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Shun Tak Holdings is the property, transport, hospitality and investment arm of gambling mogul Stanley Ho Hung-sun, who controlled the company until late 2010 when it was restructured. The company’s shipping division, operates ferry services between Hong Kong and Macau.
- Many travellers took ferries and trains to cross the border for business and family purposes
- ‘I’m too excited to say a word. I can finally go home after two years of not seeing the folks,’ says one traveller returning to Guangdong for the Lunar New Year holiday
The state-backed real estate giant’s announcement comes as President Xi Jinping underscores the critical role of Hong Kong during the Chinese Communist Party’s 20th national congress in Beijing.
Covid-19 restrictions dragged on the profits of Hong Kong developers in the January to June period, with declines ranging from 40.5 per cent to 58 per cent, filings with the Hong Kong stock exchange on Thursday show.
The push into Singapore stands in stark contrast with Shun Tak’s footprint in Hong Kong, the birthplace and childhood home of the late casino tycoon Stanley Ho, where the company had not launched any project in six years.
While analysts and industry observers agree on Macau’s need to diversify its economy from gaming, they say the city has to find a financial niche for itself.
The late Macau casino tycoon’s Shun Tak Holdings has spent more than US$1.4 billion on Singapore land and property since 2016, and market watchers are wondering if its residential and hotel projects are on track for completion.
Pansy is the eldest child of Ho’s second wife, the fifth out of 16 children in the extended clan, and described by the late magnate as the child who is most like him in personality.
Ho leaves behind a gambling empire that contributed to as much as half of the tax receipts earned by the Macau government, a heft that made him the first living Macanese to have an avenue in the territory named after him.
Shun Tak Holdings has deepened ties with one of Hong Kong’s wealthiest families to strengthen its control of the largest holder of casino licences in Macau, giving managing director Pansy Ho Chiu-king the upper hand in a family tussle for magnate Stanley Ho’s gambling empire.
After his official retirement, Stanley Ho, who marks his 97th birthday in November, will remain as Chairman Emeritus of the company that he founded more than half a century ago
Shun Tak said its first-half net profit fell 33 per cent year on year to HK$672 million but that Macau and Hong Kong property would boost earnings in the second half.
The low-cost carrier (LCC) joint venture between China Eastern Airlines and Qantas' Jetstar Group is now more confident that with a local shareholder the government will recognise it as a Hong Kong-designated carrier and give it a licence.
Shun Tak Holdings is paying US$66 million for a third of the shares of Jetstar Hong Kong, the low-cost carrier awaiting regulatory clearance. The announcement came two days after the Hong Kong government said it had stopped processing applications of new airlines.
The company said core earnings amounted to HK$453 million for the year to December, up from HK$384 million in 2011. Taking into account HK$2.11 billion in revaluation gains from investment properties, net profit was HK$2.56 billion last year, more than triple the HK$781 million recorded in 2011.
