Three appointed to oversee Nina Wang's massive estate

Eunice Lam

Former Legislative Council president Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai, former Hong Kong Monetary Authority chief Joseph Yam Chi-kwong and former Baptist University council chairman Cheng Yan-kee have been appointed by Secretary for Justice Paul Lam Ting-kwok to form a supervisory managing organization to oversee the estate of late tycoon Nina Wang Kung Yu-sum.

This follows the High Court's decision last November approving the Nina Wang Charity Management Limited as trustee of the estate's charitable trust.

Wang, former chair of Chinachem Group and once Asia's richest woman, died at 69 in April 2007. She was the widow of Chinachem founder Teddy Wang Teh-huei, who disappeared in 1990 after being kidnapped for ransom.

Apart from Wang's shareholding in Chinachem Group, valued at HK$141 billion as of December 2020, her estate includes HK$257 million and NT$44 million (HK$10.4 million) in cash, as well as shares in other companies, securities, Wang's personal effects and an interest in her late husband's HK$195 million estate.

She stated in her 2002 will that her entire wealth would be entrusted to the Chinachem Charitable Foundation, led by her family.

But the Court of Final Appeal ruled in 2015 that the foundation was only entrusted to use Wang's estate and it had to work with the secretary for justice to fulfill Wang's last wishes.

In 2023, the High Court ruled that the foundation was not eligible to manage her estate. The Department of Justice submitted a scheme for the estate's administration, which the court approved in May.

"Wang expressed her testamentary wishes in her will to set up a charitable fund," the DoJ said.

"In view of the significant public interest involved, the secretary of justice, in his capacity as protector of charities, intervened as the then prevailing circumstances so required in the matters concerning Wang's estate and participated in the relevant legal proceedings."

The DoJ's scheme involves establishing a company as trustee of the charitable trust, responsible for supervising Chinachem's business operations and approving its financial budget and major decisions.

"The appointees must possess unquestionable integrity, experience and judgment," it said.

The DoJ said the trustee will announce the composition of its board of governors along with details of the scheme and other information in due course.

It added that the trustee will devise a budget for its charity-related works, to be used for charity projects, fundraising and the setting up of a "fund and a Chinese prize of worldwide significance similar to that of the Nobel Prize" - referring to a testamentary wish in Wang's will.

The DoJ said it "firmly" believes the trustee will "do its utmost" in administering the charitable trust.

eunice.lam@singtaonewscorp.com