Exclusive | The Center is back in Hong Kong hands as mainland firm pulls out of buying world’s costliest tower
Pollyanna Chu, Hong Kong’s richest woman of 2017 according to Forbes, and Shimao Property Holdings’ founder Hui Wing Mau, have replaced the mainland shareholder in the group that’s buying Li Ka-shing’s The Center
Two Hong Kong-based tycoons have emerged to replace a mainland Chinese shareholder in the consortium that bought Li Ka-shing’s The Center tower, barely three months after the C.H.M.T Peaceful Development Asia Property group hogged the media spotlight as owners of the world’s priciest office building.
Pollyanna Chu, Hong Kong’s richest woman of 2017 according to Forbes, and Shimao Property Holdings’ founder Hui Wing Mau, have taken up the 55 per cent stake owned by China Energy Reserve & Chemicals Group in the consortium, according to several people familiar with the matter. The group agreed in November to pay HK$40.2 billion (US$5.15 billion) for the building.
The remaining four shareholders of the consortium, comprising Hong Kong investors David Chan Ping-chi, Lo Man-Tuen, Raymond Tsoi Chi-chung and Ma Ah Mok, will remain in the group, the people said.
“I’m confident in the prospect of Hong Kong’s office market, otherwise I wouldn’t invest in it,” Chu told the South China Morning Post by phone, confirming her investment. None of the investments involve publicly listed companies, she added, declining to disclose the size of her share in the consortium.
Chu’s Hong Kong-based Kingston Financial Group, which provides financing services and operates hotels and casinos in Macau, had HK$2.9 billion in revenue in the year ended March 2017. Property tycoon Hui, also known as Xu Rongmao in China, donated a 133 million yuan (US$21 million) painting called the Landscape Map of the Silk Road to the Palace Museum in the Chinese capital last November. Hong Kong-listed Shimao reported HK$40.54 billion in first-half revenue last year.