This company was founded by
Hary Tanoesoedibjo in
Surabaya,
East Java on 2 November 1989 as a
securities company under the name
PT Bhakti Investama. Three years later, in 1997, the company officially went public on the
Indonesia Stock Exchange, successfully raising Rp 80 billion. After it went public,
Titiek Suharto, son of then Indonesian President
Suharto and Hungarian-American investor
George Soros announced its holding to the company albeit for short period of time. In early 2000s, after the end of
1997 Asian financial crisis, Tanoesoedibjo was offered by son of former President
Suharto, Bambang Trihatmodjo to buy his company Bimantara Citra that was affected by the financial crisis which Tanoesoedibjo agreed to initially take 25% of the shares in which helped Tanoesoedibjo to enter the mass media industry. == Ownership ==