Career
In 1960, Khoo restarted his career in banking by founding Malayan Banking[7] (now commonly known as Maybank) with a few partners in Kuala Lumpur. The bank grew rapidly to more than 150 branches within three years.
In 1963, the bank purchased Goodwood Park Hotel in Singapore for S$4.8 million.[5]
From 1964 to 1965, Khoo was a senator in the Malaysian parliament.[8]
In 1965, he was ousted from Maybank by the Malaysian government, under Deputy Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak, on the pretext of pumping the bank's money into his own private firm in Singapore.[9]
In 1968, Khoo purchased Maybank's Singapore properties, including Goodwood Park Hotel and Central Properties, for S$50 million.[5]
In 1976, he ceased to be a director at Maybank.[5]
In 1981, Khoo bought Australia's Southern Pacific Hotel Corporation—parent of the Travelodge chain—using funds from the National Bank of Brunei, which he had opened in the 1960s.[5] He sold it in 1988 as part of his asset liquidation process to make restitution to the Bruneian government.[9]
After the death of the former Sultan Omar in 1986, Sultan Hassanal arranged for an investigation into the finances of the National Bank, leading to its closure.[10] Khoo had allegedly taken unsecured and undocumented loans of more than £300 million from the bank. He was never charged,[8] but his son Khoo Ban Hock served two years in prison for his role in the affair.[10]
In 1986, an opportunity arose when, as a white knight, Khoo made an acquisition of a 5% stake in the British bank Standard Chartered, being one of three financiers who came to the bank's rescue to stave off a hostile takeover by Lloyds Bank.[11] He subsequently grew his stake to almost 15%, to become the single largest shareholder.
In 1990, Khoo made a contribution of S$10 million to the Singapore government's 25th anniversary charity fund—in support of children, the elderly, and the disabled. He was listed as Singapore's richest businessman by the business magazine Forbes in 2003.
In 2004, after Khoo died at Mount Elizabeth Hospital from a heart attack, it was revealed that he had a bigger stake in three of his listed companies—Goodwood Park, Hotel Malaysia, and Central Properties—than was disclosed to the Singapore Exchange. His daughters, Jacqueline and Elizabeth, who were in management positions at the companies, were fined a total of S$500,000.[9] Khoo left his Standard Chartered stake, then approximately 11.5%, to his children. In March 2006, they sold[12] it to Singapore's Temasek Holdings.
