Chairul Tanjung Will Acquire Bank Harda, Its Previous Owner Sold Illegal Products

Budi Hartono conglomerate. (Photo: Instagram @forbesindonesia)

JAKARTA - The conglomerate Chairul Tanjung will soon become the majority shareholder of PT. Bank Harda Internasional Tbk (BBHI). Tomorrow, Friday 29 January, Bank Harda will hold an Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders (EGMS) where one of the agenda is to approve the takeover of the company to PT. Mega Corpora.

Previously, most of the shares of Bank Harda Internasional were controlled by PT. Hakim Putra Perkasa (HPP). However, some time ago, PT. HPP agreed to release 3.08 billion shares or 73.71 percent of all issued and fully paid shares in the company to PT. Mega Corpora, a company owned by Chairul Tanjung.

It should be noted, PT. Hakim Putra Perkasa, fronted by Jefry Hakim, once shocked the banking industry for selling illegal non-bank products in the form of forward trade confirm (FTC).

The product was successfully sniffed out by the Financial Services Authority (OJK) in July 2020, or five years after the FTC was marketed to the public. At that time, the FTC was marketed through Bank Harda employees without the knowledge of the management and was directly instructed by PT. HPP.

FTC is a sale and purchase agreement for Bank Harda's shares through PT. Hakim Putra Perkasa (HPP) as the bank's largest shareholder. The sale of FTC by scandalous Bank Harda is illegal because it is not a bank product.

According to the report of Bisnis Indonesia, cited by VOI, Thursday, January 28, PT. HPP does not only sell FTC products through Bank Harda. However, it also offers a number of investments that are marketed through these scandalous banks.

In addition, PT. HPP also offers investments in several of its other subsidiaries, considering that the company does not only have one financial services company. It is recorded that there are two Rural Banks owned by PT. Hakim Putra Perkasa.

PT. HPP is also known to have subsidiaries engaged in sectors other than banking, such as the automotive industry (PT. Asean Motor Internasional), mining (PT. Alter Abadi, investment financing (PT. Varia Intra Finance, and PT. Varia Intraperkasa), and securities trading intermediaries (PT. Varia Inti Sekuritas).