Yeo Hiap Seng

Establishment

The company's history dates back to 1900. Founded by Yeo Keng Lian (Chinese: 杨景连), a native of Fujian, China, who began his business career by making soy sauce in Zhangzhou with the Yeo Hiap Seng Sauce Factory (Chinese: 杨协成) in 1901. Then he immigrated to Singapore in the 1930s, where he re-established the Yeo Hiap Seng Sauce Factory in 1938. Yeo died in Singapore in 1960.

The name Yeo Hiap Seng is of Christian origin, with Hiap Seng meaning unity of Christ as Yeo was Presbyterian.

Corporate

Although founded in 1938, the company was incorporated in Singapore on 20 December 1955 as Yeo Hiap Seng Canning and Sauce Factory Private Limited and was listed on the Singapore Exchange in 1969 and renamed to its present shorter name.

The 1950s saw the company can curry chicken, pioneer the bottling of soy milk, and package Asian drinks in Tetra Brik aseptic containers using the Ultra-high temperature processing system.

1990s and beyond

In June 1995, Robert Ng took over as chairman of Yeo Hiap Seng (YHS). His chairmanship came at the same time as his family increased its stake in the company to 24.9%, just short of the 25% threshold above which they would be required by law to make an offer to buy out all other shareholders. This marked a step forward in his fight with Malaysian billionaire investor Quek Leng Chan for control of YHS and its land holdings in Singapore's Bukit Timah district, which could be worth billions of dollars were they redeveloped into residential real estate. In the end, Ng and his father were able to successfully take advantage of squabbles within the Yeo family to buy up 86% of YHS' stock. Their battle to gain control of the company was later described as "one of the most colourful take-over struggles in Singapore's history" and led to YHS' transformation from a food company to a luxury real estate developer.