He co-founded the Great Southern Steamship Company in 1949, purchasing a lone coal-fired ship from a Singaporean businessman.
Within 20 years, he founded International Maritime Carriers (IMC), which later became the IMC Group.
The company – currently headquartered in Singapore – has a diversified fleet of 5 bulk carriers and 21 tankers, which it owns directly or through joint ventures.
In the mid-Nineties, Tsao handed over control of the corporate – now a multi-business industrial conglomerate – to his third child, Frederick Chavalit Tsao.
Shipping magnate Frank Tsao in his own words
Shipping magnate Frank Tsao in his own words
Kuok – Malaysia’s richest man – wrote in his memoirs published in 2017 that, on the recommendation of Malaysian government officials, he asked Tsao for assist in establishing MISC.
When he first arrived within the then British colony, he described Hong Kong as “primitive”.
“Our office was on the seventh floor of the Pedder Building, the only old building on Pedder Street, and I lived on Wyndham Street. “There was a serious housing shortage,” he said.
Trade war, deglobalization and technology: will shipping weather the storm?
Trade war, deglobalization and technology: will shipping weather the storm?
“We lived in a three-story house where our workers from Shanghai lived. Later, the entire building was filled with my relatives… my father and mother, my sisters, my brother and my wife’s family. They had eight children. Then there were my uncles and their families. About 30 people squeezed into the house. Every day we ate two dishes and one soup – in very large quantities.”
Tsao was born into moderate wealth, his father, George Tsao Ying-yung, an export-import businessman, and his mother, Tsao Ng Yu-shun, an heiress to a controlling interest within the National Development Bank of China.
Tsao’s mother founded the Tsao Foundation in Singapore, which is well-known for its efforts to enhance the lives of older people. Frank Tsao said he took over his father’s export-import business after he became “completely disillusioned” with the enterprise.
Tsao’s distinctions include honorary citizenship granted to him by Singapore in 2008 – the very best distinction town authorities can bestow on a foreigner. He helped establish the Center for Maritime Studies on the National University of Singapore in 2005. In 2006, the Hong Kong government awarded him the Bauhinia Silver Star.
There shall be a wake-up call in Singapore on Thursday. Tsao is survived by children Calvin, Mary Ann, Frederick and Cheryd. His wife of 70 years, Maisie Chow Tsao, died in 2014.
This article appeared within the print edition of the South China Morning Post as: Shipping tycoon Frank Tsao has died on the age of 94
