How Robert built the fortune
Robert Kuok Hock Nien started his business life in commodity trading in what was then British Malaya. After the Second World War he and members of his family set up Kuok Brothers in 1949 in Johor Bahru, trading rice, sugar and wheat flour. In the late 1950s, as Malaya became independent, he built a sugar refinery in partnership with Malaysian investors, and over the following years he became one of the largest traders of sugar in the world, earning the nickname the Sugar King of Asia.
With profits from trading, Kuok expanded into plantations, flour milling and shipping, and then into hotels. The first Shangri-La hotel opened in Singapore in 1971, and the brand grew into a luxury hotel chain across Asia and beyond. He also moved much of his attention to Hong Kong, where he established the Kerry Group, named after a county in Ireland, as the vehicle for his property, trading and logistics interests in Hong Kong and mainland China.
Another major source of wealth came from palm oil. In 1991 his nephew Kuok Khoon Hong co-founded Wilmar International with the Indonesian businessman Martua Sitorus, and the family's plantation and edible oil assets were later merged into Wilmar. Today it is one of the world's largest agribusiness groups. Kuok, who stepped back from day to day management long ago, remains the patriarch of a family that controls stakes in many listed companies.
Throughout his career Kuok relied on close relationships with governments and business partners across the region, including in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and mainland China. He was among the early foreign investors in China after its economic opening in the late 1970s, building hotels and property in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities. His group's diversified structure meant that weakness in one market or commodity was often offset by strength in another.
Companies and holdings
The Kuok family's interests include:
- Shangri-La Asia, operator of the Shangri-La, Kerry and Jen hotel brands.
- Kerry Properties and Kerry Logistics Network, both listed in Hong Kong.
- Wilmar International, the Singapore listed palm oil, sugar and food processing company, in which the family holds a significant stake.
- PPB Group in Malaysia, formerly Perlis Plantations, with interests in flour milling, food, property and a stake in Wilmar.
- Kuok Group interests in shipping, trading and other businesses.
The family also owned the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong's leading English language newspaper, which Kuok bought in 1993 and which was sold to Alibaba in 2016. In addition, his companies were for many years bottlers of Coca-Cola products in parts of mainland China.
Early life and career
Kuok was born in 1923 in Johor Bahru, then part of British Malaya, to a family of Chinese immigrants from Fujian. His father ran a trading business dealing in rice, sugar and flour. Robert attended English language schools in Johor and then Raffles College in Singapore, where his classmates included future political leaders of Singapore and Malaysia.
During the Japanese occupation he worked in the rice department of the Japanese trading company Mitsubishi, learning about the commodities trade. After the war he joined his family's business and, following his father's death, set up Kuok Brothers with relatives. His brother William joined the communist insurgency against British rule and was killed in 1953, an event Kuok later described in his memoir as one of the defining tragedies of his life.
Philanthropy and public life
Kuok has generally kept a low public profile, but in 2017 he published Robert Kuok, A Memoir, in which he described his upbringing, his business career and his views on politics and race relations in Malaysia. Family members run the Kuok Foundation in Malaysia, which supports education through scholarships and other social programmes.
He has lived in Hong Kong for decades. In 2018, after a change of government in Malaysia, he was named to a council of eminent persons that advised the new administration for a short period. His sons and nephews now lead the various parts of the group, with Kuok Khoon Hong at Wilmar and other relatives at Shangri-La and Kerry, while Robert remains an influential elder of one of Asia's best known business families.