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Reigning tycoon: Coal money brings Low Tuck Kwong as RI’s new richest person
Indonesia coal tycoon Low Tuck Kwong has emerged as the country’s richest individual, coinciding with a boom in his business amid the surge of commodity prices, partly due to geopolitical conflict, energy crisis and supply disruption in many parts of the globe.
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Dato’ Dr. Low Tuck Kwong, president director of PT Bayan Resources (PT Bayan Resources/-)
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ndonesia coal-tycoon Low Tuck Kwong has emerged as the country’s richest individual, coinciding with a boom in his business amid the surge of commodity prices, partly due to geopolitical conflict, energy crisis and supply disruption in many parts of the globe.
Low Tuck Kwong has a net worth of US$31 billion as of Dec. 27, according to Forbes' Real-Time Billionaires rankings, which tracks the daily ups and downs of the world’s richest people.
The same data also show that Low now tops the billionaires ranking, overthrowing R. Budi Hartono and Michael Budi Hartono, who hold $22.4 billion and $21.5 billion in net worth respectively.
For many years, each of the Hartono brothers topped the list with their combined tobacco and banking businesses.
Low is a controlling shareholders of Indonesia’s third-largest coal miner PT Bayan Resources, also known by the stock ticker of BYAN, with ownership of more than 60 percent of the company’s shares.
According to the company’s profile, BYAN has 12 direct subsidiaries that are engaged in the coal mining and tire industries. In the third quarter this year alone, it booked a Rp 24.8 trillion (US$1.55 billion) of net profit, which saw almost a twofold increase from the same period last year.
Low’s wealth is said to have increased significantly partly due to a jump in BYAN share price in the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) that surged by more than sevenfold as of Dec. 27 year-to-date to Rp 22,500 apiece.
