Indonesia’s richest man, who won Asian Games bronze, dies at 86
Michael Bambang Hartono, the Indonesian billionaire who built a vast business empire from clove cigarettes and later became one of the country’s most influential bankers, has died aged 86.
Hartono died in a hospital in Singapore, his company said. No cause of death was disclosed, though he had previously suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and a heart attack.
With his younger brother, Robert Budi Hartono, he transformed a modest family tobacco business in Kudus, Central Java, into the Djarum Group, one of Indonesia’s largest conglomerates.
Its flagship kretek — clove-flavoured cigarettes — became household names, including Djarum Super and Djarum Black, in a country where tens of millions smoke.
Through their holding company, they became controlling shareholders of Bank Central Asia, Indonesia’s largest private lender, and invested in sectors ranging from property and electronics to telecommunications and e-commerce. Their redevelopment of Jakarta’s landmark Hotel Indonesia into the Grand Indonesia complex symbolised that shift from manufacturing to modern urban capital.
Hartono’s fortune was estimated at $18.9 billion in 2026, making him Indonesia’s richest man and one of the world’s wealthiest individuals.
Yet he was equally known in another arena: the card table.
A lifelong bridge enthusiast, Hartono began playing at the age of six and went on to become one of the sport’s most prominent advocates in Southeast Asia. He served as president of the South East Asia Bridge Federation and was instrumental in lobbying for bridge’s inclusion in the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta.
At those Games, Hartono competed himself, winning a bronze medal in the supermixed team event at the age of 78 — becoming the oldest Indonesian medalist in the competition’s history.
When awarded a cash prize by the government, he donated it to support the development of bridge.
He often drew parallels between the game and his business career. “First you get the data, the information. You analyse the information, and then you make a decision,” he said. “Business, real life and bridge are the same.”
Born on October 2, 1939, Hartono he inherited the cigarette business after his father’s death in 1963. Over the following decades, he helped turn it into a global brand — but it was at the bridge table, as much as in the boardroom, that he said decisions truly revealed themselves.
This story is written and edited by the Global South World team, you can contact us here.
