Muhammad Aziz Khan, the chairman of Summit Group, is one of Bangladesh`s most talked-about businessmen.
Over the past two decades, he has significantly expanded his wealth through his ventures in the power sector.
His name has come up in public discussions several times, sometimes due to the high capacity charges in the power sector, and at other times for raising billions by listing several Summit Group companies on the stock market.
In recent years, much of the attention on him has been focused on his status as one of Singapore’s top billionaires. There has been ongoing speculation about how a Bangladeshi businessman like him could amass a billion-dollar fortune in a country like Singapore.
Now, reports have emerged that Aziz Khan has officially renounced his Bangladeshi citizenship and has permanently adopted Singaporean citizenship.
Earlier, another high-profile businessman, S Alam, was also reported to have renounced Bangladeshi citizenship in favor of Singaporean citizenship. With Aziz Khan`s news coming to light, questions are being raised: Are top businessmen accumulating wealth in Bangladesh and then settling abroad, even giving up their Bangladeshi citizenship?
Sources have revealed that Muhammad Aziz Khan had been living in Singapore as a permanent resident for quite some time, although he remained a Bangladeshi citizen until recently.
Aziz Khan recently took up Singaporean citizenship, and as a result, had to relinquish his Bangladeshi citizenship since Singaporean law does not allow dual citizenship.
Aziz Khan founded Summit Power in 1997, and his business gradually expanded. After the Awami League government, led by Sheikh Hasina, came to power in 2009, Summit`s business rapidly grew. During this period, he rebranded the parent company as Summit Power International and listed it in Singapore.
According to the company’s website, Summit Power provides 7% of Bangladesh’s total electricity and accounts for 17% of the electricity in the private sector.
Summit Power`s massive success made Aziz Khan so wealthy that he has consistently remained on Singapore’s list of top billionaires for the past seven years.
He first appeared in the Forbes list of Singapore’s top 50 richest people in 2018. Since 2022, he has also been featured on Forbes’ global billionaire list, where he is noted as a permanent resident of Singapore.
In the most recent Forbes list of Singapore’s top 50 richest people, Aziz Khan is identified as a Singaporean citizen. Sources have said that this change in status has been updated in the Forbes list after he gave up his Bangladeshi citizenship.
Aziz Khan is the first Bangladeshi businessman to make it to this prestigious list of top billionaires.