Stanley Ho was 'furious' at land sale in La Scala court case
The building site in a graft trial involving two Hong Kong tycoons was not seen as having much potential in 1996 when the government sold stakes in it to companies including gambling mogul Stanley Ho Hung-sung's flagship, Macau's Court of First Instance heard yesterday.
But things had changed by 2005, and Ho - who could be "like a child" when he didn't get what he wanted - flew into a rage when he learned he had failed to buy the plot outright, his former financial adviser told the court.
Patrick Huen Wing-ming was giving evidence in the trial of Joseph Lau Luen-hung and Stephen Lo Kit-sing, who are charged with bribery and money-laundering over the successful bid for the land on which Lau is building the luxury housing estate La Scala.
Huen, now vice-chairman and executive director of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in Macau, said the sale of the land in 1996 was regarded as a way of filling a cash shortfall in the development of the adjacent airport and Ho's stake had been a "gesture" of help.
He said Ho would have childlike tantrums when he didn't get what he wanted. When he heard he had lost the 2005 bid, he asked: "Why is it that even I could not win the bid?"
But no one had thought about the land's value in the 1990s as it was far from the city centre. "The land was just lying there idle. Who cared about the land?" Huen said.
The 78,789 square-metre site, in which the government had retained a majority stake, was then sold to Moon Ocean in 2005. The company was owned by Lo, chairman of BMA Investment. Lau, chairman of Chinese Estates Holdings, bought it later.
Lo and Lau are accused of offering a HK$20 million bribe to jailed former public works chief Ao Man-long.
Ho's Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau (STDM) joined the bid with another firm and lost marginally to Lau. Asked when Ho had learnt of the possible sale, he said: "Mr Ho receives information very quickly and accurately. He doesn't need me to brief him." His joint-venture bid was HK$1.35billion. The winning bid was HK$1.37 billion.
The trial continues.
