Lim Hua Min, founder of the largest local brokerage firm that is not backed by a bank, has expanded his business globally and diversified into related fields. As the firm celebrates its 40th anniversary, he insists there is still a bright future for remisiers with the right strategy.

Lim Hua Min settles down on a chair right under an oil painting of a boy helping his younger brother master the art of writing.

“I’d like this in the background,” he tells the cameraman.

“I have always liked this theme: the older one teaching the younger one.”

It is late in the morning at the bustling Raffles City Tower headquarters of Phillip Securities, and Lim is preparing to speak to a group of reporters.

It is not something he does often, but with the 40th anniversary of Phillip Securities just weeks away, he has decided to make an exception.

Lim, 69, is something of a big brother in the local stockbroking industry.

In 1975, he acquired a bankrupt broking firm using his personal savings and borrowings from his father and a bank.

Today, the firm — Phillip Securities — is the largest home-grown stockbroker that is not backed by a bank. It is also part of a diversified financial services group under the privately held PhillipCapital umbrella controlled by Lim and his family.

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