<p>Konglomerat pemilik Grup Emtek, Eddy Kusnadi Sariaatmadja / Forbes Indonesia</p>
Insight Langit Biru

The Tale of the Conglomerates (Serial 5): Eddy Kusnadi, From Selling Computers to the King of Media and Unicorn Start-ups

  • While the pandemic hit many business sectors in the world, the wealth of the conglomerate, CEO of PT Elang Mahkota Teknologi Tbk (EMTK) Eddy Kusnadi Sariaatmadja, actually soared 80% to US$1.4 billion or around Rp20.26 trillion in 2020 (assuming an exchange rate of Rp14,526 per US dollar).

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Fadel Surur

JAKARTA – While the pandemic hit many business sectors in the world, the wealth of the conglomerate, CEO of PT Elang Mahkota Teknologi Tbk (EMTK) Eddy Kusnadi Sariaatmadja, actually soared 80% to US$1.4 billion or around Rp20.26 trillion in 2020 (assuming an exchange rate of Rp14,526 per US dollar).

As of Wednesday, April 28, 2021, Eddy’s wealth has even skyrocketed 121.42% of his total wealth at the end of 2020 to US$3.1 billion. This made him ranked 1,008 in the world’s richest people according to Forbes Magazine.

In Indonesia, the wealth of the University of New South Wales Civil Engineering graduate has made him jump from last year’s 20th to 7th place based on Forbes version as of 28 April 2021.

The rise of the Emtek Group in the midst of the pandemic has also helped lift the position of its co-founder, Susanto Suwarto, into the Forbes list of the richest people in Indonesia at the end of 2020. Susanto is on this list for the first time and is placed in 50th place with a wealth of US$475 million (Rp6.86 trillion).

EMTK’s steady performance can be seen from the company’s annual financial reports on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX). The company recorded an increase in revenue of 8.25% to Rp11.94 trillion throughout 2020. In the previous year, the company’s revenue reached Rp11.03 trillion.

The increased revenue also made the company reap profit for the year attributable to the owners of the parent entity amounting to Rp2.06 trillion last year. This record is inversely proportional to 2019 when Emtek had to record a net loss of Rp1.52 trillion.

For information, Emtek is mainly supported by media companies such as SCTV, Indosiar, O Channel, Kapanlagi Network to Vidio.com, which have actually been hit heavily by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Even so, the diversification of Emtek’s business in various sectors such as sales of goods, health and hospital services, repair and maintenance services, and other services has actually contributed to the company’s revenue.

This can be seen from the decreasing revenue of the media segment, while the solution segment increased in 2020. The revenue of the media segment was recorded to have slightly decreased by 7.9% to Rp5.14 trillion from the previous Rp5.58 trillion. On the other hand, revenue from the solutions segment jumped 27.85% to Rp6.34 trillion from the previous Rp4.96 trillion.

Starting from selling computers

  • Grup Emtek. / Emtek.co.id

Eddy Kusnadi Suriaatmadja started his octopus business through PT Elang Mahkota Komputer on August 3, 1983. Initially, this company was founded by Eddy as a computer distributor under the Compaq trademark in Indonesia. The name PT Elang Mahkota Teknologi appeared in 1997 and officially replaced the previous name.

Even though he has successfully developed a large company in the technology sector, Eddy was still not satisfied and interested in getting into the realm of media. In 2000, Emtek started to join Surya Citra Televisi (SCTV) and founded PT Cipta Aneka Selaras which later became the holding company of SCTV.

PT Cipta Aneka Selaras also changed its name to PT Surya Citra Media Tbk (SCMA) in 2002. The Sariaatmadja family subsequently began to fully own SCMA after Henry Pribadi and the Indika Group released their shares in SCMA in 2005.

Apart from SCTV, Emtek also has a local television station called O Channel, which was founded in 2004. Citing the official website of Emtek, this television station contains programs for women, lifestyle and entertainment, with the segment of the housewives and middle class audience.

Not satisfied with the two television stations, Emtek added another television station. This time, the private television station Indosiar was targeted. In 2011, Emtek bought PT Indosiar Karya Media Tbk (IDKM) from the Salim Group.

In 2013, SCMA was merged with IDKM to make Surya Citra Media (SCM) the owner of SCTV and Indosiar. SCM itself is still under the auspices of Emtek until now.

Furthermore, SCM collaborated with Trinity Optima Production to establish PT Surya Trioptima Multikreasi. This company is the forerunner of a video streaming service called Vidio.com.

Quoting Forbes, Vidio.com is one of the reasons Emtek’s business can survive the pandemic. As the owner of La Liga and UEFA Champions League broadcasting rights, Vidio has attracted the hearts of Indonesian football fans.

Apart from working in the media sector, Emtek’s business line is also equipped with health services and hospitals. PT Elang Medika Corpora is Emtek’s subsidiary in the health sector. Last year, Emtek spread its wings in this line of business by buying shares of PT Sarana Meditama Metropolitan Tbk (SAME), the manager of the Omni Hospital hospital network.

Entering digital businesses and start-ups

  • Ilustrasi Dompet digital Dana / Dok. DANA

In 2012, Emtek established PT Kreatif Media Karya (KMK) as a digital subsidiary. Initially, this company existed to manage Emtek’s online media.

In 2014, KMK fully managed Liputan6.com. This has made Liputan6.com, which previously only produced 30-50 articles per day, has grown to hundreds of articles. This change also makes Liputan6.com able to attract 4.2 million users and 18.4 million clicks per month.

Apart from Liputan6.com, KMK also manages the online streaming service Vidio.com and the entertainment social news portal Bintang.com. KMK also manages Bola.com, one of the largest sports news portals in Indonesia.

Not satisfied with just managing its own media, KMK has also invested in other companies. KMK invests primarily in companies engaged in the digital sector and still have the status of a start-up.

KMK’s journey into the start-up world began when they formed a joint venture with a company from Singapore, PropertyGuru. This joint venture also invests in Rumah.com, one of the largest property buying and selling portals in Indonesia.

Not stopping there, KMK acquired Karir.com, a recruitment and job vacancies site made in Indonesia in the same year.

Start-Up Unicorn

  • Situs belanja online alias e-commerce unicorn Bukalapak / Bukalapak.com

The e-commerce, Bukalapak, was the next target for KMK. Emtek through KMK channeled its Series B investment in Bukalapak in November 2014. Even though it recorded a loss at the start of the investment, Emtek’s bet on the third largest buying and selling site in Indonesia started to bear fruit last year.

Six years after its first investment in Bukalapak, Microsoft injected fresh funds of US$100 million (Rp1.4 trillion) in November 2020. Microsoft said this agreement would help Bukalapak build a robust cloud infrastructure to support Bukalapak services for more than 12 million micro, small and medium business enterprises and 100 million subscribers.

Bukalapak has earned the title as a unicorn now. This achievement can be seen from the value of the company’s stock valuation. There are at least three achievement levels that are usually pinned, namely unicorn, decacorn, and hectocorn.

A start-up company with the unicorn title is a company which share valuation has reached US$1 billion or the equivalent of Rp14.7 trillion (exchange rate of Rp14,700 per US dollar).

Startup Decacorn has a valuation 10 times that of a unicorn, which is US$10 billion or the equivalent of Rp147 trillion. Finally, the highest achievement given to a startup company is the hectocorn, with a valuation of US$100 billion or around Rp1.47 quadrillion.

Emtek continues to be confident in its venture capital investment maneuvers. Noted, Emtek also has shares in the payment gateway Doku, wedding planner Bridestory, Muslim fashion trading site HijUp.com, and others.

Emtek is also working with the company behind Alibaba, Ant Financial, to create a digital wallet called Dana. In December 2020, Emtek divested its share of 6% which practically made Emtek no longer the controlling company for the digital wallet application.

On April 16, an online transportation application from Singapore, Grab Holding Inc, was recorded to buy 4.6% of Emtek’s shares with a value of around Rp4 trillion. There is no certainty about the plan behind the purchase of Emtek’s shares by Grab to date.

Even so, there are rumors that the purchase of shares aims to allow Grab’s digital wallet, OVO, to merge with Dana. Emtek also denied this rumor and said that the purchase of shares by Grab was only used for additional company capital in its various business lines.

In its research on April 15, Trimegah Sekuritas saw that the Dana and OVO merger could be the biggest competitor for GoPay, a digital wallet application made by Gojek. The number of OVO and Dana users which can reach 145 million users can beat GoPay which has around 115 million users in the digital wallet market.

No one is sure what Eddy and Emtek’s next steps will be. What clear is, whatever steps are taken will determine the landscape of Indonesia’s digital business competition in the future.

This article is a series of special reports that will be continued in the next issue entitled “The Tale of the Conglomerates.”

The Tale of the Conglomerates (Serial 1): Michael Bambang Hartono, from Fireworks Factory to the Richest

The Tale of the Conglomerates (Serial 2): Sri Prakash Lohia, Selling Threads to Abundant Money

The Tale of the Conglomerates (Serial 3): Petrochemical Boss Prajogo Pangestu, from Driver to Filthy Rich

The Tale of the Conglomerates (Serial 4): Chairul Tanjung, Son of a Journalist Who Become a Millionaire

Writer: Reza Pahlevi
Editor: Sukirno