Eka Widjaja

Eka Tjipta Widjaja, the founder of one of Indonesia's largest conglomerates, has died at the age of 97, according to local media. Widjaja was the third-richest person in Indonesia according to Forbes, with a net worth of $8.6 billion thanks to his holdings in Sinar Mas Group. Widjaja had long since stepped out of the limelight, and the group is currently run by his children and grandchildren. Born Oei Ek Tjhong in China's Fujian province, Widjaja arrived in Indonesia at age 7 with his father. Widjaja sold biscuits as a teenager before building a copra trading business in Indonesia. He expanded his family's interests into coconut oil, coconut plantations and palm oil during the dictatorship of former President Suharto. He later created Jakarta-based Sinar Mas Group, which has interests in palm oil, pulp and paper, financial services and property. In 1996, the family founded Golden-Agri Resources to manage palm oil plantations in Indonesia and listed it in Singapore three years later The family sold shares in their companies -- including Asia Pulp & Paper on the New York Stock Exchange and Indah Kiat Pulp & Paper in Jakarta -- in the 1990s. The group fell out of favor with international investors in 2001, when Asia Pulp, Indonesia's biggest papermaker, defaulted on almost $14 billion of debt as the wood pulp market collapsed. It could no longer service debts piled up to expand into China. Asia Pulp, whose shares were delisted in 2001, has since undergone several debt restructurings. The Widjaja family once owned Bank Internasional Indonesia, before it was taken over and bailed out by the government in 2001 because it was unable to force Sinar Mas and other borrowers to repay their debts. More than half of the bank's loans were made to Sinar Mas companies, violating rules on inter-group lending. The family businesses later recovered on a commodity boom. They also expanded their property portfolio in Indonesia, Singapore and China. Their assets include the Westin Bund Center Shanghai and Plaza BII in Jakarta. The group's palm oil and paper operations have been criticized by environmentalists. Burger King and Unilever stopped buying its palm oil, used in products such as shampoo and ice cream, after Greenpeace accused Sinar Mas of destroying rainforests. Asia Pulp reassured customers in 2012 that it doesn't use illegally logged trees in its paper mills. Widjaja has fathered more than 40 children by women deemed to be his wives, the Washington Post reported in 1994, citing family friends and associates. Most of his sons by his first wife are involved in the family businesses. Franky Oesman Widjaja is the CEO of Golden Agri-Resources, the world's second-largest oil palm grower. Teguh Ganda Wijaya is in charge of the group's pulp and paper business and Muktar Widjaja oversees the family's property companies. Indra Widjaja is the president commissioner of financial services firm Jakarta-listed Sinar Mas Multiartha.