Forbes Asia — December 2017

(Jacob Rumans) #1
DECEMBER 2017 FORBES ASIA | 17

DAVID PAUL MORRIS/BLOOMBERG


FORBES ASIA
GOING PUBLIC

Game Boy


Razer founder Min-Liang Tan’s fortune soars to $1.6 billion after an IPO.


S


ingaporean Min-Liang Tan’s
wealth soared overnight to
$1.6 billion with the listing
of his gaming devices firm,
Razer, on the Hong Kong
Stock Exchange in mid-November, a
week after he turned 40.
Backed by heavyweights such as Sin-
gapore state investor Temasek Holdings,
IDG-Accel and, more recently, Hong
Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, Razer’s
shares rallied on its opening day, clos-
ing 18% above its initial public offering
price of HK$3.88 a share.
Not bad for someone who quit
his day job as a lawyer in 2005 to set
up Razer with his San Diego-based
online-gaming pal Robert Krakoff.
To date, Razer has sold millions of
gaming laptops, mice, fitness bands
and tablets.
Tan has been the first of a new wave
of tech entrepreneurs from the island-
state to make it to the Forbes Asia Sin-
gapore 50 richest list. Tan, who owns
about 33% of the Singapore- and San
Francisco-headquartered company,
debuted on the list in 2016. In August
of this year, Forbes Asia tallied his net
worth at $700 million, pre-IPO.
Known for his signature getup of
black T-shirt and jeans, Tan is a pro
when it comes to connecting with
Razer fans over social media. He re-
cently posted on Facebook (570,
followers) and Instagram (88,500 fol-
lowers) photos of Mark Zuckerberg
and Hong Kong heartthrob Nicholas
Tse using Razer laptops. In early No-
vember he unveiled the Razer Phone,
an Android smartphone targeted at
gamers, which retails at $699 apiece
but is currently available in Europe
and North America only.
The Razer Phone had been wide-

ly anticipated, especially in light of re-
cent acquisitions. In January, Razer
acquired Nextbit, an Android mo-
bile phone company founded by ex-
Googlers, and last October it bought
THX, the audio company founded by
George Lucas. In July 2015 Razer also
acquired Ouya, an Android mobile-
gaming platform.
While THX is a standalone com-
pany, Tan has stepped up as CEO:
“Which explains why I have not slept
in a while,” he said, with a laugh, dur-
ing an earlier interview in June at his
Singapore headquarters. “We’ve got a
lot of expectations to grow into the en-
tertainment space: movies, music and
things like that. That’s something that
we are really excited about,” he said.
In 2016 Razer’s net losses more

than doubled to $59.3 million, com-
pared with a net loss of $20.4 million
in the previous year. Meanwhile, reve-
nues increased 22.5% to $392 million
over the same period.
Another tech entrepreneur from
Singapore who could make it into the
ranks of the country’s richest in the
future is Tianjin-born citizen of Singa-
pore, Forrest Li. The fast-emerging ty-
coon, who also recently turned 40, is the
founder of newly listed Sea Ltd. (former-
ly Garena). Li founded the e-commerce
and online-gaming company in 2009
with palm oil billionaire Kuok Khoon
Hong as an angel investor. On the basis
of an 11.59% stake in Sea, which list-
ed on the New York Stock Exchange on
October 20, Li has a net worth of about
$550 million. F

A very bubbly IPO: Min-Liang Tan celebrating the listing of Razer on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

BY JESSICA TAN
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