Indonesia's billionaire Hartono family moves $1.4 billion offshore

Indonesia's wealthiest family, the Hartonos, has invested at least $1.4 billion abroad since late 2023, a sharp departure for a clan that has spent decades keeping its fortune almost entirely inside the country.

Nine entities based in Singapore and London and tied to the family carried out the investments, according to Bloomberg, which cited corporate filings and interviews with people close to the group. The shift began when Evergreen Hill Enterprise, one of the family's holding companies, spent $669 million in late 2023 on a specialised paper business in the United States. A year later Evergreen paid €360 million, about $418 million, for an Austrian manufacturer of cigarette papers.

Nothing in the filings names the family. Evergreen is described in official documents as part of a successful, Indonesia-based privately held group, and the connection runs through its sole shareholder, PT Eragraha Pirantimegah, which the Hartonos own outright.

The family's combined fortune is estimated at about $30 billion, built on the clove cigarette business Oei Wie Gwan founded in 1951 and named Djarum. Robert Budi Hartono, 85, is worth $16.8 billion according to Forbes. His brother Michael Bambang Hartono died in March at 86, leaving his share to his four children.

Djarum disputes how the moves have been read. Budi Darmawan, its corporate communications manager, said 90% of the family's investments remain in Indonesia, that the overseas expansion was funded primarily by foreign credit rather than money taken out of the country, and that it reflects long-term strategy rather than any response to domestic politics. The family declined to comment when Bloomberg approached it.

Its core holdings are still concentrated at home, spanning banking, tobacco, property and electric vehicle distribution, alongside a dairy farm and a chain of noodle restaurants. The most valuable is a stake in Bank Central Asia, the most profitable bank in the country.

Other Indonesian billionaires went abroad years ago. Prajogo Pangestu and Low Tuck Kwong have built positions in Singapore and Hong Kong, and the Hartonos were the conspicuous exception until now. People close to them describe a media-shy family, modest given the money, with Robert Budi Hartono avoiding designer clothing despite owning a private jet and several high-value homes.

The expansion coincides with unease among Indonesia's business elite over policies pursued by President Prabowo Subianto since he took office in October 2024. Capital has been leaving the country during his tenure, and the equity selloff that followed has made Indonesia one of the world's weakest performing markets over the period.

People familiar with the family's thinking said the purchases are meant to diversify revenue into other currencies and reduce the group's exposure to a single economy. It has also looked at financial services software in Singapore.

Bloomberg ranked the Hartonos seventeenth among the world's wealthiest families in December 2024, when it valued them at $47 billion. The gap between that figure and the $30 billion estimated now is largely Bank Central Asia shares.

The offshore push is a small fraction of what they own. It is also the clearest signal yet that Indonesia's most cautious billionaires are reconsidering how much of their money they want tied to the country.