Oei Hong Leong

Peter Oei Hong Leong (Born 1948) is the chairman of Chip Lian Investments and the second son of Indonesian billionaire Eka Tjipta Widjaja. The investor and property developer owns a valuable art museum in Singapore which includes about 50,000 Buddhist artefacts and artworks. Oei gets the bulk of his fortune from his corporate bond portfolio. Other assets include a minority stake in Raffles Education, which operates a network of 30 colleges and universities across 12 countries, including Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, China and the Philippines. He also owns close to 30% of Singapore-listed IPC Corp, which owns hotels and redevelops distressed properties in Japan.^[1]

Family

Oei was married and has 4 daughters.^[2]

Career

Oei Hong Leong has stakes in Chip Lian Investments, Oei Hong Leong Foundation, IPC Corp, Raffles Education and the Canadian Metropolis Properties Corporation.

In 1980, Oei started the Oei Hong Leong Foundation Pte Ltd.^[3]

In September 2008, Oei made S$7 million USD trading American International Group Inc. shares. Oei had bought shares of the embattled American insurer at US$1.80 apiece on the birthday of Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, who had turned 85 on Sept 16. On Sept 22, he sold the shares at about US$5 each - a gain of 177%.^[4]

In October 2008, Oei predicted the global credit crisis would worsen because European banks would falter. A day after his remarks, U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government said it would inject 50 billion pounds ($80 billion) into the nation’s banks to keep them from collapsing.^[5]

In 2009, Oei successfully sued Citigroup for over more than S$1 billion ($708 million) in trading losses. He had claimed Citigroup failed to execute orders for $600 million of U.S. 30-year treasury bonds in November that were placed to cover call options he had written. Call options give the buyers the right to buy securities at a pre-agreed price on or before a specified date.

In 2012, Oei sold 20.99 million Intraco shares at $0.56 SGD apiece to businessman Tony Chew's investment company, Asia Resource Corporation (ARC), making a $1 million profit.^[6]

In August 2012, Oei raised his stake in IPC, a Singapore-listed firm that buys and redevelops distressed properties in Japan, to 25.4%, sending shares soaring.^[7]

In September 2012, he upped his Raffles Education stake to 6.2%, to similar effect.^[8]

In December 2013, Oei sued Goldman Sachs Group Inc. over a $34.3 million loss on Brazilian real-yen options trades he claimed the bank misled him into making. Oei said in the New York lawsuit that he cut dealings with Goldman Sachs in 2011 after it profited on a losing trade it persuaded him to make. He said he resumed transactions after senior executives including President Gary Cohn and Asia head David Ryan visited him in April 2012 and said his interests would be placed first.^[9]

Philanthropy

On 10 October 2008, Oei donated his earnings (S$7 million USD) from the sales of AIG shares, to the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy to fund the studies of its post-graduate students from China.^[10]

In 2011, he also helped fund an encyclopaedia entitled Singapore Biodiversity : Encyclopedia of the Natural Environment and Sustainable Development.^[11]

References