'Forbes' latest list of richest tycoons sparks debate
'Forbes' latest list of richest tycoons sparks debate
JAKARTA (JP): The Forbes Zibenjia business magazine's latest
list of the richest businessmen in East Asia has stirred debate
among several financial analysts as to who is really the richest
tycoon in Indonesia.
The list of the ten top richest Chinese businessmen which was
quoted by several newspapers here from Reuters early this week
included three Indonesian businessmen-- Soedono Salim, Prajogo
Pangestu and Eka Tjipta Widjaja.
The list remained topped by Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing who
controls the Cheung Kong and Hutchison Whampoa groups. Li, with a
personal fortune of US$7 billion, was followed by Walter Kwok
Ping-sheung and his brothers who control the Sun Hung Kai
Properties.
The Chinese edition of Forbes magazine put Indonesia's Soedono
Salim in fourth with personal assets of $6 billion, Eka Tjipta
Widjaja in seventh with $5 billion and Prajogo on the bottom of
the list with $4.5 billion.
The other businessmen on the list were Tsai Wan-lin from
Taiwan with a personal worth of $6.3 billion, Robert Kuwok from
Malaysia with $6 billion, Lee Shau-kee from Hong Kong with $5.9
billion, Lim Goh-tong from Malaysia with $5 billion and Wu Dung-
chin from Taiwan with $4.8 billion.
Accuracy
However, some financial analysts here debated the accuracy of
the ranking of the three Indonesian Chinese businessmen, arguing
that Prajogo might have now become at least the second richest,
if not the richest, businessman in Indonesia.
They nonetheless conceded that even though an increasing
number of big conglomerates have gone public, thereby subject to
financial disclosure, it was still difficult to accurately
estimate the personal wealth of the country's largest
businessmen, most of whom are Chinese-Indonesians, because they
hold stakes in a wide range of businesses.
The fortunes of Chinese-Indonesians have often become a
"juicy" topic of coverage for local print media but most of the
figures they brought up remained largely rough estimates.
The Eksekutif business magazine reported last February that
Prajogo had catapulted to be Indonesia's richest businessman with
estimated assets of Rp 10 trillion ($4.6 billion), or around Rp 3
trillion richer than Soedono Salim.
But Tempo, Indonesia's largest newsweekly magazine, in January
put Prajogo's personal worth at Rp 15 trillion ($7 billion).
An analyst of a securities company here reckoned the Tempo
estimate was perhaps the closest to the real size of Prajogo's
fortune.
The analyst cited Prajogo's personal assets in nine groups of
businesses to support his argument.
He said Prajogo owns 70 percent of the 700 million shares of
the publicly listed Barito Pacific Timber most recently quoted at
Rp 9,050. He holds 10.1 percent of Astra International's 242
million shares, now trading at around Rp 14,300.
In addition, he also owns 12 percent of PT Tripolyta and holds
large stakes in paper and pulp, oil palm, rubber and pepper
plantations, properties, timber estates and several banks.
Prajogo's other major assets are his 45 percent equity stake
in a $1.7 billion petrochemical plant project in West Java which
is still under construction. (vin)