CO-CHAIRMAN AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
SJM Holdings
MANAGING DIRECTOR AND CHIEF ADMINISTRATION OFFICER
Sociedade de Jogos de Macau, S.A.
POWER SCORE: 1,563
POSITION LAST YEAR: 10
CLAIMS TO FAME
- Fourth wife of Stanley Ho
- Largest individual shareholder in SJM Holdings
The writing has been on the wall for Angela Leong since January 2019, when her corporate and personal rival Pansy Ho formed a coalition to control SJM Holdings majority shareholder Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau (STDM). The message became even clearer after Leong’s husband Stanley Ho passed away in May at age 98. Yet Leong remains the most powerful executive at SJM, as well as the de facto gaming industry representative in Macau’s legislature, and her fingerprints are all over the former gaming monopoly holder’s future.
In many ways, Leong typifies what China Outbound Tourism Research Institute CEO Wolfgang Arlt terms “the young old,” Chinese who have worked hard in recent decades to accumulate wealth. As they approach or enter retirement, they have time and money for travel.
Leong, turning 60 in March, was born in Guangzhou and, working as a dance instructor, found wealth when she became the fourth wife of Stanley Ho, nearly 40 years her senior. In addition to her largest individual shareholding in SJM at 8.6% plus 6.9% of STDM, Leong has accumulated an international property portfolio worth billions.
SJM’s Cotai integrated resort Grand Lisboa Palace, awaiting government approval to open, features hotels bearing the names and design input of European fashion icons Karl Lagerfeld and Donatella Versace. Its retail mall, however, features more affordable choices, the Macau flagship outlet of China Duty Free Group plus the city’s largest department store from the operators of New Yaohan.
With son and fellow SJM director Arnaldo Ho, Leong’s Macau Theme Park and Resort Ltd is developing HK$5 billion (US$645 million) Lisboeta, across the street from Grand Lisboa Palace. The hotel and entertainment complex – without a theme park or, so far, a casino – promises new-to-Macau attractions such as IMAX and MX4D theaters and simulated skydiving, plus an “old Macau” theme that could drive traffic to that far corner of Cotai. Or Leong’s 10.6 hectare (26 acre) plot could become another piece of her exit package.
For the full list of 2020 Asian Gaming Power 50 winners, click here.
