Some time ago, Forbes announced the 2020 Malaysian Rich List. As the Malaysian economy continues to slow down, coupled with the impact of the new coronavirus, the "players" on the rich list have undergone a major reshuffle.

But there is one person who is as stable as a mountain and is not affected by the general situation at all. He has been the richest man in Malaysia for 20 consecutive years.

He is Kuok Henian, who has a net worth of US$11.5 billion and still holds a place in the business world at the age of 97.

In 1950, he established Malaysia's first sugar factory and was known as the "Asian Sugar King".

In 1971, he entered the hotel industry and established the world's first Shangri-La Hotel. The name "Hotel King" became a household name.

In 1984, he invested heavily in China and spent US$530 million to establish China's first international trade center. Robert Kuok's annual income was US$5 billion just from rent collection from the International Trade Center.

In 1993, involving the media, film and television industry, it acquired the South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong English newspaper, from the British, becoming a world-famous "media tycoon".

…

As the richest man in Malaysia, one of the world’s top 100 richest people, Robert Kuok has too many labels and auras.

Every label is full of gold, and behind every halo, there is a little-known bitter history hidden.

Children from poor families will become masters early, and children from rich families will start their careers early

On the eve of China’s reform and opening up, many refugees and workers chose to “go to Nanyang” in order to beg for food. Among these ordinary refugees is Guo Qinjian from Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, Kuok Henian's father.

In 1909, Kuok Henian’s father Guo Qinjian was still a 16-year-old boy. In order to make a living, he left his hometown and came to Malaysia from Fujian, China.

At that time, several of Guo Qinjian’s brothers had already achieved some success in Malaysia, running a company called Dongsheng, a two-story grocery store that mainly engaged in grain, soybeans, sugar and other businesses.

Guo Qinjian, who had just arrived in Malaysia, didn’t know what he wanted to do, so he followed his brothers’ arrangements and temporarily helped Dongsheng Company as a moving clerk.

During the First World War, Malaysian spices were in short supply. Guo Qinjian took advantage of the opportunity and made his first pot of gold through the rice sugar and soybean business.

In 1920, Guo Qinjian, who had achieved some success, married Zheng Geru, a fellow countryman, and gave birth to Kuok Henian in 1923. Kuok Henian ranked third, followed by two older brothers.

Kuok, who was born into a wealthy businessman family, did not have an easy childhood. In his autobiography, Kuok once described his childhood like this: "From the time I can remember, there are only feelings of crying and heartbreak..."

Guo Qinjian and Zheng Geru are typical "strict fathers and strict mothers". Kuo Qinjian lived in a turbulent era and knew the power that knowledge can bring to people. So when Kuok Henian started to learn literacy, in addition to the teacher's homework, Kuo Henian also had to complete the homework assigned to him by Guo Qinjian:

Fluency Recite five ancient poems

Completely write ten English texts

Be able to quickly calculate linear equations of two variables

...

And Zheng Geru just Acted as Kuok Henian's "teacher".

Although he is in Malaysia, Zheng Geru has done a lot of research on traditional Chinese culture.

Zheng Geru would tell his sons various Chinese legendary stories, from King Gou Jian of Yue to Gui Guzi and Sun Bin. Kuok Henian, who had been deeply influenced by Chinese traditional culture since childhood, determined to learn from the ancients, become a hermit, and keep a low profile.

Although he is a businessman, Kuo Chin Jian did not let Robert Kuok step into "this muddy water". Instead, he wanted him to study more, so he sent him to Raffles College in Singapore for further study.

But six months after entering school, the Japanese army invaded Malaysia and Singapore. At that time, it happened to be the school year exams, and Kuok prepared for the exams until two o'clock in the morning amid loud bombs.

After the exam, the school announced a suspension and sent all students home. However, due to the rapid advance of the Japanese army, Kuok was forced to lose contact with his family.

In an interview with the "Dialogue" column in 2015, Robert Kuok recalled that period and said: "In the next three years and 10 months, we were forced to live under the iron heel of the Japanese army. During this period, all Malaysians and The people of Singapore are in dire straits. We are living like a year, and the barbarity and cruelty of the Japanese army are endless.”

Kuok Henian’s family did not escape the clutches of the Japanese army. Unfortunately, his third uncle Guo Qinduan died of illness, and his cousin Guo Heqing was arrested by the Japanese army. , Dongsheng Company was forced to close down.

The burden of the family business suddenly fell on Guo Qinjian's shoulders.

Guo Qinjian did not disappoint his family. In the early post-war period, consumer goods were scarce in Malaysia, and the authorities implemented goods control.

Datu Weng, who was the rice and grain controller, had a good personal relationship with Guo Qinjian, so he handed over the task of purchasing rice and grain to Guo Qinjian.

With this relationship, Guo Qinjian monopolized the Malaysian rice and flour market, and launched the famous brand "Dongsheng Company".

Dongsheng Company also became the bridgehead for Kuok Henian and his brothers to establish a huge corporate kingdom in the future.

At this time, Guo Qinjian realized that if he did not quickly train the next generation, the Guo family's wealth might not last long, so he began to let his three sons enter the business field.

In 1947, Kuok Chin Kim gave Kuok Henian 100,000 ringgit to start a business. Kuok went to Singapore alone and used the 100,000 ringgit as investment capital to establish Leveco Company.

This year, he boldly applied the business knowledge he learned from his father since childhood into practice, and gradually accumulated rich business experience.

In 1948, his father Guo Qinjian passed away, leaving Dongsheng Company with a thriving business.

Mother Zheng Geru was afraid that the bloody drama of "brothers fighting for family property" would be played out among the descendants of the "Crane" generation, so Zheng Geru suggested that the second generation of the Guo family unite the family assets and establish a joint venture. a company.

A year later, Kuok Henian and his brothers formed Kuok Brothers Co., Ltd.

Since only Robert Kuok among the brothers had extensive business experience, the 25-year-old Robert Kuok was elected as the chairman of the board of directors and began to pilot the commercial giant ship of Kuok Enterprises.

Do what you don’t have

Under Robert Kuok’s management, Kuok Brothers Co., Ltd. did better and better, but within a few years, the tragedy happened again.

In 1952, Kuok Henian's second brother Kuok Helin joined the "Marxist Guerrillas" and was killed by the British colonial government.

Afterwards, Robert Kuok and his family were under surveillance by the authorities. In desperation, Robert Kuok had to flee to the United States for a while.

In 1957, Malaysia declared independence, and Kuok’s opportunity also came.

At that time, because Malaysia had just become independent, the consumer goods market was in a depression, especially the sugar refinery, which no one was involved in.

Kuok also seized this opportunity to establish Malaysia's first sugar refinery in a joint venture with the Federal Land Development Authority.

In order to facilitate the extraction of materials for sugar refineries, Robert Kuok planted a large amount of sugar cane in 1968, opened a sugar cane plantation, and stored a large amount of raw sugar.

Two years later, Robert Kuok took over 80% of the Malaysian sugar industry and established a complete "sucrose sales network" in Southeast Asia. He gained a lot of harvest and made a lot of money. Named "Malaysian Sugar King".

In 1979, Kuok relied on his unique business sense to purchase sugar in large quantities before sugar prices rose, and then sold them at high prices, becoming the "Asian Sugar King" and thus becoming the A world-renowned business figure.

Due to Robert Kuok's actions, local merchants felt that the sugar industry was profitable, so they all started refining sugar and wanted to get a share of the sugar industry.

Kuok Henian thought that it would not be long before the advantages of his own sugar factory would disappear. He could not just sit back and relax and let Kuok's footprints spread across various fields. Standing at the forefront of each field would be the best. Safe.

In the early 1970s, the situation in Asia was generally stable and the economy was developing rapidly. Robert Kuok also noticed that tourism would be a key development area. Hotels are one of the development tools of the tourism industry, and the Pacific Rim region has the greatest potential to promote tourism growth.

So in 1971, Robert Kuok invested 160 million to build the most luxurious hotel in Singapore at the time - Shangri-La Hotel.

At that time, Shangri-La Hotel once became one of the most profitable hotels in Singapore.

Robert Kuok struck while the iron was hot and subsequently established Shangri-La Hotels in Malaysia, China, Thailand and other countries, turning it into a multinational luxury hotel chain.

Shangri-La Hotel has even become a landmark building in Hong Kong, China. At that time, in order to build the Shangri-La Hotel in Hong Kong, Robert Kuok bought a piece of land in Victoria Harbor for 163 million.

After its completion, the hotel also brought considerable profits to Robert Kuok.

Today, Shangri-La Hotel has long become a well-known hotel chain brand at home and abroad, and Robert Kuok has been dubbed the "Hotel King" for this reason.

In the next few years, Robert Kuok used the capital accumulated in the sugar industry to extend his tentacles into the banking industry, real estate industry, media and other fields with the trend of "mercury pouring out of the ground and penetrating everywhere".

Robert Kuok, who has keen insight, noticed that Hong Kong is the center of international economy, trade, finance, transportation and information, and is crucial to the future development of Kuok's corporate kingdom.

In addition, the governments of Singapore and Malaysia were competing to see who could collect more taxes from wealth creators.

"Both countries impose punitive tax rates on our profits. If you earn 1 yuan, you basically only have 0.5 yuan left."

So, in 1974, Robert Kuok Intention to shift the focus of development to Hong Kong, China, the senior managers of Kwok's enterprises moved to Hong Kong one after another and established the Kerry Group.

Although the Shangri-La Hotel has been established in Hong Kong, Robert Kuok feels that it is far from enough.

Having money is not the most important thing, but having the right to speak is the most important thing.

In the 1990s, Robert Kuok once again invested heavily in acquiring the Hong Kong English newspaper "South China Morning Post" and Hong Kong TVB and other media, entering the media industry and becoming the new "media tycoon" of Hong Kong. Through media public opinion, Come and contribute to the development of Guo's enterprise.

After setting foot in Hong Kong, China, Robert Kuok also gradually developed into the mainland.

In 1988, Kerry Group began to invest in mainland China. It has invested and developed dozens of projects in 30 coastal and inland cities, including vegetable oil, grain processing, Shangri-La Hotels, real estate, and Coca-Cola beverages.

The most well-known brand of Kerry Group, Arowana, has allowed the company's revenue to continue to grow. In 2019, Arowana alone brought Kerry Group revenue of 170.743 billion yuan, which is twice the revenue of Moutai. times, eight times that of Haitian Flavor Industry.

With his income from arowana cooking oil, Robert Kuok ranked 104th on the Forbes Global Billionaires list in 2019, with a wealth worth US$12.8 billion.

Doing business requires big calculations, not small calculations

Previously, a joke circulated on the Internet:

"Under the Kuok Henian family, not only you The Beijing International Trade Center where you go to work every day, the Arowana cooking oil you eat every day, and the Shangri-La Hotel where you stay on business trips.”

It’s not just that Kuok Henian is able to achieve such a level of success in Kuok’s business. The title of a "rich second generation" can be explained simply.

Robert Kuok once said, "You must have courage to do business, but your courage must be with the business, not the people."

In April 1973, Robert Kuok received a special task.

China Resources Corporation found him and told him that the country was very nervous now, with a large shortage of sugar and money. It hoped that he could help buy 300,000 tons of sugar from the international market at a low price, and also buy some Futures are used to arbitrage when the market fluctuates.

Although Kuok Henian was already the world's top "Sugar King" at the time, he did not have so much goods to sell to the country.

If he buys it outside, Kuok is afraid that the price of sugar will rise by 20% to 25% as soon as the news becomes public. After all, 300,000 tons is not a small number.

But Kuok Henian agreed without hesitation. He thought that the country was in trouble and he was a member of China and must help.

"I will definitely help with this, but we all have to be very quick, think fast, and do it fast."

To be on the safe side, Robert Kuok also froze his business , dedicated one or two months to solving this problem for the country.

Later, Robert Kuok thought that he could only buy so much sugar by going to Brazil.

But as the "Asian Sugar King", he is so conspicuous that if he goes there in person, it will definitely arouse speculation.

Just two or three weeks later, there will be a large-scale international sugar conference in Geneva.

However, Robert Kuok, who keeps a low profile and is rarely active in front of the camera, immediately decided to send someone to Brazil to buy sugar, and he specially signed up to attend this meeting.

"I think if I have a meeting with them, they won't think that I am buying candy." Kuok Henian recalled.

In Geneva, Robert Kuok exchanged cups with his international colleagues, exchanged drinks, and "hypocrisy", while at the same time he was paying close attention to the deployment and follow-up of Brazil's actions. "Every day is very tense, and I live on tenterhooks." ".

One day, a British businessman pulled Robert Kuok aside and said to him mysteriously: "Do you know? Brazil is very strange recently. There are two or three young Asians who have never been seen before. People go in and out of the sugar area every day, as if something big is about to happen.

"

This shocked Robert Kuok, but he still pretended to be surprised and took it seriously and responded: Really? If you have any other quotes or news, you must tell me."

When he turned around, he was covered in cold sweat.

After the First World War, he not only successfully sold 300,000 tons of sugar for China at a low price, but also earned China US$5 million through the futures market.

In 1973, China's foreign exchange reserves were: -81 million US dollars. Kuok Henian instantly won 5 million US dollars for China, exceeding the country's foreign exchange reserves. It was definitely a timely help.

But Robert Kuok himself did not make a penny from such a huge market. On the contrary, he lost two months of business.

"If my company also joins it, it will definitely make money." Kuok said, "But I can't do that. Because it would be disloyal to China. It may be too grand to say this. My The principle is that even if you agree to an ordinary business, you should not run two horses."

Being able to earn 5 million US dollars for China is not only a manifestation of Kuok Henian's courage, but also Kuok Henian's. The embodiment of principle.

When you agree to someone else, you should go all out to do it well and do good for others, instead of thinking about whether you can take advantage of it.

Through this incident, although Robert Kuok lost two months of business, he gained the trust of China and quietly set his sights on mainland China.

In 1974, Kerry Group, a subsidiary of the Kwok brothers, established Kerry Cereals and Oils China Co., Ltd. in China and successfully opened the Chinese market with the well-known edible oil brand "Arowana".

In 1984, Kerry Group spent US$500 million to build the then-highest International Trade Center in Beijing. In the eyes of others, this move was extremely stupid for Robert Kuok.

At that time, China was still in a state of recovery and the investment environment was very imperfect. Investing money in the Chinese market was equivalent to throwing a stone into the sea, with great force but little return.

Other businessmen have put their money overseas and made a lot of money overseas. Some businessmen even laughed at Robert Kuok, saying he was in a business with no end in sight and just waited for losses.

But Robert Kuok said nothing and focused on quietly pursuing his career in mainland China. He did not rush for success, but slowly "waited for the wind to come."

Kuok Henian said, "I know how to make big plans, but I don't know how to make small plans, and I can't be that good at it."

Making big plans, not small ones, this is This has always been Robert Kuok's way of doing business.

In this way, under the leadership of Robert Kuok, a huge business empire was slowly established.

Robert Kuok has also become a frequent visitor to major rich lists, and has consistently ranked among the top ten richest Chinese.

If you want to ask, there were so many people doing business at that time, why did only Robert Kuok become the richest man in Malaysia?

Perhaps it is the influence of Robert Kuok's "Captain of Life" mother Zheng Geru.

There is always an iron plate on the desk of Robert Kuok's office. There is a passage on the iron plate, which was once written by his mother Zheng Geru. During the lifetime.

"If your children and grandchildren can be like me, why should you leave a lot of money? If you are not as good as me, a lot of money will be in vain. If you don't seek benefits for yourself, I hope that everyone will live in peace."

His mother, Zheng Geru, had a profound influence on Robert Kuok's business methods.

Or maybe it was the influence of Kuok Henian’s father, Kuo Chin Jian, who introduced the business world to him.

"Because my father is a businessman, words such as 'business ethics', 'honesty', and 'honesty' are words he often mentions, and these have a subtle influence on me."

p>

But the most important thing is that Kuok Henian's courage to tolerate humiliation and humiliation in the mall for decades and his bottom line as a human being are what truly determines Kuok's life.

In "The Autobiography of Robert Kuok", Robert Kuok said: "As long as you are humble, honest, don't cheat, and don't take advantage of others, there will be endless business in the world. Even if I have a lot of market information, I never mess around. I am a businessman who firmly believes in principles, so everyone likes me. If the profit is miscalculated, we will return it immediately and never argue.

”

--END--

Author: Luo Xiaojie