Lim Peng Siang was the son of Lim Ho Puah. His mother was the only daughter of Wee Bin, the founder of Wee Bin & Co. He was born in Amoy, Fujian, China in 1872. After receiving his education in Chinese, he travelled to Singapore when he was still very young. Like his father, Lim Peng Siang was naturalised as a British subject, in 1902. He received private tuition in English, and was a student at the St. Joseph's Institution.
Career
He joined the firm of Wee Bin & Co., which was then under the management of his father, and eventually rose to its head before setting out to start the Ho Hong Group. He took over the greater part of the firm's business, including the large steamships, when the firm of Wee Bin & Co. was liquidated in 1911 In 1914, Lim Peng Siang founded the Ho Hong Steamship Company Ltd. He sold most of his shares in Ho Hong Steamship to the Oversea Chinese Banking Corporation in 1936. He founded the Chinese Commercial Bank in 1912 together with other members of the Singapore Hokkien business community. Together with Lim Boon Keng, Seow Poh Leng and others he founded the Ho Hong Bank in 1917. In 1932, The ChineseCommercial Bank and the Ho Hong Bank merged with the Oversea-Chinese Bank to form the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, later known as OCBC. By the 1910s the Ho Hong Group was the most diversified group of companies in Malaya. Companies in the group founded by Lim Peng Siang included Ho Hong Steamship Co. Ltd., Ho Hong Oil Mills Ltd., Ho Hong Parboiled Rice Mill, Ho Hong Bank Ltd., and the Ho Hong Portland Cement Works Ltd. He also had plans for a bucket-making factory, and for the reclamation and development of several big pieces of swampy land in a big industrial area in the immediate neighbourhood of Singapore Town.
Public life
Lim Peng Siang was involved in the formation of the Singapore ChineseChamber of Commerce, and was its President from 1913 to 1916, except for 1914 when he was Vice President. He was a member of the Chinese Advisory Board between 1921 and 1941, as one of the representatives of the Hokkien community. He was also a Justice of the Peace. Along with his brother, he was an honourable chairperson of the Hong Kong Fujian Chamber of Commerce between 1930 and 1941. He was a director of a number of public companies, including the Central Engine Works Ltd. and the Central Motors Ltd. In his later years, he was less active in public life, and declined the offer of a seat on the Legislative Council several times, in order to concentrate on his industrial work.
