Sultan Johor buys 15% of payment company MOL for $120 million

Are we hearing this right? Malaysia-based payment service company MOL today announced it has sold a 15 percent stake in the company for $120 million to Malaysian royalty – Sultan Ibrahim of Johor. The Sultan wishes to create more employment opportunities in the tech sector, and this is one of the ways he’s doing it.

MOL itself is now connected to more than “360,000 physical payment channels with localized presence across 12 countries,” according to the press release. Those countries include Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore, and Taiwan. MOL also has a digital goods and online game payment platform called MOLPoints, which now collects payments for over 1,000 online games.

(Read also: The Founding Story of MOL, One of Southeast Asia’s Largest Payment Companies)

MOL is known as the company that acquired social network Friendster and turned it into a social network for online gamers. Another high profile investment made by Sultan Ibrahim is his 20 percent stake in property complex Berjaya Times Square. Interestingly, Berjaya Times Square and MOL are both part of billionaire Vincent Tan’s portfolio, as well.

MOL CEO Ganesh Kumar Bangah comments:

MOL has grown to be a global internet company that can trace its roots back to the State of Johor where it was originally conceptualized 14 years ago. Tan Sri Vincent Tan, our major shareholder and myself, both being Johorean are honoured to have DYMM Sultan Ibrahim as a shareholder of MOL as we grow MOL to the next level.

(Editing by Paul Bischoff)