Last Updated on 09/09/2024 by Arun jain
Lee Thiam Wah started selling snacks at roadside stalls. Now, he is Asia’s latest entrepreneur to reach billionaire status.
He founded Convenience store The 99 Speed Mart chain and its company officially became billionaires after going public in Kuala Lumpur on Monday.
The $531 million initial public offering on Monday broke the seven-year record for the country’s largest IPO at 1.65 Malaysian ringgit, or $0.38 per share. This brought Lee’s net worth to $3.3 billion Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index.
Born in Klang, Malaysia in 1964, Lee grew up in a family with 11 children. His parents, a construction worker and a hawker, were struggling to make ends meet, according to Bloomberg. Lee contracted polio as a child and lost the use of his legs, making it difficult for him to find work. He turned to entrepreneurship, selling snacks from a stall to support himself.
“I have to help myself. No one would hire me because of my physical limitations,” Lee said Forbes In 2010.
He opened his first grocery store in 1987 at the age of 23. Over the next decade, his business grew into a chain of eight stores under the name Pasar Mini 99.
Lee’s wife, Ng Lee Tieng, joined the company in 1997 as a purchasing executive. Together, they created the largest mini-mart chain in Malaysia, with 2,651 stores nationwide, according to the company’s IPO. Prospectus.
Until this week’s IPO, the couple owned the business outright. Lee will remain its majority shareholder, controlling a combined 79.7% stake. He will continue as CEO of the company. Ng will hold a 3.2% stake in the company.
The company has a 40% share of the mini-mart market in Malaysia and controls about 12% of the overall grocery sector, according to the prospectus.
The IPO attracted 14 major investors, including firms such as abrdn Asia and UOB Asset Management, Bloomberg reported. The company plans to use more than half of its IPO proceeds to add another 250 stores a year until it reaches about 3,000 outlets in three years, setting up new distribution centers and buying new delivery trucks.
The company saw a second-quarter profit of 125.5 ringgit – a 66.3% year-on-year increase, Reuters reported on Monday. 99 Speed Mart also reported revenue of 9,000 million ringgit in 2023, more than four times that of its main rival 7-Eleven Malaysia, according to its IPO prospectus.
99 Speed Mart did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
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