How Quek built the fortune
The Hong Leong name dates to 1941, when Kwek Hong Png and his brothers founded a trading business in Singapore. The family later developed separate branches: the Singapore group, led by Kwek Hong Png's descendants, and a Malaysian group in which Quek Leng Chan, a member of the next generation, took the leading role. Quek has headed Hong Leong in Malaysia for decades, and the scale of today's group is largely the result of his expansion.
His central strategy was to move from trading and manufacturing into financial services. The decisive step came in 1994, when Hong Leong acquired MUI Bank and renamed it Hong Leong Bank. Over the following years the group built a broad banking and insurance franchise in Malaysia, and in 2011 Hong Leong Bank bought EON Capital, the parent of EON Bank, making it one of the country's larger lenders. Banking provided steady earnings and dividends that supported the rest of the group.
Outside Malaysia, Quek used the Hong Kong listed Guoco Group as a vehicle for international investments. Guoco owned Dao Heng Bank in Hong Kong until it sold the bank to Singapore's DBS in 2001, a deal that gave the group a large pool of capital. That money was reinvested in property, hotels and leisure businesses in Singapore, China, Malaysia and the United Kingdom.
The approach has been consistently conservative. Hong Leong has generally avoided the heavy borrowing that hurt some Asian conglomerates during the 1997 financial crisis, and its banking business has been known for cautious lending and a strong capital position. That discipline allowed the group to act as a buyer when other owners were forced to sell, as with the EON Capital deal.
Companies and holdings
Quek controls Hong Leong Company (Malaysia), the private holding company at the top of the group. Its main listed interests include:
- Hong Leong Financial Group, which owns Hong Leong Bank, Hong Leong Investment Bank and insurance operations
- Hong Leong Industries, which has manufactured motorcycles under licence, ceramic tiles and other industrial products
- Guoco Group in Hong Kong, the international arm
- GuocoLand, a property developer active in Singapore, Malaysia and China
- a controlling stake in the Rank Group, the British gaming company behind Grosvenor casinos and Mecca bingo clubs
- GL Limited, which owns hotels in the United Kingdom
The structure is layered, with listed companies holding stakes in other listed companies, which allows the family to control a wide range of businesses through a relatively compact ownership chain.
The family's wealth is therefore concentrated in listed securities in Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Singapore and London, and moves with the valuation of Malaysian banks in particular, since Hong Leong Financial Group is the largest single component of the portfolio.
Early life and career
Quek Leng Chan was born in 1941 into the extended Kwek and Quek family, whose members had emigrated from Fujian in southern China to Singapore and Malaya. He was educated in Singapore and then went to London to study law. He qualified as a barrister at the Middle Temple, one of the Inns of Court, before returning to Asia to work in the family business.
He took charge of the Malaysian operations at a relatively young age and set about diversifying them. In the 1970s and 1980s the group expanded into property, finance companies and manufacturing in Malaysia, laying the foundations for the bank acquisition of the 1990s. His legal training is often cited as a reason for the careful, highly structured way in which the group's holdings are organised.
Philanthropy and public life
The group's charitable activity is carried out mainly through the Hong Leong Foundation in Malaysia, which supports education through scholarships for students, as well as community and environmental programmes. Quek himself keeps a low personal profile and seldom gives interviews, with the group's companies communicating through their own management teams.
He has received Malaysian honours over the years, reflecting his standing in the country's business community. He is related to the Singapore based Kwek family, including Kwek Leng Beng of City Developments, but the two groups are managed separately.