From tobacco to banking, how Indonesia’s Hartono brothers amassed a US$48 billion fortune

[JAKARTA] In Indonesia, there is the rich and the insanely super-rich. Tycoon siblings Michael Bambang Hartono, 84, and Robert Budi Hartono, 82, certainly fall into the latter category, with a staggering combined net worth of US$48 billion and counting.

The octogenarian brothers have, for many years, featured prominently at the top of Forbes’ annual list of the wealthiest people in South-east Asia’s largest economy.

They are the owners of Indonesia’s Djarum Group, which produces roughly a sixth of the cigarettes manufactured in the country and is now run by Robert’s 51-year-old son Victor Hartono.