Prajogo Pangestu (), born Phang Djun Phen in 1944, is an Indonesian business magnate, investor, and philanthropist of

Hakka Chinese Hakka (, , ) forms a language group of varieties of Chinese, spoken natively by the Hakka people throughout Southern China and Taiwan and throughout the diaspora areas of East Asia, Southeast Asia and in overseas Chinese communities around th ...

descent. He owns and founded Barito Pacific Group which engages in forestry, petrochemicals, property, plantation, oil and gas, coal and gold mining, as well as geothermal. In 2019, he was ranked as the 3rd richest person in Indonesia by

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

Biography

Pangestu was born on May 13, 1944 in

Bengkayang Bengkayang Regency () is a Regencies of Indonesia, regency ("''kabupaten''") in West Kalimantan Province of Indonesia, (on the island of Borneo). The area was originally a part of Sambas Regency, but following the expansion of the population in tha ...

West Kalimantan West Kalimantan ( id, Kalimantan Barat) is a province of Indonesia. It is one of five Indonesian provinces comprising Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo. Its capital city is Pontianak, Indonesia, Pontianak. The province has ...

, to a Hakka family from

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

, China. He attended Chinese schools in Indonesia and moved to

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...

in 1965. In 1970, Pangestu joined Burhan Uray's timber company Djajanti Group and was appointed by Uray as general manager of PT Nusantara in 1976. He left Djajanti in 1977 and launched his own business. One of the companies controlled by Prajogo, PT Barito Pacific Timber Tbk, as of 1993 was the largest company on the

Jakarta Stock Exchange Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) (Indonesian: Bursa Efek Jakarta (BEJ)) was a stock exchange based in Jakarta, Indonesia, before it merged with the Surabaya Stock Exchange to form the Indonesia Stock Exchange. History Originally opened in 1912 under ...

. In 2007, the company dropped the word "Timber" to reflect the diversified scope of its businesses. Aside from PT Barito Pacific Tbk which controls Indonesia's largest petrochemical producer, PT Chandra Asri Petrochemicals Tbk, Prajogo Pangestu also controls Star Energy, one of the largest oil & gas, as well as geothermal company in Indonesia. Both Chandra Asri and Star Energy remain as the two main business subsidiaries of Barito Pacific. As of 2009, Barito Pacific also owns the Transpacific Group, which has an 80% stake in Transpacific Railway Infrastructure. In March 2022, it was ammounced that Green Era, a private Singapore-based company controlled by Pangestu, purchased 33.33% of Star Energy from Thailand’s BCPG for $440 million. Pangestu already owned 66.6% of Jakarta-headquartered Star Energy, and the recent purchase gives Pangestu full control of Star Energy.

References

1944 births Living people Indonesian company founders Indonesian people of Chinese descent People from West Kalimantan Businesspeople in timber Indonesian billionaires {{Indonesia-bio-stub