Kuala Lumpur: "I have always loved cars since my teenage years. That is why I am in this business. My fathers construction business was not my cup of tea," the late Tan Sri SM Nasimuddin SM Amin was once quoted as saying.That explains why the Kuala Pilah-born Nasimuddin managed to single-handedly build up a thriving automobile empire from scratch and with just RM80,000 in his bank account at the age of 21.
The founder, chairman and chief executive officer of the Naza Group of Malaysia passed away Friday at the age of 53 from lung cancer in Los Angeles.
The Naza Group, formed in 1974, today has 14 business divisions including motor trading, motorbikes, manufacturing, transport services, machine tools/parts, engineering, plantations, cigarette distribution, credit & leasing, water craft, properties, hotel operations and an insurance agency.
But Naza and Nasimuddin are always synonymous with automobiles.
Nasimuddins foresight and understanding the penchant of most Malaysians for cars saw him successfully working along with the AP (Approved Permit) system for importing cars to carve out a name for himself. He was different from the vast majority of others who obtained APs who were content with the relatively easy and rich pickings to lead a life of occasional luxury or fritter away their profits.
Nasimuddin, instead, worked hard to establish an automobile group which would eventually undertake local assembly of foreign makes.
"To succeed you must love what you do and you must know what you are doing. You must plan ahead and have direction. In business you must start from small, study everything and go step by step," he once said.
Having bought 20 APs with the RM80,000 in 1974, he spent three months in Japan and brought back 20 used Japanese cars relatively unavailable in Malaysia at that time. He sold them all within three months from his shoplot in Taman Maluri, Kuala Lumpur and later moved to Kampung Baru where Naza later opened several showrooms and established its corporate headquarters.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Nasimuddin stood out from the rest of the pack by taking up the call by the government to have a bigger stake and more active role in the country's growing automobile industry. This he did by setting up Naza, which gradually blossomed to hold the Malaysian franchise for South Korea's Kia vehicles, and France's Peugeot vehicles.
It also holds the import permits for Mercedes Benz and Mazda vehicles.
Naza is also a prominent importer of luxury high-end vehicles in the country with endeavours such as Naza-Brabus.
In 2004, Nasimuddin wanted to take a 15.82 per cent stake in DRB-HICOM Bhd but lost out in the race to Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al Bukhari.
In late 2006, Nasimuddin put in a bid for Khazanah Nasional Bhds 46 per cent in Proton Holdings Bhd. When asked about his game for Proton, the successful entrepreneur said Proton could not survive by focusing on the local market alone and he planned to have the national carmaker concentrate on low-cost makes and sell them to heavily-populated markets in India and South America.
And that was even before Indias TATA announced the introduction of its low-priced Nano. And that was Nasimuddin.-Bernama
