Richard Chandler

Richard Chandler is a New Zealand-born billionaire investor and the founder of the Clermont Group, an international conglomerate based in Singapore.

Chandler grew up in Matangi, near Hamilton, the son of a beekeeper. He began investing in 1982 and, with his brother Christopher, built their initial fortune through bold emerging-market positions in Russia, Brazil and Asia during periods of market dislocation in the 1990s and 2000s. In 2006 he founded the Clermont Group in Singapore, managing a globally diversified portfolio spanning public equities, private equity, venture capital, real estate and fixed income, with a thematic focus on urbanisation, demographic shifts, technological disruption and financial inclusion.

Clermont’s interests have spanned healthcare, financial services and aerospace. In 2023 Chandler was ranked the fourteenth-richest person in Singapore by Forbes, with an estimated wealth of US$2.9 billion. He has more recently signalled interest in investing in New Zealand agriculture and “pure foods”, meeting with the country’s finance minister to discuss opportunities.

Chandler’s profile is noteworthy because he is one of New Zealand’s most significant international business figures, a Waikato-raised investor who built a multi-billion-dollar global conglomerate from emerging-market convictions that most institutional investors would not have touched.

Richard features in our look at the New Zealanders who made their fortunes offshore.

Sources: Wikipedia · Clermont Group · Newsroom