 "How did Indonesia’s richest woman lose $3.6 billion in just three days?")
For three weeks, Marina Budiman, Indonesia’s wealthiest woman and president commissioner of data centre company DCI Indonesia, saw her fortune soar by approximately $350 million daily, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
By mid-March 2025, her net worth had peaked at $7.5 billion, fuelled by an extraordinary stock rally that repeatedly hit the upper trading limit.
However, in a dramatic turn of events, the value of DCI Indonesia’s shares plummeted, wiping out half of Budiman’s fortune in just three days.
Between March 16 and March 19, she lost $3.6 billion, bringing her net worth down to $3.9 billion. The collapse also affected DCI’s co-founders and major shareholders, Otto Toto Sugiri and Han Arming Hanafia, with their combined wealth shrinking significantly.
Before the crash, Budiman had briefly become a symbol of Indonesia’s thriving tech sector, as DCI Indonesia was positioned as a leader in the growing data centre industry. However, the extreme volatility of the country’s stock market proved to be a key factor in the sudden reversal of her fortune.
What caused the crash?
Indonesia’s stock market is known for extreme fluctuations, and DCI Indonesia’s case was no exception. The company’s valuation had surged to unsustainable levels, trading at 416 times earnings, despite reporting just $112 million in revenue and $49 million in profit the previous year.
As the stock’s speculative rise outpaced financial fundamentals, it became highly vulnerable to a downturn.
One major factor contributing to DCI’s instability is its concentrated ownership. Budiman, Sugiri, Hanafia, and billionaire tycoon Anthoni Salim collectively hold 78 per cent of the company’s shares, leaving little room for public trading.
This limited free float made the stock highly susceptible to sharp price swings. “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,” Mohit Mirpuri, a fund manager at SGMC Capital Pte in Singapore, told Bloomberg.
The stock’s wild ride is not an isolated case in Indonesia’s stock market. In recent years, several companies have seen their share prices skyrocket by 1,000 per cent or more, only to come crashing down later.
The lack of liquidity in many of these stocks has exacerbated price volatility, making sudden wealth accumulation — and losses — a frequent occurrence among Indonesia’s elite investors.
What about external factors?
The crash wasn’t just about DCI’s stock; broader economic and political factors played a significant role.
Indonesia’s fiscal outlook has faced uncertainty, partly due to President Prabowo Subianto’s economic policies since taking office in October 2024. His administration’s focus on ambitious infrastructure spending has raised concerns about fiscal sustainability, unsettling investors.
Market analysts have attributed Indonesia’s recent stock market decline to several factors, including concerns about forced liquidations and uncertainties surrounding the finance ministry’s leadership.
“The selloff has been a bolt from the blue in many ways—the suddenness has caught the market by surprise,” Fortune quoted Nirgunan Tiruchelvam, an analyst at Aletheia Capital in Singapore.
On a global scale, external pressures such as US tariff policies and escalating trade tensions further contributed to market instability. The broader selloff led to Indonesia’s worst stock market crash in a decade, triggering a rare 30-minute trading suspension as panic set in.
What does Indonesia’s stock market history tell us?
Indonesia’s stock market has seen multiple instances of sudden booms followed by sharp declines. The case of DCI Indonesia is a stark example of this cycle, where investors initially piled in, believing in the promise of a rapidly growing digital economy.
Data centres are a crucial part of Indonesia’s digital infrastructure and the industry has attracted increasing foreign investment.
Companies like Oracle Corp. are reportedly in talks with the Indonesian government to establish a cloud services centre, further fuelling expectations of growth in the sector, reported Bloomberg.
Before the recent downturn, DCI Indonesia had benefited from these trends, attracting investors who anticipated long-term gains from Indonesia’s digital transformation. However, as stock prices became disconnected from financial realities, the risk of a correction loomed large.
The rapid rise and fall of DCI’s stock is not unique. Over the years, Indonesia’s stock market has produced several such episodes, where investors, drawn by the promise of high returns, push valuations to extreme levels before a sharp reversal.
While this dynamic presents opportunities for high-stakes gains, it also highlights the risks of investing in stocks with limited free float and highly concentrated ownership.
What next for DCI Indonesia?
Despite the recent downturn, DCI Indonesia remains a dominant player in Southeast Asia’s data centre sector, with plans for further expansion.
The company’s appeal to investors stems from the increasing demand for cloud infrastructure, and discussions with tech giants like Oracle Corp. for potential collaborations have fuelled optimism.
Budiman, who co-founded DCI in 2011 with Sugiri and Hanafia, has a long history in Indonesia’s tech industry.
She previously worked at Bank Bali in 1985 and later joined IT firm Sigma Cipta Caraka in 1989. In 1994, she co-founded Indonet, Indonesia’s first internet service provider, which she and her fellow co-founders sold in 2023.
Investors are now watching closely to see how the government handles market volatility and whether regulatory measures will be introduced to mitigate such dramatic price swings in the future.
For investors, it serves as a cautionary tale: in fast-growing economies, fortunes can rise rapidly — but they can disappear just as quickly.
With inputs from agencies
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