10 Oct 2006

A third of Singapore's rich are Indonesians - Merrill

Andy Xie has a differing interpretation however...

October 10, 2006

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A third of Singapore's high net worth individuals are of Indonesian origin, according to a report by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini.

At the end of 2005, Singapore had an estimated 55,000 high net worth individuals, holding assets worth $260 billion, the report said.

A third of these individuals were Indonesians with permanent resident status in Singapore -- 18,000 in all -- with assets worth $87 billion.

"Singapore has a very open immigration policy to attract talented foreigners and that has also attracted a lot of high net worth individuals from Indonesia," Tho Gea Hong, market director for Merrill Lynch Global Private client, told a news conference.

High net worth individuals are defined as people who have net financial assets of at least $1 million.

Tho said the number of high net worth individuals in Singapore has risen 13.4 percent from 2004. A total of 1.3 percent of these individuals are ultra-high net worth individuals, with assets exceeding $30 million.

Kong Eng Huat, Market Managing Director, South Asia, for Merrill Lynch Global Private Client, said Asia-Pacific excluding Japan would need 10,000 bankers to serve a million high net worth individuals, compared with an estimated 5,000 bankers now.

He said Merrill expects its Singapore headcount to increase by 20 to 25 percent over the next few years because of strong growth in the wealth management business in Asia.

9 comments:

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Anonymous said...

Now lets see how our MSM reported this -

The New Paper, pg 19 Headline - "1.5% of Singapore Adults worth over $1.6m"

Higher than 0.22% Global and 0.1% Asia's average. Japan 1.29%, China 0.03.

Anonymous said...

Just read the Shit Times for laughs.

Anonymous said...

What are the 18K Indons doing here?

How much of this amazing $ 87 BILLION is from money laundering.. ?
obviously from the spoils of their adventures in Indonesia.

No wonder, if the rich take their money and run, esp when they became rich out from their own country and its bountiful resources (coal, oil, etc..), WHAT is left for the rest of their people ?

The rich-poor gap will continue to grow and we are allowing money laundering to continue.

US in its report this year and last year did state that our country is one of the major money laundering countries in the world.

I do not what had happened to the much talked about Extradiction Treaty between our countries, which had been stalled many times here.

No wonder we, the real Singaporeans are one of the saddest people in the world...how can we be happy from the side-effects from ill-gotten gains.

(except probably the few genuine and honest Indon businessmen).

Anonymous said...

Andy Xie is right, though many of us know that already.

Anonymous said...

Note that 18K are indon PRs, the article does not mentioned how many of the 55K are non-Singaporean PRs. If you exclude the highly paid politicians and those , super scale and gov linked MNCs, both present + ex. There would not be too lay Singaporeans in the list

Anonymous said...

having wealthy foreigners coming in is a mixed blessing; they bid up house prices beyond the reach of locals, and their money dont trickle down to hawkers and factory workers whose income may change little while property companies and banks make millions; SG government need to figure out how to get the benefits to spread wider

Anonymous said...

Yes, Shanghai-born Andy Xie was right.

No one sacks somebody unless he speaks the 'truth that hurts' the few privileged ones; and yes, leaving the rest as suckers (incl hawkers,and the middle-income, the poor, the disabled, the old, etc...).

Just heard on the radio about Indonesia agreeing finally to rectifying the agreement about forest fires and the haze.

Long Overdue.
BUT, why are our countries incl Malaysia have not been pushing for this rectification for so many years. From here, we can see where our govt's priorities are !


What about our country doing their part in RECTIFYING the Extradiction Treaty with Indonesia who had said in public that there are many Indonesian fugitives on the run and are also involved in money laundering.

Both deals (about the money laundering and the one about haze prevention) have been on the table for many years.

Perhaps the smoke-screen (from the haze) is to block the reality of the money laundering. :-)