Forbes released their Hong Kong’s 50 Richest list yesterday (22nd February), and like last year, billionaire business magnate Li Ka-shing (李嘉诚) topped to list! However, sharp eyed readers might have noticed something a little different about the list this year, regarding Li Ka-shing’s net worth.
Li Ka-shing has held his position of being number one on Forbe’s Hong Kong’s 50 Richest list, but there is a stark difference between his net worth this year and last year. Supposedly, it decreased due to his real estate development stock price falling, and apparently, according to Forbes, he isn’t the only one.
The Hong Kong billionaire business magnate and investor reportedly dropped to $36.2 billion (~RM173.1 billion) from last year. Forbes claimed this was due to shares from Li Ka-shing’s property developer CK Asset Holdings falling by a third from last year. Well, Ka-shing isn’t the only one who’s net worth has been affected. Reportedly, the collective net worth of Hong Kong’s 50 richest tycoons has contracted by 9% to $296 billion (~RM1.415 trillion).
According to Forbes, thirty tycoons on the list have seen their net worth shrink. This included Lee Shau Kee (李兆基), and Henry Cheng (鄭家純) and family who are respectively second and third on the list. Shau Kee’s property conglomerate Henderson Land Development’s stock fell by 30% in a weak market while property and jewelry mogul Henry Cheng’s net worth fell supposedly due to slowing demand from the mainland.
But, a dozen members on the list did managed to make wealth gains. One of those includes shipping tycoon Helmut Sohmen as a younger fleet assisted in driving up his shares of his Oslo-listed tanker company Hafnia thereby increasing his fortune from $750 million to $6.25 billion. (~RM3.5 billion to RM29.8 billion). Three others also made their debut this year, Co-Founder of Horizons Ventures Solina Chau (周凱旋), CEO of Lalamove Chow Shing Yuk and the Keswick family of storied Jardine Matheson Holdings.
Forbes has opined that Hong Kong has been facing a slow post-pandemic recovery amid a stagnant property sector and sluggish exports, despite its economy growing an estimated 3.2% in 2023. They also claimed that the benchmark Hang Seng index declined by 28% due to an IPO drought since they measured fortunes a year ago.
The list was complied by Forbes based on information from individuals, analysts, government agencies, stock exchanges, databases and other sources. Their net worth was calculated based on the stock price and exchange rate when the market closed on 2nd February.
Sources: Sin Chew Daily, Forbes (1)(2)
