68 | FORBES ASIA JULY 2016
FORBES ASIA
ARUN PUDUR
Meanwhile, Edward B. Loyd, CEO of Newport Beach,
California-based Loyd Capital, said he had worked with
Pudur’s companies for many years on several transac-
tions in commodities and oil & gas. “The recent two will
be Libyan Crude supply deal where we are working with
NOC as the only UN approved reseller, the transaction
value based on today’s Brent price will be approx $2
billion dollars and another multibillion dollar deal we
are working with Pudur Corp is LNG supply to Indian
Government owned O&G company in Gujarat on a 5 year
deal,” said Loyd in an e-mail. But he went mum when
asked for details of the deals, what Pudur Corp.’s role
would be and why he would involve a Kuala Lumpur
software executive in such big oil & gas transactions.
Pudur says he started trading in liquefied natural gas
in 2011, becoming a conduit between buyers and sellers
in Japan and South Korea: “I restricted my investments
to between $5 and $25 million, which was the extent of
risk I was willing to take.”
There’s also the investment in Genesis Telecom, the
submarine cable operator, which is looking to raise $500
million for its first phase, says Pudur. “There are ongoing
discussions to make Genesis a subsidiary of Pudur Corp.,”
he added. But no evidence of Genesis or the Indonesia
project could be found online or elsewhere.
Pudur Corp.’s 2015 financial statement claims that his
“other” businesses, such as natural resources, commodi-
ties trading, life sciences, real estate and hotels, generate
$5 billion in annual revenue and more than $1 billion in
net profits.
Among Pudur’s associates is a Carl Kachale Chirwa,
who Citigroup says is its head of trade finance for East
Africa, based in Kenya. In an e-mail Chirwa said he also
runs Africa-focused investment firm Ashcroft & Gray,
but no online presence could be found for that outfit.
The two say they are developing the casino-resort and
theme park in Malawi; fundraising would begin later this
year. “I view Arun as a mentor and friend because de-
spite being an extremely busy billionaire, he is extremely
generous with his time. I am humbled that in spite of
the time zone difference
between our countries, we
manage to set up regular
Skype calls almost every
Sunday where I continue
to learn a lot from him in
terms of the global busi-
ness environment, wealth
creation and sustainable
business practices and how
to think like a billionaire,”
said Chirwa, using a Yahoo
address.
Dennis Sempebwa said
he’s the founder and presi-
dent of Texas-based Do-
minion Consultancy, which
couldn’t be found online. He
said in an e-mail that he and
Pudur worked together on
technology distribution as
well as “several billion dollar deals pertaining to acquisi-
tion of assets (natural resources), selling or buying of oil,
LNG and gold among other commodities.” In online links
one person with the name Sempebwa is described as a mis-
sionary and public speaker. When asked to verify his iden-
tity, he said, “It is because of my missionary work in Africa
that I was able to introduce Arun to business leaders across
the continent. In fact, his Africa operations were initiated
from these critical introductions. You will not find any
news links about our business transactions because I pre-
fer to stay away from the limelight due to my line of work.
Mr. Pudur’s office can substantiate my statements.”
As Pudur restructures his group, the parent Pudur
Corp. says it and Celframe are now both British Vir-
gin Islands-registered entities; its Malaysia tax-exempt
status ended a year ago. Pudur says Celframe will make
a big push this year into his native India, where, he says,
he wants to be “recognized,” and on to China next year.
Browsify will adopt the freemium model where revenue
will come from advertising and analytics. “I am prepar-
ing to face the biggest challenge of my life in the coming
years,” he says.
Additional reporting by Rebecca Feng and
Neerja Pawha JetleyPudur appeared at Bloomberg’s ASEAN business summit in December of last year.
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