The Wee family, founders of the United Overseas Bank (UOB) dynasty, recently underwent a significant wealth transfer. Control of UOB shares and UOL Group shares, previously held by the late Wee Cho Yaw’s estate, has been passed to his heirs, comprising three sons and two daughters. This transfer concludes the estate’s control over these assets, worth billions of dollars, and signifies a shift in the family’s ownership structure following his passing. We previously covered the details of his empire here.
His heirs are now in charge of various parts of the business. Eldest son Wee Ee Cheong is the most prominent, being the Deputy Chairman and CEO of UOB. Second son Wee Ee Chao is the managing director of UOB Kay Hian and the Chairman of Haw Par Corporation.
Third son Wee Ee Lim is the Chairman of UOL Group, while eldest daughter Wee Wei Ling oversees the asset management of the hotel properties owned by the Pan Pacific Hotels Group, which is part of the UOL group.
Interestingly, we found that all 5 stocks related to the Wee family have risen in the last 12 months, outperforming the broader Straits Time Index. We try and make an intelligent guess as to whether a bigger move may be brewing in any of these stocks.
| Stock | Ticker (SGX) | 12 month gain (%) as at 21 June 2025 | Industry | Market capitalisation ($’b) | Wee family ownership (%) |
| United Overseas Bank | U11 | 22% | Banking | $ 58.6 B | 18.47%+8.0%** |
| UOL Group | U14 | 19% | Property | $ 5.0 B | 29.73%+8.53%**+7.02%* |
| Haw Par Corporation | H02 | 35% | Multi | $ 2.6 B | 35.89%+9.81%* |
| UOB Kay Hian | U10 | 57% | Brokerage | $ 1.8 B | 35.27%+33.51%* |
| United Overseas Insurance | U13 | 27% | Insurance | $ 0.5 B | 58.39% |
**Shares held by Haw Par
1) United Overseas Bank (UOB)
UOB gained ~22% in the last 12 months outperforming OCBC’s 20% and but still falling short when compared to DBS’s 31%.
The Wee family directly controls 18.47% of UOB and indirectly controls another 8% through Haw Par.
Like the other local banks, UOB has performed well in recent years, underpinned by robust economic growth in Singapore and in the region, coupled with a high interest rate environment. We last reviewed the performance of the three local banks here.
All three banks, including UOB, have gone through consolidations in the past decades and with the current size and market capitalisation, it is unthinkable that UOB could be taken private.
2) UOL Group (UOL)
UOL gained ~19%, outperforming many large cap peers such as City Development, Hongkong Land and Frasers Property while the broader market, based on the iEdge SG Real Estate Index, only rose by 6.7%
The Wee family directly controls 29.73% and indirectly controls another 15.55% via Haw Par (8.53%) and UOB (7.02%).
UOL, like many property developers in Singapore, has traded substantially below its book value for a long time and has often been the subject of delisting speculation.
In generally, delistings happen when a company is facing competition and requires consolidation and full control by substantial shareholders, allowing them to make large investments to turn the business around.
As retail investors in the stock market tend to be impatient and review quarterly earnings with high expectations, delistings tend to also happen when the substantial shareholder believe a longer timeframe is needed for a turnaround. However, this is not strictly the case in the Singapore stock market as activist pressure is far and few.
3) Haw Par Corporation (Haw Par)
Haw Par is a unique entity in that it is a conglomerate with three very different segments of active business, namely, healthcare, leisure and property. Haw Par is also an investment holding company with substantial shares in UOB and UOL. The stock has risen ~35% in the last year, outperforming the UOB & UOL, in part due to the existing valuation discount.
The Wee family directly control 35.89% and indirectly control another 9.81% via UOB.
The healthcare business is the crown jewel of the company with the iconic Tiger Balm Brand contributing about 52% of the company’s revenue.
The next biggest segment is actually the investment segment where dividend and interest income account for just above 40% of the company’s revenue.
The Leisure brand currently owns Underwater World Pattaya in Thailand. It used to own Underwater World Singapore as well as other similar assets in China and Spain.
Lastly, the property segment includes three leasehold properties in Singapore – Haw Par Centre, Haw Par Glass Tower and Haw Par Technocentre and one freehold commercial property in Malaysia, Menara Haw Par,
Haw Par is also undervalued on a sum of the parts basis as the value of its UOB and UOL shares already exceed the market capitalisation of Haw Par. However, we think a delisting of Haw Par by the Wee family is unlikely due to the same reasons mentioned above for UOL Group.
However, the Tiger Balm business could be deemed as a non-core asset in the overall Dynasty’s portfolio and be sold to an interested buyer. The healthcare segment has a revenue of $226 million and profit of $62 million and could well be worth close to $ 1 billion in a potential sale. Should the Tiger Balm business be sold, this may also path the way for an eventual delisting as Haw Par would not have a significant operating business thereafter.
4) UOB Kay Hian (UOBKH)
The Wee family directly controls 35.27% and indirectly control another 33.51% via UOB.
UOBKH gained ~57%, the most amongst the UOB dynasty stocks. UOBKH is in the brokerage and securities trading industry and does not have a directly comparable peer as the two other local banks as well as most other banks in the region have already taken their brokerage arms private.
This was mainly due to consolidation in the region as well as due to fierce competition and a general view of the business as a sunsetting industry. Therefore, there is a good chance of UOBKH being taken private.
The only other Singapore-listed company which has a brokerage division is iFAST (SGX:AIY) which saw its share price decreased 11% in the last year.
5) United Overseas Insurance (UOI)
UOB has a 58.39% stake in UOI. UOI has gained 27% in the last year, largely in line with the other stocks in the financial industry.
Similarly to UOBKH, the insurance industry has seen substantial consolidation globally and in Singapore.This trend is evident with OCBC’s ongoing effort to take Great Eastern (SGX:G07) private – a company in which it already has very substantial holdings and control over.
Which stocks could be taken private?
The two UOB dynasty stocks that have the highest likelihood of delisting are UOBKH and UOI, as both operate in industries that have faced consolidation due to competition and other structural reasons. Coincidentally (or not), these two stocks are also the two most tightly held stocks under the Wee family, with the Wee family having 68.78% ownership in UOBKH and 58.39% in UOI.
The market capitalisation of UOBKH and UOI are approximately $1.8 billion and $0.5 billion respectively. If a delisting is carried out through UOB, UOB would need only $1.2 billion to delist UOBKH and $0.5 billion to delist UOI.
Therefore, our educated guess would be that a bigger strategic move could be brewing for both UOBKH and UOI, with potential delistings at the opportune time.
There could also be a share swap between UOL and Haw Par to clean up the cross-ownership. Doing so would be akin to doing a share buyback, resulting in a lower share count and higher value per share. However as the cross ownership is a small percentage, unlike Jardine Strategic & Jardine Matherson, it would not be seen as a priority nor would it add substantial value to either the Wee family or minority shareholders.
Lastly, there could be disposals of non-core assets to sharpen the family portfolio which could include the sale of the Tiger Balm healthcare division as well as disposal of underperforming property assets across the empire.
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