22. TAN SRI AZMAN HASHIM Flagship: Amcorp Group Net worth: RM2.58bil

SYNONYMOUS with the Arab Malaysian Group, Azman saw his fortunes increase by some 5% in 2018.

A chartered accountant-turned-banker, the 80-year-old who is fondly known as the “singing banker” within corporate circles due largely to his love for singing, moved up three rungs from his 25th position as Malaysia’s richest person in 2017.

Back in 1982, Azman bought a 40% stake in Taiping Textiles, which later became ArabMalaysian Development Bhd.

In that same year, Azman bought ArabMalaysian Development Bank, which later morphed into Arab-Malaysian Merchant Bank Bhd or AMMB.

Azman holds the entire stake in Amcorp group, which is into financial services, property and engineering, information technology, and consumer goods and services.

Within the financial services sector, Azman is the second-largest shareholder with an effective 13% stake in AMMB, which controls AmBank, AmInvestment Bank, AmIslamic Bank, AmSecurities and AMMB Nominees. Azman, via Amcorp group, has a 58% stake in RCE Capital Bhd and a 6.1% stake in AmFirst Reits, while AMMB has 26.7% in AmFirst Reits.

Within the property and engineering sector, Azman through the Amcorp group has a 69% stake in Amcorp Properties Bhd and a 72.4% stake in Amcorp Properties-PA.

In the IT sector, Azman owns 100% of MCM Technologies.

In the consumer and services space, he has 100% interests in Harpers Travel and Restoran Seri Melayu and a 90% interest in Amcorp Auto.