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This Harvard grad is heir to the world’s largest jewellery empire

Bloomberg Published on Mon, Feb 13, 2017 / 11:36 AM GMT+8

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SINGAPORE (Feb 13): One of Hong Kong’s four richest dynasties is preparing for a leadership transition that may test the adage that family fortunes don’t last beyond three generations.

Adrian Cheng, the Harvard-educated heir apparent of New World Development Co. and Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group, is in focus after his 69-year-old father, Henry, recently went on leave because of an unspecified illness. The companies declined to comment on media reports that the senior Cheng had a stroke.

When the 36-year-old scion ultimately takes over from his father, he will be in charge of a conglomerate that controls one of the city’s biggest property developers, runs the Carlyle Hotel in New York City and operates a chain of jewellery stores that generates about 80 percent more revenue than Tiffany & Co. globally. Today, the family controls four listed companies with a total market value of more than US$25 billion ($35.6 billion), as well as some that are closely held.