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Prajogo Pangestu is having a bumpy start to the year.
The founder of energy and industrial giant Barito Pacific Group lost $4 billion on Tuesday alone, causing his wealth to fall from a peak last month to $6.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Prajogo, who became richer than everyone else in Asia last year and was worth $25.3 billion at last close, has now lost his title as Indonesia’s richest person to coal miner Low Tuck Kwong PT Bayan Resources, which has a fortune of 27.9 billion dollars.
The sudden drop in Prajogo’s PT Barito Renewables Energy, which hit a record 20 percent on Tuesday, came after a rise of more than 850 percent from its listing in October to the end of December. One analyst said the stock had become overvalued and traders were making profits. Parent company PT Barito Pacific fell 18 percent on Tuesday, while another unit, PT Chandra Asri Pacific, fell 20 percent.
Barito Pacific and Barito Renewables reversed some of the declines this Wednesday.
It’s a stunning turnaround for Prajogo, who added $26.5 billion to his fortune last year when Barito Renewables, a geothermal energy producer that accounts for nearly half his fortune, went public. Prajogo, who founded petrochemical company Barito Pacific in 1979, has been trying to diversify his renewable energy portfolio amid a push by Indonesia, one of the world’s biggest CO2 emitters, to hit net-zero targets.
The stock’s rise last year has drawn attention, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Barito Pacific stock last month, citing high valuations following earnings.
The Indonesian Stock Exchange is also checking whether there was share manipulation in a unit owned by Prajogo. PT Petrindo Jaya Kreasi, a coal and gold miner, has been suspended for more than three weeks after rising more than 6,000 percent since its listing in March. The Financial Services Authority said proven stock manipulation in any company will be penalized.
Prajogo, who suffered the biggest drop in his wealth on Tuesday, is now among the world’s biggest losers in 2024, after France’s Bernard Arnault and Tesla’s Elon Musk.
2024-01-11 04:58:08
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