Hong Kong billionaire Cheah Cheng Hye places quarter of his wealth in gold| Enterprise Information

For 3 a long time, Cheah Cheng Hye was a face of worth investing in Asia, constructing Worth Companions Group Ltd. right into a multi-billion greenback stock-picking powerhouse.

“I solely purchase, I by no means promote,” Hong Kong billionaire Cheah Cheng Hye says of his gold investments. (YouTube)

Now, the previous fund supervisor is placing a large portion of his private wealth into gold, and is advising others to do the identical. Valuable metals make up a couple of quarter of property on the $1.4 billion household workplace by which Cheah manages his riches, in accordance with folks accustomed to the matter. A yr in the past, valuable metals had been about 15% of the household workplace portfolio.

“I used to be a really affected person investor—I purchased valuable metals, didn’t commerce them, and regarded them a part of my lifetime financial savings,” Cheah, 71, mentioned in an interview with Bloomberg Information. “Finally, the entire thing grew to become bigger and bigger.”

The bullish name on gold makes Cheah a definite outlier on this planet of ultra-high-net-worth investing, whilst bullion retains hitting file highs. In response to the UBS World Household Workplace Report 2025, the typical allocation to gold and valuable metals was simply 2% in 2024.

Cheah is advocating traders construct a portfolio of 60% equities, 20% bonds, and 20% valuable metals, led by gold. He declined to touch upon his household workplace efficiency and holdings.

His valuable metals investing started with small bets in 2008, and picked up steam with massive purchases of bodily gold ETFs a decade later, the folks accustomed to his plans mentioned. That’s resulted in a complete acquire over time of $251.1 million, or 167%, they mentioned. He additionally invested in gold mining shares, bodily bars and cash.

“I solely purchase, I by no means promote,” Cheah mentioned, including he did some minor buying and selling in 2025. He doesn’t use derivatives or structured merchandise and by no means borrows cash to speculate.

Metals rally amid Trump tariff tantrums

Metals together with gold, silver, copper, and tin hit file highs to begin the yr, pushed by anticipated US Fed easing, political stress from the Donald Trump administration, and geopolitical tensions. In the meantime, some Asian household places of work like Cavendish Funding Corp. are bypassing middlemen to commerce bodily gold immediately, allocating vital portfolio parts to the metallic.

Gold and silver rose additional on Monday as President Trump’s push to take over Greenland stoked fears of a commerce warfare between the US and Europe.

Following the freezing of Russian property in 2022 and up to date tensions in Venezuela and Iran, Cheah mentioned the world is coming into a interval of huge “vault flight”. Rich Asian households are more and more shifting a reimbursement to the area to insulate themselves from US sanctions or potential asset seizures. A great way to retailer that wealth is in gold, he mentioned.

“When you’ve got the bodily gold within the warehouse or in your financial institution secure, no person owes you something,” he mentioned. His holdings are backed by gold saved in a Hong Kong authorities warehouse on the airport. “For Asia-based traders, it’s a lot preferable to purchase bodily gold relatively than paper gold.” He’s additionally bullish on silver, which has roughly tripled prior to now yr, far outpacing positive factors in gold.

Cheah Cheah Hye — a journalist who turned billionaire

A former monetary journalist from Malaysia, Cheah co-founded Worth Companions in 1993. He grew to become the primary asset administration agency listed in Hong Kong, a powerhouse that reached $17 billion in property underneath administration at its peak in 2017. He sits on the board of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd., the place he chairs the funding committee.

Cheah’s observe file isn’t with out blemishes. His ultimate years at Worth Companions had been marked by a steep decline in property underneath administration—tumbling to as little as $5.1 billion in 2024—and a scuttled take care of HNA Group Co. in 2017. His eventual exit as chairman adopted the funding by Chinese language brokerage GF Securities Co., a transition marred by studies of tradition clashes and govt friction.

The seed capital for his bulk gold shopping for got here from a transfer in 2015, when he lowered his shareholding in Worth Companions simply earlier than a significant market correction. Dissatisfied with Western vaults after he started shopping for in 2008, Cheah launched the Worth Gold ETF in 2010 to retailer bodily bullion on the Hong Kong airport. He stays the fund’s largest holder with a stake price HK$1.3 billion ($167 million), in accordance with folks accustomed to the matter.

Coming into 2026, Cheah mentioned the worldwide panorama has totally validated his bets.

“Geopolitics — wars in Venezuela, Ukraine, and potential tensions in Taiwan — are making a rising wave of help for gold and silver,” he mentioned. “To this point, the true world is supporting my principle.”