Hong Kong's richest woman leaves business empire with her sister

Apr 5, 2007, 4:51 GMT

Hong Kong - The business empire of Hong Kong's richest woman Nina Wang is to be left in the hands of her younger sister and two unnamed employees, a news report said Thursday.

Nina Wang, 69, head of the Chinachem group and reputed to be the wealthiest woman in Asia, was pronounced dead Wednesday after succumbing to what is believed to have been ovarian cancer.

Nina Wang's younger sister Kung Yan-sum and two unnamed employees will reportedly now manage Chinachem, one of Hong Kong's biggest privately held property companies.

Nina Wang is understood to have set up a trust fund for the group to sustain its future operations, the Hong Kong Standard reported, quoting sources.

However, it was still unclear what will happen to Nina Wang's personal fortune, estimated at 4.2 billion US dollars, after she died childless and with a husband missing and presumed dead.

It is not known if she left a will but if she did not, her fortune is expected to pass to her surviving siblings and relatives.

Nina Wang's death comes two years after she won a bitter eight-year legal battle against her father-in-law over the estate of missing husband Teddy, and defeated allegations that she forged his will.

Wang's husband Teddy was kidnapped in 1990 and was nine years later declared dead after no trace of him was ever found. After his disappearance, his wife inherited his fortune.

She built his company, Chinachem, up into a a 3-billion-dollar business empire but initially lost a probate battle with her father-in-law who claimed she had forged Teddy's will.

In a 2002 hearing, Hong Kong's High Court heard allegations of an affair by Nina Wang in the 1960s which allegedly led Teddy to cut her out of his will, although they remained married.

Appeal court judges initially ruled she had probably forged the will of her late husband and, after the ruling, police investigated the issue and Nina Wang was charged with forgery.

The prosecution was dropped, however, after Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal overturned the probate decision.

In the Forbes 2007 list of the world's wealthiest people, Nina Wang was 204th with a net worth of 4.2 billion dollars.