Vinod Sekhar on Forbes Malaysia 40 richest 2007

A name appear on Forbes top 40 richest Malaysian attract my attention. Ranked at no 16 Datuk Vinod Sekhar. In fact he appear on the list last year (2006) as well,ranked 16 also.




Describe as founder and majority owner of privately held Petra Group. I was mistakenly thought he founded oil and Gas group Petra Perdana Group. However, Petra Perdana was found by Terengganu royal YM Tengku Dato' Ibrahim Petra bin Tengku Indra Petra rather than Datuk Vinod Sekhar.



Actually, company control by Datuk Vinod Sekhar's company call Petra Group which is privately held.



Surprising that Forbes able to rate a owner of a Malaysia non listed company. It is difficult to rate a owner of a public listed company even in US.



Forbes stated that Forbes Vice Chairman Christopher Forbes is minor shareholder in group. that is how Forbes rate the company. Is it accurate base on such rating?



It is not sure why Company Commision Of Malaysia allow two unrelated company used such a similar name that create so much confusion.

Last year, Joshua Teoh's blog has discussion on Datuk Vinod Sekhar under his blog's comment column.

Excerpt:

newmal said: this is all i know so far - he is 37, and also heads the petra foundation - which is pretty huge, and apparently refuses to allow his name or picture to appear in tatler etc. and is a close friend of Tony Fernandes of air asia and Was told there was a story done on him recently - a friend saw it in sing. Will try get some info from there. According to the article also completely self made, not inherited. To me its just amazing that he has been so low key - and no one knew about him - a non bumi also!

He added: Just read that Vinod Sekhar’s father passed away last week. Also found out that both father and son are/were self made men. the bio is on the Petra website. From what i read on line - he started his company from college and was a millionaire by 21, and a Datuk by 26. then lost everything in the asian financial crisis, but rebuilt everything on his own. He also founded the first multiracial youth society - and here’s something interesting, apparently he wrote the template for the Rakan Muda programme - then walked away when they tried to make political and racial. Also, i believe he gave 40% of the company away to a charitable trust that educates a few thousand people now. He is actually the chairman of the Petra foundation. Thats about it. If someone actually knows him - then can actually ask him about the above. I’m sure some of us would be keen to hear about his true story. It seems fascinating and worth a read.

The Edge recently reported that: In 2001, Datuk Vinod Sekhar undertook a reverse takeover of a company listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in London. He injected an Islamic portal into the AIM-listed company, which was renamed Petra Multimedia plc. But it failed to sustain investor interest and was delisted a year later.

Whether he deserved on the list or not is your own judgement

TechnoratiTag: Business Commentary competitive Economics Economy Malaysia Opinion finance

Real independent Managing Director in her 20s

My last post on 20 something Managing Director generate a lot of feedback online and offline. Unfortunately, Carmen Chua still have her father to coach and incubate her as her company Executive Chairman.





A week ago, The Star feature a 23 year old Managing Director of Clearwater Development Sdn Bhd...Dian Lee Cheng Ling. She is the eldest daughter of property tycoon Tan Sri Lee Kim Yew, the founder and chieftain of the Country Heights Holdings group, was named the Property Man of the Year in 1996 by Fiabci (International Real Estate Federation) Malaysian chapter.





Dian is the eldest of three girls and two boys. She reiterated that Clearwater Development was an entirely independent entity from Country Heights Holdings. What did Dad have to say about her striking out on her own as a property developer? He was supportive but, at the same time, reacted like any father would. He had his concerns, and when I needed advice I would go to him. Once in a while, he would give a bright idea as to how a unit should be launched, etcetera, but it just nice to sound him out,?Lee told The Star.

The profile of Lee’s partners reveals what one can expect of the project. They include renowned Singapore-based architect Sim Boon Yang and the rest — two investment bankers and a female lawyer — are based in Hong Kong. Except for Lee, her partners are in their 30s and 40s.

The project marks the debut of the 40-something Sim in the property development arena. The founding partner of Singapore-headquartered Eco-Id Architect and Design Consultancy Ptd Ltd, Sim has been practising architecture for more than a decade, designing boutique hotels around the world. So, it is not as if property development opportunities had not knocked on his door.

Sim was on one his regular business trips to Bangkok (where he has an office) when he met Lee at Bangkok Metropolitan — of which Eco-Id was the lead design consultant. As fate would have it, things fell into place very quickly soon after that meeting. Lee stumbled upon a 0.5-acre tract on Damansara Heights that was available for development. The feasibility study was carried out, followed by concept and sketches of the brain-wave.

Together with Sim, she spoke to property managers and investors around Asia while fine-tuning the concept for Clearwater Residence. Well-known Singaporean advertising art director Theseus Chan was roped in to help put concepts on paper. And eventually, the marketing and management team was formed.

Dian Lee graduated from RMIT University in Melbourne with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Professional Communication and Marketing. While Down Under, she was executive director of Country Heights (Australia) Pte Ltd, actively overseeing her family’s property investments in Australia. During semester breaks in the last two years, she was back in Malaysia playing the role of special assistant to her dad, handling a portfolio of property and hotel management projects. And this was her choice. “I get to meet and be exposed to interesting people. As his assistant, I follow him around and do the necessary follow-ups and events for him,” Lee told The Edge. “Ever since I can remember, I have been interning with my father during my summer breaks.” Lee attributes her attention to details to her dad. “I have a visionary father, whose entrepreneurship inspires me. He’s extraordinary; he started with nothing… I remember when I was 15 years old when he rushed the building of the Palace of the Golden Horses in time for the G15 meeting. He was practically staying on site for three months! I saw for myself the progress of the project — from the model to construction and then reality. It was so amazing.”Reported The Edge

It look like she work like those second generation of tycoon....Donald Trump in US who famous for The Apprentice.

Donald Trump move from her father's low cost house to upmarket customer today after he taste the wealthy person lifestyle. Dian Lee of course taste the wealthy person lifestyle when she grow up. The difference is Tan Sri Lee Kim Yew's Country Height already target upmarket customer from the beginning.

Another different between Dian Lee and Carmen Chua other than she is independent from her father is.......Dian Lee is married!

TechnoratiTag: Business Commentary competitive Economics Economy Malaysia Opinion finance Shares Stock Market klse Property

Real Property Gain Tax not abolished but exempted

My blog get a lot of search via Google search engine below for Real Property Gain Tax 2007 (RPGT)recently. Actually, the matter has been widely reported in mainstream media. As a lot of reader search for such topic. I just give my two sen worth here.

One thing that I would like to remind all people: THE Real Property Gains Tax Act 1976 (RPGTA) has not been abolished but exempted with effect from April 1,2007.

This mean that the government can re-introduce the RPGT if the market become too speculative. This can happen as the government have a track record of inconsistency in it policy. One of the example is make short selling become illegal during Asia financial crisis.

The exemption of RPGT, together with comprehensive changes to the public delivery system in the property sector means that we have shift our focus on attracting FDI in manufacturing sector to Property sector. Will Malaysia become Hong Kong where property sector become dominanat in it economy?



Carmen Chua


The star has reported that: It is not widely known that Carmen had played a key role in the Government’s recent move to abolish real property gains tax (RPGT) to reboot a languishing housing market.

Early this year, she was invited by Noordin Sopiee & Associates (NSA) - an offshoot of ISIS founded by the late Tan Sri Noordin Sopiee - for a closed-door presentation, together with three other corporate bigwigs (Lion Group's Tan Sri William Cheng, Tan Sri Rozali Ismail of Syabas, and Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd's Datuk Lee Hau Hian).







Her area of focus – how to revive the property sector, one of the pillars of the economy, to aid the nation’s target to grow private investments by 11%. Carmen, together with like-minded friends at NSA, essentially advocated and made a strong case for the abolishment of RPGT.

Truth is, the idea to abolish RPGT is not new. It has been lobbied for so long and by so many but the campaigns, until now, had fired blanks. The difference this time is there appears to be a concerted political will to see it through.


Who is Carmen Chua? She is daughter of Datuk Chua Ma Yu, co-founder of Rashid Husssein Security or RHB Group, founder of Waterfront Group and the person who advocated the merger of plantation group in the country....now under Synergy Drive.

Carmen Chua is a 20 something managing director of ONE KLCC Sdn Bhd. In US, You have seen a number of 20 something boss like Microsoft's Bill Gates, Yahoo's Jerry Yang. In Malaysia, we have Tony Pua. I have also personally work for a 20 something managing director before. He is a selfmade millionaire and extremely competitive.

The only different is....she is female and her father still sit on the board as chairman.

Carmen also sit on the board of Waterfront Incubator and Furniweb Industrial Products Bhd. Carmen has bought a 13.9% stake in Furniweb Industrial Products Bhd.

Another Mah Sing

Mah Sing's CEO Datuk Leong Hoy Kum has in 1992 acquired 20 unit of condominium at Mont Kiara area. In 1993, with shares market super bull run. Rumours said that Datuk Leong amass more than RM20 million in profit. It is not sure whether he paid RPGT at that point of time.

If Datuk Leong have to pay RPGT at 40%. It amounted to RM8 million. It is believe that he has arranged with the buyer for the buyer to bear the cost of RPGT.

Since then, Mah Sing, from a plastic manufacturing company, successfully transform to a property development company and the rest is history.

Now, without RPGT. It is less hassle to repeat what Datuk Leong did in 1993. The problem is....how the stock market perform compare to 1993?

Blog that link here: MindSpace

TechnoratiTag: Business Commentary competitive Economics Economy Malaysia Opinion finance Shares Stock Market klse Property