Lee Shau Kee, the creator of Henderson Land Advancement, died on March 17, 2025.
Paul Young/Bloomberg
Lee Shau Kee, a homemade billionaire that constructed among Hong Kong’s biggest home realms, passed away Monday. He is 97 years of ages.
Lee’s business Henderson Land Advancement revealed that he died quietly and was bordered by his family members. Lee started Henderson Land in 1976 and worked as chairman till 2019 when he handed the ins rope to his children Peter and Martin, making them co-chairs.
Lee was the 2nd biggest individual in Hong Kong at the time of his fatality, with a total assets of $30 billion, according to Forbes’ real-time billionaire checklist.
Lee was among the initial generation of business owners in Hong Kong, that began generating income in property advancements from the 1960s to 1970s when the city dealt with a scarcity of inexpensive real estate. Throughout this duration, Lee co-founded Sunlight Hung Kai Residences with Sunlight and was the papa of Hong Kong billionaire Kwok Brothers with Fung King Hey and Kwok Tak Seng, and later on headed out alone to develop Henderson Land. Sunlight Hung Kai and Henderson Land both came to be significant gamers in the Hong Kong property market.
Lee’s very own home service is recognized for developing large household structures and collecting land financial institutions. Henderson Land led the growth of Sha Tin, a north reusing community in Hong Kong in the 1970s, which became one of the most populated location of the city with regarding 700,000 homeowners. Today, the business is the biggest proprietor of untaught country land in the brand-new north component of Hong Kong, with a get series of roughly 45 million square feet.
Henderson Land likewise aided form Hong Kong’s sky line, establishing the renowned International Financial Centre (IFC) in the CBD in a joint endeavor consisting of Sunlight Hung Kai. Henderson Land’s profile likewise consists of the city’s most pricey industrial land, which was gotten for $6.5 billion in 2021 to establish a brand-new workplace and a retail complicated alongside the IFC. With much less than 5 years of document proposals, Henderson Land paid $3 billion for a previous multi-storey parking area on Murray Roadway. Ever since, designers have actually transformed it right into a spots A-class workplace tower called Henderson, which opened up in 2015 with lessees consisting of public auction residence Christie’s and exclusive equity titan Carlyle.
Henderson Land’s success makes Lee the wealthiest guy in Asia in 1996 with total assets Forbes Approximated to be $12.7 billion. That year, he was likewise called the 4th wealthiest guy worldwide, rating just amongst Microsoft’s Costs Gates, Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett and Cockroach’s Paul Sacher.
When Lee placed Oriental Riches once again in 1997, he shared exactly how he collected his wide range in meetings with his bio. “Riches is built up with persistance and thriftiness,” he claimed. “The wonderful wide range originates from paradise.” ‘This does not suggest leaving points to paradise; it implies that wide range will just show up when time, area and chance agree with. This is not something that can be required. “
Lee Shau Kee (facility) and his oldest child Peter (left) and his more youthful child Martin (appropriate).
Henderson Land Advancement
Birthed in 1928, Lee is referred to as the “4 Uncles” due to the fact that it is the 4th youngster in an entrepreneur’s family members from a city in Guangdong District, China. His papa runs the gold, silver and money exchange service, and Li has actually joined his service given that he was 6 years of ages. Lee remembers in his bio that his family members just consumed meat or fish two times a month.
When Lee was two decades old, he got HK$ 1,000 (US$ 128) in Hong Kong bucks (US$ 128) while operating in a household service. In the British swarms back then, Lee started to trade rare-earth elements and money. Identifying that Hong Kong would certainly encounter a persistent real estate scarcity, he ventured right into property and made use of Fung and Kwok with Sunlight Hung Kai in 1963. These 3 are called “3 Artillerymans”.
After Sunlight Hung Kai went public in Hong Kong in 1972, Lee headed out alone and developed the holding business of Henderson Land a year later on. Regardless of his separation from Sunlight Hung Kai, Lee remains to hold a minority risk in the business and the title of vice chairman.
In 1981, Lee advertised Henderson Land to the general public on the Hong Kong Stock Market. For many years, he has actually established Henderson Land right into a realm that likewise regulates various other noted business in Hong Kong, consisting of among the city’s biggest gas distributors, Hong Kong and China Gas (likewise referred to as Tongas), along with resort team Miramar Resort and Miramar Resort and Financial investment and Ferryboat solution driver Hong Kong Ferryboat (Hondings).
Along with running Henderson’s land, Lee dedicated his time to charity. Among his proudest jobs was to lead the Hong Kong Peyva Education And Learning Structure, which he collectively developed in 1982. For many years, philanthropic companies have actually given education and learning and training programs that are claimed to gain from virtually 1.3 million individuals in landmass China. Via his Lee Shau Kee Structure, Lee has actually given greater than HK$ 1 billion (US$ 128 million) and RMB 600 million (US$ 83 million) to colleges in Hong Kong and landmass China, specifically.
” I’m an entrepreneur and I constantly make use of the concept of take advantage of when working. “It’s the capacity to transform one buck right into 2 bucks,” Lee claimed in a 1997 biographical meeting. That’s what I truly believe is the objective of success. “
