JAKARTA, March 19 — As Indonesia saw its worst market fall in a decade, investors watched the value of their holdings plummet including the country’s richest woman, who lost half her fortune in just three days when her company’s stock took a tumble.
Marina Budiman had prospered from the rising value of her company DCI Indonesia’s shares that raised her net worth to US$7.5 billion (RM33.2 billion) making her the richest woman in Indonesia.
That winning streak reversed however when Indonesia’s stock market came crashing down due to a variety of domestic factors (a worsening fiscal outlook and President Prabowo Subianto’s economic policies) and global economic factors (US tariff policy, geopolitical developments, trade wars).
In just three days Marina’s net worth tumbled to just half after DCI’s stock value tumbling, with the company being the worst performer in the stock market meltdown that was so alarming it triggered a 30-minute trading pause.
DCI was vulnerable due to 78 per cent of its shares being owned by just four people, Marina, co-founders Han Arming Hanafia and Otto Toto Sugiri as well as billionaire Anthoni Salim.
Bloomberg reported Mohit Mirpuri, a fund manager at SGMC Capital Pte in Singapore, as saying : “DCI’s price swings are largely a function of its tight free float. Bid-offer spreads are narrow, so any substantial positioning can move the stock significantly.”
DCI being in the business of data centres likely drew investors who saw potential due to the increased foreign investment from tech giants such as Oracle Corp, which is in discussions with Indonesia’s government to build cloud service centres in the country.
