12. CHIA SONG KUN AND FAMILY Flagship: QL Resources Bhd Net worth: RM6.1bil

THE earnings of the Chia family soared by RM2.1bil or 51.1% in

2018, placing the family four notches higher at 12th position on the list compared with 16 in

2017.

Led by Chia Song Kun, QL Resources has propelled from a local feedstuff trader to a reputable multinational agro-food corporation. It operates three core businesses, integrated livestock farming, marine products manufacturing and palm oil activities as well as one sub-sector, the FamilyMart franchise.

The success of QL and its businesses lies in the group’s replication strategy, which involves the deployment of technology, capital and management expertise into populous emerging markets. Even though QL operates and supplies in Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and China, its market penetration is transcontinental.

Organic growth and a series of strategic acquisitions has driven QL’s rise to become one of Malaysia’s leading operators in animal feed raw materials and poultry farming. Currently, the building of a new integrated layer farm in Raub is undergoing expansion to enlarge capacity by 30% to 650,000 eggs per day. This extension will increase the investment cost to RM70mil from the allocated RM50mil.

QL is also the largest producer of surimi in Asia as well as the largest fish meal and surimi-based products manufacturer in Malaysia. With the expansion of its Hutan Melintang marine unit in Perak, works for new chilled surimi-based product plant and frozen products factories were completed by March last year at a RM100mil investment.

With the new plants, the capacity for chilled surimi-based products have doubled to 25,000 tonnes per year while frozen products will see an increase to 35,000 tonnes per year.

On the palm oil activities front, QL is the leading independent crude palm oil miller in Sabah.

It has a 1,200ha matured oil palm estate in Sabah and also a 20,000ha oil palm plantation in East Kalimantan of which 5,000ha are mature.

As for its FamilyMart convenience store chain, the group aims to hit 89 stores by end of this month with the opening of an additional 50 stores.

Market valuations-wise for QL remained high with a price to earnings at above 50 times. All the three core operations are expected to grow at stable and healthy rates of 5%-8% supported by among others, the new surimi plants, the expanded poultry layer unit and feed mills in Vietnam, 60% prime age palm palm profile with 15% growth in fresh fruit bunch yields as well as the opening of more new FamilyMart stores.