This story appears in the September 2022 issue of Forbes Asia. Subscribe to Forbes Asia
Ong Beng Seng
Lhoch Zwei/Newscom
This story is part of Forbes’ coverage of Singapore’s Richest 2022. See the full list here.
Unfazed by two years of pandemic-induced losses, Ong Beng Seng, managing director of Singapore-listed Hotel Properties, which owns such landmarks as the Four Seasons hotel in Singapore, has been busy ramping up.
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In May, Hotel Properties and state-owned Temasek won a seven-month bidding race against Keppel to acquire a string of commercial properties (including shopping malls in Singapore and Australia) from media giant Singapore Press Holdings for about S$3.9 billion ($2.8 billion).
Earlier in January, the company opened voco Orchard Singapore, the refurbished and rebranded former Hilton Singapore. With the easing of travel restrictions, hotel occupancies and room rates in the city-state are surging as tourists return. It is now gearing up for the Singapore Grand Prix—a Formula 1 race organized by Ong’s privately held Singapore GP—set to take place in September after a two-year hiatus.
Hotel Properties is expanding outside its home turf too. Last year, the company bought Kanuhura Maldives—81 villas on Lhaviyani Atoll, about 150km north of the country’s capital Male—for an undisclosed sum, which will open next year. In 2023, the company also plans to open a 150-room hotel in Dubrovnik, Croatia, as it makes inroads into Europe’s fast-growing tourism market.
These moves are paying off. The company returned to the black with a net profit of S$1.9 million in the first half of 2022. Ong and his wife Christina are ranked at No. 24, with a combined net worth of $1.75 billion, up 2% since last year. Ong, who cofounded Hotel Properties more than four decades ago, oversees strategic planning and business development, while Christina runs Como Hotels and Resorts, a luxury chain she founded.