How do you turn US$5 million into US$1.5 billion? Take one Macau gaming licence, one Las Vegas casino company and add one soon-to-be super wealthy Hong Kong businesswoman: Pansy Ho Chiu-king.
Ho's pending sale of a 20 per cent stake in MGM China Holdings via a local initial public offering will catapult her into the ranks of Hong Kong's wealthiest people with a net worth of about US$5.1 billion, based on a South China Morning Post analysis of her holdings.
At 48, the divorced daughter of Macau gaming magnate Stanley Ho Hung-sun is set to become both the youngest person among Hong Kong's wealthiest 20 people and the richest woman in town - albeit by handing 51 per cent control of MGM China to her Las Vegas-based partner, MGM Resorts International.
Ho will keep 26 to 29 per cent of what was previously a 50-50 partnership. 'I believe to be an MVP or most valuable player, like in a ball game, you don't always have to be the one who is making the goals,' Ho told reporters yesterday at a news conference held in a hotel ballroom.
Flanked by MGM Resorts chairman Jim Murren and MGM China chief executive Grant Bowie and sporting a diamond-encrusted brooch that sprouted like a cauliflower, Ho looked every bit the multibillionaire-in-waiting.
'We can each focus on what we think we can do best,' she said. 'In my case, that is mainly on the strategic plane, to be there to help ... MGM China in its further exploration of opportunities in Macau.'