Asian casino owner's kin split assets in legal clash
Let Stanley Ho be an example to us all. And not only by amassing one of the world's great fortunes.
Ho could have fought in court to hang on to every million, clutch each asset until complete strangers whispered, "What a selfish old goat." He's 89. This way, maybe, a court settlement will bring peace in his family.
And what a family.
Ho has 16 children by four wives. Grandchildren and great-grandchildren, too. Bloomberg News didn't do the whole head count when reporting how Ho settled out of court the other day in a lawsuit he had brought against his kids.
He agreed to distribute to them almost his entire stake in Asia's biggest casino company, bigger by far than anything in Las Vegas. When Asians roll the dice, their destination of choice on their own continent is Macau, a fabulous relic of colonialism on the coast of China, like Hong Kong, where Ho lives.
The "house" in Las Vegas, Atlantic City or Monte Carlo may collect big, but the take in Macau dwarfs them all. Its casino revenues are four times those of the famous Vegas Strip. And it was Stanley Ho who brought the phenomenon to Macau, with government's friendliest nod, 50 years ago.
The holding company of his empire has a long name but boils down to initials, STDM. Ho owned just short of a third of STDM, at 31.7 percent. But now the mother of his youngest children, Angela, who is managing director and used to have 2 percent at most, will own 6 percent. Other family members will split 25.538 percent. Ho keeps just 0.117 percent. (Numbers running out to three decimal points are a clue to how valuable these fractions are.)
Ho's lawsuit alleged that his florally named daughters, Pansy Ho and Daisy Ho, and other family members simply seized his stake in the company. He wanted the court to give it all back to him to distribute differently, yet not outside the bloodline.
STDM owns 55.69 percent of the casino operations, giving the family stake a market worth of 12.7 Hong Kong dollars ($1.6 billion U.S.).
The news report portrayed a clan not unlike interlocking companies. The dispute started when his third wife, Chan, and children Pansy, Daisy, Maisy, Josie and Lawrence took control of yet another company called Lanceford, which is the biggest stakeholder in STDM. The old man didn't like that. His lawyer said he wanted assets divided equally among the offspring.
Last year Forbes magazine ranked Ho as Hong Kong's 13th-richest man with a net worth of $3.1 billion. Macau's colonial government issued a gambling monopoly to Ho and partners in 1962. Forty years later in 2002, the sweet exclusive expired. Macau began licensing competitors, including Sheldon Adelson's Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Steve Wynn's Wynn Resorts Ltd. But the house that Ho built commands a 50 percent-plus market share spread out in several casinos. Macau is the only place in China where institutionalized gaming is legal.
Hard feelings in a family, especially over money, don't enhance an old gentleman's health. Ho spent seven months in a hospital before being released last March. Time will tell if the court settlement makes him feel better. Bet it does.
