She has produced net margins beating 24 percent. Chiu put eldest daughter Winnie in charge. In 2010, Far East listed the hotel business under Kosmopolito Hotels International, retaining a 73 percent stake. The group expanded and now operates 16 hotels in Hong Kong, China and Malaysia.Ĭhiu says, “In terms of the number of rooms in this sector, we are the market leader in Hong Kong-4,000 out of 55,000 rooms are ours.” Far East acquired the headquarters of Xinhua news agency and converted it to a hotel called the Cosmopolitan. The three- to four-star sector appeared underserved. You are a nobody in Hong Kong compared to Cheung Kong and Sun Hung Kai.” But he learned that 60 percent of hotels in Hong Kong were five-star, mainly to cater to the Japanese and Westerners. He says, “Our balance sheet size was only HK$400 million. With successes under his belt, the son returned to Hong Kong. Values have since risen from a commuter-rail connection and nearby Shanghai University. The eventual development, California Garden, is a project of 15 million sq ft in gross floor area, comprising 10,000 middle class town houses and apartments. Chiu instead asked for the mayor’s help in finding a sizeable parcel outside the city but within an hour’s commute. Most Hong Kong developers were flocking to the city centre in Shanghai. When the Thai baht crisis hit Southeast Asia in 1997, he switched his attention to China. David, through his own venture, Mayland, introduced the integrated concept, a first of its kind in Kuala Lumpur, with serviced apartments, offices and a shopping centre in one location, like in Hong Kong. The surrounding area was a burgeoning upmarket neighbourhood, and land values had appreciated. In the mid-1990s, he moved to Kuala Lumpur to develop parcels of land in Sri Hartamas that he had had the foresight to procure 20 years earlier from a friend who’d fallen on hard times. It is exciting for us when their income reaches a band, something like $3,000 to $10,000.” Now 58, he observes, “Property developers depend on the middle class. He also wanted to prove to himself that he could build his fortune without his father’s influence. As time wore on, David began to look outside to Malaysia and China, where a bigger middle class was starting to emerge. However, 1983 came and with it a property slump that forced a sale of assets by Far East Consortium. The timing was fortuitous as Hong Kong’s property market was starting to boom. Three years later, he took the reins of the property unit of his father’s Far East group. So eager was he to work for his dad, Chiu flew back to Hong Kong on the last day of his university exams in Tokyo. One of them is the Chiu clan, which from a Greater China foothold has emerged as a regional provider of subluxury accommodations.Īt 17, David Chiu was negotiating with suppliers for his father Deacon, a hard-nosed businessman out of prerevolutionary Shanghai with interests in Hong Kong and Indonesia. Some of Asia’s far-flung busi- ness families are accom- plished but still float below the cutoff for Forbes’ rich lists.