Bob Hasan's ownership in Tugu Pratama "status quo:" Baihaki

The president of state oil and gas firm Pertamina, Baihaki Hakim, reiterated that Pertamina could not yet take over the ownership of Mohammad "Bob" Hasan in insurance firm PT Tugu Pratama Indonesia (TPI), but declared his ownership in a "status quo" situation.

"The position of their (Bob Hasan's) ownership is status quo. But, it's their business. Whether they will sell their stake to a third party, it's doesn't matter to us," Baihaki said in Jakarta on Thursday (Jan. 24).

Bob Hasan, a golfing buddy of former President Soeharto, owns 35 percent of TPI through PT Nusantara Ampera Bhakti, while PT Tugu Pratama Pertamina controls 45 percent, and the remaining 20 percent is held by Pertamina's Pension Fund Foundation.

Baihaki said that Pertamina would not anymore make it a priority the taking over of Bob Hasan's ownership in TPI. What's more important for Pertamina was abolishing insurance monopoly rights granted to TPI over Pertamina's oil and gas projects and dismantling ill-practices previously employed by TPI in cooperation with foreign firms to enrich certain parties, apparently Bob Hasan.

He explained that TPI had cut ties with two London-based insurance broker companies, Tugu Reinsurance Broker (TBB) and Energex, both of which were controlled by Bob Hasan.

"There will be no more hanky panky, no more shady deals. We cut them off," he said.

The issue of Bob Hasan ownership in TPI arose for the first time mid last year at a hearing between Pertamina executives and the House of Representatives' Commission VIII, dealing with energy and mineral resources.

At that time, Baihaki explained that Bob Hasan, through his messenger, asked Pertamina to take over Bob's stake at TPI at a price of Rp 1 trillion, using a formula of TPI's price earning ratio of 25 times. However, Pertamina at that time stated that it was willing to take over Bob's stake at a zero price as it suspected that Bob owned the stake without paying any penny.

Nevertheless, Baihaki said at that time that Pertamina was willing to take a middle way, namely it was prepared to buy Bob's stake using its face value price, all about Rp 53 billion.

"If zero rupiah is impossible, there is a suggestion that the price should be Rp 53 billion. That's a nominal price. Maybe, we can accept this," Baihaki said.

Baihaki said on Thursday that Pertamina found no indications that Bob's stake at TPI was a blank stake, which Bob acquired without paying anything.

Nevertheless, Pertamina would continue to investigate the case through an audit to see if Bob's ownership at TPI was obtained through a normal way. Pertamina promised to take legal actions if it later found an abnormal transaction in the deal. (*)