The Malaysian media and oil tycoon was 86 years old

Malaysian billionaire Ananda Krishnan, whose business spanned the oil, gas and telecommunications sectors, has died at the age of 86, his private investment company said on Thursday.

No cause of death was given.

Krishnan was a founding director of state oil company Petronas, and in 2007 he led the buyout of Malaysian telecommunications company Maxis, before taking it public again two years later. He also founded the satellite broadcaster Astro Malaysia.

He was close to two-time former Prime Minister of Malaysia Mahathir Mohamad, whom he persuaded in the early 1990s to build the 88-story Petronas towers in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur.

Krishnan, also known as AK, had interests in Bumi Armada, an oilfield services provider, as well as India’s (now bankrupt) Aircel and Sri Lanka’s SLTMobitel. He also has shares in the British newspaper group Johnston Press; Malaysia’s second largest cinema chain, TGV; and Heavenly Photos.

According to Forbes, he was the sixth richest person in Malaysia with a net worth of $5.1 billion.

The son of a government official who moved from Sri Lanka to what was then British Malaya, he grew up in Kuala Lumpur.

Krishnan studied at the University of Melbourne and later completed a Master of Business Administration at Harvard Business School in 1964.

He has donated to education, arts, sports and humanitarian causes in Malaysia.

After marrying a Thai princess, Krishnan spent most of his later years in Europe.