Peter Woo Kwong-ching, GBM, GBS, JP (Chinese: 吳光正; born September 5, 1946) is a Hong Kong billionaire businessman. He was the chairman of Wheelock and Company Limited (SEHK: 20)and The Wharf Holdings Limited (SEHK: 4) until 19 May 2015. As of April 2021, his net worth is estimated to be over $14 billion.
The majority of Woo’s fortune is derived from investments associated with Wheelock & Co., a Hong Kong-based real estate group. It owns property directly and through stakes in publicly traded subsidiaries Wharf Holdings and Wharf Real Estate Investment.
Wheelock was delisted from the Hong Kong stock exchange on July 23, 2020, and his net worth calculation was adjusted on that date to reflect the terms of the delisting. Woo proposed taking Wheelock private in February 2020 and offered investors one share in each of Wharf Real Estate Investment and Wharf Holdings as well as HK$12 cash for each Wheelock share they held. The valuation of the private flagship is updated in July 2023 with the average share price change of four peers: CK Asset, Henderson Land, Sun Hung Kai Properties and New World Development, and it led to a $100 million increase in the value.
Woo owns 49% of Wharf Real Estate Investment and 68% of Wharf Holdings through Wheelock, based on the privatization agreement. His full ownership of the delisted Wheelock is valued based on the delisting price of HK$12 per share.
The value of his cash investments is based on an analysis of dividends, insider transactions, taxes and market performance.
He retains a 6% stake in the Italian shoemaker Salvatore Ferragamo, and has a 7% stake in Beijing-based developer Longfor Group. These are held through various investment companies registered in the British Virgin Islands.
Agnes Hui, a Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for Wheelock, said that the billionaire declined to comment on his net worth.
Biography
Education: Columbia University
Woo was born in Shanghai in 1946 with ancestral roots in Ningbo, Zhejiang, and moved to Hong Kong in 1949. He was educated at St Stephen’s College, a Direct Subsidy Scheme privately owned but government-funded boarding school (which is also Hong Kong’s largest secondary school), in the town of Stanley, and went on to attain his bachelor’s degree from the University of Cincinnati, US, majoring in physics. While a student, Woo was senior class president, and became a member of Delta Tau Delta fraternity, an endeavor he is still involved in today. He later obtained an MBA from Columbia Business School in New York, US
Pao invited Woo to work for him at World-Wide Shipping Group. His father-in-law shared ownership of Hong Kong & Kowloon Wharf & Godown Co. with the British trading house Jardine Matheson, and outbid his former partner for control in a hostile takeover. He later named it Wharf Holdings. Pao acquired Kowloon waterfront land, the Hong Kong Tramway and the Star Ferry as part of the takeover. He promoted Woo to be chief operating officer of Wharf and vice chairman of Worldwide Shipping in 1982.
Pao took over another British trading house, Wheelock Marden, three years later in a corporate raid that included prime real estate in Hong Kong’s Central business district plus the Lane Crawford department store. Pao retired in 1986 and named Woo chief executive officer of Wheelock and Wharf. Woo structured Wheelock as the group’s parent company and Wharf as the main subsidiary, and further diversified into cable TV, telecommunications and broadband internet in Hong Kong, and into property development in Singapore and China. Pao died in 1991.
Woo’s flagship properties — Harbour City in Kowloon and Times Square in central Hong Kong — combined attract 9% of Hong Kong’s retail sales. The two malls represent almost half of his group’s business assets.
The billionaire retired as chairman of Wheelock and Wharf on May 19, 2015, according to a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange dated Feb. 16, 2015. He was replaced by his son, Douglas Woo Chun-kuen.
Political and non-profit
Woo is a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
His past appointments include:
- Chairman of the Council of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University from 1993 to 1997.
- Founding chairman of the Hong Kong Environment and Conservation Fund Committee in 1994 until 2004.
- Chairman of the Hong Kong Hospital Authority from 1995 to 2000.
- Chairman of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council from 2000 to 2007.
In 1996, Woo ran in the First Hong Kong Chief Executive Election just before the British colony was handed over back to Chinese rule, alongside Yang Ti-liang and Tung Chee-hwa. Tung won
Milestones
- 1946 Woo is born in Shanghai.
- 1950 Family moves to Hong Kong.
- 1970 Graduates from University of Cincinnati in math and physics.
- 1971 Earns MBA from Columbia University, hired by Chase Manhattan.
- 1973 Marries Bessie Pao, daughter of shipping magnate Yue-kong Pao.
- 1975 Father-in-law offers him a job at World Wide Shipping.
- 1986 Woo takes over property development business after Pao retires.
- 2000 Appointed chairman of Hong Kong’s Trade Development Council.
- 2007 Steps down from Trade Development Council to run Wharf.
- 2015 Son Douglas takes over as chairman of Wheelock.
