Michael Hartono

Michael Hartono
Born	Michael Bambang Hartono
Nationality	Indonesian
Occupation	Businessman, investor
Employer	Djarum Group
Known for	Co-owner of Djarum Group, major shareholder in Bank Central Asia

Michael Bambang Hartono is an Indonesian billionaire businessman who, together with his brother R. Budi Hartono, controls the Djarum Group, one of Indonesia's largest and most diversified conglomerates. The Hartono brothers have built what began as a family tobacco business into a sprawling global empire encompassing banking, telecommunications infrastructure, technology, consumer electronics, and professional football, with a combined fortune estimated at approximately $47 billion. Michael Hartono is consistently ranked among the wealthiest individuals in Indonesia and in Southeast Asia, appearing regularly on the Forbes billionaires list and the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Central to the brothers' wealth is their significant stake in Bank Central Asia (BCA), Indonesia's largest private bank by market capitalization, which they acquired during the aftermath of the 1997 Asian financial crisis. In recent years, the Hartono brothers have expanded their business interests into new sectors, including telecommunications tower operations through Sarana Menara Nusantara and, most notably, European professional football through their ownership of Italian Serie A club Como.

Early Life

Michael Bambang Hartono is of Chinese Indonesian descent. He and his brother R. Budi Hartono inherited the Djarum clove cigarette company, which had been established as a family business in Kudus, Central Java, Indonesia. The Djarum brand, which produces kretek (clove-flavored) cigarettes, became one of the most recognized tobacco brands in Indonesia and served as the foundation upon which the Hartono brothers would construct their diversified business empire.

The brothers took over the family enterprise and gradually transformed it from a regional tobacco manufacturer into one of Indonesia's preeminent conglomerates. Under their stewardship, the Djarum Group grew from its origins in the cigarette industry to encompass a wide range of business activities spanning multiple sectors of the Indonesian and global economy.

Career

Djarum Group and Tobacco

The Djarum Group, headquartered in Kudus, Central Java, remains at the core of the Hartono brothers' business operations. Djarum is one of the largest producers of kretek cigarettes in Indonesia, a country with one of the highest smoking rates in the world. The tobacco business has long generated substantial cash flows, which the Hartono brothers have strategically reinvested into other sectors to diversify their holdings and reduce dependence on a single industry.

Under Michael and Budi Hartono's leadership, the Djarum Group has evolved far beyond its tobacco roots. The conglomerate has pursued an aggressive diversification strategy over several decades, channeling profits from cigarette manufacturing into banking, technology, real estate, telecommunications, consumer electronics, and other industries.

In 2025, the Djarum Group expanded into yet another sector when Polytron, a home appliances manufacturer controlled by the conglomerate, announced its entry into the automotive industry with the unveiling of electric sport utility vehicles (SUVs). This move placed the Hartono brothers' business empire in direct competition with other companies vying for a share of Indonesia's growing electric vehicle market.

Bank Central Asia

The most consequential business decision made by the Hartono brothers was their acquisition of a stake in Bank Central Asia (BCA), Indonesia's largest private bank. The Hartonos purchased their stake in BCA during the period following the 1997 Asian financial crisis, which devastated the Indonesian economy and led to the restructuring of the country's banking sector. The crisis created opportunities for well-capitalized investors to acquire significant positions in distressed financial institutions at favorable valuations.

The investment in BCA proved to be extraordinarily lucrative. As Indonesia's economy recovered and grew in the subsequent decades, BCA emerged as one of the most profitable and best-managed banks in Southeast Asia. The bank's strong performance has been a primary driver of the Hartono brothers' wealth accumulation, with their BCA holdings accounting for a substantial portion of their combined fortune.

Forbes has noted that the brothers "get a chunk of their fortune from their investment in Bank Central Asia," underscoring the central importance of this single investment to their overall financial position. The bank's consistent profitability, strong market position, and rising stock price have made the Hartonos' BCA stake one of the most valuable banking investments held by any family in Southeast Asia.

Telecommunications Infrastructure

Beyond banking and tobacco, the Hartono brothers have invested in Indonesia's telecommunications infrastructure through their controlling interest in Sarana Menara Nusantara (SMN), one of Indonesia's largest operators of cellular telecommunications towers. As mobile phone usage expanded rapidly across the Indonesian archipelago — the world's fourth most populous nation — demand for telecommunications infrastructure grew correspondingly.

In September 2024, Sarana Menara Nusantara announced plans to raise up to 9 trillion Indonesian rupiah (approximately $586 million) to fund further expansion of its tower network. The capital raise reflected the continued growth trajectory of the telecommunications tower business and the Hartono brothers' commitment to expanding their presence in Indonesia's digital infrastructure sector. The investment in SMN represented another example of the brothers' strategy of investing in sectors that benefit from Indonesia's large and growing population and its increasing economic development.

Online Retail and Technology

The Hartono brothers have also made significant investments in the technology and e-commerce sectors. As part of their broader diversification strategy, the brothers expanded their family business from tobacco into online retail, recognizing the transformative potential of digital commerce in Indonesia and across Southeast Asia. These investments have further broadened the Djarum Group's portfolio and positioned the conglomerate to benefit from the rapid growth of the digital economy in one of the world's largest and fastest-growing internet markets.

Como Football Club

One of the more prominent and internationally visible investments made by the Hartono brothers in recent years has been their acquisition of Como, a professional football club competing in Italy's Serie A, the top tier of Italian football. The Hartono brothers became the owners of the club, making them the wealthiest owners in the Italian league.

The club's ownership by the Indonesian billionaire brothers attracted significant international media attention, particularly as Como pursued ambitious plans to strengthen its squad. In July 2025, reports emerged that the club was exploring the possibility of signing Lionel Messi, one of the most celebrated footballers in history, in what was described as a "dream" transfer. The South China Morning Post reported that the Hartono brothers had "ambitious plans for the club," reflecting their willingness to invest substantially in the team's competitiveness and profile.

The investment in Como represented a departure from the Hartono brothers' traditional focus on Indonesian and Asian markets, marking their entry into European sports ownership. The move placed them alongside a growing cohort of Asian and global billionaires who have invested in European football clubs as both business ventures and prestige assets.

Business Empire Overview

By the mid-2020s, the Hartono brothers had constructed one of the most diversified business empires in Southeast Asia. Beginning with the Djarum tobacco company, they had expanded into banking (Bank Central Asia), telecommunications infrastructure (Sarana Menara Nusantara), online retail, consumer electronics (Polytron), electric vehicles, and European professional football (Como).

The combined fortune of Michael Hartono and R. Budi Hartono was estimated at approximately $47 billion, making them among the wealthiest families not only in Indonesia but in all of Southeast Asia. Forbes tracks the brothers' fortunes both jointly and separately, with R. Budi Hartono's profile noting that he and his brother Michael "are among the richest in Indonesia."

Wealth and Rankings

Michael Hartono has been a fixture on international wealth rankings for many years. He appears on both the Forbes World's Billionaires List and the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which tracks the daily fortunes of the world's 500 wealthiest individuals.

In 2024, the Hartono brothers were ranked among the five richest billionaires in Indonesia, alongside other prominent Indonesian business figures such as Anthoni Salim of the Indofood Group and members of the Widjaja family. The South China Morning Post described them as "cigarette fortune heirs" who had parlayed their inheritance into a diversified business empire spanning multiple industries and countries.

Forbes has maintained profiles on the Hartono brothers both as a pair and individually. Michael Hartono's fortune is listed separately from that of his brother R. Budi Hartono on the Forbes rankings. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index similarly maintains an individual profile for Michael Hartono, tracking his personal net worth among the global elite of the ultra-wealthy.

The brothers' wealth trajectory has been closely tied to the performance of their key assets, particularly Bank Central Asia, whose stock price movements have a significant impact on the Hartonos' estimated net worth. As BCA has grown to become one of the most valuable publicly traded companies in Indonesia, the brothers' wealth has risen correspondingly.

Business Strategy and Diversification

The Hartono brothers' approach to business has been characterized by a long-term diversification strategy that has transformed a single-product tobacco company into a multi-sector conglomerate with interests spanning finance, technology, infrastructure, consumer goods, and sports. The pattern of their investments suggests a deliberate strategy of reinvesting tobacco profits into growth sectors that benefit from Indonesia's demographic and economic trends — a large, young, and increasingly urbanized population with growing purchasing power and expanding internet access.

Their acquisition of BCA during the Asian financial crisis exemplified an opportunistic investment approach, purchasing a distressed but fundamentally sound asset at a favorable price during a period of market dislocation. The subsequent appreciation of BCA's value vindicated this strategy and provided the financial resources for further diversification.

More recently, the brothers have shown a willingness to invest in emerging sectors such as electric vehicles, with their Polytron subsidiary entering the EV market despite intense competition from both domestic and international manufacturers. Their investment in Como football club, meanwhile, demonstrated an appetite for high-profile international ventures that extend the Djarum Group's brand and influence beyond Indonesia and Southeast Asia.

The telecommunications tower business through Sarana Menara Nusantara represented an infrastructure play that benefited from the rapid expansion of mobile connectivity across Indonesia's sprawling archipelago of more than 17,000 islands. The decision to raise nearly $600 million in additional capital in 2024 signaled the brothers' continued confidence in the growth potential of Indonesia's digital infrastructure sector.

Legacy

Michael Hartono, together with his brother R. Budi Hartono, has built one of the largest and most diversified business empires in Southeast Asian history. Their transformation of the Djarum Group from a regional clove cigarette manufacturer into a conglomerate with interests spanning banking, telecommunications, technology, consumer electronics, electric vehicles, and European football represents one of the most significant examples of business diversification in Indonesia's modern economic history.

The brothers' investment in Bank Central Asia has been particularly consequential, not only for their personal wealth but for Indonesia's financial sector more broadly. BCA has grown under their ownership into one of the most important financial institutions in Southeast Asia, serving millions of customers and playing a central role in Indonesia's banking system.

Their ownership of Como has brought the Hartono name to international prominence in the world of professional football, while their investments in telecommunications infrastructure and electric vehicles have positioned the Djarum Group at the forefront of Indonesia's economic modernization. As VnExpress International reported, the Hartono brothers "expanded their family business from tobacco into banking and online retail, building a $47 billion fortune" — a trajectory that encapsulates the scale and ambition of their business achievements.

The Hartono brothers remain among the most influential business figures in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, with their investment decisions carrying significant implications for the industries and communities in which they operate. Their continued expansion into new sectors, from electric vehicles to European football, suggests that the Djarum Group's diversification is an ongoing process with further chapters yet to be written.