Robert Kuok Net Worth

How much is Robert Kuok’s net worth?

net worth: $15.5 billion
age: 100
Birth: October 6, 1923
gender: Male
Height: unknown
country of origin: Malaysia
Sources of funds: entrepreneur
Last Updated: August 1, 2024

Introduction

Robert Kuok’s net worth is estimated at $15.5 billion.

Robert Kuok is a Malaysian businessman and investor.

Kuok stays away from the media; most of his businesses are privately owned by him or his family.

Apart from numerous businesses in Malaysia, his companies have investments in several countries in Asia.

The biggest source of wealth is a stake in Wilmar International, the world’s largest listed palm oil company.

early life

Robert Kuok Hock Nien was born on 6 October 1923 in Johor Bahru, Malaysia.

Kuok is the son of a Malaysian Chinese family.

He grew up speaking his parents’ Fuzhou dialect, English, and Japanese during Japan’s wartime occupation of Malaya.

He studied at Raffles Institution, where he was classmates with Lee Kuan Yew, and also studied at the English College Johor Bahru.

Livelihood

Robert Kuok was born into a wealthy Malaysian Chinese family and became one of the richest men in Asia.

In his childhood, his father’s English-speaking clerk enrolled him in an English primary school and he became multilingual.

As well as learning English at school, Robert also spoke his parents’ Fuzhou Chinese dialect, and also learnt Japanese during the Japanese occupation of Malaya.

When he grew up, he studied at Raffles Institution in Singapore, where he was a classmate of Singapore’s founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.

Beginning of his career

According to Robert Kuok, his first foray into the business world was as an office boy, where he learned how things operated.

After graduation, he worked as a clerk in the rice-trading department of the Japanese company Mitsubishi Shoji Kaisha during the occupation of Japan.

It lasted from 1942 to 1945 and during this period Mitsubishi, with the support of the Japanese military, had a monopoly on the rice trade in Malaya.

Kuok was eventually promoted to the position of head of the rice trading department, and after the war, he also applied his skills to his family business in Johor.

When his father died in 1948, Kuok together with his two brothers and their cousin founded Kuok Brothers Sdn Bhd the following year.

With this company, he focused on trading agricultural goods with the help of Kuok’s continued ties with the Japanese.

Though he wasn’t yet as rich as Masayoshi Son, Kuok had begun building a career that would earn him billions.

Chinese and Hotel

Robert Kuok founded the Malayan Sugar Manufacturing Company in 1959 with two Japanese partners and included several Malay elites as shareholders and directors.

In 1961, he was able to import cheap sugar from India before prices skyrocketed, and he invested heavily in sugar refineries.

At this time, Kuok’s company was controlling 80% of the Malaysian sugar market, earning him the title “Sugar King of Asia”.

Ten years later, he built his first hotel, the Shangri-La Hotel, in Singapore and entered the Hong Kong property market in 1977.

After purchasing land on the Tsim Sha Tsui East Waterfront, he built his second hotel, the Kowloon Shangri-La.

Entering the 90s, Kuok’s Kerry Group purchased a 34% stake in the South China Morning Post from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.

Soon after, he retired from the Kerry Group, but continued to oversee his other businesses of sugar and real estate.

a prominent businessman

Robert Kuok’s businesses have investments in several countries, including Mainland China, the Philippines, Indonesia and Australia.

In China, he owns 10 Coca-Cola bottling companies and the Beijing World Trade Center, and in Malay, he owns Malaysian Bulk Carriers Berhad.

Kuok merged his plantations, oil and grains businesses with Wilmar International in 2007, becoming the world’s largest palm oil producer.

Like Li-Ka Shing, Robert Kuok’s business acumen has helped make him one of Asia’s leading businessmen.

Additionally, Kuok holds a minority stake in CITIC Pacific and was appointed to the Council of Eminent Persons in 2018.

This council is used to advise the Pakatan Harapan federal government, and Kuok’s appointment has further increased his influence among Malays and abroad.

In the same year, he published his first book titled Robert Kuok: A MemoirWhich won the Best Book of the Year award at the Publishers Awards in Singapore.

Robert Kuok Net Worth

Robert Kuok’s net worth is $15.5 billion.

More Business Entrepreneurs:

Highlights

Here are some of the best highlights of Robert Kuok’s career:

  • Kuok made his first fortune in the sugar industry
  • He founded Kuok Brothers Sdn Bhd in the late 1940s

Favorite quotes from Robert Kuok

“Every business involves risk; if you are not bold enough to seize the first or the next opportunity, you will remain a poor man forever.” – Robert Kuok

“Everything on earth is dynamic; I can only give my children a message, not money. If they follow it, we can go forward for three or four generations.” – Robert Kuok

“When I hire, I look for honest, hardworking, intelligent people. When I look candidates in the eyes, they must appear very honest to me. I don’t look for MBAs or exceptional students. You can hire a brilliant person, top honors, first-class honors, but if his mind is not fair or if he has a distorted outlook on life, does talent matter?”– Robert Kuok

“My mother knows that I am somehow a talented businessman, but she doesn’t want me to go to the dark side and become a bad businessman. She advised us to be a good person and not be greedy for money.” – Robert Kuok

3 inspirational lessons from Robert Kuok

Now that you know all about Robert Kuok’s net worth and how he achieved success; let’s look at some of the lessons we can learn from him:

1. Success depends 90% on hard work and knowledge

For example, in the sugar business, Kuok studied the demand, supply, production, consumption and shipping process to stay on top. Success doesn’t come easily.

2. Be brave

There is risk in every business. It is okay to back off and miss the opportunity if a better opportunity comes along soon. But if you are not courageous enough and back off every time, you will always remain poor.

3. Employees are number one

Hotel is a service industry, and the most important element is your employees, you completely depend on them to take care of your customers; thus, we will make taking care of our employees our primary agenda.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much is Robert Kuok’s net worth?

Robert Kuok’s net worth is estimated at $15.5 billion.

How old is Robert Kuok?

Robert Kuok was born on 6 October 1923 and is currently 100 years old.

How tall is Robert Kuok?

Robert Kuok’s height is unknown.

Summary

Robert Kuok is a Malaysian Chinese businessman who made his fortune in the sugar industry, but his career in the corporate world began in the rice business.

Robert Kuok’s net worth is estimated at $15.5 billion.

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