Tycoon Peter Lim built a reputation for himself in the 1980s as Singapore’s “remisier king”, serving clients from Indonesia as a stockbroker. A remisier is a stockbroker who only receives a commission for each transaction handled, and Lim made millions in returns, earning him that nickname.

Today, the Raffles Institution alumnus, who worked odd jobs as cook, waiter and cab driver to finance his accounting and finance studies at the University of Western Australia, is worth an estimated US$2 billion. He has a wide-ranging portfolio of investments, encompassing everything from healthcare to football.

Lim owns mainboard-listed real estate and hospitality firm Rowsley, which acquired the Thomson Medical healthcare business for SG$1.6 billion in December 2017. He has a number of projects with the Johor royal family, including a S$1.1 billion integrated sports hub as well as a security business, both of which are based in the Iskandar area. Most notably, Lim purchased Spanish football team Valencia CF in 2014 for SG$605 million in a bid to revive the fortunes of the club.

Believing in giving back, Lim has also engaged in various philanthropic initiatives over the years. He paid for S$1 million worth of meals for frontline healthcare workers in the thick of the coronavirus crisis in May 2020, donated SG$3 million to Nanyang Technological University to set up a new professorship in peace studies course at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in 2014, and presented SG$10 million in scholarship funds to the Singapore Olympic Foundation in 2010.