Especially in some Southeast Asian countries, the rich list is also occupied by Chinese businessmen. For example, Lin Shaoliang, the former Indonesian richest man, Xie Guomin, the richest man in Thailand, and Shi Zhicheng, the founder of SM Group, the richest man in the Philippines, were among the top ten richest people in the world.
In Malaysia, a Chinese businessman known as the richest man in Malaysia has won a series of honorary titles such as "Hotel King" and "Asian Sugar King" by his own efforts. He is Guo Henian, chairman of Kerry Group. Even Li Ka-shing, the richest Chinese, calls him Big Brother.
Basically, Guo Henian lived in the elite all his life. In the 20th year of the Republic of China, Guo's father moved from Fuzhou, Fujian to Nanyang to make a living, and took refuge in a relative in Malaysia to start a grain and oil business. When born, the Guo family has become a fairly wealthy family in Malaysia.
It can be said that Guo Henian has a good material foundation for life since he was a child. When he was in his twenties, he took 654.38 million ringgit from his father and went to Singapore to start a company, which was the beginning of his business. After returning to China the following year, he took over the burden of the family business as the new head, relying on his own intelligence to make the family business flourish.
Guo Henian is very interested in market futures because he has visited Britain and learned advanced management concepts. I learned that sugar in Malaysia was imported for a long time, and there were no sugar factories in China.
He saw this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and invested heavily in establishing the first white sugar refinery in China. It was this major investment decision that made his career soar, gradually controlling 60% of the sugar market in Malaysia and taking a step towards the "Asian sugar king".
In 1970s, Malaysia's economy fully recovered and entered a period of stable and rapid development. Good market economy conditions have promoted the rapid development of tourism, and Guo Henian, which has accumulated abundant funds in the sugar industry, has seen its infinite potential. Determined to diversify, he took the lead in extending his tentacles to the hotel industry. He immediately invested RM 6,543.8+billion and established the first luxury hotel at that time-Shangri-La Hotel, Singapore.
After its completion, the hotel has made great achievements and become one of the most profitable hotels in Singapore. Later, he successively built several Shangri-La hotels in Malaysia, Thailand, China, Hongkong and China, and his territory of "Hotel Kingdom" was officially opened.
In hotel management, he hired professional managers to manage, and the advanced hotel management system made his hotel occupancy rate reach more than 80% during the economic downturn of 1980. As of April 20 12, Shangri-La Hotels Group has opened 72 hotels around the world, 34 of which are located in China. There are 45 buildings under construction in the world, of which 28 are in China.
In fact, the most admirable thing is Guo Henian's large-scale investment in Chinese mainland in 1980s. Guo Henian realized that real estate was quietly rising at that time, which would be a huge cake in the future. First, he invested 500 million dollars to build the Beijing Trade Center. Now the leased area of the whole International Trade Center is close to 165438+ 10,000 square meters, and the annual rent alone can reach 3 billion.
Now Guo Henian is 95 years old, but he still has no plans to retire. He once told Guo Taiming, the boss of Foxconn, that he was old and gave birth to his youngest daughter Guo Xiaoyan at the age of 68. He now owns 54 Shangri-La hotels, 5 Coca-Cola canning plants and 45% Arowana cooking oil in China. Today, his total valuation exceeds 200 billion yuan.
Li Ka-shing called him big brother in front of him. 95 years old and not retired, now worth hundreds of billions. Guo Henian is also a legendary businessman in China.