History
Astra International initially formed in 1957 by William Soeryadjaya (Tjia Kian Liong) with his brother Benyamin (Tjia Kin Joe) and Tjia Kian Tie, and his friend E. Hardiman (Liem Peng Hong). Originally Astra was a distributor of soft drink and exporters of rare earths with a shop located in Jalan Sabang (now Jalan Haji Agus Salim). The name Astra was initially the idea of Tjia Kian Tie, brother of William who was inspired by Latin word for stars.[5] During its early days, Astra was trusted to be a distributor of imported lime water and corned beef as well as distributor of 2 local toothpaste brands from Bandung. Other business ventures also include shipping of aluminum phosphate and light bulb as well as copra and cooking oil. After his brother Tjia Kian Tie left for Palembang and his business partner Hardiman focused more on his other business venture, William become the majority shareowner of Astra. During the late Sukarno era, Astra was trusted to be local supplier for the construction of Jatiluhur Dam.[5] In 1965, after political turmoil that rocked the country, William tried to make his business survive by making some radical changes including moving his office to Jalan Juanda.[5] After the transition to New Order, Astra was trusted to import asphalt from Japanese conglomerate Marubeni for road construction. Astra also secured US$2.9 million loan from USAID for import business, including trucks made by General Motors and sell it to the government, however due to violation of aid conditions, Astra was barred from importing trucks from General Motors.[6]
After his contract was terminated by General Motors in 1969, William shifted his focus to Japan. During that era, Hideo Kamio, former manager to Gaya Motor during the Japanese occupation era insisted that Toyota trucks should be assembled in Indonesia. William who already acquired Gaya Motor become the first and sole distributor to Toyota vehicles in Indonesia and would later formed PT Toyota-Astra Motor (TAM) as a joint venture with Toyota in which they launched Toyota HiAce, Toyota Corolla, and Toyota Kijang as its earliest Toyota cars to be assembled in Indonesia. After his success with Toyota, Astra was trusted into distributing more Japanese products to Indonesia including Honda motorcycles and Fuji Xerox office supplies. In 1972, Astra entered heavy machinery business by forming United Tractors that initially focused on importing Komatsu and Tadano equipment. In 1973, Astra also being trusted into becoming sole distributor to Daihatsu cars and form PT Astra Daihatsu Motor in 1978.[6][7]
In 1988, after Suharto enacted banking reform on October the same year, Astra attempted to enter financial business. William and his son Edward established Bank Summa after acquiring Bank Agung Asia in 1989, however, one year after its inception and after Astra initial public offering, the bank went into a crisis due to bad credit and eventually collapse. Trying to hold responsibility to Bank Summa collapse, William partially sold his Astra shares to consortium of well known New Order business figures such as Eka Tjipta Widjaja, Prajogo Pangestu, Putera Sampoerna, Bob Hasan, and Sudono Salim in order to compensate customer losses after the collapse of Bank Summa. After Bank Summa failure, Astra tried to establish new bank called Bank Universal on the same year which will later collapse in 1997.[8][9]
In the aftermath of 1997 Asian financial crisis and fall of Suharto, 40% of Astra shares which was held by 4 businessmen were handed over to Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (BPPN).[10] After acquiring Astra, BPPN started to auction Astra shares to numerous buyers including Singapore based British-Hong Kong conglomerate Jardines subsidiary, Jardine Cycle & Carriage and Saratoga Investama Sedaya, investment company founded by William's son, Edwin Soeryadjaya and his business partner Sandiaga Uno, however Edwin failed to bring Astra back to the Soeryadjaya family after Jardine Cycle & Carriage won the auction and currently held 50.1% of Astra shares.[11]
After Jardines takeover, Astra along with Standard Chartered Bank took over Permata Bank which was a result of mergers of Bank Universal that was formerly owned by Astra and 4 other banks with 89,12% shares until 2020.[12] In 2016, Astra unveiled its new line of business, the property business.[13]
