Media-shy David Teoh among nation’s top 20 billionaires

David Teoh is one of Australia’s most reclusive billionaires, but he is also one of the best dealmakers among the nation’s elite.

Artwork: Sturt Krygsman.

David Teoh is probably one of Australia’s most reclusive billionaires, but he is also one of the best dealmakers among the nation’s wealthy elite.

The TPG Telecom chairman watched his wealth from his shareholding climb by more than $400 million to reach about $2.72 billion yesterday, after agreeing to a $15bn merger of equals with Vodafone Hutchison Australia.

Teoh and his family could also share in a special cash dividend worth an estimated $100m-$150m that will be distributed prior to the merger, which is slated for completion next year.

It all adds up to enough for Teoh and wife Vicky to be among the top 20 richest Australians.

Another billionaire, Robert Millner, chairman of investment company Washington H. Soul Pattison, has been a backer of Teoh’s since his listed SP Telemedia merged in 2008 with Teoh’s then private internet services provider TPG for $150m cash and SP shares worth about $95m.

“I would probably be the one in the corporate world that would know him best,” Millner told The Australian. “I think David is very astute and driven and is a step ahead of everyone else in the telco world.

“Like a few of us out there he keeps to himself a bit and doesn’t like the limelight that comes with being a public company and the attention gets sprung on you a bit. But he has been very successful.”

Others with knowledge of the inner-workings at TGP say Teoh has little ego, absolutely despises the limelight and is not a classic type-A entrepreneur like many brash, confident types who dominate the rich list. “But he is an aggressive businessman and is relentless, (one) who can see the big picture and thinks several steps ahead, to keep building a substantial business step after step,” one source said.

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Teoh, who moved his family to Australia from Malaysia in 1986, is famous for his constant refusal to be photographed and has gone to great lengths to avoid being in front of the lens, including at public gatherings such as annual general meetings. Instead, he has staked his reputation on his corporate record, which began with Total Peripherals Group, which sold custom-build computers to government departments from an assembly line in Sydney’s North Ryde and started the internet business in 1992 after buying ­Csironet.

A string of acquisitions have followed, including AAPT, iiNet and PIPE Networks, but Teoh is said to have kept a hawkish eye on costs at head office and negotiates contracts hard.

Millner said the Vodafone deal will be beneficial for shareholders in that it removes any nagging doubts about TPG’s ability to compete with the big telcos.

Time will tell, though, whether Teoh will have the same element of control as he did at TPG, given he will be chairman of the combined entity — Vodafone’s Inaki Berroeta will be CEO — and have his stake diluted to 17 per cent; he has 34 per cent share in TPG.

Millner says Teoh’s son Shane, who also will be a director of the new group, is cut from the same cloth. “He is like a shadow of his father and he is a very astute and talented young man.”