Peter Lim

Peter Lim (born 21 May 1953) is a Singaporean business magnate who was a stockbroker, and is now a private investor who has invested in sectors ranging from palm oil to medicine.

Lim was known as the "Remisier King" (commission king) due to his success as a stockbroker in the 1980s.

In the early 1990s, Lim invested about US$10 million in a start-up palm-oil company, Wilmar.

Lim quit the brokerage business in 1996 and became a private investor.

He was able to escape the 1998 Asian Financial Crisis as he had liquidated most of his stocks and was holding cash.

Lim owns a controlling stake (83%) in Spanish La Liga club Valencia CF, a 40% stake in Salford City F.C., stakes in British supercar maker McLaren Automotive, and Hotel Football next to Old Trafford stadium in Manchester.

In 2010, Lim won the biggest libel payout in Singapore's history in the Raffles Town Club saga.

The son of a fishmonger, Lim and his seven siblings grew up in a two-bedroom government flat in the Bukit Ho Swee public housing estate.

Lim completed his secondary school education at the Raffles Institution.

After National Service, he went to Perth to study at the University of Western Australia.

To fund his university education, Lim worked part-time doing odd jobs as a taxi driver, cook and waiter.

While working at Australian fast-food chain Red Rooster, Lim studied how businesses are started, how they grow, and how they scale up.

He graduated with a degree in accounting and finance and first worked as an accountant and did some tax consultancy before going into stocks.

In 2010, Lim cashed out at the peak of commodity prices and sold his Wilmar shares for US$1.5 billion.

Valencia finished the season in 12th position, even despite having the 4th biggest budget in the competition.

He is a shareholder of English club Salford City and the owner of Spanish La Liga club Valencia CF since 2014.

Since becoming majority shareholder of Valencia CF in 2014, the club has qualified for the UEFA Champions League only 3 times, but also won the Copa del Rey in 2019.

After six years of ownership, the club consistently underperformed and achieved some of the poorest results in its modern history.

In May 2014, Lim was designated by the Fundación Valencia CF as the buyer of 70.4% of the shares owned by the club's foundation.

After months of negotiations between Lim and Bankia (the main creditor of the club), an agreement was reached in August 2014.

Nuno Espírito Santo was hired as head manager on 2 July 2014, which was one of the conditions Lim had insisted on when buying the club.

This attracted attention in the media because of Nuno's close relationship with the football agent Jorge Mendes, whose first-ever client was Nuno.

Lim and Mendes are also close friends and business partners.

Regardless, Nuno's first season was a successful one.

Notable signings included Álvaro Negredo, André Gomes and Enzo Pérez, who had just won the LPFP Primeira Liga Player of the Year in the Portuguese Primeira Liga.

Valencia finished the 2014–15 season in fourth place for Champions League qualification with 77 points, just one point ahead of Sevilla after a dramatic final week, defeating Granada 4–0.

Valencia had a poor start to the 2015–16 season, winning 5 out of 13 matches and failing to progress from the Champions League group stages.

The fans were also increasingly concerned about the growing influence of Jorge Mendes in the club's activities.

On 29 November, Nuno resigned as manager and former Manchester United defender Gary Neville was hired as his replacement on 2 December.

Valencia went winless for nine matches before earning their first win under Neville in a 2–1 victory at home against Espanyol.

On 30 March 2016, Neville was sacked after recording the lowest win percentage in La Liga history for a Valencia manager with minimum of five matches, winning just 3 out of 16 matches.

He was replaced by Pako Ayestarán, who was brought in by Neville as the assistant coach just one month prior.

In the summer of 2016, André Gomes and Paco Alcácer were both sold to Barcelona and Shkodran Mustafi was sold to Arsenal, while Ezequiel Garay and former Manchester United player Nani were brought in.

Pako Ayestarán was sacked on 21 September 2016 after four-straight defeats at the beginning of the 2016–17 season.

Former Italy national team head coach Cesare Prandelli was hired as his replacement on 28 September.

However, he resigned after just three months on 30 December, claiming the club had made him false transfer promises.

Days later, on 7 January 2017, Valencia sporting director Jesús García Pitarch also resigned, saying he felt like he was being used as a shield for criticism by the club and that he could not defend something he no longer believed in.

In 2019, Forbes ranked him as the 10th richest person in Singapore with a net worth of US$2.5 billion.

Separately, Salford City achieved 4 promotions in 5 seasons to reach League Two in 2019.

Salford City also won the delayed 2020 Papa John's Trophy after beating Portsmouth 4–2 on penalties.