The Chinese immigrant who started a family war over his fortune

In the spring of 2025, a case that could have been the plot of one of those American television series from the 1980s, in which several branches of a family engaged in constant bickering over control of the clan's assets, has made headlines around the world. In this case, the story doesn't take place in the oil wells of Texas or in the vineyards of California, but in the city-state of Singapore.

Beyond the disputes between members of the current generations of the Kwek family, the wealth of this lineage is due to the entrepreneurial skills of their grandfather, Kwek Hong Png, who at the age of 16 left his family in rural China to try to find a more promising future in Singapore. His first job was as a clerk in his brother-in-law's hardware store and, like the grasshoppers in Barcelona, ​​he slept in the same shop where he worked. He also took advantage of the little free time he had left to complete the basic training he had left unfinished when living with his parents. His tutor's lessons seem to have proved useful, because in the following years he climbed the ranks until he became the store manager in 1931. Previously, he had held various intermediate positions.

He was becoming so confident in his abilities that in 1941 he set up his own business, marking the beginning of a successful career. Some of the entrepreneur's brothers, who had also emigrated to Singapore, joined the business. The name he chose for his company was Hong Leong, which in Chinese meant a series of things that portended a future filled with abundance. He was not mistaken in his choice, as the paint and building materials business he set up did well enough that, after just two years, he acquired a large house as his family residence.

During World War II, the island was occupied by the Japanese, and in the midst of the conflict, Kwek took advantage of the opportunity to purchase large quantities of scrap metal and damaged shipwrecks at bargain prices. When the war ended, and during reconstruction, all this material gained significant value and generated significant profits for him. The growth resulting from reconstruction allowed Kwek and his brothers to expand their business beyond construction materials, such as real estate, maritime trade, and plantations.

In the 1950s, they achieved significant profits from the rubber trade and expansion into Malaysia, but the biggest operation of that era was the one they launched in 1961, collaborating with Japanese companies to enter the world of cement and the construction of large buildings. Ten years later, they acquired City Developments Limited, a real estate development company that would eventually become the platform for their main businesses. Also during that time, Kwek entered the financial world, purchasing one of Singapore's leading banks, which would soon become the island's leading financial institution. At the age of 71, he chose to retire, with an accumulated net worth of approximately $3 billion. Shortly after retiring, he still had to endure the ordeal of being accused (and convicted) of embezzlement.

Net worth of $17 billion

A decade later, when our protagonist died, he left behind a vast estate, now valued at $17 billion, and at the same time left the succession firmly established through his son, Kwek Leng Beng, and his brother. The third generation included Kwek Sherman and his Malaysian cousins, who use the surname Quek, and there was no hint of a power struggle. In fact, for years the family had been a model for succession planning.

Thirty years after the death of the founder of the family, all plans have collapsed like a house of cards, not because business is going badly, but because of the disputes with which we began this article. This January, as a birthday present, the visible head of the family group, Leng Beng, received an email from his son Sherman, the group's chief executive, informing him of the appointment of new positions to the board of directors, applying the fait accompli policy. That was the beginning of the schism between the two, because the father interpreted it as a coup d'état.