Sun Hung Kai’s former chairman Walter Kwok in stable condition after heart attack
Walter Kwok Ping-sheung, the eldest of the Kwok brothers who run the city’s largest property developer, was taken to hospital after a heart attack, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Kwok, 67, was taken from his residence at Deep Water Bay at around 11.30pm last night for admission into the Ruttonjee Hospital’s intensive care unit, the source said.
The former chairman of Sun Hung Kai Properties was released from Ruttonjee and is now recovering at the Hong Kong Adventist Hospital, where he is said to be in a stable condition, the source said. His family members were seen visiting him at Ruttonjee, according to the source.
Sun Hung Kai Properties chairman Raymond Kwok Ping-luen was seen leaving the hospital at around 1.40pm after visiting his brother this morning.
Officials at Sun Hung Kai declined to comment on their former chairman’s condition, citing his privacy.
Kwok, along with his younger brothers Thomas and Raymond, inherited control of Sun Hung Kai from their late father Kwok Tak-Seng in 1990. Raymond Kwok remains the chairman and managing director of the company, and the family is the third-richest in Asia, with a combined fortune estimated at US$40 billion, according to Forbes.
“The hospital has arranged quite a number of medical experts to examine and assess the situation of Mr (Walter) Kwok,” said a spokesman from the Kwok’s family trust. But he refused to disclose his heath condition
The family feud among the three Kwok brothers for control of Hong Kong’s largest property developer by market capitalisation was once the centre of controversy in the city.
A flashpoint of the dispute came in October 2010 when his mother, matriarch Kwong Siu-hing, removed her eldest son as a beneficiary of the family trust. Since then, he has fought to regain control of the company and his one-third stake in the family trust that controls the property empire. The company had a market capitalisation of about HK$345.9 billion (US$44.1 billion) as of Tuesday’s close.
In the statement, Kwong revealed that Walter Kwok and his family have received the same entitlement to shares in SHKP as his brothers and their families.
Since then, Walter Kwok has set his sights on the Hong Kong and mainland property markets. His property flagship Empire Group won the contract to redevelop The Mariners’ Club, which was built half a century ago in Tsim Sha Tsui, into a combined hotel and club with an estimated investment of HK$6 billion.
In a venture with Lai Sun Development, Empire Group is building a residential development, Alto, in Tseung Kwan O.
