Ananda Krishnan was the founding director of Petronas, and in fact was reportedly the voice that sold the idea of the Petronas Twin Towers to then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.
He is the sole owner and proprietor of Usaha Tegas Berhad. And it is through this company that he holds business interests in Astro, MEASAT satellites, a hand in oil and gas from his stake in Bumi Armada and previously, TGV Cinemas.
However, his stake in Tanjong Public Limited Company helped retain his wealth, operating on everything from Powertek (power generation), property, lottery, and leisure.
On top of that, Forbes lists that he is well known for being one of Malaysia’s biggest givers, either through his private or listed companies, though tagging an accurate figure proves difficult due to a lack of revealed data.
Currently, he is wanted by India’s Supreme Court due to a federal investigation into the circumstances to which he acquire Aircel, which he is now attempting to merge with a company called Reliance Communications to relax some burdens on debt. Ananda Krishnan denies any wrongdoing, however.
He also has links to 1MDB.
Ananda Krishnan is also owns Maxis, which in part, along with Bumi Armada and the uncertainty around Aircel contributed to his drop in wealth from second place.
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