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SCMP Reporter

It would come as no surprise to some of Tony Fung Wing-cheung's long-time friends and associates were he to sell part of the family firm.

He is said to have been a reluctant heir to the Sun Hung Kai & Co corporate throne.

In 1985, at the age of 34, when his father and group founder Fung King-hey passed away, associates said it was not his life ambition to run a securities and financial services firm.

However, as the only son, Mr Fung did his duty and took up the chief executive's chair and to his credit has worked hard to continue in his father's highly distinguished footsteps.

The late Mr Fung arrived from China in 1949, having earned and lost his first fortune.

 He became one of the territory's earliest Chinese property developers, later teaming up with close friends Lee Shau-kee and Kwok Tak-seng to carry out projects in joint ventures in 1958.

In 1963, the three budding entrepreneurs, nicknamed the Three Musketeers of the Hong Kong property market, decided to form Sun Hung Kai Enterprises Co, with an initial authorised capital of just $3 million.

The company went from success to success. But by 1972 the trio had different visions of where they wanted the company to go.

While Mr Kwok and Mr Lee were keen to focus on the real estate market, Mr Fung wanted to enter the financial services market, and the three went their separate ways.

Mr Kwok formed Sun Hung Kai Properties and Mr Lee founded Henderson Land Development Co, now two of Hong Kong's biggest and most dynamic blue-chip groups.

Mr Fung set up his own separately owned broking company, Sun Hung Kai Securities, which was listed in the same year.

It quickly became the biggest Chinese broking firm.

United States giant Merrill Lynch & Co was so impressed that it took a 25 per cent stake in 1980, only to sell it in 1987 when the Hong Kong company hit a rough patch.

Mr Fung diversified into other areas, including foreign exchange, insurance and bullion trading.

When US and European investors started to pour money into developing markets in the 1980s, so did firms such as Salomon Brothers and Morgan Stanley & Co.

Without networks of offices around the world and lots of capital, local firms such as Sun Hung Kai Securities could not compete against the well-established US and European firms.

When Mr Fung inherited the firm it was squeezed by declining commissions and shrinking revenue from trading gold, commodities and securities.

 New associate companies, including Tian An Development and SHK Hong Kong Industries, were formed to diversify into infrastructure, telecommunications and real estate, and have enjoyed mixed success.

While Sun Hung Kai Properties and Henderson have gone from strength to strength capitalising on the property boom, the Fung family's business fortunes have suffered. Sun Hung Kai & Co is still profitable, but it is not in the same league as the leading property entrepreneurs.



Reluctant heir battles to stay on top