Peter Sondakh:
There's no Science to Maneuvering

LAST month, the giant Indonesian palm oil company, Eagle High Plantation, sold off 30 percent of its shares, valued at US$632 million, and the stock exchange Eagle 7 percent to 2.6 percent to Felda Global Ventures, a Malaysian state-owned company. Although one benefit will be to get experts in production technology, Eagle's transaction created quite a stir, given that the sale was seen to be underpriced and took place in the midst of a downturn in the global price of palm oil.

It was the move of 61-year-old Peter Sondakh, CEO of Rajawali Corporation, who is known for his 'derring-do' in the world of business. Since the mid-1990s, Sondakh has been the man behind the sale and purchase of big companies. For example, he sold the cigarette company Bentoel to British American Tobacco (BAT) in mid-2009, even though the company had been releasedby Sondakh himselffrom a debilitating US$700 million debt since 1992.

June 30, 2015