The Making of Kwek Leng Beng

What is it like, growing up as the son of a tycoon? And what is it like, when the son surpasses the legendary father?

Kwek Leng Beng was born in 1941, the son of Kwek Hong Png, patriarch and founder of Hong Leong Group. In The Absurd Deal That Led to Republic Plaza we covered the origins of the elder Kwek, a legendary business figure in Singapore.

Born to farmers in a village in southern China, he arrived in Singapore at the age of 16 in 1928, armed with a blanket, a mat, and the address of a brother-in-law he had never met. Kwek [Hong Png] started as a clerk in his brother-in-law’s hardware store and worked his way up to become the general manager. Over a decade later, he used $7,000 of his savings to establish a rival company. Kwek’s brother-in-law, his former boss, was outraged, and threatened to bankrupt him. Kwek responded, “I don’t want to disturb you. But if you want to fight with me, I’m not scared and I will take you on.” He named his new venture Hong Leong, which means “plentiful harvests” in Cantonese.

For years and years hence, especially as he grew older, the younger Kwek would express admiration for his father. Kwek Hong Png did not have an easy life. Shortly after he started Hong Leong, Japan invaded Singapore. This was the region’s introduction to World War II; Kwek Leng Beng was but a year old. Faced with the threat of starvation for his young family, the elder Kwek resumed his business a few months after the invasion, under Japanese occupation. This was at great risk to himself — Japanese atrocities against the Chinese were well known, even then. A few years later, his wife, Kwek Leng Beng’s mother, died from a bombing raid. 

According to the official biography of Kwek Leng Beng — Peh Shing Huei’s 2023 book Strictly Business — the elder Kwek traded ropes from Singapore for much-needed rice from Thailand. The biography explains that Kwek Hong Png held on to British currency during the war because he reasoned that “the Japanese occupation would not last.” In this manner he was well positioned for the post-war boom.

This is highly unlikely to be the full story. In Joe Studwell’s 2007 book Asian Godfathers, Studwell got hold of an old family friend who declines to be named. According to this source, Kwek Hong Png’s fortune changed during the war because he traded with the Japanese (thus ensuring his continued survival) and then — in the post war period — smuggling Indonesian rubber in exchange for weapons intended for Indonesia’s independence movement. There is no direct evidence of Kwek’s involvement in this trade, only the word of the aforementioned family friend. Studwell writes:

The end of the Second World War in Indonesia morphed into a nationalist war against the Dutch, who were attempting to retake control of their colony. This provided still more opportunities for Singapore-based smugglers. Many of the weapons used by Indonesian forces came from the Malay peninsula, where there was an abundant supply of Japanese and British arms. It was Chinese traders, usually operating between Singapore and Sumatra, who handled the movement of weapons, medicines and foodstuffs. Contemporary Dutch government reports show that barter prices for smuggled weapons were well established: one tonne of rubber, for instance, for thirty cartridges, two tonnes for a rifle. The trade was enormously profitable and ships owned by major business concerns were involved. A vessel belonging to a subsidiary of Lee Rubber, controlled by Tan Kah Kee’s son-in-law Lee Kong Chian, was found by Dutch authorities to be importing non-lethal military goods to Indonesia in August 1946.

Rubber was particularly important to Singapore-based traders of the period. Anyone who was involved with rubber in the late 40s made a killing when the Korean war broke out in 1950. Prices went from 35 cents a pound to $2 a pound virtually overnight. Kwek Hong Png would write later, in his own biography: “the investments [in rubber] paid off spectacularly.”

Whichever way he made his fortune, it’s true that after World War II the elder Kwek ended up with excess profits, which he invested in properties, houses, and plantations. This set him up for the next phase of Hong Leong’s growth. The family’s other major business dealings after the end of WWII was in shipha ...

The rest of this article is for members only.