Singapore Finder fee of 2%
About 40 years ago, Singapore was in a recession. I was running a large insurance company.

The GM of a property developer X approached me. They had a large industrial property for sale. The offer price of $10 million (or thereabouts) was a big drop from the transacted price prior to the recession. The property was tenanted and the yield was over 10%.

It was an attractive bargain. I got my board's approval to buy the property.
Two months later, the GM of X approached me privately. In setting the price earlier, their board had approved a finder's fee of 2%. They wished to pay that fee to me personally. They can arranged to pay the fee (of $200,000 thereabouts) to me in an overseas account.

That fee probably represented over 1 year of my income at that time.

I declined to receive the payment. I could have collected the finder's fee of 2% and paid it back to my company, reducing their purchase price. Instead, I told the GM of X to credit back the finder fee to company X, as they needed the money more than my insurance company.

I became a close friend of the owner of company X over the next two decades. I approached him to be the sponsor of several charity events. He donated $50,000 on several occasions. He must have donated, in total, more than the finder fee of $200,000.

If I had taken the finder fee, I might be drinking several cups of coffee with CPIB.

Tan Kin Lian

Add Comment

I also agree

Bob  17 Jul 2023  

I agree with this proposal

TKL  17 Jul 2023  

---