How CDL’s China expansion during Covid-19 led to a ‘shock’ split within Singapore tycoon Kwek Leng Beng’s family

In Strictly Business: The Kwek Leng Beng Story, the Singaporean billionaire opens up on his six decades in business and the lessons he learnt through crises and challenges

The book takes readers on a journey through Kwek’s business empire that spans several continents and sheds light on the negotiations behind key corporate deals

Reading Time:6 minutes

City Developments Ltd executive chairman Kwek Leng Beng. Photo: Handout/Hong Leong Group Singapore

Published: 2:00pm, 25 Nov 2023Updated: 4:33pm, 27 Nov 2023

In his new biography Strictly Business: The Kwek Leng Beng Story, influential Singaporean billionaire Kwek Leng Beng shares the secrets of his business successes across various sectors such as real estate, hospitality and finance. Part 1 of an excerpt detailed how Kwek outwitted Donald Trump over the purchase of the Plaza Hotel in New York. Part 2 below, from Chapter 18 of the book, follows how CDL’s bid to expand in China led to “a rare moment of public discord” for the Kwek clan.

While CDL chairman Kwek Leng Beng had skipped through crises repeatedly with an unshakeable confidence that became a hallmark of his legend in the business world, he would find the triple whammy of the Covid-19, a partner’s meltdown and family problems a challenge almost too much to bear.

His Waterloo moment began when his son Sherman Kwek tried to expand CDL China. He found the pace much slower than expected. The group was growing at an average of a project a year. “We were late to enter the China market and only set up CDL China in 2010,” he said.

“We were growing very slowly there and my belief has always been that if you can’t achieve scale in a particular market segment or geography, then you will never be a major player or build any economies of scale. Without scale, even hiring people is immensely challenging. Nobody really knew CDL in China.”

In 2018, he found a way to catapult CDL China to among the top developers in the country by taking a stake in Chinese developer Sincere Property Group, which was ranked among the top 100 real estate players.

From only three cities, CDL would suddenly be in 20 cities, with a pipeline of development projects in mostly Tier 1 and 2 cities. Sincere had a development land bank of 9.2 million square metres (99 million square feet) in gross floor area across 64 development projects spanning 18 cities in mainland China.