Touchscreen Tycoon Acquires Kowloon Commercial Block at 62% Off 2014 Price

Hong Kong billionaire Yeung Kin-man has acquired a Kowloon East commercial building formerly owned by the family of the late “Shop King” Tang Shing-bor, as the smartphone touchscreen tycoon continues to pick up discounted property assets amid the city’s property slump.

Yeung, whose company Biel Crystal Manufactory is a major supplier of glass panels for smart device makers including Apple, Samsung and Huawei, purchased the Camelpaint Centre in Kwun Tong from receivers for HK$410 million ($53 million), according to market sources who spoke to Mingtiandi, with that price said to be HK$670 million less than what the Tang family paid to acquire the asset ten years ago.

The transaction, which was first reported by local media, marks Yeung’s latest bet on Hong Kong’s real estate market after the tycoon acquired several residential and commercial properties in recent years, including his purchase in July of four adjacent mansions in the city’s prestigious Peak area for HK$1.1 billion ($141 million).

The Camelpaint Centre now fits into an expanding cluster of properties which Yeung has accumulated along Hoi Yuen Road in Kowloon East as the investor plans major projects in the neighbourhood.

Ramping Up in Kwun Tong

At HK$4,817 per square foot, the acquisition price represents a 63 percent discount from the HK$1.1 billion (HK$12,924 per square foot) price that the Tang family had sought for the building in January, with the descendants of the late property investor having cut the asking price at least three times since putting the asset on the block as early as 2017.

Situated a three minute walk from the Kwun Tong MTR station at 1 Hing Yip Street, the 7-storey building measures 85,116 square feet (7,908 square metres) of gross floor area, with restaurants on the ground and first floors and office units occupying the upper levels. The property had been approved last year for conversion to retail use by Hong Kong’s Buildings Department.

The Tang family had purchased the building for a reported HK$1.08 billion in 2014 before unsuccessfully attempting to sell it for HK$2.88 billion in 2017. With Hong Kong’s office market having entered into a protracted downturn in 2019, the Tangs had put the asset up for sale again in 2022 for HK$1.3 billion to HK$1.4 billion, and further reduced the asking price in January after failing to find a buyer.

The building, which was taken over by receivers last month, is the latest addition to Yeung’s growing property portfolio, with the tycoon and related entities having made a series of investments in the Kwun Tong area in recent years.

Last year, Biel Crystal consolidated ownership of a plot located just steps from Camelpaint Centre, with plans to build a 39-storey commercial tower on the combined site of three former Hoi Yuen Road industrial buildings that the company had acquired over a nine-year period through compulsory sales.

In May, Yeung bought the top floor of the Fook Cheong industrial building situated opposite from the Hoi Yuen Road project site for HK$30.5 million, a month after the tycoon paid HK$150 million to buy a pair of ground floor shops at block 1 of the Camelpaint Building, located adjacent to the Camelpaint Centre. Those properties, along with the ground floor of the Fook Cheong Building which Yeung picked up in 2021 for HK$62 million, were all acquired from the Tang family.

The tycoon also owns at least three other floors in the Fook Cheong Building, several units in the Legend Tower office tower and three shops at the TG Place commercial building, as well as a 45.7 percent interest in the Manning Industrial Building, all of which are located in Kwun Tong.

Yeung’s residential property holdings include a 25,554 square foot mansion at 1-3 Pollock’s Path, which Yeung and his wife Lam Wai-ying had purchased for HK$2.8 billion in 2017. That home at the Peak is located next door to the quartet of mansions at 46 Plantation Road, which Yeung acquired in July from local investor Ho Shung-pun.

Yeung and Lam together ranked 18th on Forbes’ list of richest Hongkongers this year with a net worth of $4.5 billion.

Fire Sales Continue

Yeung’s portfolio expansion comes as the Tang family’s property empire dissolves amid the city’s property slump, with Camelpaint Centre representing part of a cache of properties sold or put on the block in recent years by the Tangs, or by receivers acting on behalf of the family’s creditors.

In the last two years, those disposals have included the 119-key Hotel Ease Access – Lai Chi Kok in Cheung Sha Wan, a pair of adjacent retail and residential buildings at 37 and 39 Carnarvon Road in Tsim Sha Tsui, a serviced apartment building in Jordan, several industrial buildings in Kwai Chung, and a majority stake in HKEX-listed senior care provider Pine Care Group.

Properties that have been put up for sale in recent months by the Tang family or receivers include the 199-key Hotel Ease – Mong Kok, the Riviera Plaza shopping mall in Tsuen Wan, a set of five industrial buildings in Sai Kung, the T-Plus retail podium in Tuen Mun, and a residential block in Yau Ma Tei.

Tang, who died in 2021, earned his fortune and “Shop King” moniker from a 200-strong portfolio of retail shops he accumulated in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay and other top shopping districts. The patriarch’s properties were estimated to be worth HK$75 billion in 2020, according to Bloomberg.