Print this story

Tutut exits Jakarta toll road

25 July 2002, JAKARTA - Jakarta motorists will no longer be able to bitch that toll road profits are going into the pockets of former president Suharto’s eldest daughter Siti Hardiyanti ‘Tutut’ Rukmana. She’s sold her last remaining stake in lucrative toll road operator PT Citra Marga Nusaphala Persada (CMNP), the Bisnis Indonesia daily reported Wednesday (24/7/02). CMNP operates Jakarta’s Cawang-Tanjung Priok-Pluit toll road, which stretches for 30 kilometers and reportedly rakes in about $40 million a year.
Bisnis Indonesia quoted a source as saying that Tutut had sold her 3.76% stake in CMNP after her disgraced family’s Purna Bhakti Pertiwi Foundation sold its 22% of shares in the company. The source said Tutut sold her shares so that CMNP would no longer have to suffer the stigma of being associated with the Suharto clan, which is widely reviled for having brought the nation to the brink of economic collapse. CMNP had been banned from taking part in toll road tenders because of its affiliation to the Suharto clan.
"Tutut does not want to burden CMNP management, as up to now people tend to view the company as owned by the Cendana family, whereas it is otherwise," said the source, referring to the Central Jakarta street where most members of the Suharto family live. CMNP President Daddy Hariadi said his company is aiming to overcome its reputation of being mired in alleged corruption, collusion and nepotism. He said that at recent shareholder meetings, investors had agreed that CMNP would have to lose the Suharto connection in order to strengthen its performance. Tutut had held 3.76% of shares in CMNP through two of her companies: PT Citra Lamtorogung Persada (2.44%) and PT Bhaskara Duniajaya (1.32%).