HONG KONG, S.A.R. -- Asia's biggest gambling mogul has chosen family peace over business, giving up majority of his stake in his casino empire to family members.
HK-listed Sociedade de Jogos de Macau (SJM) Holdings Ltd. announced late last week that Stanley Ho's stake in its parent firm, Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau (STDM), has been divided among Ho's relatives. Ho held a 31.6% stake in STDM worth US$1.6 billion through his holding firm Lanceford Company Ltd., but Thursday's announcement revealed that Ho himself only kept a miniscule 0.117% of the almost 32% stake and gave 6% of his Lanceford holdings to his fourth wife, Angela Leong On Kei, while other unnamed relatives shared 25.54%. Leong On Kei is a managing director of Lanceford and mother of Ho's five youngest children.
The statement by SJM Holdings followed an announcement made by Ho and his family earlier that his family had settled its internal inheritance dispute and that all lawsuits filed by Ho againsts his family relatives have been dropped. It may be recalled that earlier this year, the ailing 89-year old Ho filed lawsuits against members of his second and third families, including daughters Pansy and Daisy Ho, accussing them of illegally taking 31.7% of Ho's SJM stake, transferring these stakes to companies they control including one company controlled by Ho's third wife, Chan Un-chan.
According to news reports, Pansy and Daisy along with other siblings undertook this action after Ho transferred 7.7% of his Lanceford shares to Leong. Ho who had just undergone brain surgery and was in the hospital for the last seven months claimed that he was misled into signing the transfer agreement and promptly filed the lawsuits.
The much publicized family feud was apparently settled after three weeks of negotiations between Ho and his feuding family members. Ho has been reported to have expressed his desire to divide his wealth equally among all his family members which includes 16 children through four wives.
Ho and his partners founded STDM in 1962 and their casino business, managed through SJM, was the most lucrative for the group after the Macau colonial government granted them a 39-year monopoly to operate casinos in the tiny Portuguese enclave. The monopoly was not renewed in 2001 paving the entry of other casino operators but to date, Ho's SJM still dominates the Macau gaming market grabbing about 30% of the territory's gambling revenue with its 17 casinos, four slot machine lounges, and two hotels.
Posted: March 29, 2011
