Property tycoon Ng Teng Fong, who was the chairman of Far East Organization, has died. He was 82 years old.
A statement from Far East Organization said that on January 23, Mr. Ng suffered a brain haemorrhage and was taken to the hospital where he underwent an operation.
Mr. Ng was ranked by Forbes magazine as Singapore’s richest man in 2009; his family’s net worth was estimated to be US$8 billion.
He was said to have owned about a quarter of the country’s private housing market and made his fortune on the property market.
In 1960, Mr. Ng started Far East Organization and by the 1980s, he was called the "King of Orchard Road".
The company made its start in residential development projects. One of its earliest projects was Watten Estate, located in the prime residential area of Bukit Timah where Mr. Ng lived.
Since then, the property giant has developed around 700 condominiums, hotels, and malls in Hong Kong and Singapore. This includes Singapore’s Fullerton Hotel.
The family is also one of Hong Kong’s largest real estate developers and also owns Hong Kong’s Sino Group.
Mr. Ng came to Singapore when he was six. He was born in 1928 in Putien in China’s Fujian province.
Known for his frugal lifestyle, Mr. Ng lived in his home in Watten Estate for 30 years till his death.