Electronics king's crown jewel
Nam Tai chairman stands to make a fortune from his factory site in Shenzhen, thanks to the city government's rezoning project for Qianhai
Nam Tai Electronics chairman Koo Ming-kown, nicknamed the "electronics king", earned his first pot of gold by selling calculators before moving on to the assembly of high-end electronic components for original equipment manufacturer customers.
Nam Tai, founded by Koo in 1975, plans to redevelop a plant close to Shenzhen's Qianhai special economic zone to take advantage of a rezoning project by the city government. The 52,600-square-metre factory site, bought by Koo's company in 1993 for 30 million yuan, will be turned into a complex offering more than 300,000 square metres of commercial, serviced-apartment and hotel space, with the project valued at nine billion yuan (HK$11.3 billion) to 12 billion yuan.
"This is a gift from heaven as we never dreamed of earning money from property but now we are forced to earn such a fortune," Koo said.
Koo, 69, said redeveloping the factory was not his idea, but a result of a Shenzhen government plan to turn areas close to Qianhai into commercial use to support the zone's development as a financial centre. The special economic zone was designated last year as a testing ground for the freer transfer of yuan.
Land prices in Qianhai and nearby have surged, with China Resources Land, the property flagship of China Resources (Holdings), paying 10.9 billion yuan last month for the third commercial site in the zone, making it Shenzhen's most expensive land.