Hong Kong property tycoon Lee Shau-kee, who founded real estate giant Henderson Land Development, has died aged 97.
“[Lee] passed away peacefully in the evening today, surrounded by his family,” Henderson Land Development said in a Chinese-language statement on Monday.
Lee founded Henderson in 1976 and assumed chairmanship of the company until he stepped down in 2019. His two sons – Peter and Martin – were then appointed as joint chairs and managing directors. Lee was also previously the chair of Towngas – the sole territory-wide gas supplier in Hong Kong – and hotel conglomerate Miramar Group.
He was born in mainland China in Shunde, Guangdong province, in 1928, before moving to Hong Kong in 1948.
The billionaire was once Hong Kong’s richest man in 2020 according to a Forbes ranking, with an estimate wealth of US$30.4 billion at that time. As of February this year, he was the city’s no.2 on the Forbes list with an estimated net wealth of US$29.2 billion – behind Li Ka-shing’s US$37.3 billion.
Details of his funeral will be announced at a later date, Henderson said in the statement.
