Singapore’s 50 Richest
CHING CHIAT KWONG: MR. SHOEBOX RETURNS
Property magnate reenters the list after falling off last year thanks to
a 43% rise in flagship Oxley Holdings’ shares on brisk sales overseas,
primarily in Ireland, Cambodia and Malaysia. Oxley continues to spread
its wings, acquiring stakes in a Chinese Special Economic Zone and
an Australian developer. It also owns hotels in the region: Novotel and
Mercure in Singapore, both due to open in late 2017; Shangri La in
Phnom Penh; and Jumeirah and Sofitel in Kuala Lumpur. Kwong, who
studied sociology at the National University of Singapore, started his
career as a cop. He left the force in 1993 and tried his hand at several
trades—property broker, travel agent, beverage marketer—before
finding his niche building shoebox apartments across Singapore.WEE CHO YAW: CONDO COUP
The chairman emeritus of United Overseas Bank, Singapore’s third-
largest lender, which his father cofounded in 1935, made headlines in
January when he bought 45 units in the Nassim, a luxury condominium,
through his family’s private real estate arm for $290 million. The
bulk purchase, at an 18% discount to the prevailing market price, got
developer CapitaLand off the hook for heavy penalties that apply to
unsold properties after a certain period. Wee exploited a tax loophole
by buying a stake in the company that owned the units rather than
buying them outright, avoiding a 15% stamp tax. Singapore has since
closed that loophole. MUNSHI AHMED (LEFT);