Based on a survey of the country’s 40 top tycoons on their shareholdings between July 15 and Aug 26, their total paper wealth still remains at more than RM200bil, and most of them do not appear to be affected by the fall in the stock market
Goh Peng Ooi, the founder of Silverlake Axis Ltd, took the hardest hit when his shares dived after they became a target of short sellers two weeks ago.
He saw his wealth reduce by 43% or RM2.75bil between July 15 and Aug 26 after his Singapore-listed Silverlake shares tanked, following the release of a 42-page adverse report on the company’s related-party transactions. As of Aug 26, Goh’s net worth was about RM2.44bil based on his 66.4% stake in Silverlake.
Goh, a Penang-born mathematician with operations in Malaysia, has refuted the adverse report and the company has appointed an external auditor to come up with an independent view of the company’s accounts.
In second place on the list of tycoons whose paper wealth has reduced the most is Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, the founder of AirAsia Bhd. AirAsia is also a target of short sellers for its treatment of accounts related to its associates in Indonesia and Thailand.
Fernandes, who broke into the list of billionaires in 2013 with a fortune of RM1.01bil, was listed among the Top 40 richest in Malaysia.
A year later, he slipped from the billionaires club with a fortune slightly below the RM1bil mark as of end-2014. Then, AirAsia’s share price was at RM2.72, while Tune Ins Holdings Bhd was at RM1.70 and AirAsia X, 65 sen.
However, the share prices of both AirAsia and AirAsia X have taken a dive. AirAsia was at 89.5 sen and AirAsia X, 15.5 sen, as of yesterday.
Fernandes’ net worth as of Aug 26 was estimated at RM271mil based on his stakes in AirAsia, AirAsia X and Tune Ins. It is a decline of 35.7% since July 15.
Fernandes’ long-haul budget airline AirAsia X was hit the hardest, losing RM165.92mil of its market capitalisation in the five-week period from July 15.
Since mid-July, Malaysia has seen billions of ringgit being wiped out from the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KL Composite Index amid a plunge in many stock markets around the world.
Overall, investors in Bursa Malaysia were poorer by more than RM159bil between July 15 and Aug 25 based on the drop in the market capitalisation of 909 counters traded on Bursa.
Meanwhile, the slump in the oil price has contributed to an RM2.84bil cumulative loss for Malaysia’s richest energy tycoons, including Tan Sri Mokhzani Mahathir and Tan Sri Shahril Shamsuddin of SapuraKencana Petroleum Bhd (SapKen); T Ananda Krishnan, the founder of Bumi Armada Bhd; and Lim Han Weng, the founder of Yinson Holdings Bhd.
Ananda, who also owns Maxis Bhd and Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd, is the second-richest tycoon in Malaysia.
Since July 15, about RM1bil of his wealth has been shaved off, owing to the overall weak market conditions. This, however, is a relatively small amount, considering his vast fortune of RM22.6bil as of Aug 26.
Shahril has seen his wealth go down by RM546.75mil, or 34.5%, in the past one month due to the fall in global crude oil prices and the plunge in the value of his oil and gas stocks on Bursa.
At its peak, SapKen was trading at RM4.81, translating into a wealth of RM4.85bil for Shahril’s 16.84% stake in SapKen. The counter was last traded at RM1.79.
Mokhzani, who had resigned earlier from the board of SapKen, also saw a similar fate with his 9.3% stake in the company.
As for Lim, about 18% of his fortune has been shaved off, taking him off the billionaire’s club with a net worth of RM989.7mil as of Aug 26 from his 35.5% stake in Yinson, following the recent plunge in oil prices.
Among the heavyweights on Malaysia’s list of billionaires, Genting’s Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay was RM2.5bil poorer based on paper wealth as of Aug 26 due to the drop in the share price of Genting Bhd. However, Lim, Malaysia’s fourth-richest man according to Forbes, is conservatively still worth more than RM15bil based on his interest in listed companies.
However, not all tycoons have become poorer due to the stock-market downtrend. Tan Sri Lau Cho Kun of Hap Seng Consolidated Bhd, Datuk Lim Kuang Sia of Kossan Rubber Industries Bhd and Tan Sri Lim Wee Chai of Top Glove Corp Bhd have added a combined RM750mil to their fortunes on the back of the weaker ringgit.
Judging by the rise in the fortunes of the three, it would appear that glove company owners seem to be doing well.
This is a given, as glove companies’ share prices have been on an uptrend since the beginning of the year on the back of the weaker ringgit against the US dollar.
Year-to-date, Top Glove has gained more than 73% to RM7.83, Kossan is up 56.8% to RM7.01 and Hartalega Holdings Bhd has risen 19.3% to RM8.39.