Family-owned companies have been, and still are, important to both the Singapore and Malaysia economies. Some family-owned companies are among the oldest firms in their respective countries. Both Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC) and UOB — the oldest and second-oldest local bank respectively — still count their founding families as major shareholders despite having attracted institutional shareholders. City Developments (CDL) is one of the oldest listed developers in Singapore.
SINGAPORE (June 24): Last week, we ran a Special Report on CEO pay in both Malaysia and Singapore. This week, we have sub-divided the data into three main segments — banks, family-owned businesses and government-linked companies (GLCs).
The banks are in a category of their own because of their size — they are the largest companies by market capitalisation in Singapore — and their importance to their respective economies. In addition, banks such as United Overseas Bank (UOB), Malayan Banking and CIMB Group Holdings have regionalised within Asean. UOB, in particular, has made inroads into the Mekong Delta region and is on its way to owning as much as 3.5% of the market share in loans in Thailand.
