Forbes announced its official list of billionaires for 2019 on March 5. The business magazine revealed that while American entrepreneurs topped the richest men in the world list this year, many Asians made it too and they rank high due to their booming businesses.
There were dozens of newcomers and significantly, 22 Singaporeans have successfully made it to the Forbes' list. According to The Straits Times, brothers Robert and Phillip Ng who are involved in real estate business have made it to the list for the 10th straight year. They are the sons of Ng Teng Fong, Singapore's largest private landlord and property developer. The brothers jointly occupied the 112th rank in the list and showed a combined US$12 billion net worth.
The second richest Singaporean in the list is the paint mogul, Goh Cheng Liang. A big part of his fortune came from his 39 percent stake in Japan's Nippon Paint Holdings. Overall, he placed no. 203 with the net worth amounting to US$7.2 billion.
Zhang Yong, the founder of Haidilao, a well-known Sichuan hotpot chain, is the third among the Singaporeans but ranks 224th in the global list with US$6.8 billion. His wife, Shu Ping, is the 14th richest in Singapore while in the Forbes' list, she ranks No. 1,281 and has US$1.8 billion worth of assets.
No. 4 among the billionaires in Singapore is United Overseas Bank's chairman emeritus, Wee Cho Yaw. He is no. 267 in Forbes with his earnings of US$6.1 billion.
One of the newcomers from Singapore is Colin Huang. She is the founder of Pinduoduo, a Chinese discount retailing site that also began operating in the U.S. last year.
Few other Singaporeans in the list are Peter Lim, Raj Kumar, and Kishin RK - a father and son duo who manage Royal Holdings and own the Hotel Intercontinental in Robertson Quay and Sam Goi who was famously known as "Popiah king."
The 22 Singaporean billionaires' combined fortune is worth US$71.3 billion in all. It was mentioned that some of those who made it in the 2018's were no longer included this year and this include Tan Min-Liang, the CEO of Razer Inc.
Meanwhile, 13 Malaysians were also listed by Forbes but some of them slipped in the rankings like Robert Kuok. His wealth plummeted to US$14.5 billion in 2018 and even lower this year with only US$12.8 billion. The top Malaysian billionaires who made it to the 2019 list have a combined worth of US$61.6 billion.
