Henderson Land Founder Lee Shau-Kee Dies at 97

Lee Shau Kee in 2013 (Getty Images)

Lee Shau Kee, the billionaire founder of Hong Kong real estate developer Henderson Land Development, passed away Monday evening at the age of 97, according to a statement on the company’s website.

Having founded what is now Hong Kong’s third largest developer by market capitalisation in 1976, the native of Shunde in China’s Guangdong province is said to have died peacefully in the presence of his family, the statement said.

Described as “a family man, a passionate educator, and a caring leader,” Lee had served as chairman of Henderson Land, its Miramar Hotel and Investment unit and Hong Kong and China Gas (Towngas), before stepping down from his leadership roles in 2019. He also was a non-executive director of Henderson’s Hong Kong Ferry Holdings unit.

Estimated by Forbes to have amassed a fortune of $29.2 billion by the time that he died, Lee was born the same year as Hong Kong’s richest man, Li Ka-shing, and was among a generation of tycoons who built their wealth on Hong Kong’s boom as the city first industrialised and later became a regional financial hub.

Property Pioneer
In 1958 Lee had co-founded what eventually became Sun Hung Kai Properties, now Hong Kong’s largest developer by market capitalisation, together with Kwok Tak-seng (father of current Sun Hung Kai chairman Raymond Kwok) and Hong Kong investment pioneer Fung King Hey before heading out on his own to set up Henderson Land 18 years later.

Having grown up in a family which owned gold shops in Guangdong province, Lee moved to Hong Kong in 1948 at the age of 20 and pursued a number of businesses as the city recovered from World War II before venturing into real estate 10 years later.

Lee took Henderson public on the HKEX in 1981 and upon his retirement in 2019 turned over control of the developer to his sons Martin and Peter Lee who currently serve as co-chairman of the company.

Residential to Commercial
Having built its business in Hong Kong’s mass residential market, Henderson Land later ventured into commercial real estate and is the sponsor of HKEX-listed Sunshine REIT.

The company co-developed the IFC complex in Central District with Sun Hung Kai, and more recently launched The Henderson office tower in Hong Kong’s traditional commercial hub.

Henderson Land was among the earliest of Hong Kong’s major developers to enter the mainland China market and has investment properties there including the Beijing World Financial Centre, Henderson 688 on Shanghai’s West Nanjing Road and Henderson Metropolitan on East Nanjing Road.