Michael Bambang Hartono, tobacco tycoon and Indonesia's richest man, dies at 86

Indonesian billionaire Michael Bambang Hartono speaks during an interview about the 2018 Asian Games bridge competition in Jakarta on Aug 21, 2018. - Photo: Reuters file

JAKARTA: Indonesia's richest man, Michael Bambang Hartono, who helped turn the Djarum cigarette company into one of the country’s largest business empires and later became a controlling shareholder of Bank Central Asia, Indonesia’s biggest private lender, died Thursday (March 19). He was 86.

Hartono died at a hospital in Singapore on Thursday afternoon, the Djarum Group said in a statement.