APLN's History and Success: The Story Behind Agung Podomoro Land's Founder

Muhammad Fakhriansyah, CNBC Indonesia

Market

Friday, 09/29/2023 21:20 IWST

Photo: Agung Podomoro Land Project. (APLN Doc)

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – PT Agung Podomoro Land Tbk (APLN) through PT Tiara Metropolitan Indah (TMI) has sold the assets of Neo Soho Mall, Jakarta on September 26 2023. The assets were sold for IDR 1.44 trillion including VAT to PT NSM Assets Indonesia (NSMAI) , which is owned by NSM Asset Japan LLC (NSMAJ) and TMI with share ownership of 71.42% and 28.58% respectively.

This sale was carried out as a long-term strategy to strengthen the business and also as an effort to pay off part of APLN’s debt to the bank. Practically, this sale further colors APLN’s long journey in the history of property in Indonesia.

If you look at history, APLN cannot be separated from the figure of Anton Haliman. This man, born in Jakarta, July 5 1926, is indeed listed as the founder of Agung Podomoro. Before establishing a property company, Haliman was initially an employee at a real estate company.

In the 1960s, he was General Manager at PT Sumber Tjahjono. Then in 1965, he led several companies. And three years later he started to develop housing on 1-2 hectares which later turned into 20 hectares.

Since then, Haliman has been known to the public as a figure who is able to transform swamps and wilderness into housing, offices, shops, schools and sports arenas. Until finally in 1973 he got serious about the property business by establishing PT Agung Podomoro.

Refers to What and Who Are Some Indonesians 1983-1984 (1984), Haliman’s first project at Agung Podomoro was to transform the Sunter area, North Jakarta. Before the 1970s, Sunter was a very quiet suburb of Jakarta and was considered a place where genies threw away children.

Even so, Haliman saw this as a good opportunity for business. He immediately started cultivating the 300 hectare land. Moreover, none of the land in Sunter has been cultivated by entrepreneurs.

In the past, Salim had an intention to work on the Sunter area. However, because of advice from Ciputra that said Sunter was not good for property, Salim didn’t want to do it.

Long story short, Haliman succeeded in cultivating the Sunter area and turning it into an important residential and commercial area in North Jakarta. Suddenly, the area that Salim considered not good became a place of fairly rapid growth in Jakarta in the 1980s.

Since then, Haliman’s name has become even more fragrant. As time went by, his property business grew into a big one. After Anton Haliman died in 1999, PT Agung Podomoro was succeeded by Thong Sin Lung alias Trihatma Kusuma Haliman, Anton Haliman’s son.

Since it was in Trihatma’s hands, Agung Podomoro started building shopping centers.

Citing books 9 Ways of Entrepreneurs (2013), the reason for this expansion is because Trihatma believes that the trend of Jakartans shopping will increase. From here he wanted to build a new mall in Jakarta, especially luxury malls which are still rare.

As a result, around 2005, he started to focus on building a new mall. His first portfolio was a multi-purpose complex in Central Jakarta, specifically in the Senayan area called Senayan City in 2006.

Recently, Agung Podomoro’s shopping center portfolio has increased after working on Thamrin City, Mangga Dua Square, Central Park and Neo Soho. However, the last two names are now no longer owned by Agung Podomoro because they have been released to other companies.

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