David Lam Awaits Payday from Private Equity Deal

BY JANE A. PETERSON

In what was touted as Southeast Asia's biggest private equity deal of 2014, KKR agreed in May to acquire Singapore-listed packaging firm Goodpack for $1.1 billion. The transaction, which awaits court and regulatory approvals, brings a long-awaited payday for Goodpack founder David Lam, who can cash out his 32% stake for $350 million but has an option to buy shares later. Despite the windfall, Lam still falls short of returning to the upper echelon of Singapore wealth; he was last featured on our list in 2008 at No. 40 with a net worth of $120 million. That year, when the financial crisis slammed Goodpack's shares, Lam failed in an attempt to sell his company. A year later, after he outlined plans to diversify, the shares began to recover, but not quite enough for him to claim a spot on our ever more rarefied Singapore wealth list.

David Lam

An engineer by training, Lam, 62, designed sturdy steel containers after watching wooden crates filled with raw rubber fall to pieces when accidentally dropped from a truck. Lam signed his first client, Goodyear Tire, in 1991 and by 2000 was shipping more rubber than his wood crate rivals.

Today Goodpack has a 2.7-million-strong fleet of what is referred to as intermediate bulk containers. Goh Han Peng, an analyst at OSK-DMG, predicts strong expansion over the next decade as synthetic rubber companies proliferate in Russia and Asia. Lam, who will remain in management, sees new opportunities such as containers for auto parts.

Goodpack is KKR's first acquisition in Singapore since it opened a Southeast Asia office in 2012. Sniffing opportunities, another PE heavyweight, Blackstone, followed suit, setting up a Singapore outpost last October. The opening was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Blackstone Chairman Stephen Schwarzman. But nine months on, the firm has yet to ink a deal in the city-state.

Are more big buyouts in the offing? Tarun Kataria, chairman of Cityspring Management, a corporate finance advisory firm, says he doesn't foresee a flood as there are slim pickings among Singapore's listed firms. Trailing tycoons may need to find another way back.

Click here for more from this issue's Singapore Richest