“Big-spending” Malaysian in New York?

Interesting story here from the gossip pages of the New York Post.

The Post links Low Taek Jho, who studied in Wharton, to UBG Bhd, a listed firm.

Curious, I looked up the UBG Annual Report for 2008 and found that there is a 27-year-old group advisor/non-independent non-executive director by that name. “He currently serves as group advisor of several international corporations, involved in global private equity, mergers and acquisitions, buyout, government-togovernment offset structured investments and financing, networking and financial aid, amongst others.”

Must be some 27-year-old. Check out his ’stock pick’ from 2000.

Low is a representative of Majestic Masterpiece Sdn Bhd and Abu Dhabi-Kuwait-Malaysia Investment Corporation (ADKM), a 53 per cent shareholder of UBG.

UBG, whose chairman is Mahmud Abu Bekir Taib (son of Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud), has acquired a couple of CMS companies in Sarawak.

Apart from this, UBG also has an 86 per cent stake in Putrajaya Perdana Bhd and an 80 per cent interest in Loh and Loh Corp.

Putrajaya Perdana Bhd is a property development and construction firm and UBG is obviously hoping that PPB will open new doors for the group. Over the last year, PPB has opened branch offices in Abu Dhabi, Kuching and in the Iskandar Malaysia region.

And why would ADKM and UBG be interested in Loh and Loh Corp?

Simple. Big money projects are in the (water) pipeline. Notice that Loh and Loh are involved in dams and water infrastructure.

The Star reports:

Loh & Loh has vast experience in building dams and other water-related infrastructure in Malaysia over the past 30 years. The company runs its water and waste-water mechanical and electrical engineering services through Water Engineering Technology Sdn Bhd.

The Government has budgeted billions of ringgit for water and sewerage jobs under the Ninth Malaysia Plan.

Estimates put the amount of money needed for upgrading water supply services in the country between 2000 and 2050 at about RM77bil as demand for water in the country is expected to increased by some 60% during the period.