Bumi said in a statement that it will now prioritise the split and will put the deal to shareholders for approval, as well as embarking on a restructuring of its board, which it has said will be become smaller and led by a new chairman. VOTING Rothschild's campaign was damaged by a last-minute stake sale by a major Indonesian investor earlier this week, freeing up shares whose voting rights had been frozen by regulators. Indonesian investors hold 30 percent of the voting rights and the impact of the freed shares - an extra 10 percent - swung the pendulum against Rothschild's proposals. The financier and investors who had declared support, held roughly 30 percent. The votes, totted up after a meeting at in a central London military hall, showed that the defeat of Rothschild's plan was not entirely comprehensive. Around 40 percent of voting shareholders supported his resolutions to remove chairman Samin Tan and Bumi's chief executive, Nick von Schirnding. He was also successful in his plan to remove two directors, Bakrie ally Nalin Rathod and Jean-Marc Mizrahi, and with his proposed addition of diplomat Richard Gozney to the board. DISASTROUS Rothschild, the 41-year-old hedge fund veteran known for his bulging contact book, won investors' plaudits when he set up Bumi with Indonesia's influential Bakrie family. ((plaudits - enthusiastic approval; "the book met with modest acclaim"; "he acknowledged the plaudits of the crowd"; "they gave him more eclat than he really deserved")) "To me, this idea of an Indonesian company married to an English (board) had the makings of a brilliant success," said one small shareholder, pensioner Michael Napier. But tensions between Rothschild and his Indonesian partners came to a head last year, after Bumi announced an independent investigation into potential wrongdoing at its Indonesian subsidiaries. Weeks later, the Bakries said they wanted to draw a line under the London adventure and pull out their assets. All sides agree Bumi has been a disastrous foray. Its shares are down some 66 percent since a 2011 listing - even with a recovery since the start of the year - as boardroom battles added to the impact of falling thermal coal prices. Many investors suggest the coal venture has bruised London's reputation as well as that of Indonesia. While the London market has long seen successes and failures, Bumi has highlighted corporate governance failures elsewhere in the sector, and it contributed to regulators' decision to tighten listing rules. All sides also agree on the need to part ways, just not how. "The right idea would be to keep Bumi as clean as possible and move on. But whoever wins, the damage is done and it may take a big PR and corporate exercise to restore investor confidence," said analyst Cailey Barker at Numis Securities. Adding to the complexities, Thursday's vote also pitted the families of one Indonesian presidential candidate against another. Aburizal Bakrie, patriarch of the Bakrie family, is running for the Golkar party in 2014 elections, while the brother of Rothschild backer and would-be board member Hashim Djojohadikusumo - former general Prabowo Subianto - is a rival. (Additional reporting by Janeman Latul in Jakarta, Sinead Cruise in London; editing by Bernard Orr and Philippa Fletcher) ========