Hartono and his brother Budi are co-owners of Djarum Group, the producer of about 14% of cigarettes manufactured in Indonesia. The brothers are also the biggest shareholders in Bank Central Asia, Indonesia's largest bank. Bank Central Asia had revenue of 87.5 trillion Indonesian rupiah ($5.9 billion) in 2022.
Hartono's fortune is derived from businesses inherited from his father and controlled through two closely held Indonesian holding companies. His most valuable asset is held through a 49% stake in PT Dwimuria Investama Andalan. His brother owns the balance.
Through the holding company he has 28% of publicly traded Bank Central Asia, Indonesia's biggest bank by market capitalization, according to its Jan. 5, 2024 stock exchange filing. He owns 29% of telecommunications tower operator Sarana Menara Nusantara through closely held PT Sapta Adhikari Investama, according to a Jan. 8, 2024 filing. He also owns 36% of Global Digital Niaga, a Jakarta-based company operating e-commerce platform Blibli, according to its Jan. 9, 2024 filing.
The brothers also inherited Djarum, a closely cigarette maker that discloses limited public information. The analysis attributes a 50% stake to each sibling, in line with their stakes in the holding companies.
Djarum produced about 14% of the cigarettes sold in Indonesia in 2022, according to Euromonitor data. Revenue is estimated to be about $3.6 billion, based on the market share-to-revenue ratio of its closest competitor, Gudang Garam. Its valued using the average enterprise value-to-Ebitda and price-to-earnings multiple of Gudang Garam.
A liability is included to reflect the net value of Hartono's cash investments after deducting for asset purchases. Dividends, taxes, market performance and charitable giving are also applied.
Mutiara Asmara, a spokeswoman for Djarum, declined to comment on Hartono's net worth.
Father Oei Wie Gwan started cigarette maker Djarum's from a workshop in Kudus, Central Java, Indonesia, where he mixed tobacco with a clove spice native to the country. When not promoting and selling Djarum on the streets of Kudus, Oei would be rolling the cigarettes -- known as kretek for the crackling sound made by the burning scented spice -- on the workshop floor.
Fire almost destroyed the company's cigarette factory in 1963. Robert Budi Hartono and Michael Bambang Hartono took over the business after their father died that same year. They rebuilt and modernized Djarum, setting up a research and development center to create new kretek blends. The brothers began exporting their cigarettes in 1972. Today, about 60,000 workers at their factories in Kudus manually roll Djarum's kretek cigarettes, which are sold mostly to lower-income earners.
The brothers created their first machine-made kretek, the Djarum Filter in 1976. They introduced the machine-rolled Djarum Super, now one of the most popular brands in Indonesia, in 1981. Tobacco products are the No. 3 item in Indonesian food-related household spending after processed food and rice, according to government statistics. The world's fifth-largest tobacco market by number of cigarettes sold, Indonesia is the only nation in Asia that hasn't signed the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
The brothers joined Farallon Capital, a San Francisco-based hedge fund, to buy 51 percent of publicly traded Bank Central Asia, Indonesia's biggest financial services firm by market value, for $860 million in 2001. The stake was purchased through holding vehicle Farindo Investment. Farallon sold its remaining stake in the bank to the Hartonos in 2009.
The brothers also expanded into property in 2004, when they won the right to redevelop Hotel Indonesia and Hotel Wisata, which were located in the same complex in central Jakarta. They transformed the property into a shopping mall, office, luxury hotel and apartment complex called Grand Indonesia.