Albert Yeung's colourful career played out in gossip columns as much as the boardroom

Tycoon Albert Yeung Sau-shing's colourful life and career have been lived out as much in the gossip columns as on the business pages.

A friend and patron of numerous show business celebrities, he is chairman of the vast Emperor Group, which employs more than 5,000 people in business sectors ranging across entertainment, property, finance and catering.

Although he is often included in Hong Kong rich lists, tracking down his exact worth is no easy matter, with the Emperor Group comprising more than 300 subsidiaries and associated companies.

The group rose to prominence in show business circles in 1999, when it established the Emperor Entertainment Group and enlisted an army of rising stars such as Joey Yung Cho-yee - the Cantopop star arrested at the weekend in connection with an alleged attack on TV actor Leung Sze-ho.

With an impressive list of political connections, Mr Yeung, 57, threw a lavish banquet in 1992 in Beijing's Great Hall of the People to celebrate a business deal.

Mr Yeung even invited Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to Hong Kong in 1993 to present him with a licence to open a bank in Phnom Penh.

His eldest son, Gilbert Yeung Kei-lung, 33, was accused of assaulting a banker in Lan Kwai Fong in 1997.