Tomy Winata

Tomy Winata (pronounced and sometimes misspelled as Tommy Winata; born Guo Shuo Feng, 郭說鋒 on 23 July 1958) is an Indonesian businessman with interests in banking, property, and infrastructure, whose wealth comes from his business deals for the Indonesian Military.

His philanthropic interests include the environment, particularly the Tambling Wildlife Nature Conservation a 45,000 hectare forest, endangered wildlife and sea conservation area, located in southern Sumatra.

Winata was born on 23 July 1958 in Pontianak, West Kalimantan.

There are conflicting versions of his early life.

One claim is that he is the son of an automobile spare parts trader and left school in the seventh grade upon which he sold ice pops to support his family.

According to The Washington Post, he started out as a "car washer and office boy".

Indonesian media reports have said Winata came from a poor family and was orphaned in his early childhood.

Author Sam Setyautama wrote that Winata had an adoptive father named Bisri Artawinata, who was a village head in Takokak, Sukabumi, West Java.

Conversely, author Joe Studwell wrote that Winata's "father built barracks for the Army although Winata prefers to say he got his start selling ice lollies and washing cars".

Propelat had started out in 1967 as Propelad, a hospitality company formed by a foundation of the Army's Siliwangi Military Command.

As PT Propelat, it became a major contractor for state oil company Pertamina's construction projects in West Java and later became a bank.

When the bank faced closure, General Raden Ahmad Kosasih intervened by proposing to Army chief General Edi Sudradjat that Kartika Eka Paksi Foundation get involved in recapitalizing the bank.

A widely copied online biographical spiel states that in 1972 when aged 15, Winata was introduced to the chief of Singkawang Subdistrict Military Command in West Kalimantan, resulting in him being asked to build an office for the military.

The online biography states his business relationship with the military grew and he was asked to build barracks and Army schools, and distribute goods to provincial Army headquarters in places such as Irian Jaya, Ujungpandang and Ambon.

He came to national prominence in the late 1980s when he worked with the Indonesian Army's Kartika Eka Paksi Foundation to rescue a troubled local bank, Bank Propelat.

In 1986, Finance Minister Radius Prawiro threatened to close Bank Propelat because it was suffering losses.

The bank was taken over by the Army and Winata was invited to take part in its restructuring in 1987, as he already had a long record of doing business with the military and was an associate of Edi Sudradjat and T.B. Silalahi.

In mid-1997, in cooperation with Bank Indonesia Winata bailed out Bank Arta Prima, which was then merged with Bank Artha Graha.

Tempo magazine in 1999 reported that Tommy started his business when 15 years old after receiving an order for the construction of military dormitory barracks in Irian Jaya.

Tempo suggested his business success was due to his closeness to General Tiopan Bernard (T.B.) Silalahi, former secretary general of the Mining and Energy Ministry and minister of State Apparatus Empowerment in President Suharto's sixth Development Cabinet.

Winata's business empire developed under the Artha Graha Group.

In April 2000, President Abdurrahman Wahid ordered police to arrest Winata for allegedly running gambling activities on a cruise ship in waters off Jakarta.

The Sunda Strait Bridge Project has progressed from an "impossible dream" in 2002 to becoming "almost a possible reality" in 2012, but in 2014 new president Joko Widodo shelved the project.

Winata also has business ventures outside of Indonesia, including in Timor Leste, where he was given approval in secret to build a hotel and shopping complex on government-owned land without having to submit his bid to a tendering process.

Besides his legal operations, Tomy is also a member of the so-called "nine dragons", a group comprising the major individuals behind Jakarta's gambling industry, despite the practice being banned in Indonesia.

In 2003, Artha Graha Group took over Bank Inter-pacific, Tbk (a publicly listed company).

In 2005, Bank Inter-pacific, Tbk acquired Bank Artha Graha becoming Bank Artha Graha Internasional, Tbk (INPC.JK).

Winata is involved in the property sector through PT Jakarta International Hotels and Development, Tbk (JIHD.JK, a publicly listed company), which owns Borobudur Hotel in Central Jakarta, and PT Danayasa Arthatama, Tbk (SCBD.JK, a publicly listed company), which owns the Sudirman Central Business District (SCBD) in the heart of Jakarta.

SCBD includes the Indonesian Stock Exchange Building.

Winata plans to build the Signature Tower Building-Jakarta, a 111-storey skyscraper, which will be the fifth tallest building in the world, in the center of the SCBD.

He has said the mega-project is part of his mission to show the world that "Indonesia can".

His vision is to make SCBD the "Manhattan of Indonesia".

He is active in the infrastructure sector, through the company PT Bangungraha Sejahtera Mulia, which obtained support from the governors of Banten and Lampung provinces to be the lead investor for the Sunda Strait Bridge project which, if it proceeds, will be the largest single infrastructure project ever undertaken in Indonesia.

In 2006, he was listed as #35 on a Forbes list of "Indonesia's 40 richest", with net worth of $110 million In 2016, he was ranked 43rd on GlobeAsia's list of 150 Richest Indonesians, with wealth of $900 million.

According to a 2008 biography of Silalahi, Bank Propelat was purchased through Winata and his partner Sugianto Kusuma (better known as Aguan).

The Army took a 40% stake, for which it paid nothing, while companies of Winata and Aguan each took a 30% stake.

Bank Propelat subsequently changed its name to Bank Artha Graha.

Based on Indonesian Presidential Regulation Number 86, dated 2 December 2011, the Lampung-Banten consortium with PT Bangungraha Sejahtera Mulia was appointed to be the Project Initiator to work on a feasibility study for the Sunda Strait Bridge Project and Strategic Area Development.

Following the Presidential Regulation, Banten and Lampung provinces together with PT Bangun Sejahtera Mulia established a joint venture company called PT Graha Banten Lampung Sejahtera (GBLS) to conduct the Sunda Strait feasibility study.

Based on its pre-feasibility study, Sunda Strait Project construction cost was estimated around US$10 billion and will take around 8 to 10 years to develop.