Sunway ‘sniffing around’ for opportunities: Tycoon Jeffrey Cheah wants business to last 10 generations
After weathering two crises, Sunway’s founder pairs professional management with slow-burn succession to keep the business and family intact
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Inside Asia’s family empires: How they are transforming to seize the next stage of growth
[HO CHI MINH CITY] Sunway Group’s founder and chairman Dr Jeffrey Cheah was running out of cash and options when help arrived from Singapore.
Twice, the business he built came close to collapse. The first was in 1985, when a brutal economic recession in Malaysia pushed his fledgling business to the brink. The second was worse: during the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s, his borrowings swelled to what he now calls “stupid” levels – gearing hit 200 per cent, while interest rates spiked as high as 28 per cent.
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