At least three billionaires directly control 85% or more of three listed companies, according to data compiled by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index based on recent filings. Southeast Asia’s richest person has a more than two-thirds indirect stake in PT Barito Renewables Energy, Indonesia’s largest listed firm. And about seven billionaires own more than 50% of shares in at least 13 companies, the data show.
(Feb 5): Indonesia’s stock market needed just two days of chaos to highlight what investors have long lamented: parts of the market aren’t trading freely.
Last week’s worst tumble in nearly three decades drew attention to a major problem at the heart of Southeast Asia’s biggest equity market: a handful of billionaires own so much of their listed companies that barely any of those companies’ shares are left to trade.
