By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-03-19 00:36:29 | Updated at 2025-03-20 08:06:14
1 day ago
Lee Shau-kee, a shrewd investor who built Henderson Land Development into one of Hong Kong’s biggest property companies, gave away some of his US$29.2 billion fortune to causes including education, youth and elderly care for the underprivileged during his lifetime.
The late tycoon donated cash, land and properties through the Lee Shau Kee Foundation and the Hong Kong Pei Hua Education Foundation, and offered scholarships to support academic excellence and scientific pursuits, benefiting countless underprivileged people in Hong Kong, mainland China and elsewhere.
Lee, affectionately known as “Fourth Uncle” by his staff and associates, died on Monday at 97, having built a conglomerate comprising seven Hong Kong-listed firms that included interests in real estate, hotels, piped gas and transportation. With a US$29.2 billion fortune, Lee was second-richest man in Hong Kong after 96-year old Li Ka-shing, according to a Forbes ranking in February.
“As an eminent business leader and entrepreneur, Lee was also a highly respected and patriotic philanthropist,” Sun Hung Kai Properties, which Lee co-founded in 1963, said in a tribute on Tuesday. “His benevolence has benefited countless people, with a profound and lasting impact.”
The man, whose company built one of Hong Kong’s largest private land holdings, was also one of the first developers to give away plots for philanthropy. In 2014, Lee’s foundation donated a 100,000 sq ft plot of land in Tuen Mun, previously held by Henderson Land, to Pok Oi Hospital to be developed into the city’s largest senior care facility. The project can provide over 1,400 residential units, along with an array of amenities and services.
A year later, the Lee Shau Kee Foundation donated a 66,000 sq ft site in Yuen Long to a charity organisation known as Po Leung Kuk, which developed the site into the largest hostel project for young Hongkongers.
