Indonesia’s Prajogo Pangestu Gets Full Control Of Star Energy, Buying Thailand’s BCPG 33% Stake For $440 Million

Green Era, a private Singapore-based company controlled by Indonesian billionaire Prajogo Pangestu, has bought 33.33% of Star Energy from Thailand’s BCPG for $440 million, giving him full ownership of three geothermal projects in Indonesia.

Star Energy’s projects have a total gross capacity of 875 MW. Prajogo Pangestu already owned 66.6% of Jakarta-headquartered Star Energy through Barito Pacific, Indonesia’s largest integrated petrochemical producer.

The acquisition is the first by Green Era, which says it will launch a Southeast Asian renewables asset portfolio, “This acquisition is a major milestone to effectively launch Green Era’s exciting growth and investment plans,” Nancy Pangestu, Green Era managing director, said in a statement.

Star Energy’s three projects—Wayang Windu Geothermal power plant, Salak Geothermal power plant, and Darajat Geothermal power plant—are all in West Java province. In 2019, the company said it aimed to invest $2.5 billion to increase its capacity to 1,200 MW in 2028.

According to Indonesia’s National Energy Council in February, Southeast Asia’s largest economy has a geothermal potential of up to 23.7 GW or 40% of the world’s capacity. However, currently, Indonesia has only utilized 4.5% of its potential.

Research published by EY in April 2021 said there were up to 800 clean energy projects in the pipeline in eight Asian economies—Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. EY estimated the total investment cost for all the projects at $316 billion.

On the 2021 list of Indonesia’s 50 Richest, Prajogo Pangestu was ranked No. 5, with a net worth of $6.1 billion.