Lee Shau-kee GBM (Chinese: 李兆基; born 7 March 1928 in Shunde, Guangdong, China) is a Hong Kong business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is a real estate tycoon and majority owner of Henderson Land Development, a property conglomerate with interests in property, hotels, restaurants and internet services. In 2019, aged 91, Lee stepped down as chairman and managing director of the company, in favour of two of his sons, Peter and Martin Lee. He retains a role as an executive director.
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His personal wealth is estimated to be US$33.0 billion as of July 2021, making him the second wealthiest man in Hong Kong (behind Li Ka-shing), and the 43rd richest in the world. Before the handover of Hong Kong in 1997, he was the fourth-richest person in world.
Since 2006, Lee has accrued profits from his holdings of Mainland-controlled stocks. He is also known as “Uncle Four”, one of the very few fourth-born children in the world to have become a multi-billionaire.
The majority of Lee’s fortune derives from his 73% stake in Henderson Land Development, a publicly traded property developer. He owns the shares directly and through trusts and holding companies, according to the company’s 2022 annual report.
Lee also owns 2% of Sun Hung Kai Properties, 22% of Sunlight Real Estate Investment Trust and less than 1% of Hong Kong Ferry directly, according to corporate filings.
His indirect stakes in Sun Hung Kai Properties, Hong Kong Ferry and Sunlight Real Estate Investment Trust are held through Henderson Land Development and are not included separately in the net worth calculation to avoid double-counting.
The value of his cash investments is based on an analysis of dividends, insider transactions, taxes, market performance and charitable giving.
Lee’s publicly held stakes were confirmed by Henderson Land executives. They declined to comment on his closely held assets.
Biography
Lee Shau Kee was born in 1928, the son of a Guangdong currency and gold trader. Lee immigrated to Hong Kong during the communist takeover of China in 1948. Lee found work in Hong Kong as a currency and gold dealer. His brother escaped to Macau.
Lee and seven partners, including Kwok Tak Seng and Fung King Hey, created a real estate business in 1958. Five years later, he founded Sun Hung Kai Properties with Kwok and Fung. The developer prospered as Hong Kong land values soared in the 1960s. All three men eventually became billionaires.
Lee left Sun Hung Kai in 1973 to form Henderson Development. His empire diversified into real estate management, hotels, natural gas distribution and a department store chain. He boosted Henderson’s Hong Kong land bank to about 21.2 million square feet by June 2011, buying up old buildings and farmland, mostly in the New Territories, as prices fell during the 2008 financial crisis.
Philanthropy
Lee is one of the main sponsors of the HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity, having donated more than HK$20 million through the Lee Shau Kee Foundation.
In 2007, he donated HK$500 million to the University of Hong Kong and HK$400 million to the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
In 2015, Lee donated a site in Yuen Long to charity organisation Po Leung Kuk for it to develop Hong Kong’s biggest youth hostel. Lee announced that the units would be leased to young people between the ages of 18 and 30 at half the market rate.
Other than public philanthropy, Lee has given his Henderson Land staff cash gifts to celebrate the birth of four of his grandchildren, in amounts totalling HK$60 million over a nine-year period.
In May 2018, Lee donated HK$100 million to Hang Seng Management College supporting its strategic development.
Current positions
- Founder, ex-Chairman and managing director, of Henderson Land Development
- ex-Chairman of Hong Kong and China Gas
- ex-Chairman of Miramar Hotel and Investment
- Vice-Chairman and independent non-executive director of Sun Hung Kai Properties
- Member of board of directors of Hong Kong Ferry (Holdings) and the Bank of East Asia
- Named as part of Peter Storrie‘s consortium to buy Portsmouth Football Club
Family
Lee has five children, including elder son Peter Lee Ka-kit and younger son Martin Lee Ka-shing, and eight grandchildren.
Milestones
- 1928 Born in Guangdong, China.
- 1948 Lee arrives in Hong Kong, working for a currency and gold dealer.
- 1963 Forms Sun Hung Kai with partners Kwok Tak Seng and Fung King Hey.
- 1973 Leaves Sun Hung Kai, creates Henderson Development.
- 1981 Henderson Land Development goes public in Hong Kong.
- 1982 Becomes majority shareholder of Hong Kong & China Gas.
- 1989 Founds Citistore department store chain.
- 2014 Meets with China President Xi a week before the start of Hong Kong protests.
- 2019 Steps down as Chairman of Henderson Land Development.
