With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Puan quickly pivoted Green Packet into a company that was to capitalise on that vision. As companies clamped up because of the pandemic, Green Packet under Puan looked to expand. But the cash burn was great and efforts were made to plug the holes within the company. (File pic)
KUALA LUMPUR: It seems like an unceremonious end for a businessman who rose to the top despite the odds when technoprenuer Puan Chan Cheong, better known as CC Puan, was issued with a bankruptcy notice by the High Court in May this year.
As news of his financial troubles splashed all over digital media throughout yesterday, 53-year-old Puan remains elusive.
Puan has been unreachable by phone and people close to him have said he had talked about making a hiatus like he did five years before returning to helm Green Packet Bhd
.
Puan’s return to Green Packet too was one of a different platform from the company he left some years back. This time, there were great plans and he spoke about creating a tech giant in the country.
With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Puan quickly pivoted Green Packet into a company that was to capitalise on that vision. As companies clamped up because of the pandemic, Green Packet under Puan looked to expand.
But the cash burn was great and efforts were made to plug the holes within the company.
“In the end, the expansion of the company was ahead of its revenue streams and this strained its prospects,” said an executive close to Green Packet.
On Jan 31, 2022, Puan stepped down as Green Packet’s group managing director, citing his intention to devote more time for his personal matters.
Earlier, on Jan 4, 2022, Puan resigned as non-executive director of G3 Global as he had ceased to be a substantial shareholder in it.
G3 Global too was a company Puan had great plans for. There was a constant buzz of G3 Global taking over Technology Park Malaysia and he had drawn up plans for a high-tech park with the entry of some of China’s largest tech giants.
After relinquishing control of Green Packet and G3 Global, the companies’ new management took over the reins and that precipitated the change in their direction.
Matters ended up in a pinch for Puan in May, as he had yet to pay RM30.66mil to two companies concerning three put option agreements, resulting in legal troubles culminated for him.
According to news reports, Puan was issued bankruptcy notices after he failed to pay that sum of money to Medinis Sdn Bhd and Everegion Sdn Bhd.
The two plaintiffs had exercised the three put option agreements in relation to shares of G3 Global which provides information technology solutions for the healthcare sector.
Puan is a graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the United States, with a degree in business administration (double major in management information system and finance).
He founded Green Packet in 2000 and led the company to become an international player in the provision of connectivity devices and solutions to telecommunications companies globally, and also to its Main Market listing in 2005.
Green Packet had started out as a software solutions company and later expanded into the broadband business.
At its peak in 2007, Green Packet commanded a market capitalisation of US$1bil, the benchmark used today to determine whether a technology firm has reached “unicorn” status.
As the company pursued its WiMAX rollout, the standard for mobile phone operators lose out to LTE, which later became the established standard.
Green Packet sold its WiMAX operator Packet One Networks (P1) to Telekom Malaysia Bhd in 2014, and started to make investments into digital services with a focus on financial technology.
Green Packet notes that Puan has over 20 years of business experience, and is an astute entrepreneur and a visionary with a strong success track record in advanced technology, consulting, developing and managing large-scale telecommunications, infrastructure and property projects internationally.
He came from a humble background, seeing running water and electricity for the first time at the age of 13, but said he made his first RM100mil at the age of 33.
