Ho vows legal action to get back Macau gambling empire
By Kelvin Chan |
January 26, 2011, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
AILING casino baron Stanley Ho is vowing legal action to recover ownership of his Macau gambling empire, his lawyer said yesterday, claiming the shares were seized by family members.
The controversy erupted after casino operator Sociedade de Jogos de Macau Holdings, known as SJM, told the Hong Kong stock exchange on Monday that Ho had given nearly all his shares to five of his children and one of the three women he calls his wives.
The 89-year-old Ho has asked the family members to reverse the transactions and if they don't, he will launch legal proceedings in Hong Kong's High Court, lawyer Gordon Oldham said on local television.
They denied seizing Ho's shares, saying the billionaire approved the transfer of his 32 percent stake in a company that owns over half of SJM. Oldham said Ho didn't sign any documents authorizing the share dealings.
Ho, who has 16 living children, had surgery in 2009 for unspecified reasons and spent seven months in hospital before being discharged in March. Local media said he underwent brain surgery after hitting his head. He has rarely appeared in public since then.
"Needless to say he feels very disappointed, he feels very distressed - the fact that an individual in the twilight of his life is having these squabbles amongst his second and third families, squabbling over his assets," Oldham said.
The latest developments appear to reflect a family power struggle as Ho had planned to equally divide his casino business among his children. He presided over the rise of Macau's casino industry during four decades until his monopoly was broken up by the government in 2002.
Foreign competitors, including those in joint ventures with some of his children, now operate in Macau, the world's most lucrative gambling market. SJM, which operates 17 casinos and four slot machine lounges, is still one of the biggest players.
Ho's lawyers said he "discovered much to his horror" that his 100 percent ownership of Lanceford Co - which holds the 32 percent stake in SJM's parent company - had been diluted, reducing his share to 1 percent, the South China Morning Post reported yesterday.
Half of the shares in Lanceford were transferred to a firm owned by Ho's third wife and the other half to another firm owned equally by the five children by his second wife.
The controversy erupted after casino operator Sociedade de Jogos de Macau Holdings, known as SJM, told the Hong Kong stock exchange on Monday that Ho had given nearly all his shares to five of his children and one of the three women he calls his wives.
The 89-year-old Ho has asked the family members to reverse the transactions and if they don't, he will launch legal proceedings in Hong Kong's High Court, lawyer Gordon Oldham said on local television.
They denied seizing Ho's shares, saying the billionaire approved the transfer of his 32 percent stake in a company that owns over half of SJM. Oldham said Ho didn't sign any documents authorizing the share dealings.
Ho, who has 16 living children, had surgery in 2009 for unspecified reasons and spent seven months in hospital before being discharged in March. Local media said he underwent brain surgery after hitting his head. He has rarely appeared in public since then.
"Needless to say he feels very disappointed, he feels very distressed - the fact that an individual in the twilight of his life is having these squabbles amongst his second and third families, squabbling over his assets," Oldham said.
The latest developments appear to reflect a family power struggle as Ho had planned to equally divide his casino business among his children. He presided over the rise of Macau's casino industry during four decades until his monopoly was broken up by the government in 2002.
Foreign competitors, including those in joint ventures with some of his children, now operate in Macau, the world's most lucrative gambling market. SJM, which operates 17 casinos and four slot machine lounges, is still one of the biggest players.
Ho's lawyers said he "discovered much to his horror" that his 100 percent ownership of Lanceford Co - which holds the 32 percent stake in SJM's parent company - had been diluted, reducing his share to 1 percent, the South China Morning Post reported yesterday.
Half of the shares in Lanceford were transferred to a firm owned by Ho's third wife and the other half to another firm owned equally by the five children by his second wife.
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