The world’s shrewdest businessman – Founder of Shangri-La Mr. Kuok

As versatile as he is smart, the urbane Robert Kuok runs luxury hotels, trades commodities on a huge scale and invests brilliantly. Now he’s going to get the Chinese hooked on Coca-Cola.

The amazing Mr. Kuok – The world’s shrewdest businessman by Andrew Tanzer

 IN 1993 THE COCA-COLA CO. was ready to invade part of China in a big way, but this is tricky turf. Coke understood that China could be a gold mine or a disaster. It needed a savvy local partner.At stake was the right to bottle Coke in an area stretching across north and southwest China and inhabited by 450 million people. But pushing that quintessentially American product into the depths of China took careful handling.Let’s put this in perspective: The license to bottle Coke in the Philippines, population 70 million, recently sold for $2.6 billion. By this standard, the China deal could in time be worth $8 billion. Every capitalist in Asia coveted the deal.

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