Silent Exodus: Why Indonesia’s Richest Family Is Betting Against Their Homeland

A Rundown office tower in Singapore’s main shopping district, Indonesia’s wealthiest family has been quietly doing something it rarely does: investing money abroad as Southeast Asia’s largest economy loses momentum. It started at the end of 2023, when a company called Evergreen Hill Enterprise spent $669 million on a specialized paper business in the United States. A year later, Evergreen paid €360 million ($418 million) for an Austrian manufacturer of cigarette papers. These acquisitions, though seemingly unrelated to the Hartonos’ core interests in banking and tobacco, represent a strategic shift toward stable, hard-currency assets in mature markets.

In all, some nine entities based in Singapore and London tied to the billionaire Hartono family have invested at least $1.4 billion abroad, according to filings and interviews with people close to the group. The deals mark a sharp pivot for a media-shy clan worth about $30 billion that has traditionally parked its wealth at home, where it runs a sprawling conglomerate of banks, cigarette factories, and real estate. For decades, the Hartonos were the epitome of domestic loyalty, keeping their capital within Indonesia’s borders despite the country’s history of political turbulence. This new outward flow suggests that the current environment has become too risky even for them.

The moves, which haven’t been reported in the media before, underscore rising unease among the business elite in Indonesia over measures from President Prabowo Subianto. Other businesspeople active overseas include billionaire Alex Ramlie, whose firm agreed to buy an Australian coal mine for $3.9 billion in May. A company controlled by Prajogo Pangestu, Indonesia’s second-richest man, offered $5 billion in July for a geothermal company in the Philippines. This collective flight of capital indicates a broader trend: when the safest hands in the room start moving their chips off the table, everyone else notices.

“The government’s growing role in the economy has stoked uncertainty in some of the country’s most prominent sectors,” said Laura Schwartz, a senior Asia analyst at risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft. “The administration’s hot-and-cold approach with Indonesian business leaders is not improving investors’ nerves.” Since Prabowo came to power in October 2024, Indonesia has seen a wave of capital flight, sending the currency to record lows and sparking a stock selloff that’s made the nation’s equity market the world’s worst-performing this year. Global investors have offloaded almost $4 billion of equities since January on a net basis, nearly four times the amount in all of 2025. The biggest foreign banks in the country repatriated $640 million of capital since he took over as president.

Prabowo’s shock removal of Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati last year was one trigger of investor angst. More recently, respected central bank Gov. Perry Warjiyo left, citing personal reasons. Meanwhile, Danantara, the new sovereign wealth fund and brainchild of Prabowo, has clumped almost all of the country’s state-owned entities together, raising concerns the president is taking too much control of the financial services and commodity export sectors. The consolidation of power under Danantara has created fears that private enterprise will be subordinated to state priorities, leading to inefficient allocation of resources and increased political risk for private owners.

A representative for Prabowo said the government “remains committed to maintaining a fair and rules-based business environment for all investors and business groups.” The Government Communication Agency added that the current administration “values the private sector’s role in supporting investment, job creation, economic growth and national development” and noted that business participation in government initiatives “does not alter the government’s commitment to equal treatment, legal certainty and sound corporate governance.” However, these assurances have done little to calm the markets, which are reacting to actions rather than words.

While the Hartonos still have the vast majority of their assets in the country, their recent international investments signal growing concerns about the nation’s economy, to which most of their wealth is tied. The family, led by the late Michael Bambang Hartono until his death, and his younger brother Robert Budi, 85, own Indonesia’s most profitable bank, a multibillion-dollar cigarette operation, and businesses ranging from an electric-vehicle distribution company to a dairy farm and chain of noodle restaurants. Their dominance in the domestic market makes them particularly vulnerable to policy shifts, as they cannot easily exit their core positions without crashing the local economy.

The Hartonos have kept their name off the foreign acquisitions. Official filings and news releases list Evergreen Hill as the buyer, describing it only as being part of “a successful, Indonesia-based privately held group.” The Hartonos aren’t mentioned, nor are any of their major holding companies. Yet according to filings in Singapore and Indonesia, Evergreen’s sole owner is PT Eragraha Pirantimegah, which is wholly owned by the Hartonos. This layer of secrecy is typical for the family, who value privacy above all else, but it also serves to protect them from political scrutiny and potential retaliation at home.

The family declined to comment. The group continues to make overseas investments, including in a financial-services software firm in Singapore, and is considering more deals as the economic environment at home remains volatile and the business concentration in Indonesia puts their fortunes at risk, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak publicly. The recent purchases were driven by the family’s strategy to diversify their revenue streams into other currencies, the people said. By holding assets in dollars and euros, they hedge against the depreciation of the rupiah and the inflationary pressures of domestic fiscal policies.

Like many global rich, the Hartonos have long had a beachhead in neighboring Singapore for haven, tax, and diversification reasons. Patriarch Michael died at 86 in March in the city-state, where he owned a home with his younger brother along Nassim Road in an enclave lined with multimillion-dollar residences. Other relatives own properties nearby. Their family office is a short drive away and operates from the same floor as Evergreen Hill at Orchard Towers, the 51-year-old office block where prostitutes openly plied their trade until a 2022 crackdown. Several of the group’s Singapore entities are in the same building or in the vicinity, some of them registered in the British Virgin Islands or Cayman Islands for added privacy, based on filings. This physical proximity to their offshore vehicles allows for seamless management of their global portfolio while maintaining a low profile.

The Hartonos’ push to increase their assets abroad also stems from growing tensions with Prabowo, people familiar say. One of the president’s measures that has sparked debate is a nationwide free meals plan for school students and pregnant mothers. About $45 billion was originally budgeted this year alone for the nation of 285 million people. Another contentious issue is the campaign led by Prabowo’s defense minister to seize millions of hectares of privately owned oil palm plantations, a measure perceived as unfair by investors both at home and abroad. These populist policies, while popular with the electorate, threaten the property rights and profitability of the very conglomerates that drive Indonesia’s growth.

To foot some of Prabowo’s spending initiatives, the administration has raised funds by asking the country’s wealthy to buy what are called “Patriot bonds” at below market rates. In August last year, Danantara called the nation’s 10 wealthiest families, including the Hartonos, to a meeting in Jakarta with Chief Executive Officer Rosan Roeslani regarding the Patriot bonds. Neither Robert Budi nor his eldest son Victor Hartono, 54, showed up, although they did send a representative. All the other tycoons, including Anthoni Salim, attended in person. While Prabowo himself wasn’t there, he took the Hartonos’ absence as a sign of disrespect, the people said. This snub, whether intentional or not, marked a turning point in the relationship between the state and its most powerful private actors.

Within days of that meeting, the National Awakening Party part of the ruling coalition accused the Hartonos of underpaying the government for the purchase of Bank Central Asia. Michael and Robert teamed up with Farallon Capital Management to buy a controlling stake in BCA in 2002 for about $537 million, based on exchange rates at the time, beating out Standard Chartered. BCA’s current market value of $46.2 billion makes it the fourth-largest lender in Southeast Asia, trailing only Singapore’s biggest banks. Armand Hartono, another son of Budi’s, also helps run the financial institution. The accusation was widely seen as a political weapon, designed to pressure the family into compliance.

A few months later, Victor Hartono was among five individuals slapped with a temporary travel ban after being detained as part of a tax probe. While the scion was released and got his passport back within days and his younger brother Martin was later seen accompanying Prabowo on a state visit to the U.K. the damage was done. Concerns about BCA’s future sent the stock down 17% in 2025 and another 18% this year, although those declines also partly reflect a broader lack of investor confidence in Indonesia’s stock market. The use of legal mechanisms to target business leaders has created a chilling effect, encouraging others to move their capital out of reach.

“The Hartono family’s case demonstrates the administration’s willingness to show that even Indonesia’s wealthiest conglomerates must comply with its priorities,” said Bhima Yudhistira Adhinegara, executive director of the Center of Economic and Law Studies, an Indonesian think tank. This could make foreign investors more skittish as well, he said. “If such coercive measures continue without clear legal certainty or adherence to the rule of law, long-term investors may become more cautious about committing capital to Indonesia.” The perception of arbitrary enforcement undermines the foundational trust required for sustained economic growth.

An eighth generation of Indonesian-Chinese descent, the Hartono brothers are no strangers to the political and economic turbulence that regularly erupts in Indonesia. While billionaires Sukanto Tanoto, Pangestu, Low Tuck Kwong, and Salim have been expanding their assets in Singapore, Hong Kong, and beyond, the Hartonos have generally stayed home. Their historical resilience has allowed them to survive regime changes, ethnic riots, and financial crises. But the current combination of populist economics and centralized political control presents a unique challenge that traditional adaptation strategies may not solve.

The clan is known for its modesty. While Robert owns a collection of multimillion-dollar residences and a private jet he occasionally rents out, he and his children eschew brand name clothes, the people familiar said. This understated lifestyle has helped them avoid the public resentment that often targets flashy oligarchs, but it offers little protection against systemic political risk.

The family’s early fortune came from clove cigarette manufacturing in Kudus, a town in central Java. Oei Wie Gwan, Michael and Robert’s father, founded a business later known as PT Djarum in 1951. The distinctive kretek cigarettes, which blend tobacco with cloves, are believed by locals to help relieve asthma, among other ailments. As of 2025, the firm produced about a fifth of the cigarettes sold in Indonesia, according to market research firm Euromonitor International. Djarum remains a cash cow, providing the liquidity needed for their diverse investments, but it is also a lightning rod for health regulations and sin taxes.

A large wall-mounted video art piece gracing Djarum’s boardroom in Jakarta depicts four burning cigarettes; the first three represent Victor, his father, and his grandfather. The fourth bears no name, reflecting the biggest question facing the clan: Who will carry on the business? Many of the younger generation, some 18 in all, don’t even smoke, Victor Hartono likes to note. This generational disconnect highlights the urgency of their diversification. They are not just protecting their wealth; they are preparing for a post-tobacco future in a political landscape that is increasingly hostile to their legacy.

In many ways, it’s how the Hartonos have always operated since their ancestors arrived from China in the 1800s. From the Dutch colonial era to the Japanese occupation during World War II, the family has thrived, Victor Hartono said in a lecture last year at a local university. “Whoever was in power, we adapted,” the scion said. “That’s the story of our family.” But adaptation today looks different. It no longer means staying put and pleasing the ruler. It means having one foot out the door, ready to leave if the house catches fire. And for the first time in decades, the Hartonos are building that exit.