Solina Chau: the woman behind HK tycoon Li Ka-shing
December 22, 2013 Leave a comment
Solina Chau: the woman behind HK tycoon Li Ka-shing
Staff Reporter
2013-12-18
An interview with Hong Kong property tycoon Sir Li Ka-shing by Guangzhou’s Southern Metropolis Daily has inadvertently thrown Solina Chau Hoi-shuen, a partner in Li’s Cheung Kong Group and director of the Li Ka Shing Foundation, into the spotlight.Chau, who some say is Li’s soul mate, not only organized the interview but also monitored it from a corner of his office, said the report on the website of Chinese-language Lanjing Caijing.
Born in 1961, Chau is 33 years Li’s junior and the daughter of a small-time businessman in Hong Kong. She attended the prestigious Diocesan Girls’ School and was elected Junior House Captain, or chief of the students’ association, before she graduated in 1979.
Chau went on to study in Sydney and worked for a while in London in the 1980s. In the late 1980s, she struck up a friendship with Debbie Chang, a cousin of former Hong Kong chief executive Tung Chee-hwa, becoming her flatmate and business partner.
Chau made a splash in Hong Kong business circles in 1993 when she won a project on behalf of one of Tung’s firms to build the Oriental Square in downtown Beijing.
Around this time, Chau met Li, who had been invited by Tung to invest in the US$2 billion project that earned Chau a commission of HK$400 million (US$51.6 million).
Later, Chau and Chang moved to a house that was a five-minute drive from Li’s mansion in Hong Kong’s Deep Water Bay, and reports emerged that she was often seen with Li at the Deep Water Bay Golf Club, eating breakfast together. Li’s wife died in 1990.
In 1999, when the internet boom began, Li helped Chau set up Tom, a Chinese-language media company. He also helped her to list Tom on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and Chau’s HK$300,000 (US$38,650) investment in Tom mushroomed into HK$12.7 billion (US$1.63 billion), making her the second-richest woman in Hong Kong.
Chau is said to be very considerate and has often been seen squatting in public to tie Li’s shoelaces if they come undone. When Li was awarded an honorary doctorate by Oxford University, Chau held his umbrella to shield him from the rain.
When Li was asked by journalists whether he would marry again, he had initially said no but his response has since changed to a “Maybe, who knows?”
About bambooinnovator
Bamboo Innovator 