David Siang Hai Teoh is an Australian businessman. Until March 26, 2021, he was the executive chairman of TPG, a company he founded with his Taiwanese wife Vicky in 1992 after emigrating from

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

in 1986. He is also the founder and executive chairman of Tuas Limited, who owns Simba Telecom, a telecommunications company in Singapore.

Biography

TPG started off as a computer retail company, but several acquisitions including the purchase of a mobile spectrum licence, have contributed to its success as a major internet service provider. In August 2018, Teoh announced TPG was in discussions with Vodafone Hutchinson Australia about a proposed $13 billion merger. Teoh's only comment about the proposed merger was that the pricing would be “very aggressive” and that it would bring value to the customer. It was blocked by the

Australian Competition & Consumer Commission The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is the chief competition regulator of the Government of Australia, located within the Department of the Treasury. It was established in 1995 with the amalgamation of the Australian Tra ...

on the grounds that it would lessen

consumer choice The theory of consumer choice is the branch of microeconomics that relates preferences to consumption expenditures and to consumer demand curves. It analyzes how consumers maximize the desirability of their consumption (as measured by their pr ...

in both the internet and mobile phone markets. In early 2020 Vodafone and TPG were granted permission by the Federal Court to merge, paving the way for the stalled $15 billion deal to finally proceed.

Personal life

Reclusive, Teoh has only been photographed in public twice. A photographer staked out his house for three days in 2015, and in 2019 the proposed merger with Vodafone obliged him to attend court. His four sons, Shane, Jack, John and Bob, have launched more than a dozen startup companies dealing in clothing, furniture, technology, and eyeglasses. In 2016 it was reported that his wife, Vicky, had substantial investments, including Vita Life Sciences Ltd, a pharmaceutical and healthcare company.

Net worth

According to ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' magazine, in 2019 Teoh was the 25th-richest person in Australia, estimated to have a

net worth Net worth is the value of all the non-financial and financial assets owned by an individual or institution minus the value of all its outstanding liabilities. Financial assets minus outstanding liabilities equal net financial assets, so net w ...

of approximately 1.62

billion Billion is a word for a large number, and it has two distinct definitions: * 1,000,000,000, i.e. one thousand million, or (ten to the ninth power), as defined on the short scale. This is now the most common sense of the word in all varieties of ...

. , the net worth of Teoh and his wife was assessed in the ''

Australian Financial Review The ''Australian Financial Review'' (''AFR'') is an Australian compact daily newspaper with a focus on business, politics and economic affairs. The newspaper is based in Sydney, New South Wales, and has been published continuously since its foun ...

'' Rich List at 2.78 billion.

References

Australian billionaires Australian people of Chinese descent Living people 1955 births Malaysian emigrants to Australia {{Australia-business-bio-stub