`234' belongs to Gudang Garam
`234' belongs to Gudang Garam
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The family which owns the giant cigarette maker PT Gudang
Garam is the sole Indonesian entry in this year's Forbes list of
the world's richest billionaires; ironically, it is ranked 234th,
a number for which its main competitor PT Sampoerna is known.
Forbes monthly in its latest edition published in the U.S. on
Friday put the estimated fortune of Rachman Halim and the
Wonowidjojo family at $1.8 billion, largely derived from
producing and selling clove cigarettes from its factories in
Central Java.
The U.S. business magazine still puts Microsoft owner and
founder Bill Gates at the top of its list of the world's 445
richest billionaires for 2001, with a net fortune of $52 billion.
Gates is followed by leading American fund manager Warren
Buffett at $35 billion, and European supermarket kings, the
Albrecth brothers of Germany, with $26.8 billion.
In the 2000 list of the world's wealthiest, which was
published in June last year, the Rachman Halim family was ranked
292nd with an estimated net worth of $1.7 billion.
Gudang Garam is a listed company on the Jakarta Stock
Exchange, making an assessment of its net worth easier than most
other family-owned businesses in Indonesia.
Forbes in its brief explanation about Rachman Halim (it
misspelt the company's name as "Gudang Garang") describes the
company as a near debt-free business.
"In the coming year, watch for Gudang Garang to revamp its
marketing strategy and develop milder light clove cigarettes to
compete with rivals like Djarum and H.M. Sampoerna," it said.
To rub salt into the wounds on its competitor, Putera
Sampoerna, the owner of PT H.M. Sampoerna, with its flagship Dji-
Sam-Su (which is Hokkien Chinese for "234") kretek cigarette
brand, did not appear in Forbes' list this year. Last year, the
company, also listed on the Jakarta bourse, came 387th with a net
worth of $1.3 billion.
The families of former president Soeharto and tycoon Eka
Tjipta Widjaja, which owns the debt-laden Sinar Mas Group, did
not make it to the list either, having been featured prominently
both in 1998 and 1999.