Vincent Lo Hong-sui has just moved into a US$11 million house at the heart of a luxury development in Shanghai. He now spends about a third of his time in the city, keeping an eye on a new company that will contain most of his Shanghai assets.
Mr Lo is chairman of Hong Kong's Shui On Group, which last month announced the establishment of a new company, Shui On Land (SOL), with a consortium of investors led by Ergo Trust Asia. The consortium will commit US$400 million in cash for a SOL stake totalling just shy of 50 per cent. Mr Lo's closely held Shui On Properties and Hong Kong-listed Shui On Construction & Material (Socam) will inject property and other assets for the remaining stake and managerial control.
Shui On Properties' prize asset contribution to SOL is the 52-hectare Taipingqiao project in Shanghai's Luwan district. SOL plans an investment of over 28 billion yuan in Taipingqiao to build 1.23 million square metres of office buildings, entertainment complexes, luxury apartments and a 44,000 sqmetre lake and park.
Shui On officials yesterday took journalists around the site, ahead of a special general meeting on April 15, when independent shareholders of Socam will be invited to vote on transactions related to SOL.
The most remarkable thing about the project is how Mr Lo managed to acquire 52 hectares of prime land in a single lot. Shui On officials said that, at the request of the Luwan government, Mr Lo presented a master plan for the district in 1997. Luwan approved the plan and invited Shui On on board.
Mr Lo's new three-storey house, designed by Benjamin Wood of Wood & Zapata, overlooks the new lake and is next to blocks of new luxury homes covering an aggregate gross floor area of 614,000 sqmetres.
