Eka Tjipta Widjaja

Eka Tjipta Widjaja
Born	Oei Ek Tjong Template:Birth year and age Quanzhou, China
Died	Menteng, Jakarta, Indonesia
Occupation(s)	Entrepreneur, Businessman
Known for	Founder of Sinar Mas Group

Eka Tjipta Widjaja or Eka Tjipta Widjaya (), originally named Oei Ek Tjong (), was a prominent Indonesian entrepreneur and the founder of the Sinar Mas Group, which stands as one of Indonesia’s largest business conglomerates. After relocating to Indonesia during his childhood, Widjaja became involved with the PCC and began trading in copra in the mid-1950s. He later diversified into the palm oil industry, established a paper factory in the 1970s, and ventured into financial services throughout the 1980s. By the time of his passing, Sinar Mas had expanded its operations to include paper manufacturing, real estate, financial services, agribusiness, and telecommunications, with significant assets in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, and China. According to Forbes, Widjaja ranked as Indonesia’s third wealthiest individual, with an estimated net worth of US$8.6 billion.

Early life

Widjaja was born as Oei Ek Tjhong (circa 1921–2019) in Quanzhou, China. His father worked as a trader based in Celebes. Around 1930, he and his mother migrated to Indonesia to reunite with his father in Makassar, Sulawesi, where he assisted in managing a small retail shop. He received his education at a local Chinese school but left at age fifteen to become a street vendor, selling biscuits and sweets from his bicycle.

Career

In his early career, Widjaja engaged in various enterprises such as trading cooking oil and agricultural commodities, operating a coffee shop, raising pigs, running a bakery, and constructing graves. The Japanese occupation severely impacted his cooking oil business due to strict price controls. Following the Indonesian independence war in 1949, which disrupted his commodity trading activities, he liquidated family jewelry to settle debts and exchanged his car for a bicycle.

During the 1950s, Widjaja supplied provisions to Indonesian military forces amid regional conflicts, forging connections that facilitated his trade of copra—used for coconut oil production—from Manado to Makassar. After the Permesta rebellion in Sulawesi subsided, he relocated to Surabaya.

In 1962, Widjaja established CV Sinar Mas in Surabaya with a focus on exporting natural products and importing textiles. By 1968, he had launched cooking oil manufacturing plants PT Bitung Manado Oil and PT Kunci Mas; the Manado facility produced Bimoli cooking oil, which dominated up to half of Indonesia’s market until Widjaja lost control of the brand to Salim Group following their joint venture dissolution in 1990.

In 1972, partnering with Taiwanese investors, Widjaja acquired Tjiwi Kimia—a caustic soda producer—and converted it into Sinar Mas Group's inaugural pulp and paper manufacturing enterprise. That same year marked the beginning of Duta Pertiwi property development and acquisition of logging concessions.

By 1980, Sinar Mas transitioned its refinery operations toward palm oil production. Widjaja owned vast plantations across Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Papua; notably acquiring a 10,000-hectare plantation in North Sumatra in 1982.

Also in 1982, he took ownership of Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII), which grew to become Indonesia’s second-largest private bank. However, BII collapsed during the 1997 Asian financial crisis under US$4.6 billion debt and was subsequently nationalized in 1999. Widjaja reentered the banking sector by acquiring PT Bank Shinta Indonesia in 2005 and rebranding it as PT Bank Sinarmas.

In recognition of his achievements, Widjaja received an honorary doctorate from Pittsburg State University (Kansas) in 1990.

By the mid-1990s, Widjaja controlled Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), headquartered in Singapore and listed on the NYSE; APP ranked as the world’s tenth-largest paper producer. Following the Asian financial crisis and declining pulp prices around 2000, APP disclosed debts totaling US$13.9 billion. In 2001, APP defaulted on this debt—the largest emerging market default recorded at that time.

APP has been found guilty of illegal logging activities in Cambodia, China’s Yunnan Province, and Bukit Tigapuluh National Park in Indonesia—actions that caused significant destruction to ancient rainforests.

As of 2003, Widjaja primarily lived in Singapore while entrusting daily management responsibilities to his family members.

Personal life and family

In contrast to many Chinese-Indonesian magnates who preferred discretion, Widjaja was known for openly exhibiting his affluence, often seen driving high-end vehicles and sporting a belt buckle adorned with diamonds that spelled out "EKA".

Widjaja had multiple wives and fathered at least 40 children. His first spouse, Trinidewi (also known as Trini Dewi) Lasuki, passed away in 2017. It is reported that he regarded the offspring from this marriage as the main inheritors, while providing financial backing to other children to establish their own enterprises. The majority of Trinidewi’s children—comprising six sons and two daughters—play active roles within the family business empire. The eldest daughter, Sukmawati Widjaja (Oei Siu Hoa), has held the position of vice chairperson at Sinar Mas since 1988. She was formerly married to Rudy Maeloa, who served as Eka’s trusted aide until his death in 1988.

Eka’s firstborn son, Teguh Ganda Widjaja (Oei Tjie Goan), presides over the pulp and paper segment as chairman of Asia Pulp & Paper. Teguh’s son, Jackson Widjaja, serves as CEO of Paper Excellence, Catalyst Paper, Domtar, and Resolute Forest Products, collectively managing an annual pulp and paper production capacity exceeding 11 million tons following the acquisition of Resolute. Additional sons oversee significant sectors: Indra Widjaja (Oei Pheng Lian) directs financial services; Muktar Widjaja (Oei Siong Lian) is responsible for property development; while youngest son Franky Oesman Widjaja (Oei Jong Nian) leads the agribusiness powerhouse Golden Agri-Resources as chairman.

Indra Widjaja’s son, Fuganto Widjaja, heads Golden Energy and Resources, a coal mining and trading firm based in Singapore under the Sinar Mas umbrella. He is regarded as the emerging face of the conglomerate, guiding strategic expansion into industries such as energy, infrastructure, telecommunications, healthcare, and education.

Children from some of Eka’s other marriages have established their own business ventures. Seven offspring from Mellie Pirieh (who died in 2009) manage the Duta Dharma Bhakti group, which encompasses 26 companies. Another son from a separate marriage, Oei Hong Leong, was listed by Forbes in 2018 as Singapore’s 22nd wealthiest individual with an estimated net worth of US$1.5 billion.

After Widjaja’s passing, his family retained a combined net worth of $9.7 billion, ranking second on Indonesia's 50 Richest List as of December 2021.

Death

Widjaja passed away on 26 January 2019 at his residence in Menteng, Jakarta, due to natural causes related to age. He was interred on 2 February 2019 at the family burial ground located in Karawang, West Java. Subsequent to his death, reports surfaced concerning disputes among family members regarding his testament.

See also

• Sudono Salim, Chinese-Indonesian tycoon
• Sinar Mas Group