Forbes recently released its list of Singapore’s 50 Richest people, and Mindray owner Li Xiting has emerged at the top of the list for the second year in a row.
The combined wealth of the 50 richest in the country has gone down due to inflation and disruptions in global tech by more than 20 per cent to $164 billion.
As for Mr Li, in April of last year, Forbes had estimated his wealth to be S$31 billion. Today, his net worth is $23.2 billion.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, his company, Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics, which manufactures ventilators and other high-tech medical equipment, saw a 19 per cent jump in net worth.
At one point during the pandemic, his net worth was said to increase by $1.4 billion every month as the demand for ventilators surged around the world.
Incidentally, the chairman of Mindray, Mr Xu Hang, is also a billionaire.
Mr Li was born in China in 1950 but moved to Singapore, becoming a naturalised citizen in 2018.
He showed displays of generosity as Covid-19 ravaged different parts of the globe, having donated nearly $6.5 million worth of medical equipment to areas such as northern Italy and Wuhan.
Coming in at a close second on the Forbes list of Singapore’s wealthiest this year is Robert and Philip Ng, the sons of Ng Teng Fong, who founded the Far East Organization. It is the biggest private landlord and property developer in the country.
Robert oversees the company’s operations in Hong Kong, and Philip is in charge of the Singapore office.
The Ng brother’s combined net worth is $21.37 billion.
In third place on the Forbes list is Mr Goh Cheng Liang, who holds a significant stake in Japan’s Nippon Paint Holdings.
Nippon Paint is the fourth-biggest paint manufacturer in the world today.
Mr Goh’s net worth is now $18.3 billion.
Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin is fourth on the Forbes list. Last year, Mr Saverin was second on the list.
His net worth is now $13.5 billion.
He immigrated to Singapore in 2009 and now works as a venture capitalist, but most of his wealth still comes from Facebook.
Mr Saverin, born in Brazil, renounced his US citizenship in 2012.
In fifth place on the Forbes list is real estate tycoon Mr Kwek Leng Beng, the executive chairman of Hong Leong Group, which his father had founded in 1941. He is also the executive chairman of Singapore’s second-largest property developer, City Developments.
Interestingly, SEA chairman Forrest Li, whom Bloomberg had declared Singapore’s richest man in September of last year with a net worth of $26.6 billion, has slipped to 11th place on Forbes’ list.
His net worth is now $6.045 billion, having lost a significant portion of his wealth in a tech wipeout earlier this year. /TISG
https://theindependent.sg/shopees-forrest-li-singapores-richest-man-in-2021-loses-us25billion-in-tech-wipeout/