Google co-founder sets up family firm in Singapore; ninth-richest person

February 3 – Mr Brin is the world’s ninth-richest person with a personal fortune of $86.5bn (£63.2bn).

He joins the rush of super-rich families opening up family offices in the Asian financial hub including British entrepreneur Sir James Dyson.

Family offices are private investment companies set up to manage the assets of wealthy individuals and clans.

Mr Brin’s family office is called Bayshore Global Management and established an office in Singapore late last year, according to documents filed with regulators.

The name derives from North Bayshore, the section of Mountain View, California where Google has its headquarters.

Super-rich

Mr Brin is the latest billionaire to take advantage of Singapore’s low tax regime and generous incentives for family offices.

These private investment companies look after the assets of the super wealthy and typically handle their charitable giving.

Hedge fund boss Ray Dalio who is worth around $17bn announced in November he is opening a family office in Singapore while Mr Dyson’s Weybourne Group family office was set up in 2019.

Mr Brin reportedly visited Singapore along with fellow Google co-founder Larry Page in 2016 to learn about its development.

Having founded the search giant in 1998 both founders have stepped away from active management of the company.

Sundar Pichai has been Google’s chief executive since 2015, and became boss of its parent company Alphabet in 2019.

There are about 200 single-family offices in Singapore managing assets worth about $20bn, according to figures from Bloomberg.

Singapore has a global reputation for being a relatively stable political and economic landscape, and as a rival Asian hub to Hong Kong which faces political tensions.