Early last month, on Oct 6 to be precise, billionaire tycoon Robert Kuok Hock Nien turned 86. He is often known by the moniker “Sugar King” or “Tong Wong” in Cantonese because he controlled about 10% of the world sugar market at one time.

It is likely that the name will remain although his sugar business in Malaysia is changing hands, as he is hiving it off to Felda Global Ventures Holdings Sdn Bhd for RM1.5 billion.

Despite the sale, Kuok’s sugar assets in other parts of the world are still going strong. An example is Hong Kong-based Eagle Trading Ltd.

Eagle Trading is a joint venture between French company Sucden and Kuok’s Kerry Group. Another of Kuok’s entities involved in sugar is Hong Kong-based Kerry Trading Ltd. However, since most of Kuok’s businesses are privately held, it is relatively difficult to gauge earnings.

But there is news from time to time on how much the group is investing in the sugar business. In July this year, Wilmar International spent some US$10 million setting up a sugar cane plantation in Kalangala, Uganda.

Also in July last year, Kuok Group and the San Miguel Corp of the Philippines announced that the two companies would spend some US$1 billion on developing one million hectares of land to produce sugar and grow coconuts.

Much of this demand could be linked to the 10 Coca-Cola bottling plants that Kuok has in China. These factories would require a massive amount of sugar to make Coca-Cola.

An observer says, “Even without the Malaysian (sugar) business, Kuok is still the ‘Sugar King’… the requirements of the 10 Coca-Cola bottling plants in China alone can match Malaysian demand for sugar.”

Apart from sugar, Kuok is also involved in several other businesses, namely palm oil cultivation and its downstream products, property development, shipping, media, hotels, flour milling and insurance.

Some of the listed companies he controls include PPB Group Bhd, Malaysian Bulk Carriers, Transmile Bhd, REDTone International Bhd and Shangri-La (M) Bhd, all in Malaysia. In Hong Kong, he has Kerry Properties Ltd, Keck Seng Group Ltd, Shangri-la Asia Ltd and SCMP Group Ltd while in Singapore, he has Algreen Properties.

These are just a few of his businesses as he prefers to keep his companies low key. Even much of his philanthropic work is not disclosed.

Forbes estimated his wealth at about US$10 billion as at May 2008, with much of it from outside Malaysia. Kuok shifted his headquarters from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore in the 1970s, before establishing himself in Hong Kong, with the setting up of his flagship Kerry Holdings Ltd in 1974.

Much of his success came about through his networking, ability to forge ties with prominent businessmen and venturing into previously untapped areas. For instance, during the Tianamen Square massacre in 1989, many investors fled China, fearing the worst. But Kuok saw opportunity and injected more capital into China.

Thus, it did not come as a surprise that in 1997, Kuok was dubbed the “world’s shrewdest businessman” by Forbes magazine.

Good connections

Besides being an astute businessman, part of Kuok’s strength has been his connections. Born in Johor, he was educated at Johor Baru’s English College and later Raffles College, Singapore. In school and college, he befriended Malaysia’s future second and third prime ministers, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein and Tun Hussein Onn, and also Lee Kwan Yew, who went on to become the prime minister of Singapore and is still an influential figure there in his role as minister mentor.

On the domestic front, one of Kuok’s known associates is Tan Sri Khoo Kay Peng of Malayan United Industries fame, and although unsubstantiated, some say Kuok partnered or looked to partner former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin in taking over Malaysia French Bank Bhd in the 1980s.

Kuok’s daughter Sue Kuok Suon Kwong or Suraya Abdullah was at one time married to prominent banker Tan Sri Rashid Hussain.

Kuok is known to have had good ties with the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) chairman, the late Tan Sri Taib Andak, who was also related by marriage to Hussein Onn.

Another associate is Tan Sri Frank Tsao Wen King, who is also based in Hong Kong. Tsao is the founder of IMC Group.

With Tsao, Kuok was instrumental in forming MISC Bhd (then Malaysia Shipping Line Corp), and played a key role in setting up national carrier MAS (then Malaysia-Singapore Airlines).

Kuok also played a significant role in the development of Bank Bumiputra Bhd (now CIMB Bhd) with Khoo, and even helped set up Perbadanan Nasional Bhd, which were both established to promote bumiputera interest in the Malaysian economy.

It is on the international front that Kuok’s muscle can really be seen. He had done business with Liem Sioe Liong or Sudono Salim of the Salim Group fame in Indonesia, San Miguel Corp’s Eduardo Cojuango Jr and Bangkok Bank’s former president Chin Sophonpanich, among others. The grandson-in-law of Chin, Albert Saychuan Cheok, is a known associate of Kuok as well.

With such an international ensemble of friends, it is no wonder that Kuok’s empire spans the Asian continent and Australia.

International businessman
Among the more famous business quotes of Kuok is “businessmen fish in troubled waters”.

Kuok initially might have played it safe with his flagship Kuok Brothers Sdn Bhd, which started operations in the late 1940s centred on business in Malaysia, but he moved out of his comfort zone pretty fast.

Kuok expanded into Singapore in 1953, with the formation of Kuok (Singapore) Ltd, then ventured into Thailand and Indonesia in the 1950s and 1960s, and later to Hong Kong and China with the establishment of Kerry Holdings in Hong Kong in 1974.

In 1971, he built his first hotel, the Shangri-La, in Singapore, while in Hong Kong, he ventured into the property market to set up his second hotel, the Kowloon Shangri-La, after acquiring land in the newly reclaimed Tsim Sha Tsui East waterfront area. Now there are about 60 Shangri-La hotels all over the world.

It was also in the 1970s that he started sugarcane plantations in Indonesia, making him one of the world’s largest sugar traders. His partner in Indonesia is the Salim Group.

Other ties Kuok forged include jointly owning the Shangri-La Hotel in Bangkok with the Sophonpanich family, who control Bangkok Bank. Chin Sophonanich’s son, Chatri, was a joint-venture partner in the hotel. This was in 1986.

Then in 1993, he acquired the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong’s leading English daily, buying it from tycoon Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

Kuok’s media empire also includes Television Broadcasts or TVB, in which he has some shares. TVB operates the most popular television channel in Hong Kong and is a large producer of Chinese TV programmes.

He has also made headway Down Under. In August this year, it was announced that Kuok’s Wilmar International Ltd and Gavilon Group LLC, known as Wilmar Gavilon Pty Ltd, had acquired the Brisbane sugar terminal in Australia.

Other than the recent acquisition of the terminal, Kuok’s Kerry Group made a striking acquisition in Australia in 1996, paying about US$520 million for a 9.3% shareholding in Coca-Cola Amatil, an Australian company that was one of Coca-Cola’s anchor bottlers and the largest serving the Asian market.

While it is not entirely known why Kuok sold off his sugar business, he and his various companies are expanding globally at a rapid rate. It is not clear if his other businesses will be next to be hived off, but his worldwide presence should keep him insulated from any problems in Malaysia.

This article appeared in the Cover Story page of The Edge Malaysia, Issue 780, Nov 9-15, 2009.