YTL Corporation's CEO Tan Sri Dato' Francis Yeoh on providing world-class products at third-world prices

Abstract

Executive OverviewIn March 2002 YTL Corporation made business headlines in the Western media when it acquired successful British utility Wessex Water against impressive competition with a £ 1.2 billion bid. Although comparatively unknown outside Malaysia, the company is a local success story whose sustained growth and profitability reflect the skills and values of three generations of the Yeoh family. Yeoh Cheng Liam founded a timber business in the 1920s, and his son, Yeoh Tiong Lay (whose initials form the company name) expanded into construction of army housing, schools, and commercial buildings as Malaysia modernized during the 1960s. By the 1980s, the company was designing, raising capital for, and building hospitals, universities, residential properties, high-rise office buildings, industrial facilities, and other infrastructure projects. In 1993 it became the first independent power producer (IPP) in Malaysia. Tiong Lay's eldest son, Francis Yeoh, completed a civil engineering Honours degree in Eng...