The Top 15 Richest People in Singapore

There is no secret in the fact that Singapore is one of the most economically stable and richest country in the world as the country’s economy is influenced by a lot of business activities and a lot of unexceptional business tycoons who rule the world.

In the past Singapore’s richest have gotten even richer according to Forbes latest report in the year 2019 the top 50 richest people in Singapore have a combined wealth of about $180 Billion up 12% from last year.

Perhaps the world can take a little sneak peak into Singapore’s most successful and richest people and what exactly did these geniuses do to amass this ridiculous amount of wealth?

1. Zhang Yong of Haidilao.

(Net worth $16.4 billion)

You’ve probably heard about this Chinese billionaire restauranteur founder of Haidilao International Holding Ltd  Zhang Yong , who was recently the talk of the town known to be displaced quite a few real estate tycoons, and thus emerged as the Singapore’s richest man this year.

Zhang’s is an inspiring story of literally rags to riches. The 50 year old self-made billionaire who built a hot pot empire from scratch with the help of three of his pals who agreed to invest in Haidilao during its early stages. One of them, Shu Ping is now his wife.

 He comes from Jianyang a rural province in Sichuan. He worked as a welder in a tractor factory until 1994, when he emptied his savings to open his first ever Haidilao. Currently Haidilao hot pot has 466 direct-operated stores in operation in more than a hundred cities.

2. Eduardo Saverin of Facebook

(Net worth $12.3 Billion)

Now this one’s famous- he was portrayed by Andrew Garfield in the Hollywood movie- The Social Network which was inspired by the Facebook founding story of Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg which you may all be familiar with .

The 38-year-old is the youngest billionaire in the Singapore’s list- Saverin later went on to renouncing his US citizenship in 2012 to become a Singaporean.

This move was considered controversial for quite a while because it was made just in time for Saverin to avoid some $700 million in capital gain taxes.

Being a Harvard graduate this man here is considered pretty smart who had solid business ideas. He’s now a venture capitalist, but still has 2% stake in Facebook, which is pretty much a significant source of his net worth.   

3. Robert And Philip Ng

(net worth $12.2 Billion)

Robert & Philip Ng of Far East Organisation were ranked amongst the top for the past 10 years (before 2019, of course), are the Ng brothers of Singapore’s largest private landlord and property developer, Far East Organisation, which was founded by their dad, Ng Teng Fong.

 The family from generations down was mainly engaged in the real estate business .Their empire was mostly built by their dad, and was passed down to subsequent generations. Presently, Philip Ng is in charge of FEO in the local market, while his brother Robert Ng and nephew Daryl Ng run Sino Group, the Hong Kong-based sister company.

4. Goh Cheng Liang.

(net worth $10.5 Billion)

Goh Cheng Liang of Wuthelam Holdings & Nippon Paint.
Unlike most of the other billionaires who have long biographies written about them and the wealth they’ve amassed, 93-year-old Goh Cheng Liang keeps a fairly low profile.

Goh tried his hand at several different business ideas, before buying what he thought was cheap, rotten paint in 1949. He then learnt how to mix colours and add solvents, and eventually founded Pigeon Brand paint.

It was wildly successful, and approached to be distributor for Nippon Paint in 1959. Since then, Goh has become the largest paint maker in Asia.

He has a 39% stake in Nippon Paint Holdings, and the company acquired Dulux Group in April 2019. His son, Hup Jin, is the chairman of Nippon Paint (since Mar 2018), and runs Nipsea.

5. Wee Cho Yaw

(net worth $7.1 Billion)

Wee Cho Yaw, is a  91 year old successful  Singaporean billionaire businessman, and the chairman of the United Overseas Bank (UOB) and United Industrial Corporation (UIC) in Singapore
In 1971, the Singapore government awarded him the Bintang Masyarakat Bakti (Public Service Star), and he was named Singapore Businessman of the Year in 1990 and 2001.

In 2006, for his contributions to the banking sector, he was presented with the inaugural Credit Suisse-Ernst & Young Lifetime Achievement Award. Wee received an honorary doctorate from the National University of Singapore in July 2008.

In 2011, Forbes listed him as Singapore's wealthiest individual with a net worth of S$4.2 billion. In February 2009, the Wee Foundation was set up with an initial S$30 million endowment from the Wee family. The charitable foundation focuses on education and welfare for the under-privileged, and also promotes the Chinese language and culture as well as social integration.

6. Kwee Brothers

(net worth 6.5 billion)

The Kwee family  is Singaporean family that owns the Pontiac Land Group, a privately held luxury real estate developer and hotel owner based in Singapore. The Kwee brothers Kwee Liong Keng, Kwee Liong Tek, Kwee Liong Seen and Kwee Liong Phing collectively run the group.

The Kwee brothers via Pontiac Land Group own several luxury hotels in Singapore including Regent Singapore, Ritz Carlton Millenia, the Conrad Centennial Singapore, and The Capella Singapore, as well as office blocks and malls, such as the Millenia Tower PLG also developed and manage the  Camden Medical Centre.

In October 2013, the Kwee brothers agreed to provide $300 million in equity, supported by an $860 million loan from a consortium of Asian banks to enable the Tower Verre  development in New York City. This is PLG's first major foray outside of Singapore amidst the tightening property market on the island state. The Kwees are also redeveloping 2 of Sydney's historic sandstone buildings into a 240-room luxury hotel.

According to forbes, the Kwee family have a net worth of $6.5 billion, as of July 2019. The Kwee brothers reside in Singapore. The family support educational causes, arts and cultural causes, social causes and humanitarian causes.

7. Kwek Leng Beng

(net worth $3.7 billion)

Kwek Leng Beng of Hong Leong Group & City Developments.
Kwek Leng Beng, 80, is executive chairman of 2 huge names — conglomerate Hong Leong Group and Singapore’s second largest property developer, City Developments.
Hong Leong Group was founded by his father, Kwek Hong Png, and while he runs the Singapore operations, his cousin, Quek Leng Chan is in charge of Malaysia.

Kwek’s elder son, Sherman, is CDL’s group CEO while his younger son, Kingston, is a private investor also recognised  for being Singapore’s youngest billionaire. He has been featured on Tatler Singapore's ‘300 List’, a compilation of the most powerful and influential people in Singapore. Kwek Leng Beng is the executive chairman of Hong Leong Group Singapore. In September 2019, Forbes estimated his net worth to be US$3.4 billion.

Kwek is the chairman of City Developments Limited (CDL), an international property and hotel conglomerate and the leading real estate developer in Singapore. It operates in 20 countries in Asia, Europe, North America and Australasia. CDL has over 250 subsidiaries and associated companies including 8 companies listed on the stock exchanges of Singapore, London, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, New Zealand and Manila. CDL has a market capitalization of US$5.8 billion and ranks just outside Singapore's top 10 listed companies. It is also the second-biggest property developer in Southeast Asia.

Kwek chairs Millennium & Copthorne (M&C) Hotels, a London-listed international hotel group of which a 53% share belongs to CDL. M&C is ranked 40th among the world's top international hotel groups and has a portfolio of over 120 owned and managed hotels with about 36,500 rooms in 19 countries.

8. Jason Chang

(net worth $ 3.4 billion)

Jason Chang is a Taiwanese/Singaporean billionaire, currently the chairman of Taiwan-based Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE). On the Forbes 2020 list of the world's billionaires, he was ranked #836 with a net worth of $3.4 billion. In September 2015, Chang received a Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International SEMI Award, which recognized his "significant achievements in the development and commercialization of copper wire in the IC assembly process. Jason Chang chairs Taiwan's Advanced Semiconductor Engineering. Along with his brother Richard, Jason is one of the main investors in commercial real estate developer Sino Horizon Holding. ASE is the world's largest provider of independent semiconductor assembling and test manufacturing services.

9. Shu Ping

(net worth $3.3 billion)

Shu Ping is the co-founder of Haidilao and COO of Haidilao International Holdings. With an estimated net worth of US$1.8b, the company is the market leader for hotpot in China, and has over 466 outlets in over 100 cities, including Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia and the US. Haidilao is also expanding into Malaysia, Vietnam and the UK. She is married to Zhang Yong. Shu Ping was also one of the early investors in Haidilao amongst the three investors with whom  Zhang Yong started off. Shu Ping is director and one of the founders of Chinese hot pot chain Haidilao International Holdings.

Shu is the wife of Zhang Yong, the chairman of Haidilao.
Haidilao cofounders Shu, Zhang Yong, Shi Yong hong and Li Haiyan set up their first restaurant with personal savings in 1994. Shu helps oversee Haidilao's management and strategic development.

10. Choo Chong Ngen

(net worth $3.3 Billion).

Choo Chong Ngen is a Singaporean billionaire who is the founder and Executive Chairman of Hotel 81, a chain of budget-friendly hotels in Singapore which had started out in Geylang’s red-light district. Choo Chong Ngen has achieved success in the hotel industry locally and overseas under his group, Worldwide Hotels. In 2018, he was featured on Forbes’ 'List of Billionaires' and was ranked tenth on 'Singapore’s 50 Richest'. As of 6 June 2019, his net worth is at S$3.3 billion. Choo Chong Ngen started selling textiles when he was 15 years old while working for a neighbour who paid him S$30 every month He had dropped out of school at 14 years old to work. At 21 years old, he forayed into real estate investment and was able to acquire a shophouse unit with the help of a bank loan. In the span of 9 years, he had invested in at least thirty shop units and earned a living by renting them out to tenants. From shophouses, he moved on to apartments.

In 1992, Choo Chong Ngen first dabbled in property development by building twenty apartment units in Geylang worth S$1.5 million. Thereafter, he built about a hundred apartment units on four plots of land in Geylang.

11. Raj Kumar And Kishin Rk.

(net worth $ 3.1 billion)

Father-son pair, Raj Kumar and Kishin RK, are among Singapore's leading landlords with their Royal Holdings/RB Capital property empire. The duo have been on a tremendous deal making spree after a 2011 family settlement between Raj and his younger sibling Asok Kumar Hiranandani, also a billionaire.

Kishin RK (born 1983 as Kishin Hiranandani) is a property developer and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of RB Capital, a real estate acquisition and development company that owns properties such as the Intercontinental Hotel Robertson Quay, Far East Plaza and Holiday Inn Express Clarke Quay. He is also the second-generation scion of Royal Holdings. Their prize holdings include the 442-room Holiday Inn Express at Clarke Quay and the five-star hotel Intercontinental Singapore Robertson Quay. Kishin's newest venture is TiffinLabs, an online meal delivery firm with more than 1,000 cloud kitchens in Asia, Europe and the U.S.

12. Richard Chandler.

(net worth $2.9 billion)

61 year old Richard Fred Chandler is a billionaire businessman,  native of New Zealand later Richard Chandler relocated to Singapore in 2006 where he now runs Clermont group his personal investment outfit.

He is chairman of the Clermont Group, a Singapore-based business group that invests in public and private companies across a range of industries, including energy, financial services, consumer, and healthcare. Chandler "has a reputation for buying struggling companies and successfully rebuilding them, " according to Australian Broadcasting Corporation News. He also has been known to "take a business approach to philanthropy.

Clermont Aerospace owns MagniX, an aviation engineering firm and a controlling stake in Eviation, an Israeli, Maker of light electric aircraft

13. Kuok Khoon Hong

(net worth $2.9 billion)

Kuok Khoon Hong is a 71 year Singaporean billionaire businessman magnate, a philanthropist. Kuok is the co founder, Chairman and CEO of the Wilmar International he built this empire into Asia’s leading agribusiness group and currently the world’s largest palm oil trader.

Kuok earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the National University of Singapore(NUS) and hence he began his career in 1973 trading soft commodities at Kuok Oils and Grains. He eventually then became the Managing Director of Kuok Oils and Grains, and developed the Pasir Gudang Edible Oils refining complex in Johar, followed by the China’s first edible oil refinery.

Kuok also co-owns the Aviva tower in London with Indonesian billionaire and Wilmar cofounder Martua Sitorus.

In this running pandemic in May 2020, Kuok and his company , Wilmar international, donated US$7 million to the Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund, as a part of Covid 19 relief efforts.

14. Peter Lim.

(net worth $2.1 billion)

67 year-old Peter Lim is a Singaporean business magnate , entrepreneur, a great philanthropist and investor .

He is the owner of Spanish La Liga club Valencia CF and the owner of English club Salford City .

is a story for all the people out there who dare to dream big and have the ability to transform their own life. Lim worked part time doing jobs such as taxi driver, cook and waiter to fund his own university education. And later turned out to be among the top and successful billionaires in Singapore.

Popularly known around Singapore as the “Remisier King” due to his success in stocks, Lim goes ahead and explains that while there was an element of luck for him, it was also because he created a role and an impression of himself as a “one man merchant bank” in the M&A space in Indonesia in the late 80’s. He became indispensable to both retail and high net worth investors.

15. Ashok Kumar Hiranandani

(net worth  $2.0 billion)

Now this particular success story proves that Indian’s have the ability to conquer anything and anywhere in the world.

Ashok Hiranandani is a 66 year old Indian origin business tycoon who has created his own legacy in the Singapore market.

Ashok Kumar Hiranandani is the cofounder of the erstwhile Royal Brothers property groups. In the year 2018 Hiranandani bought the Darby park Executive Suites, a well serviced apartments complex in the close vicinity to Orchard Road, for $70 million but has sold it ever since.

Hiranandani is now moving forward and setting up Singapore’s second Raffles hotel in Sentosa, consisting of a total of 61 villas.

16. SAM GOI

(net worth $2.0 billion)

At the age of 72 Sam Goi Is the leading chairman of Singapore’s very well known frozen food company Tee Yih Jia Foods .Sam Goi Seng Hui is popularly known as Singapore’s “Popiah King”.

He is known for selling top quality “popiah” skins, a soft thin paper like crepe or pancake made from wheat flour.  In the year 2008, he was the largest single shareholder in Supreme Coffeemix.

Goi dopped out of school to work in his father’s grocery store then got into frozen foods when he bought a struggling food unit.

Goi is Singapore’s non-resident  ambassador to Brazil.

17. Zhao Tao

(net worth $2.0 billion)

Zhao Tao is the Chairman of Shandong Buchang Pharmaceuticals, supplier of the Chinese medicine to fight the fatal Cardiovascular disease.

Zhao later went on to receiving his MBA from Fordham University in New York City. Buchang also started trading on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in November 2016.

Zhao holds a Singapore passport. Zhao was recently in the news due to his Admission scandal which had heavily put his Pharmaceutical Empire under critical spotlight.