Qiu Deba’s profile

Tan Sri Khoo Teck Puat (Tan Sri Khoo Teck Puat, January 13, 1917 - February 21, 2004), originally from Haicang, Fujian, China, was born in Malaysia. He was the richest man in Singapore during his lifetime. Founder of Malaysia's largest bank. Directly and indirectly holds 82.4% of the shares, with a market value of approximately S$1.075 billion. He also holds shares in Malaysia Hotels and Central Properties, and also owns many real estate properties in Singapore, Malaysia and Australia. In his early years, Qiu worked as a secretary at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation. In 1959, he resigned in anger because he was unable to join the board of directors. The next year, he founded Maybank with his friends in Kuala Lumpur. By mid-1966, Maybank had established 108 branches and began to break the monopoly of foreign banks. Chiu himself was recognized as an outstanding banker. In the mid-1980s, he, together with the late Hong Kong shipping tycoon Pao Yu-kong, acted as a white warrior by injecting capital into Standard Chartered Bank, which was the target of a hostile takeover. At present, Qiu has become the single largest shareholder of the bank, with its shareholding reaching 14.99% at the end of 1994. He also absorbed certain equity interests in HSBC at the end of 1994. Chiu and his family members are estimated to be worth more than $2.8 billion. Ranked 30th on the list of the world's 50 super-rich Chinese.

Qiu Teck Puat's life is quite legendary. He is not only a well-known hotel industry tycoon in Southeast Asia, but also the largest individual shareholder of the British listed bank Standard Chartered Bank, with business all over the world. According to estimates by Forbes magazine in the United States, Khoo Teck Puat's wealth in 2002 was approximately US$2.6 billion, making him the richest man in Singapore and the 18th among billionaires in Asia. In the evening of February 21, 2004, Singapore's richest man, Khoo Teck Puat, died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 86.