Robert Kuok knows/Speech/Quotes

Robert Kuok Hock Nien (simplified Chinese: 郭鹤年; traditional Chinese: 郭鶴年; pinyin: Guō Hènián; born 6 October 1923), is a Malaysian business magnate and investor. Since 1973, Kuok has lived in Hong Kong. According to Forbes, his net worth is estimated at $12.6 billion as of April 2021, making him the wealthiest Malaysian and 104th wealthiest in the world. As of April 2019, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Kuok has an estimated net worth of $18.4 billion, making him the 53rd richest person in the world

Kuok is media-shy; most of his businesses are privately held by him or his family. Apart from a multitude of businesses in Malaysia, his companies have investments in many countries throughout Asia. His business interests (collectively known as the Kuok Group of Companies) range from sugarcane plantations (Perlis Plantations Bhd), sugar refineries, flour milling, animal feed, oil, mining, finance, hotel (Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts), property (Kerry Properties), trading, freight (Kerry Logistics) and publishing. His biggest source of wealth is a stake in Wilmar International, the world's largest listed palm oil trader company.

Kuok was appointed the Council of Eminent Persons member to advise the new Malaysian government elected in 2018

Kuok was born on 6 October 1923, in Johor Bahru to a Malaysian Chinese family. Kuok's father Kuok Keng Kang arrived in Malaya from Fuzhou, China, at the beginning of the 20th century, and Robert was the youngest of three brothers born to Kuok Keng Kang and Robert's mother Zheng Ge Ru. 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

After the senior Kuok died in 1948, 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 elites into his company as directors and shareholders, including politicians and royalty.[citation needed] 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; with land acquired through Petaling Garden Berhad, a Malaysian based developer. 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.

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

His political influence is attested by his selection 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