Tycoon Oei Hong Leong made his mark on corporate Singapore in the 1980s when he controlled United Industrial Corporation, which owns the huge office property company SingLand.
His profile went up a notch in 2002 when he contested the bid made by hotel tycoon Ong Beng Seng for NatSteel.
More recently, the father of four has been in the news for his charitable contributions, in particular a US$5 million (S$7.2 million) gift to the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
His family background has had much influence on Mr. Oei’s business skills.
He is the son of Eka Tjipta Widjaja, founder of the Sinar Mas business empire, which has interests in agriculture, paper and pulp and property. Sinar Mas controls Golden Agri-Resources in Singapore.
Mr. Oei, 60, attended school in China and even worked on a farm during the upheavals of the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, all of which gave him a unique insight into the country.
Those ties allowed him to make his name by working with China state-owned companies in the 1990s. He helped with the restructuring of these firms. China Tyres, a holding company, was the first China business to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Mr. Oei lived in Hong Kong for some years but returned to Singapore after an assault on him that may have been a botched kidnapping attempt. It was an opportune time as he then exited his investments just before the dot.com bubble burst.
In 2002, he made headlines of a different kind with his daring foray into NatSteel as he upped his stake to 29 per cent, a battle that put him head to head with Mr. Ong and caught the attention of the corporate world.
Minority investors applauded Mr. Oei’s entry as it helped raise the offer price.
While he did not end up controlling NatSteel, he was handsomely rewarded with dividends over the years before selling his stake to Mr. Ong last year. All in all, Mr. Oei said his return was about $310 million.
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Studied in China During Tumultuous ‘60s
31 December 2008
Tycoon Oei Hong Leong made his mark on corporate Singapore in the 1980s when he controlled United Industrial Corporation, which owns the huge office property company SingLand.
His profile went up a notch in 2002 when he contested the bid made by hotel tycoon Ong Beng Seng for NatSteel.
More recently, the father of four has been in the news for his charitable contributions, in particular a US$5 million (S$7.2 million) gift to the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
His family background has had much influence on Mr. Oei’s business skills.
He is the son of Eka Tjipta Widjaja, founder of the Sinar Mas business empire, which has interests in agriculture, paper and pulp and property. Sinar Mas controls Golden Agri-Resources in Singapore.
Mr. Oei, 60, attended school in China and even worked on a farm during the upheavals of the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, all of which gave him a unique insight into the country.
Those ties allowed him to make his name by working with China state-owned companies in the 1990s. He helped with the restructuring of these firms. China Tyres, a holding company, was the first China business to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Mr. Oei lived in Hong Kong for some years but returned to Singapore after an assault on him that may have been a botched kidnapping attempt. It was an opportune time as he then exited his investments just before the dot.com bubble burst.
In 2002, he made headlines of a different kind with his daring foray into NatSteel as he upped his stake to 29 per cent, a battle that put him head to head with Mr. Ong and caught the attention of the corporate world.
Minority investors applauded Mr. Oei’s entry as it helped raise the offer price.
While he did not end up controlling NatSteel, he was handsomely rewarded with dividends over the years before selling his stake to Mr. Ong last year. All in all, Mr. Oei said his return was about $310 million.
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