•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   
•    EYEWITNESS   

After withdrawing his lawsuit against McDonald’s last year, controversial businessman Bambang Rachmadi is now trying to get the Constitutional Court to change the law so he can take another crack at recovering assets from the fast food giant.

Bambang submitted a request for a judicial review to the court on Jan. 6. On Monday he filed a subsequent revision to the request. He claimed his intention is to give minority shareholders more rights.

The former McDonald’s Indonesia franchise owner hit the headlines last year when he transformed his 13 McDonald’s outlets into ToniJack’s after a dispute with the fast food giant.

Bambang is requesting a revision of an article in a corporate law regarding limited liability companies. Under the current law, shareholders who hold more than two-thirds of a firm’s shares are able to transfer the firm’s assets to outside parties or use 50 percent of the firm’s assets as collateral in business deals.

“The law has not been fair to businessmen, as it only protects the major shareholders, while failing to protecting small shareholders,” Bambang said on Monday.

During his dispute with McDonalds last year, the US company transferred the assets of 97 McDonald’s outlets owned by PT Bina Nusa Rama — 90 percent owned by McDonalds and 10 percent owned by Bambang — to a company owned by the Sosrodjojo family, who were taking over the McDonald’s franchise.

Bambang said the transaction was done without his consent.

He filed a lawsuit in the South Jakarta District Court, seeking $105.5 million in compensation for losses after the fast food company sold assets in joint venture outlets and transferred franchise rights. He retracted the lawsuit in November.

If he is successful in his request for a judicial review, Bambang said, he will ask the courts to take another look at that case.

“I want my assets to be returned,” he said. “And I don’t want other businessmen to experience what I have gone through.”

McDonald’s said last year that Bambang’s rights as a shareholder were completely respected and he had opportunity to make himself heard and to vote on the matters in question. It said any allegations to the contrary were groundless.

Ricardo Simanjuntak, a business law analyst and the legal counsel for McDonald’s during the dispute with Bambang, said Bambang had a right to seek a revision of the law. However, for Bambang to regain assets in Bina Nusa Rama, the case would have to go through other courts, as the Constitutional Court does not regulate business disputes, he said.

McDonald’s was not available for comment.

ToniJack’s claimed in November that Bambang no longer has a stake in the outlets.