Retailer Lee Thiam Wah is expected to join the elite club with the September listing of 99 Speed Mart Retail Holdings, the country’s largest mini-mart chain by revenue.

In what is expected to be Malaysia’s biggest IPO in seven years, 99 Speed Mart Retail Holdings, the country’s largest mini-mart chain by revenue, plans to raise 2.36 billion ringgit ($532 million) and get listed on Bursa Malaysia on September 9. This is likely to propel the retailer’s founder and CEO Lee Thiam Wah into the billionaire ranks with an estimated net worth of $2.8 billion.

The company is offering up to 17% of its equity at 1.65 ringgit per share with Lee selling part of his holding. Assuming the over-allotment option is fully exercised, Lee, together with his wife, Ng Lee Tieng, who has a board seat at 99 Speed Mart, will own a post-IPO stake of 80%.

The bulk of the listing proceeds from the issuance of new shares have been earmarked to expand the company’s retail network, build new distribution centers and increase the fleet of delivery trucks, according to the prospectus. The company plans to open 250 stores annually over the next three years, with the goal of having 3,000 stores by the end of 2025. To deepen its presence, the company will focus on areas in the northern and eastern regions.

Offering daily necessities at affordable prices has served 99 Speed Mart well. In 2023, the company posted a 15% rise in annual revenue of 9.2 billion ringgit, with net profit up 22% to 400 million ringgit. The company did not immediately respond to requests from Forbes for comment. As per research firm Frost & Sullivan, mini-marts are growing rapidly and have been grabbing more market share, which increased to nearly 29% in 2023 from under 24% in 2018.

Born in the year of the dragon, Lee, now 60, has battled huge odds to create his thriving retail empire. As a child, he contracted polio, which left him wheelchair-bound. His father, a construction worker, and his mother, a hawker, toiled day and night to support their family of 11 children. Young Lee could only afford six years of primary education. To occupy his time, he read borrowed books and sold snacks from a roadside stall. As he once admitted to Forbes: “Nobody would hire me due to my physical limitation."

By age 23, he had saved the equivalent of $5,000 and opened his first mini market, Pasar Raya Hiap Hoe in 1987 in the port city of Klang, where he grew up. Five years later, Lee sold that store and launched the Pasar Mini 99 chain, targeting lower-income and migrant workers with its competitive pricing. As he explained in an earlier interview with Forbes: "I wanted the challenge of running a bigger business. If you don't have scale you can't compete with Chinese medicine halls on pricing, and you can't compete with hypermarkets in terms of range.”

By 2000, he had consolidated his growing network of stores under the 99 Speedmart brand, which has since expanded to over 2,600 branches employing 22,500 people, overtaking rival 7-Eleven in Malaysia. Lee has also added to his retail portfolio, acquiring the Burger King franchise in Malaysia and Singapore as well as establishing a Singapore presence with the U Stars Supermarket chain. Beyond retailing, he’s invested in the banking sector, picking up a 5% stake in Malaysia’s Alliance Bank in 2023.