Ronald Ooi, the son of Kim Eng Securities’ founder, will be walking away with a cool S$279 million (RM663 million) from Malayan Banking Bhd’s (Maybank) S$3.10 per share offer for his 15.4% stake in the stockbroking house.
With so much money in his hands, one would reckon that the biggest challenge for Ronald, who is in his late 50s, would be to keep on working in the competitive industry.
Instead of having to peer out of an office window, wouldn’t the tendency be to have a nice view of green golf courses around the world?
But, contrary to popular belief, those who know Ronald — the chairman and CEO of Kim Eng — say this won’t be the case.
“Ron loves the business. It was, after all, started and built by his family. There is a special connection there,” observes a friend.
The history of Kim Eng can be traced back to Ronald’s mother, Mrs Gloria Lee.
Now in her 80s, she was an air stewardess who became a homemaker, before venturing into the male-dominated stockbroking industry.
In 1972, she made history when she started Kim Eng to become one of the first female stockbrokers in Singapore. In 1992, Forbes magazine named her one of Asia’s 25 “Power Women”.
It is believed that Gloria scraped together S$700,000 in savings and bank loans and bought a seat at the stock exchange, naming it Kim Eng — “Kim” after her late husband Dennis Lee Kim Yew, and “Eng”, the name of a family friend.
Dennis, the brother of Singapore’s Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, founded Singapore’s famed law firm Lee & Lee in 1955, together with Kuan Yew and Kuan Yew’s late wife Kwa Geok Choo.
Today, Gloria’s son, Ronald, is in the driving seat of Kim Eng. Even after disposing of his interest in Kim Eng to Maybank, he will continue to play a role in Kim Eng for at least three years.
The media-shy Ronald started working in Australia, in PriceWaterhouse Sydney, before joining the securities industry. He became director of Kim Eng Securities Pte Ltd (KES), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kim Eng, in 1979. He took over the reins from his mother when she retired as chairman in 2008. Ronald became the chairman and CEO of Kim Eng in August 2008.
Looking at his family’s history with Kim Eng, it is not surprising that he will be staying on after the sale of the stockbroking house to Maybank.
Industry observers describe Ronald as someone who “loves the business very much”.
Kim Eng’s success was very much a concerted family effort. Besides Ronald, Gloria’s other son, Douglas Ooi, also worked in the broking house. Douglas, a former managing director of Kim Eng Securities, retired in 1998.
In January 1990, Kim Eng became the first brokerage to be listed on the Singapore Exchange. According to reports, the IPO attracted over 240,000 investors seeking a slice of the company pie when the shares were put up for sale at S$0.65 each.
After its listing, Kim Eng built a network and reach that has made the group a regional financial powerhouse.
Today, apart from its home ground of Singapore, Kim Eng also has a large operation in Thailand where it is the biggest foreign broker in terms of market share. It is also active in the Philippines and Indonesia.
The broker also has an active presence in Hong Kong, Vietnam, New York, London and India.
Kim Eng has certainly become a household name in the stockbroking industry in this part of the region. What lies ahead for it, following its merger with Malaysia’s largest bank – Maybank — and the exit of its founding family as shareholders, will be a whole new chapter in its history.
This article appeared in Corporate, The Edge Malaysia, Issue 841, Jan 17-23, 2011