2020-02-01 Forbes Asia

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42. CHAN TAN CHING-FEN
    $1.85 BILLION
    HANG LUNG GROUP


43. VIVIEN CHEN
    $1.82 BILLION
    NAN FUNG GROUP
    AGE: 61


44. DANIEL CHIU
    $1.8 BILLION
    CHINA GAS HOLDINGS
    AGE: 59


45. POLLYANNA CHU
    $1.75 BILLION
    KINGSTON FINANCIAL GROUP
    AGE: 61


46. ZHUO JUN
    $1.6 BILLION
    SHENZHEN KINWONG ELECTRONIC
    AGE: 54


47. JIM THOMPSON
    $1.5 BILLION
    CROWN WORLDWIDE GROUP
    AGE: 80


48. HARINDARPAL BANGA
    $1.45 BILLION
    CARAVEL GROUP
    AGE: 69


49. THOMAS LAU
    $1.4 BILLION
    LIFESTYLE INTERNATIONAL
    AGE: 65


50. ALLAN WONG
    $1.2 BILLION
    VTECH
    FEL AGE: 69

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FOR MORE INFO, GO TO FORBES.COM/HONGKONG

Thomas Lau, 65, has seen shares of his retail

firm Lifestyle International fall roughly 35%

since last March, which helped send his for-

tune down 24% to $1.4 billion. Lifestyle’s two

Sogo department stores, both licensed out-

lets of Japan’s Seven & i, are located within

areas where many protests have been held.

In Lifestyle’s latest earnings report, for

mid-2019 released last August, sales fell

2% to HK$5.6 billion ($718 million) from

the year-ago period, but profit rose 45% to

HK$1.3 billion. A company release attrib-

uted the sales decline to sluggish consumer

demand, noting that “ongoing political and

social unrest” was a factor and may affect

future results. The profit rise came from

higher investment income during the pe-

riod. Meanwhile, progress is being made on

construction of a third Sogo on the site of

Hong Kong’s former Kai Tak airport, slated

to open in 2022, the release said.

Lau started Lifestyle in the early 1980s,

opening his first Sogo in 1985 after he and

older brother Joseph sold the industrial

conglomerate they built from their family’s

old ceiling-fan business. Thomas is Life-

style’s chairman and CEO, while his son

Kam Sen and daughter Kam Shim both

work at Lifestyle as executive directors.

—Ambika Behal

Retail Uncertainties

THOMAS LAU