35. LIM HAN WENG Flagship: Yinson Holdings Bhd Net Worth: RM1.3bil

NEW entrant Lim Han Weng,

67, makes it into the rich list via his 28.3% direct stake in his floating production, storage and offloading vessel

(FPSO) company, Yinson.

Lim is the son of Chinese nationals who emigrated to Malaysia on a rickety boat with only the clothes on their backs and hopes of building a better life for their family.

Lim’s father started off by selling Chinese medicine in Kampung Bakar Arang, Sungai Petani, and eventually earned enough to buy a small piece of land to grow rubber and oil palm trees.

Lim built Yinson from scratch in 1983, and it started off as a small transport and logistics company in Johor Baru.

He developed and grew it over the years, and got a break into the big league – marine transportation – in 2010.

Yinson thus ventured into the marine transport business to complement its transport and logistics services.

The following year, Yinson entered the oil and gas (O&G) industry by forming a consortium with PetroVietnam Technical Services Corp, which was subsequently awarded a contract for the charter of a floating storage and offloading vessel (FSO).

This paved the way for Yinson to win a contract for the charter of an FPSO, which are essentially vessels that store and process oil.

Today, Yinson is a global company and the sixth-largest active floating FPSO provider in the world, with a fleet size of five FPSOs and one FSO.

Today, Yinson engages in the ownership and operation of ships, trading, leasing and sub-leasing of vessels on a bareboar and time-charter basis, the provision of consulting services relating to ship management, the provision of FPSO vessels for chartering and service activities incidental to O&G extraction, and shipping and vessel chartering activities.

It has operations in Malaysia, Asia, Africa and Norway.

It has been a busy 2019 for Yinson so far. Just earlier this month, Yinson was awarded contracts for the charter, operations and maintenance of an FPSO vessel amounting to an estimated US$901.79mil (RM3.67bil) for use at the Anyala and Madu fields in Nigeria.

The FPSO contracts, awarded by First Exploration & Petroleum Development Co Ltd (First E&P), are for a firm period of seven years, followed by a two-year and six yearly extension options exercisable by First E&P.