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SCMP Reporter

WHEN Wong Kwan crossed the border from China into Hong Kong in 1966, he never imagined he would end up a billionaire.

  At the end of this month Mr Wong will list his company, Pearl Oriental Holdings on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

  The fact that the firm is an operation with at least $1 billion capitalisation is further testimony to Mr Wong's success. Mr Wong sought the safety of Hong Kong since he did not want to play any part in the Cultural Revolution.

  At that time, he had finished school and had started working.

  ''I was about 18 years old. I refused to become a Red Guard since I was not interested in politics. So I lost my job,'' Mr Wong recalled.

  Having arrived in Hong Kong, he started a career in the hotel industry. Even now, he is enthusiastic about hotel management.

  ''I find the hotel sector very challenging. It's just like a little empire with various ambassadors and different households. The satisfaction of starting a new hotel cannot be described,'' he enthused.

  Mr Wong worked as an apprentice at the Empress Hotel (now the Empress shopping arcade) in the food and beverage section.

''I had to do two jobs a day and went to evening school to study English and just stole four hours of sleep,'' he said.

 In 1983, he started his own business when he became managing director of a joint-venture company.

  But Mr Wong ended the partnership because of a difference of views over the company's business.

  ''I set up my own company called Pearl Oriental in 1985 with a registered capital of only $150,000,'' he said.

  It was a period in which the hotel sector was experiencing a downturn, he said.

  So he decided to start a small business on the mainland where the hotel sector was an emerging market in the early 80s. He took over a number of hotels in major cities - Shenzhen, Fuzhou and Xian.

  He also anticipated an oversupply in China's hotel industry.

  This prompted him to focus his business on Hong Kong in 1988, he said.

  Later, he changed the company's focus from hotel to property.

   He described the sale of the Lido Hotel in Happy Valley as his most successful deal. It generated a $3 million profit to his company.

   The money he gained from the hotel sale was invested in other projects such as the Pearl Seaview Inn in Fuk Kwan Road, Hong Kong and Pearl Oriental Inn in Stafford Road, Kowloon.

  But these hotel properties were sold in order to seek more profits that would strengthen the company.

  Plans to redevelop the China Harbour View Hotel which was bought in May last year were scrapped in favour of an office building because Mr Wong believed the office rental market would boom in the next few years.

   Mr Wong was not worried about the company being regarded as one that tried to make short-term profits through property deals.



Pearl prepares flotation