Hong Kong property billionaire Samuel Tak Lee dies

A lawyer representing Lee said it was a difficult period for the family and asked for their privacy to be respected, according to The Telegraphwhich reported his death on Sunday.

“Whilst there is a process to be followed to administer the estate of Mr Lee, the senior leadership team of the Langham Estate remains in control of the day-to-day operations,” she told the newspaper.

“We will not be providing any further comment on the subject at this time and until the administration is complete.”

Lee was ranked 24th on Forbes’ list of the richest people in Hong Kong in February with a net worth of $4.2 billion.

He was the chairman of Prudential Enterprise, a Hong Kong-based property developer established by his father and a cousin in 1958. The firm owns the landmark Prudential Hotel in Hong Kong’s Kowloon.

In the 1960s, Lee earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, both in civil and environmental engineering.

After graduating, he entered the Prudential Enterprise and led it to grow into a multinational firm with major holdings in Hong Kong and several overseas markets over the following decades, according to MIT News.

He was also known for acquiring the Langham Estate in the West End in 1994. The company controls more than 11 acres (44,515 square meters) of property spanning shops, offices, bars, restaurants and flats in Fitzrovia, between Oxford Street and Great Portland Street.

Part of the estate was sold by Lee to U.S. investor Elliott Management and Oval Real Estate for over 300 million pounds (US$404 million) in 2023, marking West End’s largest transaction that year, according to CoStar.

Lee also had a range of luxury assets outside of real estate. He acquired the 377-foot superyacht Pelorus in 2016, according to Robb Report.

His family was also said to have, at one point, owned a Boeing business jet, two more yachts and a collection of luxury cars, as reported by the South China Morning Post.

In 2015, Lee donated $118 million to MIT to establish a real estate entrepreneurship lab focused on China.

Forbes reported at the time that he generally kept a low profile and rarely responded to media inquiries, though he was known to have made several undisclosed donations over the years.

Reports said he was married with seven children. One of his children, Samathur Li Kin-kan, once drew public attention for his divorce in the early 2010s, which saw his ex-wife awarded a settlement of HK$1.2 billion (US$154 million), and later for a lawsuit involving a robot hedge fund that he claimed caused him to lose US$20 million.

Lee himself was also involved in several lawsuits, including a lengthy dispute with London-based real estate firm Shaftesbury and a case he filed against Hong Kong’s The Standard newspaper over articles on the kidnapping of his granddaughter. A judge once described Lee as “one of the world’s truly rich.”