Ng Kok Song, 75, is likely to contest at the upcoming Presidential Elections, which must be held no later than 13 September 2023.
Who is Ng Kok Song?
If Kok Song does announce his intention to contest at the Presidential Elections, it is almost certain that he would meet the qualifying criteria.
Kok Song is the Chairman and co-founder of Avanda Investment Management, a “
low-key” fund backed by, amongst others, Temasek, which has reportedly amassed approximately 10 billion US Dollars in assets. This quantum of the pool of assets that his company manages is well in excess of the 500 million private sector threshold found in Article 19 of the Constitution of Singapore.
According to Bloomberg, the funds three founding clients were the Singapore Labour Foundation, Temasek and GIC who helped “
launch the firm with around US$4 billion in assets.”
Before he founded Avanda in 2015, Kok Song worked for more almost three decades in GIC, a professional fund management company that manages the Singapore government’s foreign assets. In an interview with the Sunday Times on
2 March 2013, the former Chief Investment Officer of GIC was reportedly of the view that “
complete transparency” may “
disadvantage” GIC in the financial markets by giving away information which could be sensitive.