April 2024 News: Forbes released the "2024 Malaysian Rich List". The threshold for entry to this year's list is US$320 million, a slight increase of 1.6% year-on-year. The total wealth of the 50 richest people on the list reached 83.4 billion US dollars (about 604.3 billion yuan), a year-on-year increase of 2%, of which 22 achieved net worth growth.
In terms of net value and percentage, the biggest gainers were the Francis Yeoh & siblings, whose wealth surged 224% year-on-year to $4.7 billion, up seven places into the top 10. Founded in 1955 by his father, YTL and grandfather Yang Qinglian (originally from Kinmen, Fujian), YTL is now run by YTL and his six siblings, as well as 18 fourth-generation members of the YTL family.
YTL Group spans a diverse range of industries including construction, cement, utilities and real estate, with operations in Malaysia, Singapore and the United Kingdom. At the end of last year, it reached a partnership with Nvidia to build a $4.3 billion AI data center in a data center campus in Johor, Malaysia.
Yang Subin
The Chinese are the second largest ethnic group in Malaysia, accounting for nearly a quarter (23.2%), and occupy a pivotal position in the rich list, with the exception of Ananda Krishnan, who ranked sixth, among the top 10 richest people this year. [Note: Ananda Crisnan, 86, owns Malaysia's largest mobile operator (Maxis), a private satellite television company (Universal Television), a television broadcasting network (East Asia Satellite), and built the famous "Petronas Twin Towers"]
Ranking 8-10 are the founder of Sunway Group, real estate tycoon Xie Funian (ancestral home of Fenggang Town, Dongguan, Guangdong), the second son of legendary Chinese Lin Wutong and known as the "King of Cruise Ships" Lin Guotai (ancestral home of Anxi, Quanzhou, Fujian), and the "King of Fish Balls" and founder of Quanli Resources Xie Songkun (ancestral home of Chenghai, Shantou, Guangdong).
Guan Baoqiang
The Chinese billionaires took the top five. Last year, the third-ranked Guan Baoqiang family slipped to fifth, with net worth falling 8.6% year-on-year to US$5.3 billion. His ancestral home is Fenglang Town, Dapu County, Meizhou City, Guangdong Province, he speaks Hakka, Cantonese and Mandarin, and founded Press Metal, which covers the entire industrial chain of bauxite, alumina, carbon anode, electrolytic aluminum, aluminum extrusion and aluminum products, and is the largest integrated aluminum producer in Southeast Asia, ranking among the top five in the world, with a smelting capacity of 1,080,000 tons per year and an extrusion capacity of 210,000 tons per year.
In 05 years, Guan Baoqiang invested 500 million ringgit in Sanshui District, Foshan, Guangdong Province to invest in the establishment of Qili Aomei, and now, the Foshan factory has become the largest aluminum profile processing and production base of Qili Aluminum, with an annual output of 120,000 tons of aluminum profiles.
Li Yaosheng, Li Shenjing, Li Yaozu
Li Yaozu and Li Yaosheng entered the top five for the first time, ranking fourth with $5.35 billion, and their net worth increased by 16.3%. His father, Li Shenjing, known as the "King of Palm Oil", was originally from Dongguan Town, Yongchun County, Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, and passed away in June 2019 at the age of 80.
The brothers inherited the family business and took the helm of IOI Group, Malaysia's largest vertically integrated listed palm oil company with a focus on palm plantation and palm oil downstream industries, and IOI Industrial Group, the country's largest land bank and most profitable listed real estate development company, involved in industrial development, real estate investment, entertainment and leisure sectors.
The Zheng siblings rose two places to third place, with a net worth of $5.4 billion. In the 30s of the last century, Zheng Hongbiao was born in Singapore, his ancestral home is Chaozhou, Guangdong, he came to Malaysia in the 60s to develop, founded Public Bank, and passed away in December 2022 at the age of 92. Four children, Zheng Lipeng, Zheng Liming, Zheng Lihua and Zheng Lixin, inherited the wealth.
The top two were unchanged. Hong Leong Group (Malaysia) Executive Chairman Kwok Ling Chan came in second, but his net worth fell 13.7% to US$8.8 billion. He is the nephew of Guo Fangfeng, a famous Chinese entrepreneur, whose ancestral home is Tong'an County, Quanzhou Prefecture, Fujian Province (now part of Tong'an District, Xiamen). His cousin, Kwok Ling Meng (Kwok Fong Fong's eldest son), is the chairman of Singapore's Hong Leong Group and has been ranked among the top 10 richest people in Singapore for many years.
Robert Kuok, whose ancestral home is Fuzhou, Fujian Province, is the richest man in Malaysia with a net worth of US$11.5 billion (about 83.3 billion yuan), a position he has held for more than 25 years. He celebrated his 100th birthday last October and is one of the world's longest-lived billionaires.
More than 100 years ago, Guo Qinjian, Guo Qinjian, left his hometown to make a living in Nanyang, worked as a clerk, opened a coffee shop, and later founded Dongsheng Company, which specializes in rice, soybeans and sugar. In 1948, at the age of 25, Guo Henian was elected chairman of the Guo Brothers. He invested in sugar refineries, sugar cane plantations, and by the early 70s, he had managed to control 80% of the sugar market in Singapore and Malaysia, becoming the "sugar king of Asia".
In addition, Guo Henian also built a flour mill, an edible oil mill, a feed mill and a wood board factory. After making great achievements in the grain and agricultural sideline food processing industry and accumulating huge wealth, he began to diversify and set foot in many fields such as hotels, shipping, real estate, culture and entertainment, such as Shangri-La Hotel, Arowana and Beijing International Trade Center.