Lee Thiam Wah has become the latest entrant to the billionaire club in Malaysia after having started his journey selling snacks at a roadside stall. The 60-year-old is the founder of 99 Speed Mart, the largest mini-market chain in the country with over 2,600 stores.
Lee Thiam officially became a billionaire on Monday, September 9, after his company floated its initial public offer (IPO) in Kuala Lumpur.
This is Malaysia’s biggest Initial Public Offering (IPO) in seven years, raising $531 million (Rs 44.61 billion). At the IPO price of 1.65 ringgit (Rs 31.79) per share, Lee Thiam’s wealth was approximately $3.3 billion (Rs 277.15 billion) as per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Bank Muamalat chief economist Mohd Afanizam Abdul Rashid told This Week In Asia: “Foreigners have been buying our (99 Speed Mart) stocks.”
Rashid continued by saying that the increase in net purchases by foreign investors, which came to 2.5 billion ringgit (Rs 48.14 billion) in August and 1.4 billion ringgit (Rs 26.98 billion) in July, serves as proof of this.
It comes at a pivotal time for Southeast Asia’s capital markets as well as Malaysia’s IPO scene, according to Mohit Mirpuri, a senior partner and fund manager at Singapore-based SGMC Capital Pte Ltd, who spoke with Bloomberg.
About Lee Thiam Wah:
Lee Thiam Wah was born in 1964 at Klang, one of several urban centres that fringe the hundred-kilometre distance between Kuala Lumpur and the coast of the Malacca Strait.
His father was a construction worker while his mother was a hawker. The couple had 11 children and struggled to make ends meet. Lee Thiam Wah had to drop out of school after 6 years due to financial constraints in the family.
His first retail store, a legalised roadside food booth, was out of compulsion. At a young age, he was stricken with polio and was paralysed from the waist down for the rest of his life.
In a 2012 interview with Forbes, Lee mentioned, “Nobody would hire me due to my physical limitations. I have to help myself.”
Lee started with a grocery shop in 1987 and by the year 1997, he was managing eight stores under the trade name Pasar Mini 99 where his wife Ng Lee Tieng began her career as a purchasing executive.
Before the IPO process, the couple was the only shareholder in the company.
The company is the biggest chain of such stores in Malaysia in terms of market share. 99 Speed Mart commands a 40% share in the mini-market segment and 11.7% of the total count of grocery stores in Malaysia, as stated in the IPO documentation reviewed by Bloomberg.
Chief Executive Officer Lee will continue to lead the firm.
According to Fortune, the majority of Lee’s net wealth comprises the 99 Speed Mart business, dividend payments, and proceeds from stake offload in the IPO.
In addition, he owns interests in several closely held companies, one of which is the only Burger King franchise in Malaysia.
According to regulatory documents cited by the publication, he temporarily became one of Alliance Bank Malaysia Bhd.’s largest individual owners last year with an approximately 5% holding.
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