Robert Kuok Hock Nien

Robert Kuok as the richest man in Malaysia and Southeast Asia. No doubt , he is a great success Malaysian entrepreneur and i going to share about his great mighty achievements in his business.

Within the business industry, Kuok is known for his infamously media-shy reputation and for keeping his family and personal life as low-key as possible. Robert Kuok Hock Nien Born on 6 October 1923 in Johor Bahru , his first taste of the business career was a job as an office boy. After graduation from the prestigious Raffles Institution in Singapore,, he joined the grains department of major Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi in the early 1940s. In 1949, Kuok and his brothers established their own company, Kuok Brothers Sdn Bhd which dealt in agriculture and sugar commodities. He displayed his trademark shrewdness by purchasing cheap sugar from India before prices increased dramatically, and then continued to invest in sugar refineries. Before long, he controlled 80% of Malaysia’s sugar industry with 1.5 million tonnes’ worth of sugar production. This led to him being dubbed the ‘Sugar King of Asia’.

The name Robert Kuok is well-known throughout the global commerce industry as an influential and enduring business powerhouse. Kuok made his money in sugar, palm oil, shipping and property. Kuok Group boasts of a huge network of companies under three main holding companies in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. He also controls South China Morning Post, once the world’s most profitable daily newspaper. His biggest source of wealth is his stake in Wilmar, the world’s largest listed palm oil company. According to Forbes magazine in March 2011, Kuok’s assets are worth an incredible $14.7 million as of early 2012, thus cementing his place as the richest man in Malaysia and Southeast Asia (a title he has maintained since 2002). A more recent analysis carried out by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index at the end of 2012 approximated Kuok’s net worth to be around $17.3 billion – enough to rank him as the 40th wealthiest person in the entire world.

Kuok’s profits are accumulated from a broad range of business interests including sugar refineries, sugarcane plantations, hotel chains, properties, animal feed, oil mining, publishing and freight. To date, his most major source of wealth comes from his stake in the world’s largest listed agribusiness organisation, Wilmar International Limited. Most of his businesses are privately managed by him or by close family members. Besides a variety of business dealings in his native country of Malaysia, his companies hold investments in other countries throughout the Asian region such as the Philippines, Singapore, Fiji, Australia, Indonesia and Mainland China.

In 1971, Kuok built the first hotel in the Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts Chain in Singapore. Today, he remains its chairman. Kuok’s legacy in the industry extends far beyond his extraordinary business smarts; he also holds a degree of influence in the political scene. He played a significant role as an intermediary in organising meetings between the Malaysian and Chinese governments to create complete diplomatic cross recognition between both countries. At the age of 89, Kuok’s business are still going strong with the help of his children, and his name automatically comes up on any list of Asia’s top influential business people.

Chronology

§  1923, October 6: Robert Kuok Hock Nien was born in Johor Bahru, Johor, the youngest of 3 brothers.

§  Unknown: Robert Kuok studied at Raffles Institution Singapore.

§  1942-1945 (age 18-21): Upon graduation, Robert Kuok worked in the grains department of Mitsubishi, a Japanese industrial conglomerate Mitsubishi.

§  1948 (age 24): Robert Kuok's father died.

§  1949 (age 25): Robert Kuok and his 2 brothers founded Kuok Brothers Sdn Bhd, trading in agricultural commodities. Under the new post-colonial government, Kuok started in the sugar business alongside the government.

§  1961 (age 37): Robert Kuok made a coup by buying cheap sugar from India before the prices shot up. He continued to invest heavily in sugar refineries, controlled 80% of the Malaysian sugar market with production of 1.5 million tonnes, equivalent to 10% of world production, and so earned his nickname "Sugar King of Asia".

§  1971 (age 47): Robert Kuok built his first Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore.

§  1977 (age 53): Robert Kuok made his first foray into Hong Kong property, when he acquired a plot of land on the newly reclaimed Tsim Sha Tsui East waterfront. Here, he built his 2nd hotel, the Kowloon Shangri-La.

§  1985, November 22: Robert Kuok won the Golden Pyramid award that made him the Malaysian Entrepreneur for 1985. His son, Khoon Ean, received the award from Acting Prime Minister Datuk Musa Hitam on behalf of his father.

§  1993 (age 69):

§  Robert Kuok's Kerry Group acquired a 34.9% stake in the South China Morning Post from Murdoch's News Corporation.

§  April 1: Robert Kuok officially retired from the Kerry Group and currently resides in Hong Kong.

§  2009, October 31 (age 86): Robert Kuok's PBB Group issued a statement Bursa Malaysia that it has decided to dispose of its sugar units, along with land used to cultivate sugarcane, to Felda for RM1.29 billion.

§  2010 (age 87): Robert Kuok delisted Allgreen Properties Singapore, and Jerneh Asia in Malaysia by buying back all shares.

§  2011 (age 88): Forbes valued Robert Kuok's personal wealth at US$12.4 billion, ranking him at No. 1 on the Forbes list of Malaysia's Richest.