Local King Koil Assembler Upbeat About Consumer Purchasing Power, Eyes Expansion to E. Indonesia

Jakarta Globe, Muhamad Al Azhari, November 25, 2017

Duta Abadi Primantara, a local company that holds licenses for some international
mattress brands, is upbeat about its future business due to expected growth of
consumer buying power in years to come. The company is also eyeing a major
expansion to the eastern part of Indonesia. (Photo courtesy of Duta Abadi Primantara)

Jakarta. Duta Abadi Primantara, a local company that holds licenses for some international mattress brands, is upbeat about its future business due to the expected growth of consumer buying power in years to come. The company is also eyeing a major expansion to the eastern part of Indonesia.

The company, first established in the 1990s, currently has four factories and 13 assemble point facilities in Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, Bali and Kalimantan.

DAP holds licenses to locally assemble high-end mattresses for brands based in the United States, including Aireloom, King Koil, Serta and Tempur. The company has its own locally-manufactured mattress brand, called Florence, that targets medium- to low- income customers.

King Koil and Serta are the leaders in the premium segment of the mattress industry in Indonesia.

Anthony Setiawan, the vice president director of Duta Abadi, said the company has seen a healthy single digit revenue growth over the past few years and is bullish about future businesses.

"There has been a slowdown [in economic growth], we felt it too, but buying power is predicted to increase in the future, a lot research has shown. Also, we noted an interesting fact that people in Indonesia are now more aware that quality sleep is important. If you look at the statistics, people spend a third of their time sleeping. It is very important that they sleep well," said Anthony, who is the second generation of the family who founded and owns DAP.

Indonesia’s economy expanded at a slower pace in the third quarter this year compared to market expectations, a disappointing outcome for the country as a slowdown in private consumption dragged overall growth.

The economy expanded 5.06 percent year-on-year in the third quarter, just slightly higher than a 5.01 percent year-on-year growth in the previous quarter. The third quarter figure is lower than the median estimate from polling by Reuters and Bloomberg, which showed figures of 5.13 percent and 5.2 percent growth respectively.

Despite the fact that Indonesia’s economy expanded at around 5 percent on average over the last five years, government officials and economists generally remain upbeat over growth outlook in the near term, thanks to new infrastructure development, an expected rebound in commodity prices and more investment in the country.

Anthony said about 80 percent of his company's products are sold to end-customers, while the remainder are bought by hospitality industries like hotels and healthcare operators like hospitals.

"We started the business in the 1990s with Florence mattress. This is our first brand,  which we manufactured and distributed. Then, in 1996, we acquired the exclusive license for King Koil in the United States," Anthony told the Jakarta Globe on the sidelines of Hotel Week, a three-day exhibition and conference that gathers players in hospitality industry.

He said DAP then expanded to acquire exclusive licenses to assemble mattresses for Serta, Tempur and Aireloom.

Anthony said the company imports raw materials for its premium mattress brands but assembles them in Indonesia. DAP currently has a comprehensive distribution network in Indonesia that covers Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi, Bali, East Nusa Tenggara and Kalimantan.

He said the next stage of expansion will be targeted to the eastern part of the country to capture the higher purchasing power of people and benefits from expansions of hotel operators in the region.

"The hospitality industry is very important for us. When we started marketing King Koil, our first customer was the Mulia hotel in Senayan. From this, we started being acknowledged among five-star hotels. This continues until now as hotel owners and operators are getting more aware that mattress are one of the most important factors in their hospitality services," Anthony said.

"For customers, when they stay at a particular hotel, when they feel they have a good sleep and rest, they will look at the brand of the mattress, usually they may be encouraged to buy the same at home."

DAP has also started to tap into the hospital market due to more attention in the sector from the government.

"There is a specific requirement if we want to tap into the hospital bed mattress, for electronic-adjustable bed, there is a certain certification that a manufacturer and supplier must secure, currently we cooperate with a certain supplier [of hospital beds], but we are working on the way of making our own [electronic-adjustable mattress]," Anthony added.

DAP currently holds the exclusive license to assemble and distribute King Koil products in Indonesia and China and distribute Serta products in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Setya Novanto Hospitalized After Car Crash Amid Arrest Warrant in e-KTP Case

JakartaGlobe, Telly Nathalia, November 16, 2017

House of Representatives Speaker Setya Novanto has been hospitalized following
 a solo car crash on Thursday night (16/11), mere hours after making his first public
statement regarding a warrant for his arrest in the e-KTP corruption case. (Antara Photo/
Sigid Kurniawan)

Jakarta. House of Representatives Speaker Setya Novanto has been hospitalized following a solo car crash on Thursday night (16/11), mere hours after making his first public statement regarding a warrant for his arrest in the so-called e-KTP corruption case.

Novanto has repeatedly failed to show up for questioning by antigraft investigators as a suspect in the case involving massive graft in the procurement of electronic national identity cards, or e-KTP. The project was mothballed in October 2015 following a series of problems, including a late start, technical glitches and officials demanding payments from residents to provide the ostensibly free service.

Novanto's lawyer Fredrich Yunadi confirmed that his client was admitted to Permata Hijau Hospital in South Jakarta. He said Novanto was unconscious and that he suffered from high blood pressure, in addition to a pre-existing heart condition.

"I received a call to meet him at the Metro TV studios. On my way [to Metro TV], his aide informed me that they had just been involved in an accident ... he [Novanto] was injured and immediately lost consciousness," Fredrich said.

The lawyer explained that Novanto intended to comply with a summons by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) prior to the accident, but that this unfortunately prevented his client from doing so.

Fredrich said four internists are observing Novanto due to his "serious" medical condition, which will require his client undergoing a computed tomography, or MRI, test.

A few hours before the accident, Metro TV conducted a telephonic interview with the Golkar Party chairman, who denied allegations that he was trying to avoid questioning in the case.

"I have to respect the legal process I am facing now, and I always respect the process. I never fail [to comply with KPK summonses], because each of the three times I was summoned as a witness in the case against Anang, I submitted written statements. Today is my fourth summons," Novanto said, referring to Anang Sudihardjo, president director of Quadra Solution, one of the companies in a consortium that won a contract to procure the national identity cards for the government.

"This is my first summons as a suspect. I am surprised, because just after the first summons, while I was studying the legal matters for today, there was a plan to arrest me," he continued.

In early November, the KPK named Novanto a suspect in the case for a second time, based on allegations that he siphoned off Rp 574 billion ($42 million) from the Rp 5.9 trillion e-KTP project, which resulted in Rp 2.3 trillion in state losses.

"I never received money; it can be checked with the BPK [State Audit Agency] or the BPKP [State Finance and Development Surveillance Committee]," Novanto stressed.

He explained that he filed for a judicial review by the Constitutional Court of the 2002 Law on the KPK, including an article that allows the antigraft agency to question a suspect by disregarding procedures stipulated in other laws. Another article allows the KPK to request the immigration office to impose a travel ban on a graft suspect.

"I also took up legal protection measures with the president and other state agencies," he said, admitting that he reported KPK commissioners Agus Rahardjo and Saut Situmorang to the police for abuse of authority and using false documents to bar him from leaving the country.

Novanto's whereabouts were unknown when antigraft investigators showed up at his house in South Jakarta on Wednesday night. This prompted the KPK to warn the politician that he would be declared a fugitive from justice if he did not surrender himself to investigators.

Police said on Wednesday that they would assist the KPK in apprehending Novanto if requested to do so.

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Golkar to Find New Chairman to Replace Disgraced Setya Novanto https://t.co/2fXyQChzwj pic.twitter.com/Z1d3IdvgzW

— The Jakarta Globe (@thejakartaglobe) November 20, 2017

Finances of Opposition Leader Prabowo and Other Public Figures Exposed in Paradise Papers

Jakarta Globe, Tabita Diela,November 06, 2017

Tommy Suharto, right, hands over his tax report to Ken Dwijugiasteadi, director
general for taxation at the Ministry of Finance, in September 2016. (SP Photo/
Joanito De Saojoao)

Jakarta. Three well-known public figures, including children of the late President Suharto and opposition party leader Prabowo Subianto appear in the Paradise Papers, a global investigation released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, or ICIJ, on Sunday (05/11).

The Paradise Papers put a spotlight on the trillions of dollars moved through offshore tax havens by politicians, business owners, millionaires and powerful people across the globe.

The report exposed 13.4 million leaked documents — obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and shared with the ICIJ — including loan agreements, financial statements, emails, trust deeds and other paperwork from over nearly 50 years from offshore law firm Appleby, Singaporean company Asiaciti Trust and official business registries in Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Lebanon, Malta, Trinidad and Tobago.

ICIJ highlighted the name of retired general and leader of the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) Prabowo Subianto, as well as two children of the late President Suharto, Hutomo Mandala Putra — also known as Tommy Suharto, head of Humpuss Group — and Siti Hutami Endang Adiningsih for having registered companies in tax havens overseas.

The ICIJ, however, posted a disclaimer on its site, saying that the organization did not intend to suggest or imply that any people or companies included in the ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database have broken the law or acted improperly.

The Jakarta Globe has not independently examined the documents.

"We started [combing through the data] from the beginning of this year. [There are only] 200 Indonesian names and 15 companies," Wahyu Dhyatmika, an editor for Tempo Media Group and an investigative reporter, told the Globe.

Indonesia's Tempo is one of 95 media partners that explored 13.4 million leaked files. According to Wahyu, Tempo paper and magazine will release other names one by one this week.

Wahyu said the Paradise Papers and their predecessor, the Panama Papers, come from different databases, though multiple names appear on both lists.

Naming Names

Wahyu said journalists involved in the report support a fairer tax policy for all.

"Instruments that allow countries to track the wealth of their residents must be prepared," Wahyu said.

Hestu Yoga Saksama, the tax office's spokesperson, said the government will "follow-up with the latest data and information from various sources" including the Paradise Papers, but has refused to comment on Tommy's or Prabowo's companies.

"We can't name a taxpayer specifically to the public," Hestu said, referring to secrecy rules in a 2009 law about general provisions and tax procedures and a 2016 law about tax amnesty.

Hestu, however, noted that the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) — which will begin operations in September 2018 for Indonesia — will provide more detailed, wider and verified data compared to the independent report obtained by journalists.

Tommy joined Indonesia's tax amnesty program last year. During a press photo opportunity in Jakarta in September 2016, he said his family should "make the best use of the initiative" by joining the program.