21 TAN SRI NGAU BOON KEAT

Flagship: Dialog Group Bhd Net worth: RM2.882bil THE co-founder and executive chairman of Dialog saw his net worth rising by more than RM1bil last year, thanks to the recovery in global crude oil prices and increasing jobs from Pengerang, Johor.

Ngau was catapulted to the 21st spot on Malaysia’s top-40 richest list in 2017, up from the 30th spot in the preceding year after his net worth rose 65.5% to RM2.882bil from RM1.741bil in 2016.

This was in tandem with the increase in Dialog’s share price, which registered a gain of 65% in 2017 to end at RM2.51, with a market capitalisation of RM14.2bil.

The 70-year-old, who co-founded Dialog in 1984, owns a 20.3% stake in the Main Board-listed company that started as an integrated technical services provider to the upstream, midstream and downstream sectors in the oil, gas and petrochemical industry.

Over the years, Dialog, under Ngau’s leadership, has transformed into a global oil and gas (O&G) services provider specialising in storage tank terminals, engineering services and crude refining facility with presence across Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, China, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia and UAE.

The location of the deepwater terminal in Pengerang has placed Dialog in a position to tap into a market that includes multinational oil majors, national oil companies as well as multinational engineering and services providers worldwide.

Ngau’s ambitious foray to build a deepwater oil-services hub in Pengerang, Johor started several years ago. His vision was to build an O&G deepwater storage terminal and position it as Asia’s version of the Rotterdam Port.

Dialog will remain busy with work in the Pengerang deepwater terminal associated with the handling, storage and distribution of crude oil and byproducts of the refinery and petrochemicals integrated development complex for the next few years.