HK billionaire businesswoman Chu loses 73 pct of fortune this year

Sincere Watch (Hong Kong)

26/07/2018 09:34

HONG KONG, July 26 (Reuters) - Hong Kong billionaire
businesswoman Pollyanna Chu, who made her fortune from Macau's
VIP gaming parlours and margin financing, has lost nearly
three-fourths of her wealth this year, a rapid decline that sees
her slip down the list of Asia's wealthiest.
    Chu, the chief executive of financial services firm Kingston
Financial Group  1031.HK  and head of Macau VIP junket group
Golden Resorts Group, is one of the most well-known business
figures in the Chinese territory of Hong Kong.
    The 60-year-old's stake in Kingston is now worth around $2.6
billion, down from $9.7 billion at the end of 2017, Thomson
Reuters data showed.
    Chu's Kingston, which she co-founded with her husband in
1992, has lost 73.3 percent so far this year, bringing its
market value down to $3.47 billion on Thursday from $13.01
billion at the end of last year.
    The slide followed a warning from Hong Kong's Securities and
Futures Commission that Kingston had 20 shareholders who
together controlled more than 91 percent of the listed company.
    The market value of Chu's stake in Kingston has plunged
after the warning in January.
    Chu and Kingston were not immediately available for comment
as phone calls went unanswered, while they did not respond to
email requests for comment.
    Chu's family has been involved in Macau's murky junket
sector for over two decades. Her father, Wai Man Lee, a gambling
industry veteran, founded a high roller room in the former
Portuguese colony's Casino Lisboa, which belonged to local
tycoon Stanley Ho.
    Macau's VIP sector is reliant on the junket system -
licensed middlemen who extend millions of dollars in credit to
mainland gamblers and assume responsibility for loan repayment,
often indelicately, authorities say.
    Chu's links with Ho and Macau's gambling sector have
bolstered her and Kingston's fortunes in the past due to soaring
revenues in the world's biggest casino hub.
    Kingston still runs its casino operations through Ho's SJM
Holdings  0880.HK  and owns Hotels Casa Real and Grandview. In
its latest annual report, Kingston said the company faced strong
competition in Macau leading to gaming revenue to fall 4 percent
year-on-year.
    Over the past several years, properties belonging to Chu and
run by SJM have been overshadowed by newer and glitzier resorts
opening on Macau's Cotai strip.
    The majority of Kingston's debt funding is provided by Chu
and her family, according to a report by Hong Kong-based
activist investor David Webb.
     Chu is also the executive chairman of Sincere Watch Ltd
 0444.HK , directly holding 4.38 pct of the firm. The stock has
fallen 9.3 percent so far this year, following a 41 percent drop
in 2017. 
    She was also part of a consortium which spent a record $5.2
billion to buy a large part of a landmark Hong Kong skyscraper
owned by local billionaire Li Ka Shing.

 (Reporting by Farah Master and Donny Kwok; Editing by Gopakumar
Warrier)
 ((farah.master@thomsonreuters.com; +852 28431631 ; Reuters
Messaging: farah.master.thomsonreuters@thomsonreuters.net))