ABSTRACT
Ho Hong Oil Mills Ltd was just one of the many Chinese-owned Singapore companies that processed coconuts for their oil and manufactured soap. e rm was owned by Lim Peng Siang (1872-1944), who, with his brother Lim Peng Mao, operated the Ho Hong group of companies founded in 1904. In addition to the processing of coconut oil/soap manufacture, the group had interests in shipping, through the Ho Hong Steamship Co. Ltd; rice pot-boiling; the manufacture of cement via the Ho Hong Portland Cement Works Ltd; and banking, through the Ho Hong Bank (1917), which in 1932 merged with the Chinese Commercial Bank and the Oversea-Chinese Bank to form the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. Siang was President of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce (1913-16), a member of the Chinese Advisory Board (1921-41) and a director of a number of public companies, including Central Engine Works Ltd and Central Motors Ltd.1
