The richest Bumiputra corporate figure in Malaysia, Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary has an estimated net worth of over $1.73 billion as of April 2016 according to Forbes. He is also the eighth richest person in Malaysia’s 50 Richest List and 526th in the World Billionaires List.

Syed Mokhtar Shah bin Syed Nor Al-Bukhary was born in 1952 in Alor Setar, Kedah, Malaysia. He began his business ventures in the 1990s with rice trading. Since then, he has been involved in various businesses such as transportation and logistics, plantations, property development, defense and armory, as well as engineering and power generation.

Al-Bukhary’s shares at MMC Corp. and DRB-Hicom have fallen due to his racked up debt for acquisitions and other purposes as the country’s biggest private borrower. The companies he owns include ports, an airport, power, automobiles, construction, engineering and postal services.

In December, the fledgling telecom, Puncak Semangat, has proved to a true success story. It has bitten out big players such as Maxis, which is owned by fellow billionaire Ananda Krishnan, in order to snatch the biggest slice of the spectrum for 4G services. The power subsidiary of MMC is reportedly planning to go public in a $1 billion deal.