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Hong Kong’s ‘Superman’ tops Forbes’ tycoon list as city’s richest defy Covid-19 in growing their wealth
- Li Ka-shing’s estimated wealth grew by 1.7 per cent to US$36 billion, Lee Shau-kee was 12 per cent richer and Henry Cheng’s family was 21 per cent wealthier, Forbes said
- The cut-off mark to make the list lowered by 4.5 per cent from 2020, enabling Crystal International’s founder Kenneth Lo to round out the list with US$955 million
Li Ka-shing, Lee Shau-kee and Henry Cheng Kar-shun remain Hong Kong’s three richest men on the annual ranking compiled by Forbes magazine, leading the multibillionaires whose wealth increases defied the global coronavirus pandemic.
The fortunes of Li, dubbed “Superman” locally for his deal-making prowess, grew 1.7 per cent to US$36 billion, as the resilience in Hong Kong’s housing market bolstered the stock of his flagship property developer CK Asset Holdings by a third, according to Forbes’ estimate. That shielded his fortunes from the 69.4 per cent plunge through his holdings of the US-listed videoconferencing application Zoom.
Li, who retired from active business in 2018 three months before his 90th birthday, owns 46.45 per cent of CK Asset, and holds 6.6 per cent of Zoom, according to regulatory filings and the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The fortunes of Hong Kong’s 50 wealthiest businesspeople developed in polar opposites. The three richest men were at the apex of the Top 50 list, half of whom actually became wealthier in 2021, helped by the 6.4 per cent growth in the city’s economy last year. At the lower end, the cut-off mark to make the list lowered by 4.5 per cent from 2020, enabling the apparels maker Crystal International’s founder Kenneth Lo to round out the list with US$955 million.
In second place is Henderson Land Development’s founder Lee, known affectionately as “Fourth Uncle” in Hong Kong. His wealth grew 12 per cent to an estimated US$34.2 billion. The company’s stock gained 1.4 per cent in value since winning the record US$6.5 billion bid last November harbourfront commercial plot in Central.
The Cheng family of New World Development and Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group has been the city’s third-richest since 2020. The stock price of Chow Tai Fook jumped 44.4 per cent on soaring sales, boosting the Cheng family’s fortunes by almost a fifth to an estimated US$26.4 billion. Henry Cheng, 75, is the son of the group’s founder, the late Cheng Yu-tung.
Rankings lower down Forbes’ list were more volatile. A worldwide glut of smartphones hurt the sales of glass screens made by Biel Crystal Manufactory, a key supplier to one of every two smartphones made around the world. That halved the estimated fortunes of Biel’s husband-and-wife founders Yeung Kin-man and Lam Wai-ying to US$8.9 billion in 10th place. Biel filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong earlier this month, reviving the plan after a delay.
Joseph Tsai, co-founder of Alibaba Group Holding and chairman of this newspaper, advanced one spot to ninth place, even though his estimated wealth shrank by 27 per cent to US$9.1 billion.
The five Lee siblings who inherited the Lee Kum Kee Group oyster sauce empire from their late father Lee Man-tat, joined Hong Kong’s 50 richest list for the first time in fourth place with US$18.9 billion. The late chairman’s wealth propelled him to third spot on the Forbes list of Hong Kong’s richest tycoons in 2019.
Kwong Siu-hing, the widow of Sun Hung Kai Properties’ founder Kwok Tak-seng, is Hong Kong’s wealthiest woman, with an estimated fortune of US$13.2 billion, in seventh position overall.
Payoffs from backing start-ups produced the biggest percentage gain in wealth. Chan Tan Ching-fen, the widow of the late property tycoon and Hang Lung Group co-founder Chan Tseng-hsi, more than doubled her wealth to US$3.9 billion due to her 12 per cent stake in the short video platform Kuaishou Technology, which went public last year and raised US$5.4 billion.
Two of the previous year’s property tycoons – Hong Kong’s “shop king” Tang Shing-bor and Hip Shing Hong Group’s Fong Yun-wah – passed away in the past year. Their fortunes were divided among their heirs, but none was wealthy enough to make the rankings individually, according to Forbes.
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