Tycoon Gives his Two Cents...

Chen rants about localists from his wood-carved throne...

A Shenzhen-based tycoon who chairs the Harmony Club, has urged the Hong Kong government to stop pro-independence localists from damaging the business environment.

Chen Hongtian says he was concerned about the city's political development and was even considering diverting his investments elsewhere.

"Anyone who has a clear mind knows they are causing damage and messing around. They don't want Hong Kong to be good," he said.

Pony Ma of Tencent is a member of the Harmony Club

Ok -- wait right there -- we all want Hong Kong to be good. In what way, that is the question, but we all want the city to be strong economically, politically and socially, but it is the government and its policies and actions that has resulted in the polarization we are experiencing now.

Chen claims his club represents 140 mainland and local tycoons including Tencent chairman and CEO Pony Ma Huateng, Lee Yin-yee, founder of Xinyi Glass Holdings, and Wong Kwong-miu, founder of Centralcon Group.

Eighty percent of them have permanent residency in Hong Kong and have business assets totalling HK$1.68 trillion according to Shenzhen media. Chan himself made headlines when he bought a house in June at 15 Gough Hill Road on the Peak for HK$2.1 billion.

Referring to now barred localists Yau Wai-ching and Sixtus Baggio Leung Chung-hang, Chen says: "I think the Hong Kong government should be firmer in upholding the Basic Law. Such people should not be allowed in the establishment," he said.

Chen's latest acquisition on 15 Gough Hill Road, on the Peak

Uh, they don't want to be the establishment. Perhaps they would like to disrupt the establishment, but actually they have indirectly thanks to Beijing intervening and the Hong Kong government taking them to court.

But it gets better.

"You would be penalized if you said anything against the queen during her rule. Now you talk about the whole country and want to become a legislator? Tell [the two localists] to get out of Hong Kong. I think the Hong Kong government can be even tougher and firmer," Chen says.

Why would the government throw them out of Hong Kong? They were born here. It's laughable that he would even suggest such a thing. A statement like that demonstrates his complete disregard for how rule of law works in the city.

He seems to think money from tycoons like himself rule the city, but maybe that was back in the 80s and early 90s. Thanks to tycoons like him, housing prices have gone up so much that people can barely afford 400 square-foot flats that they would have to mortgage for 30 years because their salaries are so depressed there aren't opportunities to make more money.

Those who voted for Yau and Leung wanted change in the city

As a result, many Hong Kong people have long given up the rat race and are becoming more politically active in the hopes they can make a better future for their children through the ballot box. That's why a record 2.2 million people voted on September 4.

So Mr Chen, this is how Hong Kong works. Yes, Leung and Yau were immature in what they did, but we should not discount that tens of thousands of people voted for them because they believed in what they stand for. This fact cannot be neglected, along with the other localists who were elected into the Legislative Council.

It's interesting that Chen is willing to be so outspoken about this, as if trying to agitate the masses to agree with him. But really tycoons here are the 1 percent, if that. What about the rest of us?

Tip of the Day: Avoid Tax, Buy the Company

Now we know how to avoid paying stamp duty, but where to get HK$2 billion?

So it turns out the billionaire who bought the home on The Peak the other day for HK$2.1 billion as saved himself from paying the stamp duty.

Any home worth more than HK$21.7 million is subject to a levy of 8.5 percent.

But Chen Hongtian avoided paying around HK$170 million by buying the company that owns the property.

That way the buyer and seller only pay 0.2 percent levy on the share transfer.

It's a very smart deal, but why does the Hong Kong government allow such loopholes to exist?

That's almost HK$18 million that could have gone to public coffers to help the poor, disabled, elderly and so on.

Oh wait a minute -- the financial secretary would just squirrel all that money for a rainy day.

Just as well these billionaires spared us the extra money...

Have HK$2.1 Billion to Buy a Home?

An undated photo of Chen Hongtian, the new owner of a HK$2.1B home

There may be a lot more uber rich people in Hong Kong than we thought there were.

The latest zillionaire came out of the woodwork yesterday and plonked down a record HK$2.1 billion for a 9,212 square-foot property at 15 Gough Hill Road on The Peak.

That works out to about HK$220,000 per square foot.

Chen Hongtian is a major stakeholder of China South City Holdings, a public company listed in Hong Kong worth HK$2.5 billion.

The home is unfinished so Chen can make modifications

He explained to a local media outlet that he bought the massive property because the other one he bought in August was too small.

"I initially planned to move into the home I bought with HK$380 million last year. But I felt it was a little too tiny [for my family] and [I would need] to live in a bigger one later on. That's why I bought this house," Chen said.

Uh huh.

The "tiny" property he bought was at Opus Hong Kong, the Frank Gehry-designed curvy building, purchasing a flat that is 5,154 square feet, or HK$75,000 per square foot.

According to Chen's autobiography called Aerial View on the World of Mortals, he explains he made his first pot of gold in 1979. Then age the age of 20, he ran his own tailor training school after two weeks of teaching himself the trade.

Surely that would raise red flags, as it takes years for someone to master the art of tailoring. But perhaps if you're teaching others, it's all about the number of students, not necessarily what they learn...

His other home, Opus Hong Kong, designed by Frank Gehry

Then in 1984 he started importing and exporting, buying up garment factories in Guangdong. Six years later he began real estate development in Shenzhen and neighbouring areas.

It was around that time that Chen bought his first luxury property in Hong Kong to live in on Kennedy Road for HK$4 million, followed by another property on May Road. He apparently also have many properties abroad.

Despite the dubiousness of how he initially made his money, Chen is a smart investor, putting his money into real estate.

And probably not surprisingly, he is quite pro-Beijing in his views, publicly calling for severe punishment for those who start online rumours, and those who were at the Mongkok riots.

Has anyone checked to see if he or his company is named in the Panama Papers?

Just wondering...