Hong Kong Gambling World Shaken by Stanley Ho Selling his Assets

Stanley Ho is one of the wealthiest men in South East Asia, known to the general public as Macau's king of gambling. Following a public family disagreement he decided to decrease his stake in the flagship of his empire. He now only owns 0.09 percent of SJM Holdings, a casino holding company which operates in full compliance with Hongkongese gambling laws.

The 89-year-old gaming mogul sold 5 million of his SJM shares in an off stock exchange deal, halving his stake to 0.09% from 0.18%. Online gambling news in Hong Kong learned that his so-called fourth wife, Angela Leong purchased 5 million SJM shares the same day also off stock exchange. She went on to buy another 750K shares through the stock exchange. These transactions bumped her stake from 8.11% to 8.21%

Just a month ago, Pansy Ho, the eldest daughter of Mr. Ho’s second wife, bought a nice piece of his property including a transport company Shun Tak Holdings, where she is employed as a managing director.

Ms. Pansy Ho disclosed that she purchased around 36 million of shares from Mr. Ho at market value, increasing her stake to 12.67% from 11%. Shun Tak’s share prices were HK$4.89 that day, bringing the deal value to HK$177.4m (US$22.77m).

2011 saw the Ho family argument turning public, when Mr. Ho, being in extremely poor health, made several accusations. He suspected the children of his second wife of working together with his third wife to steal the holding company that possessed the bulk of Mr. Ho’s assets.

The children in question naturally denied his accusations. Mr. Ho later claimed that the dispute was settled in March. According to some analysts, the current activity, surrounding his assets, suggests that the feud is still going on.