Vincent Tan
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Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun (born 1952; 陳志远, pinyin: Chén Zhìyuǎn), commonly known as Vincent Tan, is a businessmen prominent in Malaysia. He is the Chief Executive Officer of Berjaya Industrial Berhad, which controls a wide array of businesses which includes golfing, property, resorts, and gambling in a group known as the Berjaya Group. He will be operating the second pay-TV service in Malaysia, MiTV, which had planned initially for a launch at the end of 2004.
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[edit] Family Background
Vincent Tan came from a family of elite background. They trace their ancestry back to Shantou where his great-grandfather was a rich Teochew merchant who, in the late 19th century, arrived and settled in Singapore. The home in which he settled still stands at Race Course Road.
His grandfather, Frank Tan, migrated to Batu Pahat and operated a shop which was authorised to sell firearms.Tan has a younger brother, Tan Sri Danny Tan Chee Sing who owns & operates Dijaya Corporation Berhad. His two sons, Rayvin Tan Yeong Sheik, and Dato' Robin Tan Yeong Ching are directors within the Berjaya Group Of Companies.
[edit] Berjaya Group
The biggest business concern owned by Mr. Tan is the Berjaya group which is a holding company controlling many businesses. Among them are newspapers, lottery operators, telecommunications companies, pay-TV providers, advertising agency, time share management companies and resort operators.
[edit] DiGi
Mr. Tan no longer holds a significant stake in DiGi Telecommunications. This is the smallest of the three mobile telcos in Malaysia but they remain number 1 in the pre-paid market. The size is determined based on number of scubscribers.
Mr. Tan make a fortune by selling the majority of his DiGI share at RM 6.00 per share somewhere in the middle of 2002. Soon after that DIGI share price has risen to over RM 15.50 as of Feb 2007. It is not known why he sold his share at that price, maybe he fail to see the potential of DIGI, or he is not a business savvy person but one thing for sure, it is a terrible decision. In another hand, Berjaya Group is terriblely to financial the Berjaya Times Square in Kuala Lumpur.
In 2004, DiGi had 21% of the local cellular phone market. However, it held 95% of the pre-paid cellular services market. Innovative programs such as automatically adjusting call rates and low cost reload coupons (RM 10 as opposed to RM 30 for the next competitor) have helped DiGi win the pre-paid market.
Foreign telco Telenor, holds a majority position in DiGi with control of 61% of equity. Vincent Tan comes in next at 21% (now less than 7% as 2006). By October 2006, Telenor is required to reduce its holdings to 49 percent as opposed to the 61 percent it holds now.
With these two giants holding large blocks of equity, DiGi has been in contravention of the listing requirements of the Bursa KL for a 25% public shareholding spread. They have be contravention for almost three years. This requirement has not been enforced since they have applied for repeated extensions of the shareholding spread requirement deadline.
[edit] Gambling Concession
Tan also runs a concession providing numbers forecasting (or lottery) games through Berjaya Sports Toto Berhad, which competes with Pan Malaysian Pools Sendirian Berhad and Magnum Corporation Berhad.
Under the Mahathir administration he was provided another concession.
This was a complicated matter since Malaysia has an Muslim majority and Islam forbids gambling. The Islamic opposition party, PAS, has made closing Malaysia's sole legal casino one of its election promises.
However, the previous government also found this a complicated matter as the same Mr. Tan was granted a similar license in 1987 along with a British joint-venture partner known as Mecca Bookmakers. Three outlets were opened, but the license was suspended a year later. Mr. Tan surrendered the license, but secured a "first right" to owning it should the government change its position.
The license to was issued to operate a 20-year concession on "off-site" betting in June 2003. License fees amounting to RM 25 million were paid to the government in September 2003. As of October 2004, the new government has not decided to issue the permit yet.
Mr. Tan had declared publicly that legalising other forms of betting was a good way to curb illegal gambling and this would generate additional tax income for the government.
Since then, Vincent Tan has operated the Sports Betting internationally on the internet through Ascot International, a company based in the Isle of Man, making approval from the Malaysian Government unnecessary.
[edit] MiTV
MiTV obtained a license to operate a second pay-TV service in Malaysia, thus ending Astro's monopoly on the market. Vincent Tan owns a "greater than 40%" stake in the privately owned company with the rest of the shares being held by founder and Chairman Rosman Ridzwan and other undisclosed individuals.
MiTV aims to provide 50 television channels and predicts a break-even at 180,000 subscribers. The incumbent, Astro, has 1.28 million subscribers with 40 audio-visual channels and 16 audio channels. ASTRO posted a net profit of 38 million for 2003 in its first year of listing.
MiTV has been granted MSC status.
Particularly sensitive are early rumours that MiTV plans to use Digital Video Broadcast for Return Channel Terrestrial (DVB-RCT), otherwise known as Interactive DTTV for transmission. The technology is provided by Runcom Technologies Ltd. The fact that Runcom is an Israeli company may have potential implications in Malaysia. Runcom has stated that it will provide technology for MiTV [1] but MiTV has not made any statements about this.
After a few false start for the station, MiTV was finally launched on 5th September 2005.
MiTV now plans to launch a second generation set-top box that will retail for around US$100. This should seal its position in the pay-TV area, given that it will potentially offer better choice for current pay-TV viewers.
Vincent Tan has invested hundred of millions in this company. However, after many years, it is still making big losses. According to the Star newspaper, half of the employees of MITV have been laid off due to the financial constraint and lack of performance in the company. Vincent Tan will have a hard time to complete with Astro the country largest pay TV station. Based on the current situation, it will be a miracle if MITV can survived.
