Forrest Li, Sea Ltd.’s billionaire co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer, has become Singapore’s richest person as shares of his company surged.
Li, who was born in China and later became a Singapore citizen, is now worth $19.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, after Sea’s American depositary receipts rose 61% this year through Friday’s close. The city-state’s second-richest person, paint tycoon Goh Cheng Liang, has a net worth of $17.9 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, Southeast 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 license 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 $4.1 billion in the second quarter, up almost 150% from a year earlier, Li said on Sea’s earnings call on Aug. 17. Sea’s revenue rose 159% to $2.3 billion in the period.