Former sugar trader Robert Kuok entered shipping in the late 1960s when he and Hong Kong shipping legend Frank Tsao convinced the Malaysian government to allow them to set up the country’s national shipping company.

In an excerpt from his memoirs, featured in Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post last week, the 94-year-old billionaire describes how the two founders of Malaysia International Shipping Co (MISC) came to be in business together.

Realising he had no knowledge of shipping, Kuok approached Tsao, who headed International Maritime Carriers (IMC), to bring him on board as a partner.

Tsao’s initial response was far from encouraging.

“He was virtually saying, ‘Who are you? I’ve turned down people way ahead of you in the pecking order in Malaysia’,” he wrote.

It was only after Kuok got up to leave that Tsao relented and the two got down to business.

“To this day, I don’t know what made Frank change his mind,” Kuok said.

On numerous occasions, Tsao has taken delight in recounting the reaction their plans received at British-owned Straits Steamship Co in Singapore, which at the time held a monopoly on shipping lanes in Malaysia.

Straits Steamship’s chairman glared at the pair of Asian businessmen and stated that he would only “allow” MISC to operate a single ship. Anymore than that, he said, and he would run them into the ground.

Tsao ends the tale by reminding his audience that Straits Steamship subsequently went out of business, while MISC is today one of the world’s largest energy transporters.

Kuok now reveals that to win the Malaysian government contract the two partners beat the front runner, Blue Funnel Line, that owned Straits Steamship — which could explain the hostile reception they received.

“We were like a dark horse coming from behind in the last furlong and pipping the favourite at the post,” he said.

Kuok went on to establish his own shipping empire, one of the largest privately owned outfits in Asia today. Tsao still heads IMC, which has retained a significant presence in shipping, but has grown to become a much larger, diversified business conglomerate.