Daisy Ho Chiu Fung is to take over as chairman of SJM Holdings Ltd, the Macau casino business founded by her father Stanley Ho Hung Sun (pictured), and which provided the gaming licence to her sister Pansy Ho Chiu King that enabled MGM Resorts International affiliate MGM China Holdings Ltd to enter the local market.
A Thursday filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange said Mr Ho, aged 96, would retire as SJM Holdings’ chairman and as an executive director, at the firm’s annual general meeting on June 12, and be given the title “chairman emeritus”.
“The board expresses its sincere gratitude to Dr Ho for his invaluable contributions in building a solid foundation for the company’s continuing growth in the future,” said the filing.
Daisy Ho joined the SJM Holdings board in June last year. She served previously as a director at MGM Grand Paradise Ltd, the gaming licence holder for MGM China. She stepped down from that role at the end of 2010, according to media reports.
In SJM Holdings’ boardroom shake up, Angela Leong On Kei, fourth consort of Mr Ho, and mother of his youngest children, will be made a co-chairman of SJM Holdings, as well as remaining as an executive director, at the conclusion of the coming general meeting. Current board member Timothy Fok Tsun Ting will also be made a co-chairman.
Ambrose So Shu Fai, will remain as chief executive and executive director. He will also be designated vice chairman with effect from the June general meeting.
In addition, Ina Chan Un Chan, mother of three of Mr Ho’s children, will be nominated at that meeting as an executive director of the firm.
Elements of the various families produced by Mr Ho during his long entrepreneurial career have not always had amicable relations regarding the Ho business empire.
In March 2011, it was widely reported that Mr Ho and family members had settled a highly-publicised two-month dispute over control of his interests. The row had included a statement issued in Mr Ho’s name suggesting that his second consort – mother of Ms Daisy Ho – had colluded with his third one to take over the holding company that controlled the bulk of his assets. They refuted the suggestions.
Mr Ho has been in retirement since reportedly suffering a fall at home in Hong Kong in 2009.
