The Incomparable Duo Hartono Becomes The Richest Person In Indonesia, Thanks To BCA?

BCA Building. (Angga Nugraha/VOI)

JAKARTA - Forbes released a list of the 100 richest people in the world in 2021. Based on the list, the order of the ten richest people in Indonesia has changed. However, the top position of the list of the richest people in the country is still occupied by the Hartono brothers.

Robert Budi Hartono and Michael Bambang Hartono, the two brothers have topped the position of the richest man from Indonesia for at least 1 decade or 10 years. Precisely since 2009 passed Sukanto Tanoto (2008) and Aburizal Bakrie (2007).

In the latest announcement of the richest man in 2021, Budi Hartono was ranked 86th in the world with a total wealth of $20.5 billion. If the wealth is equivalent to IDR287 trillion (assuming an exchange rate of IDR14,000 per US dollar).

Budi's wealth continues to grow despite the COVID-19 pandemic hitting the world in 2020. During the last year, Budi Hartono's wealth was recorded at $13.6 billion.

While his younger brother, Michael Hartono is ranked 89th in the world with a total wealth of $19.7 billion equivalent to IDR276 trillion (assuming an exchange rate of IDR14,000 per US dollar).

When combined, Budi Hartono and Michael Hartono's total wealth is $34.1 billion or equivalent to IDR563 trillion.

The source of the Hartono brothers' wealth is the bank's business, PT Bank Central Asia Tbk (BCA), and their parent company, cigarette manufacturer Djarum. As well as the electronic business through the Polytron brand.

Forbes noted that the Hartono brothers ranked first in Indonesia in 2020. This year, the position is still maintained.

Just for information, the entry of the Djarum group to BCA is the support of wealth after the 1997-1998 crisis. Through Farallon Capital, the Hartono brothers then redeemed 51 percent of BCA's bank shares from the National Banking Restructuring Agency (IBRA) worth Rp5.6 trillion.

Then, the Hartono brothers expanded their business to electronic devices such as Polytron, real estate, electronic trading companies, startups, Kaskus online forums, to gaming companies.

Hartono's family business started from the business of his father, Oei Wie Gwan who founded the cigarette company Djarum in 1950. Even today, the Hartono family-owned company is the largest cigarette company in Indonesia.

Led by the Hartono brothers, they diversified their business, so that their business is not only in the field of the cigarette business. After owning Bank Central Asia (BCA), the two brothers strengthened their financial line including through acquisitions.

Currently, the Hartono brothers' ownership in the Djarum business reaches 54.94 percent. They have also changed the deed of ownership of Farallon Capital in PT Bank Central Asia Tbk. (BBCA) to PT Dwimuria Investama Andalan. Thus, Dwimuria Investama becomes the controlling shareholder or becomes the parent entity of BBCA bank. BCA's last shareholders were Budi and Bambang Hartono.

Based on Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) data, 54.94 percent of BBCA shares are equivalent to 13.54 billion shares of BBCA's total shares. The rest of the shares were quasi-community by 45.06 percent or 11,109,020,000 shares.