Wee Cho Yaw, the billionaire who formed Singapore’s monetary panorama by amalgamating a number of previous family-controlled banks, has died. He was 95.
The previous chairman of United Abroad Financial institution Ltd. died on Saturday, in response to a spokesperson for the lender. His funeral will probably be held on Feb. 7.
Wee was one of many final of a era of bankers born earlier than World Battle II who got here to dominate Singapore’s monetary system after the nation gained independence from Britain within the Nineteen Sixties. He spearheaded the acquisition of banks throughout Southeast Asia to kind UOB, one of many area’s largest lenders, after his father co-founded its predecessor in 1935.
He amassed a web price of $10.4 billion as of February 2024, in response to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
“My father has left an indelible mark in Singapore and the region,” Wee Ee Cheong, chief government officer of UOB since 2007, mentioned in a press release. “Whether it is through thinking for the long-term, the importance of deep relationships, doing the right thing or giving a helping hand to those in need, the influence of my father and his values will endure at UOB.”
The elder Wee was the chairman of UOL Group Ltd, one in every of Singapore’s largest property builders. Notable elements of his property empire embody the Pan Pacific Motels chain and the SGX Centre in Singapore. He performed a key function in rescuing the guardian firm for the producer of Tiger Balm, an iconic pain-relief ointment that dates again to the instances of the Chinese emperors.
“Dr Wee was a visionary business leader, pioneering entrepreneur and philanthropist,” UOL mentioned in a statement. Wee was chairman for over 50 years since 1973. Underneath his helm, UOL grew from a neighborhood agency with property of S$70 million ($52.1 million) to at least one with a presence in 15 nations and whole property of greater than S$20 billion, the corporate mentioned.
Key Acquisition
Wee was born in Kinmen, an island off the coast of China’s Fujian province, to Wee Kheng Chiang, a businessman, and Koh Geok Siew, a villager from the fishing port of Jincheng. They married when Geok Siew was 18 and she or he turned Kheng Chiang’s second spouse, with the blessing of his first spouse. Such was a standard apply on the time.
Wee Cho Yaw stayed along with his mom till age seven, then moved to Malaysia and later to Singapore in 1939. His early schooling was disrupted by World Battle II because the Japanese began bombing Singapore two years later.
He resumed his research in 1949 at St. Andrew’s, an Anglican secondary college, however didn’t take to it as a result of he was older than most of his classmates — and fewer proficient in English. As a substitute he joined his father’s commodity and spice buying and selling agency Kheng Leong in Singapore.
Wee left that profession in 1958 to deal with constructing the household’s financial institution. Integrated because the United Chinese language Financial institution, it catered primarily to the Fujian group in its early years, in response to the bank’s website. The identify was modified in 1965.
After itemizing it in 1970, Wee launched into a sequence of takeovers, steering UOB by way of the consolidation of Singapore’s monetary sector, wherein dozens of banks have been sucked up by the early 2000s into the three main ones now.
His most well-known takeover occurred in 2001 when he defeated regional big DBS Group Holdings Ltd. to purchase Singapore’s Abroad Union Financial institution Ltd.
OUB had perceived DBS’s provide as hostile, primarily as a result of the government-backed lender hadn’t consulted its tycoon proprietor Lien Ying Chow earlier than launching the bid. Issues have been made worse by damaging feedback in its takeover paperwork.
Wee, who hadn’t deliberate on shopping for OUB, shortly organized to satisfy with Lien and his spouse at their dwelling earlier than making a pleasant S$10 billion bid that finally received over the financial institution.
Wee additionally diversified into different product areas like commerce finance and overseas change.
His involvement with Tiger Balm was circuitous. The guardian, Haw Par Brothers Worldwide, went public in 1969 however quickly fell on hard times and the Singapore authorities intervened to reserve it in 1975. A brand new board, together with Wee, was shaped to place the home so as; he was appointed chairman in 1978 and consolidated the enterprise, in response to the corporate web site. It was renamed Haw Par Corp. in 1997.
Household Succession
Wee stepped down as chairman of UOB in 2013 however stayed on as chairman emeritus and a honorary adviser.
The financial institution’s acquisitive zeal waned, though it remained one in every of Singapore’s largest together with DBS and Oversea-Chinese language Banking Corp. On the firm’s annual assembly in 2016, Wee defined that acquisitions got here with dangers, and UOB wanted to watch out.
In early 2022, his oldest son, Ee Cheong, led the financial institution in its first hefty takeover in 16 years, agreeing to pay about S$4.9 billion to purchase the buyer property of Citigroup Inc. in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.
The elder Wee expressed satisfaction in a 2014 biography that, on the time, all his youngsters managed or labored at family-related companies. One other son, Wee Ee Chao, took over the brokerage UOB Kay Hian Holdings Ltd. in 2000.
Ee Cheong’s son, Wee Teng Chuen, left the financial institution in 2020 and joined 32 Actual Property Pte. as managing director and head of capital elevating.
“I do not know if the fourth generation of the Wee Kheng Chiang family will take over the reins in the future,” Wee mentioned within the 2014 biography. “I can only hope they do.”
