PPB GROUP BERHAD
PPB Group Berhad is a Malaysian diversified conglomerate which engages in food production, agriculture, waste management, film distribution, property investment and development. PPB is also the single largest shareholder, through an 18 percent stake, in Wilmar International, one of the leading palm oil producers and agribusiness companies in the world.
The company was founded in 1968 as Perlis Plantations Berhad (from which it derives its current name) by Robert Kuok to cultivate and mill sugar cane in the northern Malaysian state of Perlis. The company went public in 1972 and has since ventured into other industries, although it exited the sugar business in 2009. Today, its main business is the supply of flour to downstream food producers. Its subsidiary, FFM, is the largest flour miller in Malaysia. The Kuok family retains control of the company with a 50.8 percent shareholding.
Kuok was born on 6 October 1923, in Johor Bahru to a Malaysian Chinese family. Kuok's father arrived in Malaya from Fujian, China, at the beginning of the 20th century, and Robert was the youngest of three brothers. 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 English College Johore Bahru.
According to Kuok himself, he began in business as an office boy, and later started a business with relatives' support. Upon graduation, he became a collaborator and worked as a clerk in the rice-trading department of Japanese industrial conglomerate Mitsubishi Shoji Kaisha during the Japanese occupation period between 1942 and 1945, in Singapore, a conglomerate that with the help of Japanese military unit monopolized the rice trade in Malaya during the occupation period. He was soon promoted to head the rice-trading department. After the war, he took the skills he learned from the occupying force to the family's business in Johor.
Kuok senior died in 1948, and Kuok and his two brothers and a cousin Kuok Hock Chin founded Kuok Brothers Sdn Bhd in 1949, trading agricultural commodities. Kuok's relationship with the Japanese continued after Malaya gained independence. In 1959, Kuok formed Malayan Sugar Manufacturing Co. Bhd. together with two prominent Japanese partners. He also brought many influential Malay elite into his company as directors and shareholders, including politicians and royalty.In 1961, he bought cheap sugar from India before the prices shot up,and continued to invest heavily in sugar refineries, at one time controlling 80% of the Malaysian sugar market with production of 1.5 million tonnes, equivalent to 10% of world production, earning himself the nickname "Sugar King of Asia".
In 1971, he built the first Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore. His first foray into Hong Kong property was in 1977, when he acquired a plot of land on the newly reclaimed Tsim Sha Tsui East waterfront, where he built his second hotel, the Kowloon Shangri-La. In 1993, his Kerry Group acquired a 34.9% stake in the South China Morning Post from Murdoch's News Corporation. Kuok officially retired from the Kerry Group on 1 April 1993.
His companies have investments in many countries, including Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Mainland China, Indonesia, Fiji, and Australia. Businesses in China include 10 bottling companies for Coca-Cola and ownership of the Beijing World Trade Centre.
Freight interests include Malaysian Bulk Carriers Berhad and Transmile Group.
His political influence is attested by his having been selected as one of the Hong Kong Affairs Advisors in the run-up to the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong, and his minority stake in CITIC Pacific. He was also instrumental in conveying information and setting up the meetings between Malaysian and Chinese governments leading to full diplomatic cross recognition of the two countries.
In 2007, Kuok combined his plantations, edible oil, and grains businesses with Wilmar International, making it the world's biggest palm-oil processor.
On 31 October 2009, PPB Group under the flagship of Robert Kuok issued a statement to the Bursa Malaysia that it had decided to dispose of its sugar units along with land used to cultivate sugar cane for RM 1.29 billion to FELDA. The sales resulted in a one-off gain for the company.
In February 2014, Kuok's Singapore-based oil services company PACC Offshore Services Holdings (POSH) started pre-IPO talks with investors to list on the Singapore Stock Exchange to raise $400 million.
