About 1.5 percent of the 2,473 billionaires worldwide live in Singapore.
Home to 37 billionaires, Singapore has the third highest number of billionaires in the Asia-Pacific region and sixth globally, reported AsiaOne citing Wealth-X and CNBC.
This means that 1.5 percent of the 2,473 billionaires worldwide live in the city-state.
Globally, New York has the most billionaires with 97, followed by Hong Kong (79), Moscow (74), London (68) and Beijing (38).
Rounding up the top ten are Sao Paulo, Dubai, Istanbul and Mumbai.
Wealth-X told CNBC that finance is still the dominant industry for billionaires, which is why more billionaires are found in large financial centres.
Nonetheless, the billionaires in Singapore are made up of a diverse group who amassed their fortune from various industries.
Brothers Robert and Philip Ng, for instance, were listed as Singapore’s richest men for the seventh consecutive year by Forbes in August.
With a net worth of US$8.6 billion, the brothers’ family owns Far East Organization.
But the flat Singapore dollar and the sluggish economy saw the wealth of the island’s 50 richest people increase by just 2.4 percent from the year before, noted the publication.
Also included in Singapore’s wealthiest list are Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, property tycoon Kwek Leng Beng, self-made paint tycoon Goh Cheng Liang and the family of late banker Khoo Teck Puat.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
