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Party In Question: Malaysian Dealmaker And Ex-Party Boy Jho Low Turns To Philanthropy

This article is more than 9 years old.

This story appears in the March 1, 2015 issue of Forbes Asia. Subscribe to Forbes Asia

By Ashlea Ebeling and Neerja Pawha Jetley

Jho Low's party days may be over, but he's still the talk of the town in Kuala Lumpur. He's in the middle of a big political brouhaha, thanks to two deals he did with a friend who goes back to his English boarding school days, the prime minister's stepson. He's also been in the middle of some multibillion-dollar deals in recent years. And the wealth of his extended family, which may top $1.8 billion, will always attract attention.

But these days the former party boy is trying to make a name for himself as a philanthropist. He set up a family foundation in 2012 that has handed out nearly $30 million. He's also donated $5 million personally over the years. He says the foundation is committed to giving away more than $100 million over 15 years. "Philanthropy is cool. It's trendy. Is it good for business? Is it good for p.r.? Yes!" he says emphatically.

His older sister and her kids are at the family's $31 million Central Park West apartment in New York City, so instead Low and his public relations aide meet FORBES ASIA in the 35th-floor presidential suite at the Park Lane Hotel on Central Park South, acquired in one of the latest real estate deals he's inked. "It needs updating," he says, from a blue-fringed couch.

Like his image. The party animal moniker will probably stick with Low, now 33, thanks to a night spent clubbing with Paris Hilton in Saint-Tropez in 2010. He wants people to know the real Jho Low--his mama's favorite (he's the youngest of three), who trained and showed a pet bull terrier as a child.

That year Low and his brother, Szen, set up Hong Kong-registered Jynwel Capital, an advisory firm for the family's investments. There clearly is a lot of money to invest. Their grandfather Low Meng Tak was born in China, immigrated to Malaysia and then made a fortune mining iron ore and operating liquor distilleries in Thailand. He later added rubber, cocoa and palm oil plantations in Malaysia. He also married into a Thai business fortune. Their dad, Low Hock Peng, or Larry Low, expanded the family's Asian property holdings to New Zealand, the U.S. and the U.K.

With Jynwel Capital the brothers' goal was to consolidate the family's assets so they could do bigger deals. Jho Low got his start in real estate deals and leveraged buyouts, bringing in Middle Eastern money from friends he made while at Harrow and then as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. Low, who is a Malaysian citizen but lives in Hong Kong, and his brother have orchestrated big energy, media and hotel deals. Notable property successes have been the Oval condominium project in Kuala Lumpur and an investment in the Iskandar development in Johor. All this has added to the pile built by the first and second generations--Low's lawyers supplied financial statements to FORBES backing up the $1.8 billion estimate of the family fortune. But because the wealth is widely dispersed--the grandfather had 7 children and 15 grandchildren, and there are now more than 50 members of the extended family--and is held jointly in various trusts, no individual in the Low family qualifies for our annual list of Malaysia's richest.

It's his wheeling and dealing that is putting Low on front pages these days. In 2010 he bought real estate in New York and Beverly Hills, and two years later he sold it for a profit of more than $20 million. The buyer for two of the properties was Riza Aziz, the prime minister's stepson. Now the opposition in Malaysia wants Prime Minister Najib Razak to come clean on his family's connections to Low and with Low's dealings with the debt-ridden, state-owned investment fund, 1Malaysia Development Bhd. Low was an advisor to the fund that preceded 1MDB but hasn't been on the board or in any official position at the new fund. "I am being unnecessarily dragged into the political crossfire and affairs of 1MDB when I never had any decision making role in it," he says.

Just as he brings friends into his business deals as investors, he hopes to eventually bring them into the philanthropy fold, too, as donors to the Jynwel Charitable Foundation. Now, he says, his business meetings always include charity talk. He wants to inspire businesspeople to approach charity with the same intensity as they do business.

His first major act of philanthropy was a personal donation of $1 million to the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, where he was treated in a cancer scare that turned out to be an infection in 2012. His brother took over the day-to-day running of Jynwel Capital while Low set up the foundation. Here's where the money is going.

--A $50 million, 15-year pledge to the cancer center for an oncology expert-advisor program connecting cancer patients and their doctors to experts globally. That might have helped Low's grandfather, who died of leukemia in 2013. Low credits his grandfather with his turnaround. After the Paris Hilton press, he says, "I was sat down by my grandfather, and he gave me a talking-to: 'Being showy and flamboyant is not something you want to do.' "

--$5 million over five years to the National Geographic Pristine Seas program, which aims to preserve pristine parts of the oceans and restore other parts. Low says movie star Leonardo DiCaprio introduced him to the lead explorer, Enric Sala.

--$20 million over ten years to New York-based Panthera, which works to protect tigers and other wildcats.

--$25 million over 15 years to the IRIN humanitarian news agency, which the UN stopped funding last year.

What's next? Low says he's talking to his alma mater, Wharton, about creating a graduate program in sustainable businesses that provide social impact but make money. Maybe the students will come up with some great ideas that Jynwel Capital can invest in, he muses.