SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST 1st January 2011
By Neil Gough
Casino magnate Stanley Ho Hung-sun has stepped down from his Macau gaming company in favour of his fourth wife, Angela Leong On-kei.
Leong was appointed recently as managing director of Sociedade de Jogos de Macau (SJM), the licensed Macau gaming subsidiary of Hong Kong-listed SJM Holdings, Macau press reported yesterday.
She said this was “normal procedure” due to the 89-year-old Ho’s continuing recovery from brain surgery after an accident at home in the middle of 2009 led to a lengthy hospital stay. “It’s inconvenient for him to frequently travel to Macau and handle company matters,” Leong was quoted by the Macau Post Daily as saying. “That is why I was appointed.”
Ho in December transferred his entire direct 7 per cent stake in SJM Holdings – worth nearly HK$5 billion – to Leong. The listed firm is still 56 per cent owned by unlisted Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau (STDM), in which Ho retains a controlling 33.7 per cent stake.
Leong is a director of SJM, SJM Holdings and STDM. In her private capacity, she announced plans in November to develop a 10.4 billion pataca non-gaming resort and theme park on Macau’s Cotai strip that may co-operate with SJM Holdings, which is seeking to develop a casino on an adjacent plot. She is also a Macau legislator. New World Development chairman Cheng Yu-tung, whose family controls a 10 per cent stake in STDM, remains chairman of SJM and STDM.
Weeks before handing the SJM Holdings shares to Leong, Ho transferred an 11.55 per cent stake in property and shipping firm Shun Tak Holdings – worth over HK$1 billion – to Hanika Realty Co.
Hanika is controlled by Ho’s second wife, Lucina Laam King-ying, and five of their children (Pansy, Daisy, Maisy, Josie and Lawrence). The transfer made Hanika Shun Tak’s biggest single shareholder with an 18.4 per cent stake.
“Stanley Ho is dividing up his various listed companies among family members,” Deutsche Bank gaming analyst Karen Tang wrote last month in a research note.
“We think this should lower uncertainties related to his succession plan,” she wrote
