Tommy in town: The youngest son of former president Suharto, Hutomo “Tommy” Mandala Putra (right) smiles after a shareholders’ meeting at the publicly listed shipping firm PT Humpuss Intermoda Transportasi Monday as the company’s new president director Antonius W. Sumarlin (left) and new finance director Permadi Soekasah look on.  JP/P.J. Leo

Two years after walking out of prison, Hutomo “Tommy” Mandala Putra is fully back in the business world and running at full throttle.

Guarded by several police officers, the youngest son of the late former President Soeharto led a shareholders meeting of his publicly listed shipping company PT Humpuss Intermoda Transportasi  (HIT) to discharge the existing company board of directors.

The meeting approved on Monday the appointment of Antonius W. Sumarlin, the son of Soeharto’s former finance minister J.B. Sumarlin, as the new president director replacing Agus Darjanto.  

Shareholders also replaced finance director Junanda P. Syarfuan and shipping director Bobby Andhika while naming Permadi Soekasah as the new financial director. The shipping director position was left vacant, to be filled later.

The still politically wired Tommy holds a 60 percent stake in Humpuss Group, which control 59.68 percent of HIT. Tommy’s elder brother Sigit Hardjojudanto owns 40 percent of Humpuss.

Tommy is president commissioner of Humpuss while Sigit’s son Ari Haryo Wibowo is commissioner.

According to a source, the management overhaul at HIT stemmed primarily from Tommy’s dissatisfaction with the performance of the current directors, especially in failing to develop the company’s core business as hoped.

Tommy, who served less than five years for arranging the 2001 murder of Supreme Court justice Syafiuddin Kartasasmita, attended the meeting  to show he is fully in charge of the company, according to one source. He took the opportunity to put new managers in the driving seat.

Antonius, however, dismissed  speculation, saying the main reason for the new executives was to  help the company cope with the impact of the global economic slowdown which had reduced shipping orders.

HIT posted a 35.3 percent increase in net profits to Rp 100.75 billion (US$8.5 million) during the first semester last year, while its revenue jumped 18.55 percent to Rp 454.2 billion.

As of the end of June, HIT had 24 vessels mostly for transporting liquid cargoes, with most of the orders coming from state oil and gas company PT Pertamina. HIT provided Pertamina with ships for the transportation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) under long term contracts.

In 1984, at the tender age of 22, Tommy set up Humpuss which eventually swelled into an empire that covered transportation, financing, electronics, telecommunications, construction, oil, petrochemical, retail and automotive sectors.

Reportedly Soeharto’s favorite son, Tommy’s swift, all-conquering ascent gave rise to suspicions that he had used his status to further his ends. Through Perta Oil Marketing, Humpuss supplied Pertamina with imported fuel and crude oil, tapping profits from the rapidly increasing domestic fuel demand.

Tommy’s public appearance on Monday was his second public event after officially announcing last week his involvement in a large scale world class entertainment project worth $100 million in Bali.

Tommy is the president commissioner of Bali Pecatu Graha, which owns PT Klapa New Kuta Beach (Klapa) which has developed the  Klapa resort project.

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