Nippon Paint chairman and Wuthelam Holdings group executive director Goh Hup Jin is the son of paint tycoon Goh Cheng Liang. The younger Goh took over the running of Nippon Paint Southeast Asia Group, or Nipsea, in the 1980s. His father had established the firm in 1962 in a joint venture with Japan’s Nippon Paint Holdings, to be the main distributor for the brand’s products in Singapore.

Goh had reportedly been interested in a takeover of Nippon Paint as far back as 2013, with talks hitting a roadblock in 2014. Both firms instead announced a deepening of their business partnership: Nippon Paint raised its stake in eight joint ventures it managed with Wuthelam Holdings to 51 per cent, while the latter received 60 million Nippon shares. As such, the Gohs increased their stake in the Japanese paint maker from 15 per cent to 39 per cent.

The younger Goh was appointed the chairman of Nippon Paint in 2018. In 2020, the Gohs acquired extra shares in Nippon in a deal worth US$12 billion, effectively raising their stake to 58.7 per cent and bringing a fruitful end to a pursuit that has lasted almost a decade.