2020-02-01 Forbes Asia

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17. GEOFFREY &
    JONATHAN KWOK
    $5.1 BILLION
    SUN HUNG KAI PROPERTIES
    AGES: 34, 31


18. RAYMOND, EDWARD
    & CHRISTOPHER KWOK
    $4.9 BILLION
    SUN HUNG KAI PROPERTIES
    AGES: 66, 38, 33


19. EDWIN LEONG
    $4.8 BILLION
    TAI HUNG FAI ENTERPRISE
    AGE: 68


20. RICHARD LI
    $4.5 BILLION
    FWD GROUP
    AGE: 53


21. THOMAS & ADAM KWOK
    $4.4 BILLION
    SUN HUNG KAI PROPERTIES
    AGES: 68, 36


22. PAN SUTONG
    $4.3 BILLION
    GOLDIN FINANCIAL HOLDINGS,
    GOLDIN PROPERTIES
    AGE: 56


23. PANSY HO
    $4.25 BILLION
    MGM CHINA, SHUN TAK HOLDINGS
    AGE: 57

24. SAMUEL TAK LEE

$4.2 BILLION

LANGHAM ESTATE

AGE: 80 CHANGE IN WEALTH KEY: UP DOWN UNCHANGED NEW TO THE LIST RETURNEE

Perhaps the biggest casualty of

Hong Kong’s months of street

protests last year was consump-

tion: with foreign tourists steer-

ing clear and shoppers curbing

their impulses, lower spend-

ing helped pull the territory’s

economy last year into its first

recession since the global finan-

cial crisis. Arrivals in November

were less than half what they

were a year ago, according to

government data.

Hong Kong was already wob-

bly. The U.S.-China trade war—

and its cooling effect on China’s

already slowing economy—was

looming all year. That’s evident

in Hong Kong’s benchmark

stock index, which—dominated

by big mainland companies—

mirrored its Shanghai counter-

part in the six months after the

protests began, climbing almost

5% amid hopes for a year-end

trade deal to finish 2019 up 9%.

Buoyant stocks help ex-

plain why the fortunes of Hong

Kong’s richest withstood the

gloom. Another reason is prop-

erty, one of the best barometers

of Hong Kong’s financial health.

Despite a sharp, 16%, decline

for retail space, prices for resi-

dential property had by Novem-

ber climbed 5% from the year

before. Whether they’ll hold up

amid the rapid spread of a new

and deadly respiratory virus re-

mains to be seen.

Wealth Creation

Bearing Up

Property price index

SOURCE: BLOOMBERG, FORBES ASIA

S&P 500 Hang Seng Shanghai composite

Property price indexes (1999 = 100)

1994 1999

Stock market performances

(in percentage terms, adjusted for currency fluctuations)

-5%

Jun ‘19

20%

15%

10%

5%

0

HONG KONG’S

50 RICHEST