Dr Lim Seck Yeow is the man of the moment. He may not be as well known as Oei Hong Leong or Kwek Leng Beng, but he is shaping up to be quite a dealmaker.

Dr Lim is Chairman of chainsaw and leaf blower maker Zhongguo Powerplus. Today, the company confirmed a Reuters report that its controlling shareholders Hoggeston Ltd (which owns 24%) and Alpha China Enterprises Ltd are in exclusive talks with an unnamed “reputable private equity firm”. These talks could lead to a general takeover, but it cautions there is no guarantee a deal will happen.

Rewind four weeks. Fabchem China announced July 5, that its controlling shareholders Fortsmith Investments and Fivestar Limited are also in separate talks with unnamed parties.

Dr Lim part owns these two companies, and is also the Non-Executive Chairman of Fabchem China.

Dr Lim is also Chairman of peanut oil maker Zhongguo Jilong, which has not made any announcements about a share sale by its controlling shareholders.

Until the end of March, he was also Group Managing Director of China Food Industries. He remains a non-executive director.

According to the China Food Industries’ website, his biography reads as follows:

Dr. Lim has more than 40 years of experience in the food related business. He started as an assistant stock keeper with Cold Storage Singapore Ltd, a supermarket group, in 1954. In 1965, Dr. Lim was promoted to Sales Manager, and in 1969, he became Cold Storage’s Asia Regional Sales Manager.
In 1972, Dr. Lim joined Chop Thye Seng as its General Manager. Chop Thye Seng was a sole proprietorship food distribution business started by his father. Dr. Lim subsequently founded and established Thye Seng Trading Company Pte Ltd, a company engaged in the business of food distribution in Singapore.
Dr. Lim holds an honorary Doctorate of Philosophy in Entrepreneurship from Wisconsin International University in the United States of America.

Zhongguo Powerplus shares traded for 15 minutes after lunch, before a trading halt was called. Why the stock would even restart trading after lunch is beyond me. More than 8.1 mln were traded in the morning session plus this 15 minute window, compared to average volume of 3.1 million. The stock was last traded down 1 cent at 30 cents.

It seems like a big coincidence that four of the companies through which Dr Lim controls two listed firms are in talks to sell their shareholdings.

But Dr Lim told Investor Central over the telephone this evening that the talks are separate, and with different parties.

He wouldn’t be drawn on their identity, except that the potential buyers are foreign companies who initiated the talks because they want to get exposure to China.

If the holding companies sell the shares they own in the listed companies, Dr Lim and his co-shareholders will make a lot of money.

Who knows what Dr Entrepreneurship will do that money?

Watch this space.