17. TAN SRI NGAU BOON KEAT Flagship: Dialog Group Net worth: RM3.51bil

NGAU’S fortunes rose by nearly

22% last year amid challenging times faced by the oil and gas sector.

His net worth was higher at RM3.51bil last year from

RM2.88bil a year earlier. With that he becomes the 17th richest Malaysian from the 21st spot earlier.

At 70, he is still actively steering Dialog Group, a company which he co-founded and is now the executive chairman.

He has a 20% stake in Dialog.

Dialog Group is an oil and gas services provider that specialises in storage-tank terminals, engineering services and crude refining.

It also is a top pick among the oil and gas sector companies of some research houses. Of the 15 analysts covering this stock as compiled by Bloomberg, ten have a “buy” call.

They like the “recurring income business model and earnings visibility. It has a strong track record of taking calculated and rewarding risks.’’

“Dialog remains a secular growth story with the ability to scale up its terminal operations via its Pengerang/Langsat and potentially overseas ventures while still managing its financials well,’’ according to an analyst.

For the full year ended June 30, 2018, Dialog’s net profit grew to RM510.3mil from RM370.64mil a year earlier. Revenue dipped to RM3.11bil from RM3.39bil a year earlier.

Dialog has a market capitalisation of RM17.94bil and its share price is trading at RM3.18 a share.

Over the next two years, maintenance activities in the oil and gas space are expected to rise, so is cost pressure, reports have said.

With that background, Dialog will focus on diversifying across the value chain with regard to its oil and gas business to reduce earnings volatility. It will continue to work towards integrating the upstream-midstream-downstream aspects of its oil and gas businesses, said a report.

The underlying rationale for that is to reduce earnings cyclicality in the context of pursuing structural growth, as a cyclical upswing in one sector can offset a cyclical downswing elsewhere, says an analyst report.

Ngau, an engineer by profession, is very much the face of Dialog.

He was also one of those who negotiated the first production sharing contract (PSC) way back in 1974. A report said the sealing of that contract helped change the course of the oil and gas industry in Malaysia.

Ngau is also said to be a philanthropist at heart. He set up MyKasih Foundation, a non-profit organisation, which helps less-fortunate Malaysians in terms of food aid, health awareness, financial literacy programmes, children’s education and even skills training programs, a report says.