A statement issued by mainboard-listed Metro Holdings said he 'passed away peacefully' of old age while in hospital, with family by his bedside.

Mr Ong gave up chairmanship of the company just two years ago in July 2007.

He was born in 1911 in China's Fujian Province. He started with virtually nothing, but in recent years has featured regularly on the Forbes list of Singapore's richest men, with assets of between US$60 (S$87) and US$100 million.

In recent years, Metro has made most of its profits from property development.

When he was 16, Mr Ong left Fujian to join his father in Indonesia, where he worked for a textile wholesaler for the first two years, according to the National Library's archives.

He also worked as an odd job labourer, clocking 12 hours a day and earning 25 rupiah a month, said Metro Holdings.

Mr Ong's first foray into retail was in 1928 when he joined Toko Dezon department store as a salesman. He worked there for 25 years, rising through the ranks to become the firm's manager of stores, overseeing seven stores across Indonesia.

He struck out on his own in 1953 and set up his first department store. An avid film buff, he named it Metro, after the famous Hollywood movie studio Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM).

From a single store in Surabaya, Metro quickly expanded to Jakarta two years later, and then to Singapore, in a two-storey shophouse at 72 High Street, in 1957. Mr Ong is said to have chosen High Street because he felt it was a more upmarket location than Chinatown.

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