{"id":29915,"date":"2025-07-29T12:11:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T12:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/29915\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T12:11:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T12:11:12","slug":"richest-indonesian-prajogo-pangestu-adds-20-billion-to-wealth-on-energy-rally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/29915\/","title":{"rendered":"Richest Indonesian Prajogo Pangestu adds $20 billion to wealth on energy rally"},"content":{"rendered":"

Billionaire Prajogo Pangestu<\/a>\u2019s fortune hit an all-time high on Tuesday, a sharp reversal from the precipitous falls that erased billions over the past year.<\/p>\n

The 81-year-old, who is Indonesia\u2019s richest person, has added more than $20 billion to his net worth since it hit a low in April, lifting it to $36.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. <\/p>\n

The surge has mainly been driven by MSCI\u2019s decision this month to remove restrictions on three companies linked to him \u2014 including PT Barito Renewables<\/a> Energy, the geothermal firm that accounts for more than a third of his fortune. Starting in August, MSCI<\/a> will include them in its index assessment again, after excluding them due to concerns about the high concentration of shares held by controlling shareholders.
After MSCI\u2019s announcement, Barito Renewables jumped 20% \u2014 sending Pangestu\u2019s fortune up $3.5 billion, his biggest ever one-day gain. <\/p>\n

\u201cMSCI\u2019s reversal removed a major overhang,\u201d said Mohit Mirpuri, senior partner at SGMC Capital. He noted trading volumes across Pangestu-linked stocks are now among the highest on Indonesia\u2019s exchange.<\/p>\n

\"ETLive Events
The rebound highlights how the nation\u2019s tightly held corporate structures can sharply amplify market moves and the subsequent effect it can have on individual fortunes. Indeed, in February Pangestu saw $5.4 billion wiped away, and last September he suffered an even bigger one-day loss of $5.9 billion. Since 2023, he has been on a wild ride, swinging billions in either direction. At the center of the frenzy is Barito Renewables, Indonesia\u2019s top geothermal player, with more than 800 megawatts of capacity through its subsidiary Star Energy Geothermal. As Indonesia \u2014 one of the world\u2019s top carbon emitters \u2014 pushes for net zero by 2060, the company\u2019s role in the energy transition offers \u201clong-term valuation support,\u201d according to Herditya Wicaksana, technical analyst at MNC Sekuritas. Still, the stock\u2019s rapid rise has raised concerns. It briefly landed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange\u2019s watchlist last year and crashed in September after index compiler FTSE Russell said it would exclude it from its indexes because of the high shareholder concentration, erasing nearly $12 billion from Pangestu\u2019s all-time high net worth of $36.5 billion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe struggle to justify this quantum of increase in market value,\u201d JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst Arnanto Januri said in a July 24 note after the recent sector rally of Barito Renewables, PT Barito Pacific and petrochemical giant PT Chandra Asri Pacific. \u201cWe suspect the market is being optimistic in its assessment of growth opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really, really insane,\u201d Leonardo Lijuwardi, an analyst at NH Korindo Sekuritas Indonesia, said about Barito Renewables compared with other geothermal firms. He cited \u201cconglomerate investing,\u201d a retail trend that favors tycoons over fundamentals. \u201cThere\u2019s a \u2018Prajogo effect,\u2019\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

A spokesperson for petrochemicals company PT Barito Pacific, the parent company of Barito Renewables, declined to comment on Pangestu\u2019s personal wealth and said the share moves were beyond the firm\u2019s control and don\u2019t reflect a significant change in its fundamentals.<\/p>\n

Concentrated Power
Pangestu, son of a rubber trader, started Barito Pacific in 1979 to sell timber. The business has expanded to petrochemicals, power, property, plantation and forestry industries and now its core focus is power generation. <\/p>\n

Entities linked to him \u2014 including Barito Pacific and Green Era, a Pangestu family office firm headed by daughter Nancy \u2014 own some 88% of Barito Renewables. Externally, BlackRock Inc. is the biggest known shareholder with a 0.07% stake, according to Bloomberg-compiled data.<\/p>\n

Concentrated ownership is a familiar theme in Indonesia\u2019s stock market<\/a>. Dozens of low free-float companies have surged 1,000% or more in recent years. One standout: DCI Indonesia, the nation\u2019s biggest data center operator, soared more than 120% this month alone, triggering a trading suspension. Four people control nearly 80% of the company.<\/p>\n

Read more: Richest Woman in Indonesia\u2019s Soaring Wealth Collapses in Days<\/p>\n

For Pangestu, companies tied to him have seen strong investor interest as \u201chis name continues to carry weight in the market,\u201d said Wicaksana of MNC Sekuritas. <\/p>\n

PT Chandra Daya Investasi, which started trading earlier this month, has seen its stock surge by about 863% so far. The infrastructure unit of Chandra Asri Pacific, raised 2.37 trillion rupiah ($146 million) in its IPO, the largest in Indonesia this year. <\/p>\n

His coal-producing unit PT Petrindo Jaya Kreasi has jumped about 6,991%, since its listing in 2023, while Barito Pacific has surged 127% over the past year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Billionaire Prajogo Pangestu\u2019s fortune hit an all-time high on Tuesday, a sharp reversal from the precipitous falls that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,28394,99,28398,164,28396,28395,28399,28393,28397,4679],"class_list":["post-29915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-barito-renewables","tag-business","tag-dubious-wealth-increase","tag-economy","tag-energy-sector-rally","tag-indonesia-stock-market","tag-msci","tag-prajogo-pangestu","tag-richest-indonesian","tag-stock-market"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}