Bakrie Group
The Bakrie Group is an Indonesian conglomerate founded by Achmad Bakrie in 1942. It has ownership shares in various industries, including mining, oil and gas, property development, infrastructure, plantations, media, and telecommunications. The group is one of the largest business groups in Indonesia, with 10 of its companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange.
The group is currently headed by Nirwan Bakrie and Indra Bakrie, sons of Achmad Bakrie, who serve as co-chairpersons. Aburizal Bakrie, Achmad Bakrie's eldest son, chaired the group from 1999 to 2004 before entering politics. He held ministerial positions from 2004 to 2009 and served as chairman of the Golkar Party from 2009 to 2014.
Anindya Bakrie, Aburizal's son, became CEO of Bakrie & Brothers in 2019 and chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce in 2024.
History
H. Achmad Bakrie founded Bakrie & Brothers in 1942 in Telukbetung, South Sumatera. Bakrie & Brothers was established as a general trading and distribution company.In the 1950s, the Bakrie Group’s business activities expanded to include general trading, construction services, agribusiness, coal mining, oil and gas, and telecommunications, while continuing to develop manufacturing operations such as making steel pipes, building materials, and automotive components.
In 1986, Bakrie & Brothers acquired a 75% stake in the local rubber plantation company PT Uniroyal Sumatera Plantations, which was later renamed PT Bakrie Sumatera Plantations. In 1989, Bakrie & Brothers was listed on the Jakarta Stock Exchange, under the stock trading symbol BNBR.
Bakrie Group diversified into the media and telecommunications business in the 1990s. A local TV station, PT. Cakrawala Andalas Televisi, was founded in 1992, and started to broadcast nationally in 1993. Also in 1993, Bakrie Group obtained the license to operate fixed wireless telecommunication and entered the telecommunications sector with PT. Bakrie Telecom.
In 2001, Bakrie Group entered the gas and oil sector with the founding of PT. Energi Mega Persada, a company focused on developing and exploring for oil and gas in Indonesia. Bakrie Group also acquired 80% of the coal mining company PT Arutmin Indonesia from BHP Billiton, PT Kaltim Prima Coal from British Petroleum, and Rio Tinto, in 2003.
In 2007, Forbes Asia estimated the Bakrie family were worth US$5.4 billion, however, after the 2008 financial crisis, this dropped to $850 million.
In 2014, Bakrie Group, through Bakrie Global Ventura, made a US$25 million investment in a California-based private social network, Path, which is enabled with photo sharing and messaging service for mobile devices.
Bakrie Group has a limited partnership with Convergence Ventures.
In 2019, Bakrie Group made an undisclosed investment in BumiLangit Studios, an Indonesian character-based entertainment company in Indonesia. The investment was made by VIVA group, who are currently focusing on developing Indonesia's own superhero cinematic universe through the library and intellectual property rights of BumiLangit Studios. The first movie in line, Gundala, released in August 2019, was a theater hit grossing 48.3 billion Rupiah.
In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Bakrie & Brothers of Bakrie Group furloughed 153 of its staff for at least 3 months. Additionally, the company also introduced salary reduction plans affecting 800 employees in their attempt to reduce financial burdens due to limited business activity.
Companies
Bakrie Group is made up of at least 11 individual companies, of which 10 are still listed on the Indonesian Stock Exchange, without a controlling parent company. Each of the Bakrie companies has more subsidiaries involved in various industrial, digital, energy, and agricultural sectors.Core members
Business sectors
Mining
The Bakrie Group operates in the mining sector, primarily focused on coal mining through PT Bumi Resources Tbk and its subsidiaries, including PT Bumi Resources Minerals Tbk, PT Arutmin Indonesia, PT Kaltim Prima Coal, PT Pendopo Energi Batubara, and PT Fajar Bumi Sakti. In May 2020, Bakrie Capital Indonesia signed an agreement with Air Products to develop a US$2 billion coal-to-methanol manufacturing facility in East Kalimantan.Oil and gas
PT Energi Mega Persada operates several oil and gas assets in Indonesia. In 2011, Energi Mega Persada expanded its operations to the Buzi Block in Mozambique through its subsidiary EMP Mining Overseas Pte. Its current operations include:Bentu PSC, Riau
Buzi EPCC, Mozambique
Gebang PSC, North Sumatra
Kangean PSC, East Java
Korinci Baru PSC, Riau
Malacca Strait PSC, Sumatra
Sangatta II CBM PSC, East Kalimantan
Tonga PSC, Sumatra
Bakrie group's mining business, PT. Lapindo Brantas, caused an erupting mud volcano in the Sidoarjo mud flow disaster that displaced more than 40,000 people in Indonesia's East Java province.
Media and entertainment
Bakrie Group owns PT Visi Media Asia Tbk, which has interests in Free to Air TV networks with antv, tvOne, VTV, and in digital media portal viva.co.id.Agribusiness
Through PT. Bakrie Sumatra Plantations Tbk, Bakrie Group manages an estimated 100,000 hectares of rubber and palm oil plantations on the island of Sumatra. Bakrie Sumatera Plantations Tbk is a subsidiary of Bakrie Group.BSP has extensive landbanks.
One of its directors is Bungaran Saragih, a former minister of agriculture.
It operates or used to operate on peatlands.
Infrastructure
Through Bakrie & Brothers, Bakrie Group is involved in transportation, water, electricity, and industrial projects in Indonesia through several of its subsidiaries. From the 1990s, the Group worked to build a 600MW coal-fired power station, "Tanjung Jati A", in Central Java. This plant had an estimated build cost of $2.8 billion and the group would hold 20% of the equity. As late as 2019, the government of Indonesia still included the project on their National Electricity Supply Business Plan. In 2022, the project's environmental permit was revoked by the State Administrative Court of Bandung in response to a legal challenge from WALHI. This decision was not appealed by the project's sponsors before the deadline, so its current status remains cancelled.Sports team ownership
Basketball club
Pelita Jaya Bakrie (1987–present)
The Pelita Jaya Basketball Club was founded in 1987 by the Bakrie Group. Pelita Jaya is a three-time national basketball league champion. The club is managed by Syailendra Bakrie and competes in the Indonesian Basketball League.Football clubs
Pelita Jaya F.C. (1986–2011)
Bakrie Group founded Pelita Jaya F.C. in 1986, and the club won three Galatama titles. Originally based in Jakarta, the club relocated several times, beginning in 2000, before being sold in 2012. The club is currently known as Madura United.At the time of Bakrie Group's sale of Pelita F.C., the group purchased Arema F.C.; a merger between the two was considered, but was later cancelled in 2012.