Kwek family
Kwek Hong Png founded what became Hong Leong Group in Singapore in 1941, opening a shophouse trading firm dealing in ropes, paints, and rubber-estate supplies. The business expanded into Malaysia in 1963; when Singapore and Malaysia separated in 1965, the empire split along national lines into Hong Leong Group Singapore, later led by Kwek Leng Beng, and a separately run Hong Leong Group Malaysia under a cousin branch.
How the fortune was built
Kwek Leng Beng built the Singapore branch around City Developments Limited (CDL), one of Singapore's largest developers, and expanded into global hospitality by consolidating hotels into Millennium & Copthorne, which in 1996 became the first Singapore-based company with a primary London Stock Exchange listing. Under Kwek Leng Beng's son Sherman Kwek, Group CEO since 2018, the hotel arm expanded to roughly 155 properties across Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the Americas.
Where the family invests today
Sherman Kwek is steering CDL toward fund-management platforms for recurring income, including a planned UK commercial-property REIT IPO, alongside continued hotel acquisitions such as the Hilton Paris Opéra. The family navigated a public boardroom dispute at Millennium & Copthorne in 2024–25, substantially resolved by early 2025. Public reporting shows limited evidence of a distinct outside venture arm beyond the family's core real estate, hospitality, and finance businesses.
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