Hong Kong’s ‘Superman’ tops Forbes’ tycoon list as city’s richest defy Covid-19 in growing their wealth

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Li Ka-shing’s estimated wealth grew by 1.7 per cent to US$36 billion, Lee Shau-kee was 12 per cent richer and Henry Cheng’s family was 21 per cent wealthier, Forbes said

The cut-off mark to make the list lowered by 4.5 per cent from 2020, enabling Crystal International’s founder Kenneth Lo to round out the list with US$955 million

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Tycoon Li Ka-shing (left) with his elder son Victor Li Tzar-kuoi (right), at CK Asset Holding’s annual dinne in Wan Chai on 10 January 2020. Photo: Dickson Lee

Martin Choi

Published: 5:35pm, 24 Feb 2022Updated: 7:11pm, 24 Feb 2022

Li Ka-shing, Lee Shau-kee and Henry Cheng Kar-shun remain Hong Kong’s three richest men on the annual ranking compiled by Forbes magazine, leading the multibillionaires whose wealth increases defied the global coronavirus pandemic.

The fortunes of Li, dubbed “Superman” locally for his deal-making prowess, grew 1.7 per cent to US$36 billion, as the resilience in Hong Kong’s housing market bolstered the stock of his flagship property developer CK Asset Holdings by a third, according to Forbes’ estimate. That shielded his fortunes from the 69.4 per cent plunge through his holdings of the US-listed videoconferencing application Zoom.

Li, who retired from active business in 2018 three months before his 90th birthday, owns 46.45 per cent of CK Asset, and holds 6.6 per cent of Zoom, according to regulatory filings and the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The fortunes of Hong Kong’s 50 wealthiest businesspeople developed in polar opposites. The three richest men were at the apex of the Top 50 list, half of whom actually became wealthier in 2021, helped by the 6.4 per cent growth in the city’s economy last year. At the lower end, the cut-off mark to make the list lowered by 4.5 per cent from 2020, enabling the apparels maker Crystal International’s founder Kenneth Lo to round out the list with US$955 million.

Henderson Land Development’s co-chairman Martin Lee Ka-shing (left), former chairman Lee Shau-kee (centre), and co-chairman Peter Lee Ka-kit (right), during the company’s annual general meeting in Tsim Sha Tsui on 28 May 2019. Photo: Sam Tsang.

In second place is Henderson Land Development’s founder Lee, known affectionately as “Fourth Uncle” in Hong Kong. His wealth grew 12 per cent to an estimated US$34.2 billion. The company’s stock gained 1.4 per cent in value since winning the record US$6.5 billion bid last November harbourfront commercial plot in Central.

The Cheng family of New World Development and Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group has been the city’s third-richest since 2020. The stock price of Chow Tai Fook jumped 44.4 per cent on soaring sales, boosting the Cheng family’s fortunes by almost a fifth to an estimated US$26.4 billion. Henry Cheng, 75, is the son of the group’s founder, the late Cheng Yu-tung.