The building site in a graft trial involving two Hong Kong tycoons was not seen as having much potential in 1996 when the government sold stakes in it to companies including gambling mogul Stanley Ho Hung-sung's flagship, Macau's Court of First Instance heard yesterday.
But things had changed by 2005, and Ho - who could be "like a child" when he didn't get what he wanted - flew into a rage when he learned he had failed to buy the plot outright, his former financial adviser told the court.
Patrick Huen Wing-ming was giving evidence in the trial of Joseph Lau Luen-hung and Stephen Lo Kit-sing, who are charged with bribery and money-laundering over the successful bid for the land on which Lau is building the luxury housing estate La Scala.
Huen, now vice-chairman and executive director of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in Macau, said the sale of the land in 1996 was regarded as a way of filling a cash shortfall in the development of the adjacent airport and Ho's stake had been a "gesture" of help.
He said Ho would have childlike tantrums when he didn't get what he wanted. When he heard he had lost the 2005 bid, he asked: "Why is it that even I could not win the bid?"
But no one had thought about the land's value in the 1990s as it was far from the city centre. "The land was just lying there idle. Who cared about the land?" Huen said.