Galaxy founder Lui Che-Woo’s wealth has leaped by $10.2 billion this year, the most of any Asian billionaire, as the world’s gaming capital Macau draws record revenue and shares hit a new high

October 4, 2013 Leave a comment

Galaxy Magnate Lui’s Wealth Soars by $10 Billion in 2013

Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd. (27) founder Lui Che-Woo’s wealth has leaped by $10.2 billion this year, the most of any Asian billionaire, as the world’s gaming capital Macau draws record revenue and shares hit a new high. Lui has a net worth of $22.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and is ranked as the second-richest individual in Asia, trailing only fellow Hong Kong developer Li Ka-Shing. His fortune is now bigger than Lee Shau-Kee, Cheng Yu-Tung, Mukesh Ambani and Gina Rinehart in advancing up the ranks in 2013. Only Facebook Inc.’s Mark Zuckerberg and Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad have made more money this year.The 84-year-old billionaire holds one of six gaming licenses in Macau and competes against casinos owned by Steve Wynn, Sheldon Adelson, Stanley Ho and his son Lawrence, and James Packer. Lui and his son Francis are expanding their flagship casino Galaxy Macau in the city’s Cotai area, Asia’s version of the Las Vegas Strip, to capitalize on record visits by gamblers from throughout China.

“Travel from China’s central and northern provinces is growing as economic activity spreads from the southern manufacturing base,” according to Bloomberg Industries analyst Tim Craighead. “The trend is benefiting Macau as rising visits from more distant regions boosts overnight stays and pares the city’s reliance on neighboring Guangdong.”

Macau gaming revenue jumped 21.4 percent to $3.6 billion in September from a year ago, according to data from Macau’s Gaming Bureau released yesterday. Visitors to Macau rose 14 percent on Oct. 1 and 2 amid China’s National Day holidays this week, when hotels are known to triple their room rates.

Gross gaming revenue in 2013 is expected to grow 17 percent to $44.5 billion from a record $38 billion last year, according to Deutsche Bank AG analyst Karen Tang in Hong Kong.

Volatile History

Lui was born in 1929, in the city of Jiangmen in Guangdong province, after his family moved back to China from San Francisco, where they had made a fortune running a laundry. In 1934, Lui followed his family as they fled war-torn China for Hong Kong. At the age of 13, Lui began to support his family by selling food on the streets of the British colony.

As World War II ended, Lui bought surplus construction equipment left after U.S. forces invaded Okinawa. He imported machinery to Hong Kong, which was undergoing a reconstruction boom, and made his first fortune.

When he couldn’t sell some stone crushers, he decided to start a quarrying business. The 26-year-old then founded K. Wah Group, whose construction materials have been used in a quarter of all Hong Kong buildings, according to the company’s website. He invested the profits he made from construction into residential property development and later hotels in Hong Kong.

Macau Entree

When Macau ended the four-decade monopoly held by Stanley Ho in 2002, Lui’s Galaxy Casino Co., with Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands (LVS), won one of the three gaming concessions put up by the local government. Within a year, the partners had split the license after a falling out over strategy: Adelson wanted to re-create Las Vegas in China, Lui wanted to cater to Asian tastes.

In 2006, Lui’s StarWorld Macau, where gamblers can bet as much as $250,000 a hand, opened across the street from Ho’s Grand Lisboa. Lui’s $1.9 billion, 2,200-room Galaxy Macau resort opened in 2011.

Galaxy shares have soared 93 percent this year and reached a record high yesterday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick Chu in Tokyo at pachu@bloomberg.net

Filed under Macro Trends

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Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

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