The moment we see the word “conglomerate”, we began to associate it with companies that have multiple business divisions doing all sorts of stuff. General Electric, Siemens and Keppel are some examples of conglomerates. Most of these known conglomerates have a very long history. Jardine Matheson started off in the 1830s as a trading company in the Far East; Philips was founded in the late 19th century manufacturing lamps.  Over the years the name of these companies became great intangible assets. Think “Mitsubishi” and the things that pop out of our heads will be cars, air conditioners and the WW2 Zero fighter planes. Or when we talk about Samsung, smart phones, televisions and shipbuilding will come to mind. While these conglomerates took a long time to become what they are now (so-called traditional), there is a new breed coming up fast and hard, and from a sector that we did...