31FEBRUARY 20 20 FORBES ASIA
H
O
N
G(^) K
O
N
G
’S
(^5)
0
(^) R
IC
H
E
ST
“People know Stan as Uncle Bor’s
son right now. I hope they’ll know
Uncle Bor as Stan’s father, one
day,” says Tang of entrusting his
life’s work to his youngest son
and heir, Stan Tang Yiu-shing.
BRANCHING OUT
After returning to Hong Kong
from university in the U.K. 15
years ago, Stan Tang Yiu-shing
opened an ad agency with
friends. Soon, though, he was
working with his father, Tang
Shing-bor, learning the real es-
tate business and building prop-
erty management and leasing
firms. In 2013, he and his father
set up Stan Group to integrate
the family’s real estate invest-
ments with his service offerings.
Stan now chairs the group and
oversees the conversion of the
older buildings his father buys
into modern retail and commer-
cial properties.
“Pure property investment
is no longer our only single
investment direction,” says Stan,
who has joined the shift among
Asian property executives from
asset-focused development into
service-oriented offerings—hos-
pitality, co-working spaces and
incubation hubs. Stan Group
now operates six hotel brands
with a combined 3,500 rooms. In
2016 it launched an innovation
hub for entrepreneurs, called
“The Wave.”
Stan has also steered Stan
Group into financial services,
a private members’ club, and
serviced apartments catering
to the elderly. “The govern-
ment has given us policies that
present us an opportunity to
reposition ourselves,” Stan says,
echoing his father’s confidence
in Hong Kong’s future as part of
the greater bay area compris-
ing Guangzhou, Hong Kong
and Shenzhen. The 34-year-old
plans to list five of the group’s
companies by 2023, though the
property representing 90% of
Stan Group’s assets will remain
private, he says. Stan says his
aim is to grow non-property
businesses to someday repre-
sent at least half of the group’s
total assets.