Malaysian telecom and oil tycoon Tan Sri Tatparanandam Ananda Krishnan remains under the Malaysian Billionaires on Forbes’ Richest in 2022 list with a fortune of US$5.7 billion (RM24 billion). The tycoon still holds a 34.8 per cent stake in oilfield services provider Bumi Armada and a 62.32 per cent stake in telecoms company Maxis.
This year, Forbes place his wealth by making him the fourth-richest man in Malaysia, eclipsed only by Robert Kuok, Quek Leng Chan and Koon Poh Keong & siblings.
We all know that the 81-year-old former oil trader owns many major companies in the country as well as globally. Not to forget his holdings include stakes in the largest pay-TV company which known as Astro Malaysia Holdings.
The Harvard Business School graduate began his career perhaps in the oil trading business to earn a name for himself and his first revenue was more than a million, and after a decade, he was declared as one of the prominent members in the new formation of Malaysia’s Oil & Gas company, Petroliam Nasional Berhad.
The journey of him becoming a successful business tycoon wasn’t a bed of roses. That’s for sure! Founded in 1990, A.K is also known as the brainchild behind the Kuala Lumpur City Centre horse-racing track which located at the very same spot where the Petronas Twin Towers located now. From hiring a well-professional architect and spending for the project’s centrepiece was everything done by our A.K.
In time, the tycoon emerged into a leader of a multimedia empire, but little do we know that it all started when he and music journalist then Bob Geldof helped organise the Live Aid event in the mid 1980s. With three communications satellites orbiting the globe, he owns Maxis Communications, MEASAT Broadcast Network Systems, and SES World Skies.
Before the pandemic hit the whole world, A.K was Listed under Malaysia’s third-richest on Forbes’ 2020 Malaysia’s 50 Richest list despite his Indian telecom firm Aircel, opted for bankruptcy protection in 2018, after pumping an estimated amount of US$7 billion investment into the company.
One thing about Tan Sri is, he loves to keep his life very simple and keeps a low public profile. He’s definitely an asset who has helped build Malaysia’s economic landscape over the decades.
The complete list can be found at www.forbes.com/malaysia, as well as in the latest issue of Forbes Asia.
