SHKP share sale seen as move towards succession

Kwong Siu-hing, the 84-year-old matriarch who controls Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP), is expected to accelerate the succession plan after she reduced her shareholding in a trust that controls the HK$262 billion property empire.

The mother of the SHKP co-chairmen, Thomas Kwok Ping-kwong and Raymond Kwok Ping-luen, last Friday offloaded 337.76 million shares, or 12.64 per cent, of the company, worth HK$33.15 billion at yesterday's closing price of HK$98.15.

After the reduction in shareholding, her stake in the city's second-largest developer through the trust is down to 30.79 per cent, from 43.43 per cent earlier, according to the company's filing to the stock exchange.

On the same day, Thomas Kwok and his son Adam Kwok Kai-fai added 168.88 million SHKP shares, as did Raymond Kwok and his son Edward Kwok Ho-lai - together taking in shares equivalent to the amount offloaded by Madam Kwong.

"Madam Kwong will continue in this direction of transferring her shares to the second generation in order to ensure a stable succession," said Lee Wee Liat, the head of property research at BNP Paribas Securities (Asia).

Although SHKP declined to comment on the latest reorganisation of the family trust, people familiar with the succession plan believe Kwong transferred her 12.64 per cent stake in SHKP directly to the families of Thomas and Raymond Kwok.