Nirwan Bakrie

The Bakrie Group is an Indonesian conglomerate founded by Achmad Bakrie in 1942 with diversified interests across various industries including mining, oil and gas, property development, infrastructure, plantations, media and telecommunications.

The business tycoon was voted as Marcopolis’ #10 most powerful businessman in Indonesia.

The group is one of the largest business groups in Indonesia, with 10 companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. Whilst the Bakrie’s family business whose business interests and political ambitions give them unrivalled prominence in the archipelagic nation, continues to pull off improbable feats outmanoeuving state-owned firms and a local rival to secure a stake in one of the world’s biggest copper and gold mines, on the island of Sumbawa. The deal crowned the family business’s recovery from near collapse in 2008, when a plunge in the shares of six Bakrie-linked firms prompted the Indonesia Stock Exchange to close for three days.

Even before that narrow escape, Mr. Bakrie was notable as one of the few tycoons from Suharto’s era to have managed to preserve his businesses and political clout despite the Asian crisis of 1997 and the transition to democracy the following year. Mr. Bakrie’s continued influence is the cause of much discussion in Jakarta. Bakrie-controlled companies cover the breadth of Indonesia’s economy, including mining, oil and gas, palm oil, property, telecommunications and finance.