Sea CEO is Singapore's new richest person with US$20b fortune

Singapore

FORREST Li, Sea's billionaire co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer, has become Singapore's richest person as shares of his company surged.

Mr Li, who was born in China and later became a Singapore citizen, is now worth US$19.8 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, after Sea's American depositary receipts rose 67 per cent this year.

The city-state's second-richest person, paint tycoon Goh Cheng Liang, has a net worth of US$17.7 billion.

It's another example of how tech billionaires are climbing up the wealth rankings in countries across Asia. Earlier this year, Brian Kim, the founder of messaging giant Kakao Corp, became South Korea's richest person.

Sea, South-east Asia's most valuable company, has been turning to fintech for further growth beyond gaming and e-commerce, while also expanding beyond the region.

It won a digital-banking licence in Singapore in December and acquired Indonesia's PT Bank Kesejahteraan Ekonomi, better known as Bank BKE, people familiar with the matter said in January.

Both moves "should allow the group to grow its SeaMoney business beyond payments to include lending, insurance, wealth management and other financial services," said Nathan Naidu, an analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence.

SeaMoney, the company's digital payments and financial services business, saw total payments using its mobile wallet services rise to more than US$4.1 billion in the second quarter, up almost 150 per cent from a year earlier, Mr Li said on Sea's earnings call on Aug 17.

Sea's revenue rose 159 per cent to US$2.3 billion in the period. BLOOMBERG