UOB founder’s heirs granted access to US$10bil estate

UOB founder’s heirs granted access to US$10bil estate

The transfer of control over Wee Cho Yaw's estate marks one of Singapore’s largest wealth transfers in decades.

Wee Cho Yaw
The Wee Cho Yaw family ranks as Singapore’s richest banking dynasty, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. (UOB pic) 
SINGAPORE:
The estate of Wee Cho Yaw, the late patriarch of United Overseas Bank Ltd (UOB) transferred control of the remaining shares that it held to his heirs, concluding one of Singapore’s biggest wealth transfers in decades.

The estate has relinquished control over the lender and the family’s real estate arm UOL Group Ltd, Singapore’s largest listed developer, according to filings on Wednesday.

The transfers at UOB for all the shares that used to be reported under his name — worth about US$9 billion — happened over several months, according to filings. At UOL, his estate’s direct and indirect control over 38% of the company, worth about US$1.4 billion, has also ended.

The Wee family is Singapore’s richest banking dynasty, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Wee’s eldest son, Ee Cheong, is chief executive officer of UOB, Southeast Asia’s third-largest bank. At the time of his passing in February last year, the late Cho Yaw chaired six companies, including UOL and Tiger Balm-maker Haw Par Corp.

The family’s holding companies, including CY Wee & Co, are now wholly owned by Cho Yaw’s wife, three sons and two daughters, though it’s unclear from the filings how the shares in UOB and UOL held by his estate have been distributed among the family members.

A spokesperson for UOB declined to comment on the Wee estate’s share transfer.

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