Albert Lau Among 3 New Executive Directors Named to SHKP Board

Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP) has named three new executive directors to its board as the Hong Kong-listed giant battles rising interest rates and a slowing residential property market.

Among the set of appointments is Albert Lau, a former head of Savills for China, who joined the developer in 2017 and is now responsible for business development and government relations work on the mainland, as well as leadership of the group’s business in eastern China, Beijing and Chengdu, the company said.

Continuing to be based in Shanghai after first relocating to the mainland in the early 1990s, Lau, now 57, had 27 years’ experience in international real estate consultancy before joining the developer chaired by second-generation Hong Kong tycoon Raymond Kwok.

Mainland Operations in Focus

All three executives took on their new roles from 23 August, and have extensive experience with the group’s mainland China operations, where Hong Kong’s largest developer by market value has completed more than 16.3 million square feet (1.51 million square metres) properties with another 59 million square feet currently under development, according to its website.

Also ascending to SHKP’s board is Maureen Fung, a retail specialist who joined the group in 1991. Fung is responsible for strategic planning, development and management of various key shopping malls of the Group in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Nanjing, Beijing and Hangzhou. She is also the founding chairman of the Institute of Shopping Centre Management in Hong Kong.

Robert Chan joined the group in 1993 and is a project director for residential, commercial, industrial and mixed developments in Hong Kong, Hangzhou and Guangzhou. He is also responsible for architectural, structural, electrical and mechanical, landscape and interior design. Chan has also been involved in feasibility studies on most of the new tender sites.

Hong Kong Challenges

The reshaped SHKP board will convene amid challenges in its home city of Hong Kong as transactions stutter amid higher mortgages and an exodus of people. The total value of housing transactions declined by about 25 percent in July over the previous month, according to Land Registry data. The number of deals declined by 23.9 percent to 3,671.

In February, SHKP said its interim core profit fell 15 percent year-on-year to HK$14.8 billion ($1.9 billion) in the six months that ended in December 2021. The group is due to issue its latest half-year results this month.

The company blamed a slowing residential property market, adding that stringent anti-pandemic measures and labour shortages have disrupted Hong Kong’s construction industry. Supply chains between Hong Kong and the mainland have also been impeded.

Its shares rose 0.6 percent on 26 August, but have shed 15 percent over the past year.

Earlier this week, SHKP released the latest batch of 168 units at its Novo Land project in Tuen Mun at an average price of HK$14,392 (US$1,833) per square foot. The developer sold all 336 units during the last round.

Sun Hung Kai is one of Hong Kong’s biggest developers with a market capitalisation of HK$270 billion (US$34 billion).  Founded in 1972 by Kwok Tak-seng, it is now controlled by a trust managed by the Kwok family, one of the richest in the territory.