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Australian billionaire Nathan Tinkler moves to Singapore

Leon Saw

Mon Jun 25 2012

Singapore

AUSTRALIA’S youngest billionaire Nathan Tinkler moves to Singapore. Leon Saw finds out why.

Australia’s youngest billionaire, Nathan Tinkler, 36, is moving to Singapore.

According to his spokesman Tim Allerton, Mr Tinkler is leaving Australia because “he wants to be closer to his customers, financiers, and investors in Asia”.

When asked why Singapore instead of other countries in Asia, he said Mr Tinkler had chosen Singapore because it was “in a central location and closer to the Asia Pacific region”.

Nathan Tinkler hails from the Hunter Region in New South Wales, Australia, and started out as an electrician, working in a mine. In 2006, he borrowed $500,000 and got other investors onboard to purchase a Queensland coal field which he then sold for $440 million two years later. Since then, Mr Tinkler has been investing heavily in Australia’s minerals and resources sector, growing his personal fortune.

Mr Tinkler also owns the Newcastle United Jets Football club which plays in the A-League (Australia’s top soccer competition), as well as the Newcastle knights, an Australian rugby league team which competes in the National Rugby League.

Nathan Tinkler is not the only young billionaire who has relocated to Singapore in recent years.

Brazilian Facebook co-founder, Eduardo Saverin, 30, moved to Singapore in 2009 and two years later renounced his American citizenship.

The renunciation saw him pay lesser capital gains taxes on his earnings from Facebook’s initial public offering which was held on May 18, 2012.

Singapore has no capital gains tax, and its highest earners are only subjected to a 20 percent tax.

Mr Saverin’s net worth is estimated to be US $2 billion.

Other notable individuals who have settled in Singapore these past few years include China-born actress, Gong Li, action film star, Jet Li, and American author and investment guru, Jim Rogers.

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