Singapore’s 50 Richest

BY NAAZNEEN KARMALI

Winds of Change

Fortunes rise amid a bitter battle in its first family.

SUHAIMI ABDULLAH/GETTY IMAGES

S

ingaporeans got a jolt in June when a quietly raging

dispute between Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and

his two siblings exploded on social media. Such unprec-

edented public venting, by the late Lee Kuan Yew’s heirs

no less, exposed a rare vulnerability in the tightly gov-

erned nation, which has also faced the threat of regional isolation

lately. Witness its strained relations with China and the exclusion

of Prime Minister Lee from Beijing’s Belt and Road summit in

May. (He got face time with Xi later at the G20 summit.)

Despite these headwinds and a sluggish economy, which grew

2% in 2016, the total net worth of Singapore’s 50 Richest, at

$104.6 billion, is up 11% from a year ago, bolstered by a similar

rise in the main stock index. Close to two thirds of the tycoons on

the list saw their fortunes increase, even as the price of entry rose

to $540 million from $455 million last year.

While property siblings Robert & Philip Ng retain their

No. 1 spot for the eighth year in a row, with a fortune of $9.4

billion, Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin is closing in. A

Singapore resident for the past five years, Saverin, who now backs

startups, jumps one spot, to No. 2, with $9.3 billion.

Another big gainer is reclusive paint tycoon Goh Cheng Liang,

whose holding in Japan’s Nippon Paint Holdings got a boost from

strong sales in Asia as well as an expansion in the U.S. with the

acquisition of Dunn-Edwards Paints. Budget hotels pioneer Choo

Chong Ngen is benefiting from his entry into the midtier hotel

segment (see story, p. 46).

Two newcomers enter the ranks: hedge fund star Danny Yong,

cofounder of Dymon Asia Capital, and Saurabh Mittal, cofound-

er of Indian real estate and financial-services group Indiabulls,

who relocated to Singapore three years ago after selling a chunk

of his stake. Last year’s dropout Ching Chiat Kw ong, known for

building shoebox apartments, stages a comeback as shares of his

Oxley Holdings popped on brisk overseas sales.

More than a fifth of those returning to the list were poorer,

including Loo Choon Yong of Raffles Medical Group, whose

expansion in China has analysts worried (see story, p. 42). Five ty-

coons in this group have their wealth linked to real estate, a sector

that has yet to see an uptick, though some of the biggest property

names have cornered prized enclaves in the land-scarce nation (see

story, p. 54).

Among the three members of last year’s list who dropped off is

John Chuang, whose chocolate maker, Delfi, saw a fall in sales in

Indonesia, its biggest market. These rankings are based on stock

prices and exchange rates as of July 14.

Additional reporting by Michael Chu, Russell Flannery, Sean

Kilachand, Jane A. Peterson, Anuradha Raghunathan, Jessica Tan

and Kate Vinton.

Calm before the storm.