Kuok family
Robert Kuok, after his father's death in 1948, founded Kuok Brothers in 1949 in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, with his brothers and a cousin, trading rice, sugar, and wheat flour. The firm expanded regionally within a few years, into Singapore in 1953 and Thailand and Indonesia by decade's end, with Kuok's focus increasingly narrowing to sugar.
How the fortune was built
By the early 1960s Kuok controlled an estimated 80% of the Malaysian sugar market and roughly 10% of global sugar production, earning him the nickname 'Sugar King of Asia.' He used sugar profits to diversify into palm oil and agribusiness (later consolidated into Wilmar International), hospitality (founding Shangri-La Hotels in 1971), shipping, flour milling, and property, and established Kerry Holdings in Hong Kong in 1974 to expand into Greater China real estate and logistics.
Where the family invests today
Kuok Group's public holdings include Wilmar International (the world's largest palm-oil refiner, facing regulatory scrutiny in China and Indonesia), Shangri-La Asia, Kerry Properties, Kerry Logistics, and Malaysia-listed PPB Group, which reported a 2025 net loss tied to a large impairment on its Wilmar stake. Robert Kuok, over 100 years old as of 2025, remains patriarch; a grandson's recent appointment to PPB Group's board is an early succession signal.
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