A czar is born

MANY CONSIDER Datuk Yahaya Ahmad, chairman of Diversified Resources Bhd (DRB), an overnight success. It's a tag he resents. This is despite being poised to add a finance company cum insurance arm into his automotive manufacturing-dominated empire. Apart from DRB, Yahaya controls another listed vehicle, Gadek (Malaysia) Bhd. Sources believe that if he succeeds in current negotiations to buy Credit Corporation Malaysia Bhd, CCM, through Gadek, he could also buy a yet-to-be identified insurance company and inject it into a restructured CCM for flotation. This would gain him control of a third KLSE counter. Not surprisingly, allegations of political patronage are rife. Yet, a discomfited Yahaya…