Rich Malaysians get richer!

Kuok and Ananda continue to be cream of Malaysia’s wealthiest

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KUALA LUMPUR: The 40 wealthiest Malaysians are worth US$62.1bil (RM188.32bil), up by US$11.1bil (RM33.7bil) compared with last year, according to the latest rich list published by Forbes Asia.
In a statement yesterday, Forbes Asia said the combined wealth was almost 22% more than the list in 2010.

“The better coffers come on the back of the country’s healthy economy which grew 7.2% last year, the highest rate since 2000,” it said.

The first two spots were still occupied by Tan Sri Robert Kuok Hock Nien and Tan Sri T. Ananda Krishnan, respectively.

Kuok, 87, has held pole position since 2006 when Forbes Asia began ranking the 40 richest Malaysians.
He was worth US$12.5bil (RM38bil), up by half a billion from last year.

His biggest source of wealth was his stake in Wilmar International, the world’s largest listed palm oil company.

Ananda, 72, was at No 2 with US$9.5bil (RM28.83bil), up from US$8.1bil (RM24.6bil) last year.
His Maxis Communications Bhd is Malaysia’s biggest cellphone service provider.

At No 3 is this year’s biggest gainer in dollar terms, Puan Sri Lee Kim Hua. The 81-year-old, widow of casino magnate Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong, was one of three women on the list this year.

Her Genting shares took off when the company’s Singapore operations on Sentosa Island opened, boosting the family’s net worth by US$2.7bil (RM8.2bil) to US$6.6bil (RM20.03bil) from a year ago.

Tan Sri Lee Shin Cheng, who built IOI Group into one of the world’s biggest palm oil producers, fell down a spot at No 4 with a net worth of $5bil (RM15.2bil), up by US$400mil (RM1.21bil) from last year.

AirAsia Bhd’s Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes, budget airline pioneer and Forbes Asia’s 2010 Businessman of the Year, was ranked No 20 this year, down one spot from last year despite his wealth increasing to US$470mil (RM1.43bil) from US$330mil (RM1bil) last year.

The only newcomer this year was Chia Song Kun at No 24 with US$400mil (RM1.21bil).  The share price of his QL Resources Bhd, the seafood, egg production and palm oil company, has doubled since last year.

Datuk Tony Tiah Thee Kian at No 35 was the only returnee to the list after a year’s absence as stocks in his TA Enterprise Bhd have recovered. He was worth US$170mil (RM516mil).

Not all did well, however, as there were three this year who saw their wealth reduced, led by Tan Sri Vincent Tan at No 9.

The self-made entrepreneur, who runs Berjaya Group, saw his wealth decline to US$1.25bil (RM3.8bil) from US$1.6bil (RM4.9bil) last year.

Timber tycoon Tan Sri Tiong Hiew King was the only person who did not see any changes to his wealth. He was still worth US$1.2bil (RM3.64bil) and ranked No 10.

The rich get richer 

Five more billionaires

This year’s list contains 27 billionaires, five more than the previous list. As for newcomers, there are three, with two making their debut.

While last year, a tycoon on the Main Market had to have at least RM386 million to make the rich list, this year the figure has shot up to RM524 million. Comparatively, the richest tycoon on the ACE Market is valued at RM103 million.

Interestingly, the bulk of the fortune of this year’s list lies in the Top 10, whose collective wealth of RM168.01 billion alone surpasses that of the whole of last year’s list totaling RM156.7 billion! Six out of these 10 registered increases of close to 50% and more in their wealth.

Thus it would appear that these individuals were able to return stronger in 2011 through the increase in the share prices of their companies. Even so, people close to these tycoons will attest that the road to riches is hardly a smooth one, needing guts, an astute business sense, and smart corporate maneuvering to win the confidence of investors.

Singapore-domiciled Ong Beng Seng makes his entry to the Top 10 ranks thanks to the surging valuation of his British-listed Mulberry Group Plc. His wealth doubled to RM3.98 billion from a year ago, taking him past Berjaya Group’s Tan Sri Vincent Tan who drops two rungs to 12.

Telecommunications tycoon closes in

T Ananda Krishnan, who for most years had to play second fiddle to first-placed Robert Kuok, closes the gap considerably this year. With a fortune estimated at RM45.78 billion, the telecommunications magnate is now only some RM5 billion away from Kuok’s RM50.04 billion.

The upturn in Ananda’s fortune comes following his move last year to take private three of his companies – incidentally at prices substantially more than what they were trading at in January 2010. This buyout hat trick involving Tanjong Plc, Astro All Asia Networks Plc and Meast Global Bhd had shocked the market, fuelling speculation that the tycoon was looking to exit the local scene.

However, this was not the case. Going by his track record, these companies will likely be relisted some day in the future and come back stronger, as in the case of his Maxis Bhd.

Last year, Ananda also sold his interest in Singapore-listed Overseas Union Enterprise (OUE) to Indonesian conglomerate Lippo Group.

In the case of Kuok, he could be worth more if not for China’s aggressive policy measures to cool its overheating economy, which weighed down on the billionaire’s Chinese property investment values, spearheaded through companies like Kerry Properties Ltd and Shangri-La Asia Ltd.

That aside, last year was a memorable one for the Hong Kong-based tycoon who made a quick and dramatic return to the sugar business via Singapore-listed Wilmar International Ltd’s takeover of Australian-based CSR Ltd’s sugar unit, Sucrogen.

As for banker Tan Sri Teh Hong Piow of Public Bank Bhd, a close to 20% rise in his personal value sees him displacing IOI Corporation Bhd’s Tan Sri Lee Sing Cheng from his third-placed perch.

Standing firm in their places

There were no changes in the fifth to ninth rankings. Genting Bhd’s Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay’s wealth growth may appear paltry this year but this was because of the assumption we made previously that he was the major beneficiary of the two family trust funds he created after the demise of his father and Genting founder, Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong.

Recent annual reports now reveal that he owns only one-third of one of the trusts, Parkview Management Sdn Bhd, which wholly owns Kien Huat Realty Sdn Bhd, which in turns owns 39.52% of Genting.

But even with the less than 5% rise at RM10.89 billion, Lim still retains his fifth spot.

His mum, Puan Sri Lee Kim Hua, is richer by 69% and, at RM7.42 billion, is the country’s wealthiest woman.

Hong Leong Group’s Tan Sri Quek Leng Chan and MMC Corporation Bhd’s Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Albukhary saw almost a 50% growth in their financial worth in tandem with increases in their stockholding values. Quek is estimated to be worth RM10.75 billion while Syed Mokhtar is valued at RM8.84 billion.

Tan Sri Tiong Hiew King, who derives the bulk of his wealth from his vast timber assets, remains at number nine and is estimated to be worth 40% more following improved timber prices. The Rimbunan Hijau Group founder is worth RM4.77 billion.

Enjoying substantial gains

Back to the overall list, other tycoons who registered substantial gains in their wealth are Tan Sri Lau Cho Kun of Hap Seng Consolidated Bhd and AirAsia Bhd duo Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes and Datuk Kamarudin Meranun.

Sabah-based Lau’s wealth soared more than 200% on the back of richer valuations of his Hap Seng to propel him to number 18 from 31 previously. He is valued at RM1.77 billion, making him one of the five new billionaires on the list.

AirAsia’s chief executive officer Fernandes also strengthens his position, gaining him entry into the billionaires’ club with a fortune of RM1.043 billion, up 80% from previously. His business partner Kamarudin is valued at RM856.02 million, which moves him up nine rungs.

The bullish market sentiment over the past year also sees the five sons of Tan Sri Yeoh Tiong Lay joining the billionaires’ league. Together with the senior Yeoh, the family is worth a cool RM6.7 billion.

Declining wealth

This year we have five tycoons recording a decline in their financial worth as opposed to 2010, when everyone had registered an increase.

Berjaya Group’s Vincent Tan, whose wealth is down by some 30%, registered the biggest drop that saw him exiting the Top 10. Other tycoons with declining wealth numbers were Top Glove Corporation Bhd’s Tan Sri Dr Lim Wee-Chai, Samling Group’s Datuk Yaw Teck Seng, KNM Group’s Lee Swee Eng and TA Enterprise Bhd’s Datuk Tony Tiah.

Two tycoons were forced off the list – Tan Sri Kua Sia Kooi of Kurnia Asia Bhd and Tan Sri Rozali Ismail of Puncak Niaga Holdings Bhd. Kua’s wealth halved to RM291 million following the decline in the market capitalization of his flagship. Rozali saw his wealth drop about 20% to RM395.66 million as the impasse in the consolidation of water assets took a toll on the company’s share valuations.

Despite his wealth growing by more than 25%, CIMB Group’s chief executive, Datuk Seri Nazir Razak, does not make the cut this time around as other newcomers propelled in at a higher worth. As at Jan 21, his 0.78% stake in the banking giant is valued at RM483.52 million as opposed to RM386 million previously, and this puts him just past our cut-off point at number 41.

Welcome, the new and not so new

Of the newcomers to the list, Tan Sri Leong Hoy Kum earns his wealth from property via his flagship Mah Sing Group Bhd, while Datuk Seri Stanley Thai rides on the glove-making company he founded, Supermax Corporation Bhd.

Leong enters at 35th spot with a wealth level of RM618.40 million and Stanley Thai at 39 with a fortune estimated at RM538.73 million.

The third newcomer, Datuk Tan Heng Chew of Tan Chong Motors Holdings Bhd, is not entirely a new face, as he makes a comeback after an absence of two years. At 38th spot, he is valued at RM556.82 million.

Freedom of speech cuts both ways, RPK

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PETALING JAYA: Fugitive blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin has hit out at the Opposition for condemning those who criticise them as traitors.

He said criticism in the name of freedom of speech should work both ways, and not just targeted at the Government. He said many within the Opposition did not seem to understand this.

“To them, freedom of speech or to express their opinions merely means freedom to criticise the Government,” Raja Petra wrote in his latest blog posting “The Opposition’s Understanding of Freedom of Speech”.





He said those who disagreed with the Opposition were accused of “treachery” or being “a traitor to the cause”.

Elaborating, the blogger popularly known as RPK said those who expressed unfavourable opinions about the Opposition were regarded as a “trojan horse”, Government agent or somebody who was paid to sabotage them.

“The Opposition supporters have to grow up. They have to be mature and understand that freedom cuts both ways,” he said.

He questioned the Opposition’s thinking that any criticism directed at them was based on ulterior motives and not freedom of speech.

“This is a very primitive and immature thinking of many within the Opposition – some leaders included.
“You cannot ask for freedom to criticise the Government but do not wish anyone to criticise you. This is not what freedom of speech is all about,” he said.

Raja Petra said he had criticised not just the Government but the Opposition, too. “Because of that, I’m seen as a traitor and not a friend of the Opposition.”

China Unicom to take on Apple, Google with OS

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China Unicom, one of China's three largest wireless operators, plans to introduce its own mobile operating system to compete head-to-head with Apple's iPhone and Google's Android OS in China.

The Wall Street Journal reported today that the wireless operator, which is building a third-generation wireless network that competes with China Mobile and China Telecom, is developing a new mobile OS brand known as "WoPhone."

The new operating system is based on Linux, and it's geared toward mobile handsets and tablets. Companies that plan to build devices using the new OS include China's ZTE, Huawei Technologies, and TCL. South Korea's Samsung Electronics, U.S.-based Motorola, and Taiwan's HTC are also building devices using the new OS, China Unicom's parent company, China United Network Communications Group, said in a statement today.

The company said in its statement that it hopes the new software will help the company develop 3G wireless devices more rapidly, thus getting them into the market more quickly. This is important because the Chinese 3G wireless market is just heating up with the major carriers battling for new 3G subscribers.

China Unicom has a long way to go in terms of winning new customers and trails behind larger players, such as China Mobile. As of January, China Unicom had 169.7 million mobile subscribers, including 15.5 million 3G customers. Meanwhile China Mobile had 589.3 million subscribers, including 22.6 million 3G customers.
Late last year, China Unicom launched WoStore, a mobile-application storefront that it said would support "all open smartphone platforms."

Apple's iOS and Google's Android operating systems are starting to gain market share in China. But they are not as prevalent as they are in other markets, such as the U.S. or Europe.

In China, Nokia's Symbian platform still garners the greatest market share in the smartphone market with 60.1 percent of all smartphones, according to Analysys International, a Beijing-based market research firm. Windows Mobile has the second highest market share with 13.1 percent. Google Android is third with 10.7 percent of the market. And Apple's iOS has about 5.4 percent.

Other wireless operators in China have also said they'd build their own operating systems for wireless devices. China Mobile launched its Android-based OS called "Ophone" in 2009, but the platform hasn't been a hit with customers.

A China Unicom spokesman told The Wall Street Journal that the China Unicom WoPhone platform will not be based on Android. But he declined to comment on whether that is because of Google's dispute with China's government last year. Google moved its search servers to Hong Kong from mainland China because it was worried about hacking and censorship.

by Marguerite Reardon

Full Profile E-mail Marguerite Reardon

Marguerite Reardon has been a CNET News reporter since 2004, covering cell phone services, broadband, citywide Wi-Fi, the Net neutrality debate, as well as the ongoing consolidation of the phone companies.

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Will Libya be going the way of Iraq or Afghanistan?

Midweek By BUNN NAGARA

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THE situation in Libya is fast deteriorating, but not as much as the diplomatic environment abroad concerning Libya.

Over the weekend the UN Security Council (UNSC) slapped an arms embargo on the country. The US itself imposed sanctions on Libya as soon as the last American nationals left last Friday.

US officials have since pressured its allies to act similarly. Germany has suspended oil payments for 60 days to stem the funding of Tripoli’s anti-revolt actions.

The US also blocked the international flow of US$30bil (RM91.3bil) in assets belonging to oil-rich Libya. It is the largest amount ever blocked by the US, and among the swiftest actions of its kind.

The US and British governments have also prepared their military forces for action. This week warships and fighter aircraft from the US Sixth Fleet began moving closer to Libya, supported by Australia.

However, Canada, France, Germany and Russia are less keen on another invasion of yet another oil-rich Third World nation. If this looks familiar, it is something of a replay of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in early 2003.

All vested interests aside, there are some facts and realities that are irrefutable and certain issues that cannot be ignored.

Among the facts is that Libya has seen the worst violence out of all the troubled states in North Africa and West Asia. This has involved virtually every political sector: government, military, opposition groups and the general public.

A fact that follows is that Libya is now embroiled in civil war, despite the denials of Col. Muammar Gaddafi and his aides. After defections in the military, civil service and government departments, elements of a civil war were confirmed with the attacks by Gaddafi forces on rebel troop outposts.

However, the fighting consists largely of sporadic exchanges of gunfire apart from a few aerial attacks on munitions dumps by government forces. Fighter jets for example have hit military stores in Ajdabiya in the east and Rajma to the south.

Gaddafi has denied such reports, while Western sources tend to overplay them. Undeclared interests on each side are in evidence yet again.

Another fact is that Libya’s oil production has been cut by half, which amounts to just 1% of world output. A feared oil crisis resulting from Libya’s troubles has not happened and may never occur.

Pressure on Gaddaffi to expedite his own exit is being applied mostly by the US and Britain. The US-UK axis has much to gain from a Western-friendly post-Gaddafi Libya, along with their ally Israel.

Among the realities is that neither Gaddafi nor his Western opponents possess the moral high ground. The Libyan people opposing Gaddafi know too well what happened in Iraq, and hope Libya will avoid a similar fate.

Add to this the reality that the spiralling violence cannot possibly end in the favour of “M. Gaddafi and Sons,” militarily, politically or diplomatically. There can no longer be “business as usual” whatever happens in the following days and weeks.

The situation continues to worsen in heading for the inevitable showdown. Yet however serious the consequences, they are an internal matter for the country requiring domestic political solutions.

Another reality is that parts of the country continue to ebb and flow between the government and its opponents. There is no clear distinction in territorial control, adding to an already murky situation.

A basic reality that the government needs to accept is that the official institutions of state are broken. They can no longer sustain, much less protect, Gaddafi’s hold on power.

Among the issues is that there is still no basis for anyone to claim global oil shortages or to act accordingly by raising prices. With countries like Saudi Arabia pledging to raise production to offset any shortfalls, self-seeking claims of a global crisis are premature if not spurious.

Politically, there is no clear successor to Gaddafi once he quits the scene. The situation is not unlike Egypt’s, where a shapeless revolution is aimed primarily at removing an incumbent rather than installing a successor.

In the interim confusion, Gaddafi has played the al-Qaeda card and indicated that allowing his government to fall could permit the influx of Islamist extremists. His authoritarian regime brooked little opposition, but his formula of an “Islamic socialism” also kept out militants.

As Western intervention looms, the question is whether a new Libya will be like Iraq, busy with mayhem and militants, or like Afghanistan, where an ineffectual government oversees little other than the prospect of more mayhem and militants.

'Chindia' rule the world in 2050?

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Will 'Chindia' rule the world in 2050, or America after all?

Economies of China & India will be 4 times as large as the US

With a small tweak in assumptions and the inexorable force of compound arithmetic, Citigroup and HSBC have come up with radically different pictures of what the world will look like in 2050.

US President Barack Obama meets China's President Hu Jintao in London in 2009. Photo: REUTERS

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor 10:05AM GMT 28 Feb 2011

Which of the two is closer to the mark will determine whether the West hangs on, or disappears as a relevant voice in global affairs.

For neo-Spenglerites - who believe the West is finished - Citigroup’s Willem Buiter offers some astonishing projections. The Muslim powerhouse of Indonesia will alone match the combined GDP of Germany, France, Italy, and Britain by mid-century.

The economies of China and India will together be four times as large as the United States, restoring the historic order of Asian dominance before Europe’s navies burst on the scene in the 16th Century. Panta Rei, says Dr Buiter: all is in flux; nothing will remain the same.

Africa will at last emerge from its long string of disappointments to take the baton as the fastest growing region, clocking 7.5pc a year over the next two decades.

It does not require miracles of performance for this to occur. Catch-up countries merely need to keep reforms on track, open markets, “don’t be unlucky, and don’t blow it”, and let convergence theory do the work for them.

Having rid themselves of calamitous nonsense – Maoism, the Hindu model, and other variants of central planning or autarky – and having at last achieved a “threshold level” of law and governance, nothing should stop them, or so goes the argument.

“Sustained growth prospects in per capita incomes across the world have not been as favourable as they are today for a long time, possibly in human history.” Global growth will quicken. GDP will quadruple again from $73 trillion to $378 trillion by 2050 (constant US dollars).

Dr Buiter’s team adds the usual caveats: “beware of compound growth rate delusions;” or “the bigger the booms, the more spectacular the bubbles, and the devastating the busts;” or indeed that “convergence is neither automatic, nor inevitable. In history, it has been more the exception than the rule.”

Argentina is a salutary lesson. Why did it diverge from its sister economy Australia, so similar in trading patterns in the late 19th Century? Why did it fall from the world’s fifth richest in per capita terms in 1900 to a third of Australia’s level a century later?

It is hard to pin-point where the rot began, though Peron clinched decline by bleeding farm wealth to fund his populist patronage, and by forcing the central bank to print the shortfall. Bad policies hurt.

Oddly, Britain will scrape through in Citigroup’s global reshuffle, just holding on as the world’s 10th biggest economy in 2050, the only EU state left in the top ten. It will even overtake the US in per capita terms.

Can this be so? Britain has slipped to 25th in reading, 28th in maths, and 16th in science in the Pisa rankings. Shanghai’s school district takes top prize across all three, ahead of Korea and Finland. While the UK faces a less disastrous ageing crisis than much of Europe, this is thanks to our unrivalled leadership in unwed teenage pregnancies.

HSBC’s report also sketches an era of unparalleled prosperity, yet the West does not sink into oblivion. China overtakes the US, but only just, and then loses momentum.

Chimerica, not Chindia, form the G2, towering over all others in global condominium. Americans prosper with a fertility rate of 2.1, high enough to shield them from the sort of demographic collapse closing in on Asia and Europe. Beijing and Shanghai are 1.0, Korea is 1.1, Singapore 1.2, Germany 1.3, Poland 1.3, Italy 1.4 and Russia 1.4.

Americans remain three times richer than the Chinese in 2050. The US economy still outstrips India by two-and-a-half times. This is an entirely different geo-strategic outcome.

My own view is closer to HSBC, perhaps because my anthropological side gives greater weight to the enduring hold of cultural habits, beliefs, and kinship structures, and because of an unwillingness to accept that top-down regimes make good decisions in the end.

Both studies rely on the theories of Harvard economist Robert Barro, but differ on how easy it is to handle population collapse. The great unknown is what rapid ageing does to creative zest, and how many decades it takes to turn the demographic super tanker.

China’s workforce peaks in absolute terms in four years. While the population keeps growing until the tipping point in the mid 2020s, it is ageing very fast. Hence warnings by Chinese demographers that there may soon be an epidemic of suicides, as the elderly step out on the ice to relieve the burden.

Zhuoyan Mao from Beijing’s Institute for Family Planning said China’s fertility rate had been below replacement level for almost twenty years. “Population momentum” turned negative over a decade ago in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Liaoning, but the countryside is catching up. “The decline speed in rural areas is faster,” he says.

It is bizarre that China should still cling to the one-child policy, though Shanghai’s local authorities have been encouraging couples to have a second child since 2009. The policy is losing its relevance at this stage, though gender picking (female infanticide, at the ultrasound stage) has left the legacy of a male/female ratio of 1.2 to 1, with all that implies for social stability.

China’s fertility rate is collapsing anyway for the same reasons as it has collapsed in Japan and Korea – affluence, women’s education, later pregnancies that stretch generations, in-law duties, and costly housing. You cannot reverse this with a wave of the wand. The lag times can be half a century.

George Magnus, UBS’s global guru, writes in his book “Uprising” that China faces a “triple whammy of ageing”. The number of children under 14 will fall by 53m by 2050; the work force will contract by 100m; and the over-60s will rise by 234m, from 12pc to 31pc of the total.

Mr Magnus is scathing about the “muddled thinking” of those who fall for BRICs hysteria, or who succumb to the facile conclusion that the global credit crisis finished the West and served as catalyst for a permanent hand-over to Asia.

The crisis also exposed the fragility of Asian mercantilism, even if this has been disguised for now by a stimulus blitz in China that has pushed credit to 200pc of GDP.

I might add that China is depleting the non-renewable aquifers of its northern plains at an alarming place, and faces a separate water crisis from receding Himalayan glaciers.

Cheng Siwei, the head of China’s green energy drive, told me a few months ago that eco-damage of 13.5pc of GDP each year outstrips China’s growth rate of 10pc. "We have an intangible environmental debt that we are leaving to our children," he said. That debt is already due.

Perhaps the 21st Century will be America’s after all, just like the last.

Related Articles

• Growing out of control? China by numbers  08 Feb 2011

• Oil 'could hit $220 a barrel' 23 Feb 2011

• Obama tests bond markets with mega-deficits 14 Feb 2011

• China lowers growth targets 27 Feb 2011

• IMF fears civil wars as inequalities worsen 01 Feb 2011

• Egypt and Tunisia usher in the new era of global food revolutions 30 Jan 2011

US stays the top Investor in Penang

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GEORGE TOWN, Feb 28 (Bernama) -- The United States (US) remains the top investor for Penang with RM7.9 billion in investments last year.

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said Penang had recorded Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) totalling RM10.5 billion in 2010.

"We are proud of the American presence here as 75 per cent of the state's FDI is from the United States," he told reporters after the courtesy call on him by the United States Ambassador to Malaysia, Paul W. Jones, at his office at the Kompleks Tun Abdul Razak (KOMTAR) on Monday.

He said among the top two foreign investment companies from the US in Penang are leading data storage maker, Western Digital Corp and electronic solutions firm, Jabil.

"Penang had the highest total capital investments in manufacturing projects in Malaysia last year at RM12.2 billion with Western Digital Corp contributing about RM4.3 billion while Jabil had RM2.3 billion," he added.

He added that from the early 80s until 2010, the state had attracted about RM26.4 billion in US investments.

Based on figures from the Malaysian Industrial Development Authority (MIDA), Penang's RM12.2 billion in total capital investments in 2010 was a 465 per cent increase from 2009.

Jones said he is proud of the partnership between Penang and the US.

"We are proud that American businessman are still continuing to invest in Penang significantly and also in terms of health and education," he added.

Last year, Malaysia's electronic and electrical sector attracted the highest US investments of RM10.2 billion, followed by the machinery and equipment sector at RM496 million while that for scientific and measuring equipment attracted RM61.7 million.

-- BERNAMA