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Joseph Lau Luen-hung, the founder of Chinese Estates Holdings, is a familiar face to people in his business circle, but he is little known to the general public.

'This is the first time I have accepted a face-to-face interview with a business reporter in decades,' he said, adding that he feared too much exposure.

His interview with the Post marks an apparent change in attitude to the media.

Mr Lau, once labelled as a stock raider early in his career, has up to 26 years of experience in the Hong Kong property market.

The tycoon, who stepped down as chairman of Chinese Estates in 1999, is a major shareholder of the locally listed company, which has an asset value of more than HK$15 billion.

Mr Lau said he was not directly involved in day-to-day operations, but kept track of the latest property market information.

He visited the sales office of Metro Harbour View in Tai Kok Tsui last week and gathered the exact sales figures, which he found to be different from those in newspaper reports.

Mr Lau and his younger brother, Thomas, linked with Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, the parent of New World Development, to acquire Sogo's building and department store in Causeway Bay for HK$3.53 billion in 2001.

It was one of the most significant deals after the Asian financial crisis, but he declined to comment because it was a private agreement.

But he did say the Lau brothers had acquired a more than one million square foot shopping arcade in Jingan district, Shanghai last year.

'The deal is worth more than HK$1 billion. We have half of the total stake, and the balance belongs to a mainland listed company,' he said.



Low-profile Lau breaks cover with big deals