Singapore banker’s heirs get access to his $10 billion estate

The estate of Wee Cho Yaw, the late patriarch of United Overseas Bank Ltd. transferred control of the remaining shares that it held to his heirs, concluding one of Singapore’s biggest wealth transfers in decades.

The estate has relinquished control over the lender and the family’s real estate arm UOL Group Ltd., Singapore’s largest listed developer, according to filings on Wednesday. The transfers at UOB for all the shares that used to be reported under his name — worth about $9 billion — happened over several months, according to filings. At UOL, his estate’s direct and indirect control over 38 per cent of the company, worth about $1.4 billion, has also ended.

The Wee family is Singapore’s richest banking dynasty, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Wee’s eldest son, Ee Cheong, is chief executive officer of UOB, Southeast Asia’s third-largest bank. At the time of his passing in February last year, the late Cho Yaw chaired six companies, including UOL and Tiger Balm-maker Haw Par Corp.

The family’s holding companies, including CY Wee & Co, are now wholly owned by Cho Yaw’s wife, three sons and two daughters, though it’s unclear from the filings how the shares in UOB and UOL held by his estate have been distributed among the family members.

A spokesperson for UOB declined to comment on the Wee estate’s share transfer.