The 81-year-old billionaire has boosted his net worth by over US$20 billion since its April low, reaching $36.2 billion, as reported by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
 |
|
Prajogo Pangestu, chairman of Barito Renewables Energy. Photo courtesy of the company |
The increase is largely due to investment research firm Morgan Stanley Capital International’s decision to lift restrictions on three companies tied to Pangestu, including PT Barito Renewables Energy, the geothermal company that constitutes over a third of his wealth, Bloomberg reported.
From August, Morgan Stanley will reintegrate these firms into its index assessment, having previously excluded them due to concerns over the high concentration of shares held by controlling shareholders.
Following the decision, Barito Renewables’ shares soared 20%, sending Pangestu’s fortune up by $3.5 billion, his largest single-day gain ever.
“Morgan Stanley’s reversal removed a major overhang,” Mohit Mirpuri, senior partner at SGMC Capital, told Bloomberg, noting that trading volumes for Pangestu-linked stocks are now among the highest on Indonesia’s exchange.
However, Barito Renewables’ rapid climb has sparked concerns.
In 2024, the stock briefly appeared on the Indonesia Stock Exchange’s watchlist and plummeted in September after London-based market watcher FTSE Russell announced its exclusion from indexes due to high shareholder concentration, erasing nearly $12 billion from Pangestu’s peak net worth of $36.5 billion.
Some other companies of Pangestu are expected to benefit from upcoming expansion.
His chemical producer Chandra Asri will see an injection of $800 million from Indonesia’s two sovereign wealth funds to build a plant outside Jakarta, according to Forbes.
The facility will produce 400,000 tons of caustic soda and 500,000 tons of ethylene dichloride per year when completed in 2027.
Pangestu, the son of a rubber trader, founded Barito Pacific in 1979 as a timber business. It has since grown into petrochemicals, power, property, plantation, and forestry, with power generation now its core focus.
