Wealth-X Reports: Hong Kong Tycoons Lose $1 Million Per Minute After Arrest

HONG KONG, April 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Hong Kong tycoons Thomas and Raymond Kwok, Co-Chairmen of Hong Kong's largest property development company, lost together US $1.2 million of their combined net worth per minute on 29 March 2012, the day of their arrest. When trading in their Sun Hung Kai Properties resumed the next day the Co-Chairmen lost a combined $2 billion, down 14% since the incident. However, at the close of the Hong Kong market on 3 April 2012, the Kwok brothers' combined net worth regained close to $250 million, putting their net loss at 12%.

The Kwok brothers are two of Asia's richest property developers. Excluding common family assets, their combined net worth stood at $15.6 billion a year ago, $13.9 billion just before their arrest and $12.1 billion at the close of trading on 3 April 2012, according to the latest Wealth-X estimates. Their arrest came 10 days after Sun Hung Kai's Executive Director, Thomas Chan, was arrested in connection with the ongoing investigation by the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

"This is an unprecedented wealth destruction event, putting Raymond Kwok's motto 'Tough times never last; tough people do' to the test," Mykolas D. Rambus, CEO of Wealth-X, said. "Never has it been more important for ultra-wealthy individuals, even billionaires, to carefully hedge concentrated stock positions and account for extremely varied contingencies."

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SOURCE Wealth-X