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Sunday 31 January 2010
Fujian roots nourish Hui property empire
Ranked sixth on the Forbes China 400 Rich List, secretive Hong Kong billionaire Hui Wing-mau is described as “a seasoned property developer who is coming through the latest real estate cycle in good shape”.
Ranked sixth on the Forbes China 400 Rich List, secretive Hong Kong billionaire Hui Wing-mau is described as “a seasoned property developer who is coming through the latest real estate cycle in good shape”.
His current net worth is US$3.85 billion and 2009 was another strong year for his Shimao Property Holdings real estate development.
Earlier this month, Hui’s company reported contracted 2009 sales exceeded the sales target of 20 billion yuan to total 22.5 billion yuan (HK$25.57 billion) - an increase of 88 per cent from the previous year.
The latest figures perhaps add weight to the widely held belief that the Hui’s rag-to-riches success story has been a major cog driving China’s roaring economy over the last decade.
But outside of the business reports, little is known about the well-groomed 59-year-old from Fujian province.
He rarely grants interviews - requests for inclusion in this article were turned down - and is highly secretive about his business operations and how he acquired his early fortune.
It is known he has built up a powerful network of political allies and has a line into the Politburo, including those from his native Fujian where he established the first building block of his international property empire.
The oldest of eight children born to a machinery worker and a doctor, Hui grew up in Shishi, a brash coastal city that spawned scores of entrepreneurs during the formative years of the country’s economic reform.
After graduating from high school during the Cultural Revolution, Hui was sent to the countryside to work as a barefoot doctor.
He made his way to Hong Kong in the late 1970s and worked in a textile factory. He returned to Fujian in the mid-eighties and started to invest in textile factories, telling friends he had made money by dabbling in the Hong Kong stock market.
He is said to have invested 1.2 million yuan in a knitting factory but instead built a hotel, which was completed just as the law changed allowing private ownership of commercial property.
In the early 1990s, he went to Australia taking his family with him and invested in more property. He then began to target Beijing and Shanghai. With a knack for spotting prime land at cheap prices, he mirrored the tactics of China’s other property barons by negotiating with government officials to acquire cheap land with a small down payment.
Hui has since created a web of private and public companies - some offshore - and shifts profits around using finances from several companies to fund new projects of another.
Shimao Holdings and Shimao International were listed respectively on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges.
Hui later privatised Shimao International. A third company, Shimao Property Holdings, was listed in Hong Kong in 2006.
According to its website, Shimao has more than 30 large to medium-size projects under construction on the mainland.
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Fujian roots nourish Hui property empire
Peter Simpson
31 January 2010
Ranked sixth on the Forbes China 400 Rich List, secretive Hong Kong billionaire Hui Wing-mau is described as “a seasoned property developer who is coming through the latest real estate cycle in good shape”.
His current net worth is US$3.85 billion and 2009 was another strong year for his Shimao Property Holdings real estate development.
Earlier this month, Hui’s company reported contracted 2009 sales exceeded the sales target of 20 billion yuan to total 22.5 billion yuan (HK$25.57 billion) - an increase of 88 per cent from the previous year.
The latest figures perhaps add weight to the widely held belief that the Hui’s rag-to-riches success story has been a major cog driving China’s roaring economy over the last decade.
But outside of the business reports, little is known about the well-groomed 59-year-old from Fujian province.
He rarely grants interviews - requests for inclusion in this article were turned down - and is highly secretive about his business operations and how he acquired his early fortune.
It is known he has built up a powerful network of political allies and has a line into the Politburo, including those from his native Fujian where he established the first building block of his international property empire.
The oldest of eight children born to a machinery worker and a doctor, Hui grew up in Shishi, a brash coastal city that spawned scores of entrepreneurs during the formative years of the country’s economic reform.
After graduating from high school during the Cultural Revolution, Hui was sent to the countryside to work as a barefoot doctor.
He made his way to Hong Kong in the late 1970s and worked in a textile factory. He returned to Fujian in the mid-eighties and started to invest in textile factories, telling friends he had made money by dabbling in the Hong Kong stock market.
He is said to have invested 1.2 million yuan in a knitting factory but instead built a hotel, which was completed just as the law changed allowing private ownership of commercial property.
In the early 1990s, he went to Australia taking his family with him and invested in more property. He then began to target Beijing and Shanghai. With a knack for spotting prime land at cheap prices, he mirrored the tactics of China’s other property barons by negotiating with government officials to acquire cheap land with a small down payment.
Hui has since created a web of private and public companies - some offshore - and shifts profits around using finances from several companies to fund new projects of another.
Shimao Holdings and Shimao International were listed respectively on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges.
Hui later privatised Shimao International. A third company, Shimao Property Holdings, was listed in Hong Kong in 2006.
According to its website, Shimao has more than 30 large to medium-size projects under construction on the mainland.
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