•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   

Budi Hartono, the 68-year-old tycoon who heads the Djarum corporate empire built on cigarettes, banking and property, is now the country’s richest man, up from second place last year.

And that is despite the fact that his net worth fell a sobering $2.7 billion to $4.1 billion, according to GlobeAsia’s annual list of the 150 wealthiest Indonesians.

The pounding Hartono’s fortune has taken in a year of global economic turmoil is mirrored by the conditions that have overtaken many of the country’s super rich, rearranging the list dramatically. Eka Tijipta Widjaja, whose Sinar Mas empire was the country’s third biggest in 2008, rose to second place despite the fact that his fortune has shrunk as well, from $3.8 billion to $3.2 billion.

The financial turmoil has dropped Aburizal Bakrie, listed as Indonesia’s richest man last year with a $9.2 billion fortune, all the way to fifth place with an 80 percent drop in net wealth to just $1.85 billion at the time of writing, in the wake of disastrous falls in the share prices of the companies that make up the Bakrie group.

Likewise, Susilo Wonowidjojo, who heads the Gudang Garam cigarette empire, was sixth in the 2008 sweepstakes, but fell to 13th when his net worth plummeted from $2 billion to $705 million.

Martua Sitorus of Wilmar International Holding is the only tycoon in the top 20 who saw his fortune increase, from $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion on palm oil and unspecified investments, pushing him from 12th place on the list to sixth. Martua was one of only four tycoons whose net worth increased during the year.

The others are Rusdi Kirana of the fast-growing Lion Air, worth $531 million today against $492 million in 2008, and up from 28th place to 22nd; Martias, head of First Resources, whose fortune climbed from $410 million to $442 million and nudged him from 28th to 27th; and Eka Tjandranegara of Mulia Group, whose net worth rose from $405 millon to $412 million and moved him up from 35th to 29th.