Sun Hung Kai Properties was founded by Kwok Tak-seng, Fung King-hey and Lee Shau-kee in 1958. In the early 1960s, the company pioneered selling apartments by instalment in Hong Kong. In 1972 it was publicly listed and soon became one of the top five companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (by market capitalisation). In 1997, Sun Hung Kai was run by the second generation of the Kwok family, who still held 46.9 per cent share of the company. Lee Shau-kee, the founder and Chairman and Managing Director of Henderson Group, continued to be the vice-chairman and a non-executive director of the company. Sun Hung Kai Properties employed over 11,000 people in 1997. Its core business was the development of properties for sale and investment, with complementary businesses in hotel management, insurance, financial services and parking management. Other non-property-related businesses included telecommunications, transportation and port businesses. These, together with other China investments, made up about 20 per cent of the total assets of the company.
Sun Hung Kai Properties, one of the largest landowners in Hong Kong, had a land bank total of 47.8 million square feet in terms of gross floor area in 1996. It had 15.1 million square feet of completed investment properties, the largest completed investment property portfolio in Hong Kong, and 32.7 million square feet of properties under development. In addition, the Group owned 18 million square feet of agricultural land in the New Territories, the majority of which was in the process of land use conversion. Sun Hung Kai was known for the quality of the property it offered.
Swire Properties was established in 1972 as a wholly owned subsidiary of a British-controlled company, Swire Pacific, one of Hong Kong’s leading publicly listed companies. Swire Pacific had diversified interests in air transport, property development, consumer product distribution and trading. Swire Properties had been a major earnings contributor to the group and one of the top property developers in Hong Kong. The company’s investment portfolio comprised office, retail, industrial and residential properties with a gross floor area totalling over 8.7 million square feet, with a further 3.2 million square feet under or pending development. It also had equity interest in the three hotels in Pacific Place, a prestigious shopping and office complex built and operated by Swire Properties. The company promoted itself as an “office and retail” developer since its resources and efforts were relatively concentrated in these areas. Properties developed by the company were often considered as “superior” or “deluxe”. Traditionally, the company placed more emphasis on property trading (i.e. development of property for selling) than on investment (i.e. development of buildings for rental). However, after the mid-1980s, in view of the fluctuating market conditions, the company changed its focus on riskier property trading to less risky property investment. In 1996, the ratio of investment to trading portfolios was around two to one.
In 1975, Swire Properties started to build Taikoo Shing, one of the first major private housing estates in Hong Kong on 90 acres in Quarry Bay on Hong Kong Island. Completed in 1986, the estate comprised 12,690 residential apartments in 61 blocks. Through the years, the company continued to build a number of middle-class residential properties such as Robinson Place in Mid-Levels and Island Place on the former China Motor Bus depot in North Point on Hong Kong Island. On the property investment side, major projects completed included Pacific Place in Admiralty (near Central on Hong Kong Island), which comprised three hotels, two office buildings, luxurious residential rental apartments and a 700,000 square foot shopping mall; and Citiplaza, the largest shopping centre on the Hong Kong Island, adjacent to the residential buildings and three office towers in Taikoo Shing. Major projects under development in 1997 were Island Place in North Point, also comprised of a shopping centre, offices and residential towers; and a one million square foot shopping centre, “Festival Walk”, in Yau Yat Tsuen in Kowloon.
Hongkong Land was established in 1889. Though its core business was in property investment in Hong Kong, Hongkong Land had moved its stock market listing from Hong Kong to Singapore in 1995. A subsidiary of Jardine Matheson, a British-controlled company, Hongkong Land was also listed in London, Australia and Bermuda. The company had focused on commercial property development and management. It maintained a strong position in Hong Kong’s Central business district, where it owned and managed twelve buildings offering 4.3 million square feet of office space and 600,000 square feet of retail space. On the residential property market, the company invested mainly in the luxury market segment. An example was Stanley Court, an estate of 21 townhouses on the south side of Hong Kong Island. The company also engaged in infrastructure projects in China, and property investment activities in other Asian countries such as Singapore and the Philippines.
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