Salim family
Sudono Salim (born Liem Sioe Liong in Fujian, China) migrated to Kudus, Central Java, in the 1930s and built a general trading business in cloves, cement, flour, and textiles. His breakthrough came with PT Bogasari Flour Mills in 1970, followed by the formal Salim Group and PT Indofood Sukses Makmur in 1972, which later launched the Indomie instant-noodle brand.
How the fortune was built
Through the 1970s–1990s Salim built Indonesia's largest conglomerate, spanning flour milling, cement, banking (a former controlling stake in Bank Central Asia, lost after the 1998 Asian financial crisis), and food processing. He established First Pacific in Hong Kong as the group's international investment holding company, an offshore diversification vehicle beyond Suharto-era Indonesia. In 1992 he handed operational control to youngest son Anthoni Salim, who rebuilt the group's international assets after the crisis.
Where the family invests today
Anthoni Salim controls roughly 42% of First Pacific, through which the family manages Indofood (the world's largest instant-noodle maker), Philippine telecom PLDT, Philippine infrastructure vehicle Metro Pacific Investments, and Australasian food company Goodman Fielder. Recent activity includes Metro Pacific-backed Maynilad Water Services' planned IPO of up to $858 million, and PLDT's data-center unit Vitro, positioned as the first data-center REIT to list in the Philippines.
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