Behind the huge wealth are bridge and badminton masters who smoke lilac cigarettes.
Author: Chen Jiali
The capital market is changing, and it is normal for the rich in various countries to take turns to sit in the village. However, Indonesia seems to be an exception.
In February, 2022, Forbes Indonesian Rich List was released, and Huang Huixiang and Huizhong Huang reached the top for the first consecutive year with 14. Affected by the epidemic, the wealth of other rich people shrank in a mess, but the two brothers rode out of the second place with a net worth of $47.7 billion.
After Zhao Changpeng, a Canadian citizen, was exposed that his assets had shrunk severely, the Fujian-born "brother" also became the latest overseas rich.
In the list of Indonesia's richest people in 2022, the Huang brothers took a big lead.
Why are the wealth maps of the two brothers so stable?
The answer is simple. Look at the "majority" of Indonesia, all of them belong to their family.
Besides needle cigarettes, Central Asia Bank, Indonesia's second largest tobacco company, Indonesia's largest private bank, Indonesia's largest shopping center, Indonesia's largest online forum Kaskus, and Indonesia's largest e-commerce platform Blibli are all yellow!
Oxfam, a non-governmental international relief organization, once said that only the profits earned by the Huang brothers every year can "eliminate absolute poverty in Indonesia".
Not only rich, but also unusual family style.
For more than 70 years since the family started their business, not only have they never staged the drama of brothers hitting the wall, but they have also been living a low-key life. This is really rare in the average rich family.
Start with a booth.
Tracing the family history of the Huang family, it began with the Indonesian specialty clove cigarette in the hands of parents.
1920, my father Huang Weiyuan came to Java Island in Indonesia from Jinjiang, Fujian Province to make a living and made a living by selling cigarettes.
After saving a little money, Huang Weiyuan became more courageous and planned to buy a local cigarette factory that was on the verge of bankruptcy.
At that time, Huang Weiyuan was over 500 years old, and it was worthwhile to put all his possessions into a dilapidated factory.
When indecisive, he also took his sons back to his hometown in Jinjiang to seek the opinions of his cousins. Finally, with the encouragement of relatives in his hometown, Huang Weiyuan decided: Do this deal!
The cigarette produced by the local factory is called "needle", and Huang Weiyuan took the word "needle", thus the trademark of "needle record" of the Huang family was born.
Photos of the Huang family in the 1950s.
Huang Weiyuan, with 10 workers, made every effort to "revive" the tobacco factory.
Soon, he introduced a "clove cigarette" with a local folk prescription, which became an instant hit in Indonesia.
With the increase of sales, the scale of the factory is expanding. In just a few years, Needle Clove cigarettes have crossed the Indonesian cigarette market and even jumped to the second place in the industry.
Logo sculpture of Zhen Ji cigarette factory
According to this trend, waiting for the Huang brothers is to take over the family business and win the life.
As a result, in 1963, the tobacco factory was suddenly destroyed by a fire, and the Huang family returned to poverty overnight. Father Huang Weiyuan couldn't stand the blow and died soon.
The story goes back to the beginning.
This time, the task of revitalizing the lintel was handed over to the Huang brothers who were only in their twenties.
Fortunately, the two helped their father manage the tobacco factory from an early age and accumulated a lot of experience. Brothers are United, and their profits are broken. Thanks to the efforts of Brother Huang, the operation of the tobacco factory soon returned to the right track. From 1972, needle cigarettes were exported to Japan, Netherlands, USA and other countries.
1998, catching up with the Asian financial crisis, the Indonesian government faced "regime change", and some enterprises closely related to the old government were forced to close down or confiscate. The Huang brothers, who have always insisted on marketization, have lost some benefits in the short term because they don't want to get in touch with military and political officials too much, but they have survived this sudden change.
Under the leadership of the two brothers, the knitting factory has gradually grown and even surpassed the scale of my father's life.
Huizhong Huang and Huang Huixiang
Keep the position of the richest man
In peacetime, the fire also made the Huang brothers realize that eggs can't be put in the same basket, and diversified development and diversified business risks are king.
After Zhen Ji's position in the cigarette market was firmly established, the two brothers turned their attention to other fields-textiles, household appliances, paper making and palm oil, so as to continuously expand the industrial chain.
In the 20th century, in the field of real estate, the two brothers also made great progress.
From the construction of industrial parks to private houses, to shopping malls, office buildings, hotels and shopping centers, there are traces of their capital operation everywhere.
In 2004, the two brothers spent a huge sum of US$ 242 million to buy the right to operate the old Indonesian hotel 10.
This hotel, which has fallen into the bottleneck of operation, was reborn in the hands of the Huang brothers after 10 and became the leading shopping city in Indonesia.
Because it is located in the center of Jakarta, people come and go every day, and the passenger flow is very huge. Now it has become a landmark building in Jakarta and is known as "the largest shopping plaza in Southeast Asia".
Da Indonesia shopping city
Another "sacred job" of the Huang brothers is to acquire the Bank of Central Asia, the third largest bank in Indonesia.
In 20 10, Shouzhen Group successfully won the controlling stake of Central Asian Bank from Lin Shaoliang, who is known as "Rockefeller of Asia", by increasing its holdings several times. Two years later, Central Asia Bank became the largest source of income for the Huang brothers.
This excellent capital operation also made the two brothers secure the position of the richest man in the next few years.
Since the outbreak of the epidemic, Indonesia's economy has been sluggish, but the wealth of the richest Huang brothers has increased by 565,438+billion US dollars in 2022. This is supported by the strong share price of Central Asian banks, and it is also a "sharp weapon" for them to open the wealth gap with other rich people.
Over the past few years, the two brothers have been retired endlessly, focusing on training the third generation of the family to take the stage.
Huizhong Huang's eldest son, Huang Zhisheng, is currently the chairman of the board of directors of Needle Group. Huang Zhi, born in 1970, is a second-generation Indonesian overseas Chinese and a third-generation descendant of Zhen Ji.
He received basic education in Jakarta since he was a child, but because of his love for China culture, he specially asked someone to help him learn Chinese.
Huang Zhisheng
Another son, Martin, is the layout of the Huang family in the Internet field.
GDPVenture, a venture capital company founded by Martin, invested in Blibli, an e-commerce platform called Taobao in Indonesia. Kaskus, Indonesia's largest social networking site with 4.8 million users, was also taken over by him in 20 12.
Three generations of the Huang family who have made a name for themselves in the Internet field are also network celebrities in Indonesia, known as "Jakarta Network Management".
My father is engaged in industry and finance, and my son explores new Internet technologies. The span and coverage of Huang's industry are beyond the reach of other peers.
Bridge and badminton masters
Rich bosses like the Huang brothers should have become "sworn enemies" long ago, but this is not the case.
20 18 Asian Games in Jakarta, an old man wearing a white Polo shirt and taking part in the competition with crutches, together with five other bridge players, won the bronze medal in the super mixed team competition of bridge project.
At first, everyone paid little attention to the game until some media found out that this was Huang Huixiang, the richest man.
This is almost the only public appearance of Huang Huixiang in recent years. If he hadn't been interviewed at the Asian Games, few people even knew his appearance.
Huang Huixiang participated in the bridge competition of the Asian Games.
Low-key seems to grow in the bones of the Huang family.
The Huang brothers live in seclusion on weekdays, rarely appearing in public and rarely being interviewed by reporters. There are all kinds of reports about them. There are many translations of the names of the two brothers' fathers, and their ages and names are often reversed.
In an activity interview, Jakarta Post described the scene when his younger brother Huizhong Huang appeared:
"When he walked into the central bank building, he was alone, without a secretary and assistant, let alone a bodyguard. He doesn't have a Wetu phone with a gold diamond, only an old BlackBerry. His shoes are also local, very simple. "
Many people at the scene said, "I didn't know I was chatting with the richest man in Indonesia."
However, these two brothers, who are extremely low-key in the shopping mall, instantly "glow" as soon as they arrive at the sports ground.
My brother Huang Huixiang has a soft spot for bridge. He has been playing bridge since he was 6 years old, and he has long been an old hand in bridge.
The 20 18 bridge competition can not only train bridge players and open a bridge school, but also enter the Asian Games, which is also strongly promoted by Master Huang.
When Huang Huixiang applied to the Olympic Council of Asia for bridge to enter the Asian Games for the first time, it was opposed by the other side. The head of OCA doesn't know much about bridge, because it uses playing cards and is easily mistaken for gambling. Huang Huixiang advocated that bridge should first appear in the Asian Games in Jakarta.
Huang Huixiang
My brother's favorite sport is bridge, while my brother likes badminton.
In order to promote badminton, Huizhong Huang personally boarded the variety show of Indonesian TV station and taught the host to play badminton.
In addition, he also sponsored the Indonesian Badminton Super League in the name of "Needle Cigarette" and opened a badminton club named after the tobacco company.
In the variety show, Huizhong Huang taught the host to play badminton.
For many years, the two brothers have been keen on public welfare undertakings. The "Huang Weiyuan Family Charity Fund", established in the name of their father, has sponsored nearly 10,000 poor Indonesian students from China, and has continued to donate money to Indonesian earthquake victims and public welfare undertakings such as education, culture, sports and environmental protection.
At the same time, the Huang brothers have always missed their ancestral home and sponsored Fujian Quanzhou Puppet Troupe to perform in Indonesia many times, which was well received by the local people and made great contributions to the economic and cultural exchanges and friendly exchanges between China and India.
Families without dog blood compete for production and have never experienced the curse of "being rich for three generations". Bridge and badminton masters who smoke lilacs have become the "brothers" who support this super-rich family.
Chief producer: Lv Hong
Producer: Zhang Jiankui
Editor: Xu
Editor: Su Rui