Billionaire clans may fuel Singapore’s future private equity buyout wave

The city-state’s 1,650 single-family offices are helping drive a private capital rebound.

Singapore’s push to become a global hub for the super-rich is expected to boost its private equity market (PE), as family offices help drive a global resurgence in private investment dealmaking, analysts said.

Many of these fortune managers based in the city-state have been providing capital for some of the year’s biggest acquisitions, Neha Singh, CEO and co-founder of Tracxn Technologies, told Singapore Business Review.

Singh said family offices, which manage the wealth of the ultra-rich, are likely joining forces with private equity firms to diversify their investment and benefit from higher returns.

“PE firms have diversified portfolios, and such partnerships potentially create more investment opportunities for family offices,” she said.

“Such partnerships could also limit the risk and liability for single-family offices, whilst providing them access to the expertise of seasoned professionals in the PE landscape,” she added.

Single-family offices in Singapore have ballooned to 1,650 as of August from just 400 in 2020, according to Chee Hong Tat, minister of Transport and second minister of Finance. The number is expected to pass 1,700 by year-end, he said at an industry summit on 16 September.

These family fortune managers, which enjoy tax breaks, could fuel the city-state’s private equity market that Statista projects to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27.27% in the next year to US$980m ($1.3b).

The Hamburg-based online global data platform expects about 50 deals in 2025.

"We can see deal activities returning and increasing,” Andrew Thompson, partner and head of Private Equity at KPMG Asia-Pacific, told Singapore Business Review, adding that many of these involved family-owned businesses.

“What we're going to continue to see are these family group-linked transactions. [These] will continue to be very important [in 2025],” he added.

Citi’s Global Family Office 2024 survey released on 18 September found that more than 40% of family offices globally are increasingly putting their money in private equity — both those with assets under management below and above US$500m ($646m).

In Southeast Asia, family offices account for a third of limited partners, 77% of which were investing in private equity as of June 2024, up from 66% in 2020, according to London-based Preqin Ltd. 

Globally, private equity has joined public equity and real estate as one of the “Big Three” asset classes in family office portfolios, together making up more than 60% of their holdings, according to BNY Mellon Wealth Management. 

“True to their entrepreneurial nature, family offices are showing themselves ready and willing to move into new and emerging opportunities,” it said in a July 2024 report. “Private equity allocations now include a small but significant place for venture capital investments.”

Technology deals

Family offices have provided capital to private Singaporean companies such as Syfe, which raised US$27m in August, and Rider Dome, which raised S$2.3m in a seed funding round in February.

In January, Singapore-based family office Praesidium Capital took part in the S$200m Series B funding round for local semiconductor company Silicon Box.

Sectors like crypto financial services, electric vehicles (EV), space tech, agritech, and gaming tech have also received funding this year, according to Singh.

Sygnum (USD$ 40m) and Oobit (USD$25m) were the top-funded companies within the crypto financial service sector, which raised US$107m in the first half of 2024, according to Traxcn data.

In the EV sector, Singh said electric truck manufacturers are the most heavily funded, with top deals including Singauto’s US$45m funding in April.

The space tech segment's highest funding went to in-orbit satellite maintenance, led by Infinite Orbits' US$12.9m funding, bringing the segment's half-year total to US$18.5m. The agritech sector raised US$31.8m, led by Rize and Barramundi.

Meanwhile, the gaming tech sector raised US$52.8m in the first half, led by startup k-ID's US$51m Series A funding in June.

Singh said Singapore is taking steps to support emerging industries, with initiatives like the National Quantum Strategy, which plans to invest US$219m over five years to make the city-state a quantum technology leader.

She is optimistic about the private equity market outlook for Singapore, saying the “bottom is behind us.”

Thompson said sectors linked to infrastructure, the digital economy, and renewable energy are proving to be the most resilient, not only in Singapore but also throughout Southeast Asia. He expects increased deals in 2025 especially those involving wealthy families.

Technology deals may also return.

“Some of the technology deals [have] been very quiet, but we believe that that's just a natural business cycle, and we expect to see more technology and fintech-type transactions coming forward,” Thompson added.

The KPMG partner said the Southeast Asian region stands to benefit from the increased attention being given to India, whose capital controls are likely to result in money being channelled to Southeast Asia, he added.