Property industry loses towering figure

Property tycoon Ng Teng Fong’s passing yesterday marks the end of an era of larger-than-life property titans.

He was one of the earliest to develop shopping centres on Orchard Road and until today, his Far East Organization group here is probably the largest property owner in the island’s prime shopping belt. In Hong Kong, he made inroads into one of the world’s most competitive property markets, battling local tycoons to establish his Sino Group as one of the biggest developers there.

Market players yesterday recalled the tenacity and resilience of a man who rose from humble beginnings to build a property empire over the past five decades, bouncing back from setbacks along the way, especially the mid-1980s property slump.

Today, Far East Organization and sister outfit Sino Group have a combined annual turnover of US$5.5 billion and total assets of over US$40 billion, according to information on Far East’s website. Last September, the Forbes Asia magazine ranked the late Mr Ng as Singapore’s richest person, with a fortune said to be US$8 billion (S$11.3 billion).

The 82-year-old suffered a brain haemorrhage on Jan 23 and underwent an operation before he died peacefully yesterday morning, a statement from Far East Organization said. He leaves behind his wife and eight children.

While Mr Ng still kept a keen interest in his business until recently – including determining prices of property launches and land bids – he had handed over the running of his business empire some time ago to his two sons. Elder son Robert is in charge of Sino Group in Hong Kong and younger son Philip oversees the Far East Organization group in Singapore.

Philip Ng, who holds degrees in civil and geotechnical engineering as well as city planning, has over the past decade or so spruced up the company in Singapore and hired many professionals. The group has developed many award-winning buildings.

Mr Ng’s wake is being held at Ng’s Mansion at 2 Watten Estate, with a nightly service at 8pm. The funeral will be on Saturday.

Many in property circles yesterday mourned the loss of Mr Ng, who they said, together with Kwek Hong Png, the late founder of the Hong Leong Group, was the pioneer of the private property market in Singapore. Mr Kwek died in 1994. His elder son Leng Beng yesterday said Mr Ng’s passing was ‘an immense loss for the industry and for Singapore’.

‘He was a doyen of the property sector. He was a proven authority with a deep understanding of real estate and an innate talent of looking at the property market in a different way.’

United Overseas Bank Group chairman Wee Cho Yaw described Mr Ng as ‘an old friend of more than 50 years’ who had ‘an intuitive flair for reading property cycles’.

CapitaLand Group president and CEO Liew Mun Leong highlighted Mr Ng’s successful entry into Hong Kong, ‘a very mature and competitive market, decades ahead of others in Singapore’.

‘Even the largest property companies in Hong Kong take their hats off to his company in Hong Kong, where it enjoys a high standing,’ Mr Liew added.

Redas president Simon Cheong said no other foreign player has entered the Hong Kong market like Mr Ng did. He said Mr Ng’s ‘master stroke’ in Tsim Sha Tsui a few decades ago, mopping up a whole stretch of properties in the district, ‘is still being talked about among market players today’.

Mr Ng entered the Hong Kong property market in the 1970s and continued to build his business there in the early 1980s when confidence in Hong Kong was shaken due to disputes on its future between the British government and China.

Admiring the late Mr Ng’s acumen, Redas CEO Steven Choo said: ‘He saw the enormous prospects for real estate in land-scarce prosperous cities like Singapore and Hong Kong. In Singapore, one of his most enduring legacies is that he laid down the foundation for Singapore’s modern shopping street – Orchard Road. We can see the Far East emblem everywhere in Orchard/Scotts roads. Some of his projects were visionary at the time.’

Dr Choo noted that ‘Far East has also helped establish condominium living in Singapore, through its continued participation in Government Land Sale tenders’.

Source: Business Times, 3 Feb 2010