Walter Kwok and Joseph Tsai make top 10 Hong Kong rich-list debut
Eldest of billionaire brothers and Alibaba chief boost fortunes, according to Forbes
The eldest of the three billionaire Kwok brothers and Joseph Tsai, Alibaba's executive vice-chairman, emerged as big winners in the wealth stakes yesterday as the 2015 Forbes list of Hong Kong's 50 richest people was unveiled.
Walter Kwok Ping-sheung saw his share of the family spoils in developer Sun Hung Kai Properties unshackled from that of his brothers, making him one of the city's top 10 richest people in his own right for the first time, with a US$6.7 billion fortune.
Meanwhile, SHKP chairman Raymond Kwok Ping-luen and Thomas Kwok Ping-kwong, who has been jailed on bribery charges, maintained fourth place under their joint-wealth status.
As Li Ka-shing announced plans to restructure his business empire yesterday, the chairman of Cheung Kong (Holdings) and Hutchison Whampoa kept the No 1 spot for the 17th year, with a net worth of US$33.5 billion.
Li, Asia's richest man, earned only a quarter of what he made the previous year, but he pocketed a US$1.9 billion dividend from the sale of his 25 per cent stake in his retail arm AS Watson to Singapore's Temasek Holdings.
Alibaba's Tsai, however, more than doubled his earnings, to US$6.85 billion, through the Chinese e-commerce giant's record-breaking initial public offering last September. It saw Tsai - who made his top 50 debut last year - become the list's biggest winner in percentage terms.
Overall, the wealth of the city's top 50 richest people stands at US$236 billion.
Lee Shau-kee, Hong Kong's second wealthiest man, saw his net worth boosted by US$5 billion to US$25 billion. The majority owner of Henderson Land Development boosted his holdings in the property firm and poured cash into shares of SHKP.
