AMONG Forbes’ 2024 list of 50 richest people in Singapore are two fresh faces, both expats-turned-citizens.
One is Ji Qi, a China-born hotelier and co-founder of travel booking site Trip.com, who sits at 23rd place with a net worth of US$2.35 billion.
He is also the founder and executive chairman of H World Group, one of China’s largest multi-brand hotel groups, which he established in 2005 and grew into a chain of more than 10,000 hotels.
The other person is former hedge fund manager George Raymond Zage III at 48th place, whose US$900 million fortune comes largely from LGBTQ dating app Grindr shares.
Zage, the founder and chief executive officer of Singapore-based investment firm Tiga Investments, also sits on the board of Grindr, which went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2022 after a merger with his special-purpose acquisition company.
Retaining the crown as Singapore’s richest man for the second year in a row is Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook) co-founder and long-time Singapore resident Eduardo Saverin, who had first risen to the top spot in the 2023 list.
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Saverin grew his fortune by US$13 billion to a record US$29 billion from US$16 billion.
This was as shares of Meta, which is investing heavily in artificial intelligence, continued their upward trajectory.
His gain was the biggest in absolute terms.
The wealth of nearly two-thirds of the list‘s members has also climbed from a year ago.
Standing in seventh place is a new entrant, the Wee family, consisting of heirs of the late banking magnate Wee Cho Yaw, who died in late February.
Wee was chairman emeritus of UOB and held eighth position in 2023’s list.
Haidilao International Holding chairman Zhang Yong and his wife Shu Ping, the co-founder of the hotpot chain, were among the 10 listees whose wealth took a hit as shares of the popular franchise dipped 45 per cent over the year amid weak consumer spending in China.
The husband-and-wife pair who placed sixth in last year’s list moved down four ranks to 10th place as their net worth fell from US$9.7 billion to US$6.5 billion.
This year’s Forbes’ list of 50 wealthiest people in Singapore had three drop-offs as its minimum net worth for 2024 hit a record US$870 million, up from last year’s US$750 million.
Despite this, the combined net worth of the country’s 50 richest rose by more than 10 per cent to US$195 billion from US$177 billion in 2023 with overall sentiment in Singapore positive following events such as the sold-out concerts of country pop sensation Taylor Swift and rock band Coldplay.
