He is a businessman with interests in sugarcane plantations, animal feed, oil, mining, flour milling, sugar refineries, publishing, trading, freight, hotels and properties. The world’s largest listed palm oil company, Wilmar International, is where the majority of his wealth is coming from. This Malaysian businessman is media-shy and hardly makes any appearances unless really warranted.
Robert Kuok is the owner of Kuok Group which has a huge network of companies in Hong Kong, Singapore and in Malaysia. He has investments in Shangri-la hotels and Kerry Properties and is a stockholder in China’s leading meat manufacturer, Yurun Food Group. He also owns South China Morning Post, a lucrative newspaper business that was once considered as the world’s most profitable daily newspaper.
The youngest of three brothers, he claims that he started his early days of business being an office boy. Between 1942 and 1945 he worked after graduation in the grains department of Mitsubishi. With the help of some of his relatives, he was able to put up his own small business. He was able to make this investment grow and in no time, together with his brothers, created the Kuok Brothers Sdn Bhd in 1949. Their business is in the trading of agricultural commodities.
It was in 1961 that he started buying cheap sugar from India before the price skyrocketed and he worked his sugar business alongside the government. His investment in the sugar refineries paid off that he now controls 80% of the Malaysian market for sugar. This monopoly is equated to 10% of the world’s production which made him earn the name “Sugar King of Asia.”