Razer CEO Tan Min Liang to become a billionaire with backing from Li Ka-shing

Nov 1 , 2017

Tan Min Liang, co-founder and CEO of Razer, poses during a news conference ahead of the company's IPO in Hong Kong. Photo: REUTERS

Razer is offering more than a tenth of the company to raise at least US$400 million in a Hong Kong IPO, giving Tan a net worth of more than US$1.2 billion

After raising funds from Asia’s biggest investors, including Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing and Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, Razer is turning to the market for an initial public offering that will make its co-founder Tan Min Liang a billionaire.

Tan Min Liang, co-founder, CEO and executive director of Razer. Photo: Dickson Lee

Tan, a Singapore entrepreneur who’s also Razer’s chief executive officer, owns about 42 per cent of the San Francisco-based maker of video gaming accessories such as mice and headsets, together with his family. Razer is offering more than a tenth of the company to raise at least US$400 million in a Hong Kong IPO, giving Tan a net worth of more than US$1.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Razer’s plan to list shares comes amid robust growth in the global gaming market, which is expected to reach US$160 billion by 2021, a 52 per cent jump from last year, according data from Euromonitor. Tan said in an interview earlier this year Razer has sold US$1 billion of products in the past three years and now has 35 million users for a software platform that launches games and connects gamers.

Gamer paradise

“The gaming industry is a market that’s growing and it has even more growth potential, influenced by external factors such as an increase in household income and time spent on leisure,” said Lee Kyung-il, an analyst at Seoul-based Heungkuk Securities. “Companies making gaming hardware can also benefit from that growth.”

Tan Min Liang, co-founder, CEO and executive director of Razer, attends a press conference on the proposed listing of Razer. Photo: Dickson Lee

Razer was cofounded in 2005 by Singapore-born Tan as a maker of computer mice that catered to hard core gamers around the world. Today, its assortment of gaming accessories from laptops to audio devices, which all bear its distinctive green tri-headed snake logo, are revered among a niche gaming-consumer base.