Tan Sri Loh Boon Siew

The late Tan Sri Loh Boon Siew is a famous Penang tycoon. Born in Fujian Province in China in 1916, he arrived in Penang at the age of 12, in the company of his father. From a young age, he took on various menial jobs, starting as an apprentice to a car mechanic¹. He had no formal education, and could only speak Hokkien, but is imbued with extraordinary diligence and foresight.

At just at age of 18, Boon Siew had saved $2,000, a princely sum which he used to purchase eleven used buses, which he reconditioned and resold for $12,000. This gave him an early start on his path to wealth and riches, but the Second World War came, and with that, his fortune was confiscated by the Japanese occupational forces.

After the war was over, Boon Siew once again on the rise under various ventures including property development and transportation. His big break came when he won the rights to be a Honda subsidiary for Malaysia. It proved to be so successful that by the early 1980s, over half the motorcycles on the road in the country was sold by him.

Tan Sri Loh Boon Siew owned various properties in Penang as well as in other parts of the country, particularly in Langkawi. His town villa in along Northam Road. He also has a beach villa at Shamrock Beach in Batu Ferringhi.

Tan Sri Loh Boon Siew passed away on 16 February, 1996 at the age of 79. His son Kah Kheng predeceased him, when he was found dead at the beach villa in 1987. Another son, Loh Yu Jen, also died after falling from a condominium in 1999² while a daughter died of cancer, also in 1996.

References

List of Penang's Who's Who

Private Guided Tours of Penang

If you are seeking private guided tours of Penang, message Penang Tour Guides at penangtourguides@gmail.com and enquire with them.

 Buy, rent or sell properties in Penang

Do you have a property for sale or to rent out? Are you looking to buy or rent a property? Get in touch with me. WhatsApp me (Timothy Tye) at 012 429 9844, and I will assign one of my property agents to serve you. I will choose the agent for you, according to your property needs. So when you message me, provide me some details of what you need, whether to sell, to buy, to rent or to rent out, and what type of property, is it condo, apartment, house, shop, office or land.

 Latest updates on Penang Travel Tips

Map of Roads in Penang

Looking for information on Penang? Use this Map of Roads in Penang to zoom in on information about Penang, brought to you road by road.

About this website

Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.

While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware. Nevertheless, I hope that what I have described here will be useful to you.