Heiress ups Esprit stake for 4th time in July

Karen Lo Ki-yan, an heiress of Vitasoy International (0345) and the wife of veteran investor Eugene Chuang Yue-chien, increased her stake in Esprit (0330) for the fourth time this month.

Lo raised her shareholding in Esprit to 19.51 percent from 18.8 percent, with increased holdings of 13.5 million shares.

The latest purchase involved a sum of around HK$14.84 million, or HK$1.0994 per share on average.

Her number of shares now total around 368 million, which has further strengthened her position as the biggest shareholder of Esprit.

Lo started to increase her shares of Esprit earlier this month.

She previously raised the shareholding to 12.89 percent from 4.93 percent, which managed to surpass that of Michael Ying Lee-yuen, the former chairman and chief executive of Esprit. Ying gave away shares to his daughters in October 2017.

Share of Esprit rose 0.91 percent to HK$1.11 yesterday.

The company announced a redevelopment plan early this month, including a layoff plan and store closures, to save HK$900 million.

Lo's grandfather Lo Kwee-seong is the founder of Vitasoy.