Meet Asia’s newest billionaire: a Minimart titan

Born in 1964 in the Malaysian city of Klang, Lee grew up in a family of 11 children. His parents, a construction worker and a street vendor, struggled to make ends meet, according to Bloomberg. Lee contracted polio as a child and lost the use of his legs, making it difficult to find work. He turned to entrepreneurship, selling snacks from a stall to support himself.

“I have to help myself. No one would hire me because of my physical limitation,” Lee told Forbes in 2010.

He opened his first grocery store in 1987 at the age of 23. Over the next decade, his business grew into a chain of eight stores under the name Pasar Mini 99.

Lee’s wife, Ng Lee Tieng, joined the company in 1997 as director of procurement. Together, they built what would become Malaysia’s largest mini-mart chain, with 2,651 stores nationwide, according to the company’s IPO prospectus.

Until this week’s IPO, the couple fully owned the business. Lee will remain its majority shareholder, controlling up to a combined 79.7% stake. He will continue as CEO of the company. Ng will hold a 3.2% stake in the company.

The company has a 40 percent share of Malaysia’s convenience store market and controls nearly 12 percent of the total food sector, according to the prospectus.

The IPO attracted 14 major investors, including firms such as abrdn Asia and UOB Asset Management, Bloomberg reported. The company plans to use more than half of the IPO proceeds to add another 250 stores a year until it reaches about 3,000 outlets in three years, set up new distribution centers and buy new delivery trucks.

The company posted a profit of 125.5 ringgit in the second quarter – a 66.3 percent increase from last year, Reuters reported on Monday. 99 Speed ​​Mart also posted revenue of more than 9,000 million ringgit in 2023, more than four times that of its main competitor, 7-Eleven Malaysia, according to its IPO prospectus.

99 Speed ​​Mart did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.