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Wah Hin & Co.
Michael Lien chairs Wah Hin & Co., the 1929-founded Lien family office managing an estimated $3.4B from the Overseas Union Bank legacy.
Wah Hin & Co.
Wah Hin & Co. was founded in 1929 by the late Dr. Lien Ying Chow, a banker, hotelier and diplomat whose primary vehicle was Overseas Union Bank (OUB). After OUB was acquired by United Overseas Bank in 2001, the Lien family retained a substantial shareholding that now sits alongside a global portfolio of direct investments and fund commitments. The family office is partly owned by the Lien Foundation, and the family’s wealth is stewarded across three generations, with Dr. Lien’s grandson Michael Lien serving as Executive Chairman. The office allocates across public equities, private equity, venture capital, hedge funds, fixed income credit and special situations — spanning buyout through seed-stage, primarily in Asia, Europe and North America. Confirmed positions include United Overseas Bank, the One Raffles Place commercial tower and a collection of Robinson Road shophouses. Wah Hin also participates in direct co-investments and SPVs, a posture reinforced by Michael Lien’s board seat at Temasek Holdings. The firm explicitly avoids cannabis, carbon assets, litigation finance and sports franchises. Based at One Raffles Place in Singapore, the firm is tight-knit — headcount is not publicly disclosed, but Wah Hin regularly deepens its capabilities by adding investment talent. Deputy Chairman Laurence Lien co-founded the Asia Philanthropy Circle and chairs the Lien Foundation, which operates Lien AID and Leap201; Michael Lien also sits on the National University of Singapore’s investment committee. In May 2024, the firm maintained its relationship with Temasek through Michael Lien’s ongoing board directorship (per Temasek, 2024). The structure that differentiates Wah Hin is a dual-entity governance model: the family office shares ownership with the Lien Foundation, creating a hybrid that blends philanthropic perpetuity with commercial investment imperative. This design — plus the family’s permanent UOB stake and Temasek board linkage — gives the office a relationship-based sourcing funnel that looks unusually like sovereign-level access from a single-family platform.
General information
Firm type
Single Family Office
Year founded
1929
AUM
$3.4B (Altss estimate)
Location
Region
Asia
Country
Singapore
City
Singapore
Corporate office
One Raffles Place, #51-00, Singapore 048616
Principals
Michael Lien
Executive Chairman
Margaret Lien
Chairman and Governor Emeritus of the Lien Foundation
Laurence Lien
Deputy Chairman and Chairman of the Lien Foundation
Cheng Wai Keung
Director
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Wah Hin & Co.?
Michael Lien, grandson of founder Dr. Lien Ying Chow, serves as Executive Chairman and sets the investment direction for the family office. He is supported by director Cheng Wai Keung, the Chairman of Wing Tai Holdings. Michael Lien’s board seat at Temasek Holdings and portfolio heft as a substantial UOB shareholder give him an institutional pipeline that shapes deal flow.
How does the Lien family office source proprietary deal flow?
Sourcing leans on a multi-generational relationship network. Michael Lien’s board directorship at Temasek Holdings provides adjacency to sovereign-level coinvestment opportunities. The family’s legacy position in United Overseas Bank and its Singaporemember business community ties — Dr. Lien was a former president of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce — extend the top of the funnel further.
Is Wah Hin a single-family office or does it function like a holding company?
Wah Hin is structured as a single-family office, but it reads closer to a permanent holding company. It holds a substantial UOB stake directly, owns and operates the One Raffles Place commercial tower, runs a portfolio of Robinson Road shophouses, and deploys into venture, private equity and hedge funds — all while being partially owned by the family’s charitable foundation.
What investment stages does Wah Hin & Co. typically target?
The mandate spans buyout, seed, Series A, B, and C, as well as fund-of-funds commitments, secondaries, infrastructure and private credit. The firm explicitly avoids cannabis, carbon assets, commodities, litigation finance, insurance-linked risk and sports franchises.
How are the Lien family’s philanthropic activities separated from the commercial portfolio?
The Lien Foundation is a partial owner of Wah Hin & Co., and Laurence Lien chairs both the Foundation and its operating entities Lien AID and Leap201. Michael Lien and Margaret Lien also hold governor roles. Philanthropic capital is ring-fenced inside the Foundation, but its ownership stake creates alignment with the commercial portfolio.
What is Wah Hin’s known posture on co-investments alongside external GPs?
The office engages in direct co-investments and SPVs. Michael Lien’s board relationship with Temasek confirms a co-investment corridor with the Singapore state investor. The firm also makes fund commitments, but its direct exposure and operating-company governance suggest a preference for control or co-control when scaling into private markets.
Where does the underlying wealth come from?
The wealth originates with Dr. Lien Ying Chow, who founded Overseas Union Bank and built it into one of Singapore’s Big Four banks. When UOB acquired OUB in 2001, the Lien family received a combination of cash and UOB shares that formed the capital base of the family office.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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