Angela Leong On-kei, the fourth wife of Macau gaming magnate Stanley Ho Hung-sun, has emerged from the prolonged family fight for control of Ho’s assets with an effective 12 per cent stake in SJM Holdings, worth HK$8.64 billion based on the casino operator’s share price.
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Casino stake of Ho’s wife rises to HK$8.6b
Neil Gough
25 March 2011
Angela Leong On-kei, the fourth wife of Macau gaming magnate Stanley Ho Hung-sun, has emerged from the prolonged family fight for control of Ho’s assets with an effective 12 per cent stake in SJM Holdings, worth HK$8.64 billion based on the casino operator’s share price.
Leong, 49, won a new 6 per cent stake in the casino firm’s parent company, Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau (STDM), as part of a March 8 private settlement executed among Ho’s four families and 16 surviving children, SJM said last night in a stock exchange announcement.
Leong’s windfall appears to have been gained at the expense of a reduced stake in STDM for Ho’s third wife, Ina Chan Un Chan, and second wife Lucina Laam King-ying’s five children Pansy Ho Chiu-king, Daisy Ho Chiu-fung, Maisy Ho Chiu-ha, Josie Ho Chiu-yee and Lawrence Ho Yau-lung.
The ailing 89-year-old’s second and third families had acquired a 31.655 per cent controlling interest in STDM following a contested December transaction in the shares of holding company Lanceford. Ho twice sued members of his second and third families for seizing control of Lanceford, which held his STDM stake - and twice withdrew the suit - prior to this month’s settlement agreement.
STDM owns 56 per cent of SJM. It also has an unknown number of investments on the mainland and in Vietnam, North Korea, Portugal and beyond.
Leong, who is not legally married to Ho, is a Macau legislator, a director of SJM and STDM and on December 30 replaced Ho as managing director of casino licensee Sociedade de Jogos de Macau. She now owns 6.86 per cent of STDM - apparently via Lanceford - and 8.17 per cent of SJM, giving her an indirect 12 per cent interest in Hong Kong-listed SJM.
Ho’s third wife and the five children of his second appear to have had their STDM stake - held via Lanceford - cut to 25.538 per cent from 31.655 per cent following this month’s settlement, based on SJM’s stock exchange announcement yesterday and Lanceford’s most recent Companies Registry filings.
Lanceford was set last night to announce an appointment or removal of a corporate director and/or secretary, but details of the change had not been filed as of press time.
Lanceford’s board most recently consisted of Ho, second wife Laam, daughters Pansy and Daisy and Ho’s banker Patrick Huen Wing-ming. As a result of the family settlement, Ho’s own stake in STDM was lifted by 0.117 per cent, SJM said.
That boosts Ho’s total stake in STDM, which he founded 49 years ago in a bid for the Macau gaming monopoly, to 0.477 per cent.
SJM said the developments would have “no effect on the company and there will be no change in management or strategic direction”.
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