Foreign ownership of new entities up in 2022, with rebound in owners from China

SINGAPORE recorded a resurgence in foreign ownership of new companies last year, with China continuing to lead the way. The proportion of new foreign owners may be maintained in 2023 as China reopens, but whether it rises further will depend on market conditions, say observers.

In the past year, “more and more Chinese entrepreneurs” in industries ranging from tech to education to import and export trading showed interest in setting up companies here, said Xu Le, a lecturer at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School’s Department of Strategy and Policy.

According to data from analytics platform Handshakes, out of 63,801 new corporate entities formed here last year, 29 per cent were foreign-owned – that is, foreigners held stakes of more than 50 per cent in them.