This story is section of Forbes’ protection of Malaysia’s Richest 2023. Test out the elephantine listing right here.
Faded Malaysian army officer turned into entrepreneur Syed Azman Syed Ibrahim has ambitious expansion plans for his Weststar Aviation Services and products and its offshore choppers, whose customers already consist of oil giants like ExxonMobil and Shell.
Syed Azman Syed Ibrahim is firing on all cylinders. His privately held Weststar Community and its portfolio of interests in offshore helicopter products and companies, vehicle dealerships and F&B stores, is staking out a multi-pronged procedure to enlarge its chopper expeditiously, ranking inroads into unusual markets and enhance gross sales of sustainable vehicles.
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The centerpiece of the conception is flagship Weststar Aviation Services and products, which has 34 helicopters (it agreed to buy 5 more in Might maybe maybe maybe), making it the 2d-largest offshore products and companies operator within the Asia-Pacific location, per India-basically based market study firm Imarc Community. Ibrahim, who founded and owns the Ampang, Malaysia-basically based Weststar Community, has lofty targets. “In ten years we are attempting to be the largest helicopter operator on the planet,” he says.
Weststar’s choppers are frail to ferry executives, crew and gives for the oil and gasoline industry, as successfully as for pipe- and power-line inspections, trees surveys and clinical evacuation, normally in areas that are inaccessible or subtle to attain by different forms of transportation. It has bases in Southeast Asia, the Heart East and Africa, and clients consist of Malaysian voice oil firm Petronas and industry giants Shell and ExxonMobil. A separate unit, Weststar In model Aviation, owns two jets and a helicopter for VIP transportation.
“In ten years we are attempting to be the largest helicopter operator on the planet,” Ibrahim says. Flying over the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Jeffry Lim for Forbes asia
Ibrahim, 63, now owns 100% of Weststar Aviation Services and products after attempting to search out inspire a 21% stake from personal equity broad KKR in March in a deal that he says valued the unit at 4 billion ringgit ($890 million). The entrepreneur, No. 24 on the listing of Malaysia’s 50 Richest with an estimated rep price of $825 million, serves as neighborhood managing director of Weststar Community and chairman of Weststar Aviation Services and products.
The worldwide market for offshore helicopter products and companies is anticipated to enlarge to $3.1 billion by 2028 from $2.5 billion in 2022, per a tale from Dublin-basically based Research & Markets. Ibrahim’s conception involves investing $250 million to develop the replacement of helicopters he owns and leases by simply about 30% over the next two years. His expeditiously of mostly midsized choppers involves airplane made by European aerospace broad Airbus and Italy’s Leonardo.
Ibrahim is additionally looking for unusual markets to cleave inspire Weststar’s dependence on Malaysia. “We’re attempting to search out strategic merchants who can support us develop out of the country,” the ragged army officer says. “We now bear got spoken to some merchants within the Heart East.”
Ibrahim’s plans for his auto agencies are in a similar model ambitious.
The firm launched a strategic partnership in March with Helicopter & Cooperation SAS, a joint mission between French Avico Community and Namibia-basically based Westair Aviation, a deal that is meant to enable it to expand its presence within the oil and gasoline industry in Europe and Africa. Ibrahim says the firm is particularly in Namibia, Equatorial Guinea and Mauritania in Africa, as successfully as Guyana and Suriname on the north wing of South The US, and Indonesia.
At the identical time, Weststar Aviation Services and products is branching into chartering choppers to governments. Closing One year it leased four helicopters to the Royal Malaysian Air Force. It says four more can be delivered by early 2024, whereas an further three can be lowered in size to the Malaysian authorities. Below these agreements, the air pressure and authorities feature the airplane however they’re owned and maintained by Weststar Aviation Services and products.
The firm is a “successfully-established and skilled player,” says Matthieu Guisolphe, gross sales director for Southeast Asia at Asian Sky Community, a Hong Kong-basically based aviation consultancy. “They are a proven and solid operator with a most up-to-date expeditiously.”
Nonetheless, there are about a clouds within the rapidly-witted outlook. “They are no longer the ideal ones attempting to net into more moderen markets,” says Dennis Lau, Asian Sky Community’s consultancy products and companies director. “The helicopter products and companies market is terribly fragmented,” he says, “[and] very competitive, particularly when it involves bidding for oil and gasoline contracts.” Finding the upright partners will additionally be a explain, he provides.
Ibrahim with a Weststar Maxus G10. He is the enthralling distributor for China’s Maxus vehicles in Malaysia via Weststar Maxus.
Jeffry Lim for Forbes asia
Ibrahim’s plans for his auto agencies, which he says bear a consolidated income of 315 million ringgit, are in a similar model ambitious. He is the enthralling distributor for China’s Maxus vehicles in Malaysia via Weststar Maxus. Ibrahim plans to add more dealerships to grab distribution of Maxus electrical and hybrid vehicles, which he expects will story for 20% of Maxus gross sales this One year. His Weststar Auto is a supplier for Japan’s Honda, and Weststar Motors sells imported luxury vehicles.
On the F&B front, Ibrahim’s oldest son, Syed Muhammad Arif, manages nine Wolf & Turtle espresso stores in Malaysia and plans to more than triple the replacement of stores by 2025 (three of Ibrahim’s seven formative years and one son-in-law are enraged about his agencies). Ibrahim additionally has upscale Thai restaurants in shopping division retailers below the Absolute Thai stamp that he operates with a companion. He declined to liberate financial records for most of his companies.
Ibrahim entered the commerce world in 1994 after serving as an officer for 13 years within the Royal Intelligence Corps of the Malaysian Armed Forces. He invested 200,000 ringgit to delivery importing frail luxury vehicles from Europe to sell in Malaysia. In 2002 he turned into a distributor for Honda, and in 2011 Maxus came on board.
Ready for Takeoff?
Weststar Aviation Services and products, with a solid footing within the Asia-Pacific market for offshore helicopter products and companies, now seeks to develop further afield.
Source: Imarc Community
His first brush with aviation turned into once in 2002, when he offered one whirlybird for $1.5 million. That turned into once largely for private exercise, however Ibrahim says he additionally wished to esteem the operational costs and regulatory requirements wanted to feature helicopters for commercial exercise.
He scaled up after realizing there turned into once mighty ability for helicopter products and companies within the oil and gasoline sector (Malaysia is the 2d-largest oil and gasoline producer by output in Southeast Asia, per the U.S. Vitality Facts Administration). By 2011 he had 11 choppers and two years later KKR turned into an investor.
In the meantime, Ibrahim is downplaying reports last One year that he’s pondering an IPO for Weststar Aviation Services and products. “We’re no longer in a bustle to pursue a public checklist,” he says. “We’re going to net a procedure to handiest fabricate it when the timing is upright.”
As for his aim of being the largest helicopter operator on the planet, he faces stiff competitors; about a of the largest worldwide players bear more than 200 airplane. Nonetheless Ibrahim is unfazed: “This commerce is no longer about who has the most choppers,” he says. “It is additionally about who has the ideal pilots, the ideal engineers, the ideal security files and cheap profits.”
