JAKARTA: The children of Michael Bambang Hartono received shares worth at least US$2.93 billion in the family’s holding company, marking one of Asia’s biggest wealth transfers in recent years.
Hartono died in March at the age of 86. He and his brother Robert Budi Hartono owned just over half of Bank Central Asia, Indonesia’s largest lender, and other businesses through PT Dwimuria Investama Andalan.
Michael’s 49% stake in Dwimuria has been split equally among his four heirs, according to a government filing.
Based on Dwimuria’s ownership of Bank Central Asia alone, Michael’s stake in the holding firm was worth at least $11.7 billion as of Aug 11.
His children also have interests in various parts of the family’s business empire, which spans banking, cigarettes, shopping malls and plantations. The family owns PT Djarum, one of Indonesia’s largest producers of clove-scented cigarettes known as "kretek.”
The inheritance is the latest example of how fortunes long held by Asia’s richest tycoons are being handed down to the next generation. The Hartono family transfer tops the roughly $10 billion left behind by Singaporean Wee Cho Yaw, the late patriarch of United Overseas Bank Ltd.
The Hartonos had a combined net worth of $28.6 billion as of Aug 11, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, making them Indonesia’s richest family. A family representative declined to comment on the inheritance filing.
The two brothers’ wealth surged after they expanded a cigarette business inherited from their father and moved into finance. Bank Central Asia is now Indonesia’s largest lender by market value at about $44 billion.
Victor Hartono, the eldest son of Robert Budi, has succeeded his father to become chief executive officer of PT Djarum, a separate filing showed. He was previously chief operating officer. - Bloomberg
