Lifestyle
Who Are The Five New Names On Forbes' Richest Malaysians 2020 List? We Find Out!
Forbes recently released its '2020 Forbes Malaysia Rich List' and sadly for some of the country's richest, their wealth has decreased.
The were a few whose wealth increased too, but that was not the case across the board.
Local business icon Robert Kuok is tops again for the 20th year running (!!), with a net worth of USD11.5 billion (RM48 billion).
(Here are five things you might not know about him)
Hong Leong Group's Quek Leng Chan is second on the list with a net worth of USD9.7 billion (RM40.5 billion) while Maxis' Ananda Krishnan came in third with a net worth of USD5.9 billion (RM24.7 billion)
What interested us the most about the list, however, were the five new names added to the list of 50 richest people in the country because we're 'kepoh' like that.
So, let's see who they are and where their money comes from:
1) Datuk Lee Yeow Chor and Datuk Lee Yeow Seng
Position on the list: 6
Sons of IOI Corporation Berhad's founder ad former chairman, the brothers inherited their father's wealth upon his death and landed 6th on the list of the country's richest with a shared wealth of RM20 billion.
According to IOI's website, Yeow Chor, 53. is the Non-Independent Non-Executive Director at the company, as well as the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive.
He is a barrister from Gray’s Inn, London and worked at Attorney General’s Chambers and the Malaysian Judiciary Service, before joining the family business in 1994.
Since joining the family business, Yeow Chor has also been involved in several organisations related to IOI's businesses such as the Malaysian Palm Oil Council, Malaysian Green Technology Corporation and National Council of the Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association.
He also has interest in several other businesses unrelated to IOI.
Meanwhile, his younger brother Yeow Seng, 41, is currently the chief executive officer at the company and manages the operations and strategic planning of the Group.
He also happens to be the husband of former Minister of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Yoe Bee Yin.
Yeow Seng is also barrister-at-law from the Bar of England & Wales by Inner Temple but never practiced locally, from what we could gather.
Like his brother, he also owns stakes in other businesses independent of IOI.
2) Wen Chiu Chi
Position on the list: 42
Interestingly, Wen Chiu Chi's was not mentioned by name in the Forbes article that talks about the five new names in the list. But we cross checked with last year's list and managed to find the missing name.
He is Seangor Properties Sdn Bhd's chairman and is responsible for the overall strategic direction of the company, according to the company's website.
The company was built by his late parents Wen Tien Kuang and Chong Chook Yew. His name likely made to the list of Malaysia's richest after the death of his mother last year, and he inherited the family's wealth (at least some of them, we assume. He's the third of four siblings).
Chiu Chi, 62, has been with Selangor Properties since the late 1970s, and the company also has businesses in Australia.
In fact, Chiu Chi made it to 'West Australian Rich List' last year and was named the 9th richest in the region.
3) Chu Jenn Weng
Position on the list: 42
According to his LinkedIn profile, Jenn Weng is the Co-Founder, chief executive officer and president of ViTrox.
In 2000, Jenn Weng and his university mate (he studied at University Science Malaysia) Steven Siaw Kok Tong founded the company that makes automated vision inspection equipment for the semiconductor and electronic packaging industries.
The company has since expanded to Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Taiwan, China, Japan, Korea, India, Australia, Europe, Brazil, Mexico and more.
We couldn't find all that much of information on the 50-year old, but he seem to be Malaysia born, bred and educated and made his RM1.17 billion wealth himself (instead of inheriting it).
4) Oh Kuang Eng
Position on the list: 50
Kuang Eng is the Executive Director and Group CEO of Mi Technovative, a company that deals with semiconductor equipments.
The University Malaya graduate stared his career at Hewlett-Packard (M) Sdn Bhd in the 1990s as an Equipment Technology and Automation Engineer, before being moved to the Singapore operations.
In 1998, he quit Hewlett-Packard and moved to China to work for Polytool Industries Sdn Bhd, before he quit that too and start his own business, he founded AGS Automation (M) Sdn Bhd.
He eventually sold his stake in AGS Automation (M) Sdn Bhd and founded KE Machinelab Sdn Bhd. The company was closed and Kuang Eng opened yet another business called DPE.
In 2013, he subscribed ordinary shares in Mi Equipment Malaysia it's director. Gradually he merged DPE's businesses under Mi Equipment.
The business grew in several countries Southeast Asia (Singapore, Philippines and Thailand), Northeast Asia (Taiwan, China and South Korea) and North Atlantic (USA, Mexico and Germany) and is now known as Mi Technovation.
His wealth now is RM1.06 billion, making him 50th richest person in Malaysia.
What is Forbes Malaysia Rich List?
Each year, Forbes financial magazine lists the richest Malaysians based on information from the individuals, stock exchanges, analysts, private databases, government agencies and other sources.
There's also a minimum wealth to make it to the list. This year, it was USD225 million (about RM942 million).
You can read more about the list here.