Samuel Tak Lee or Lee Tak-Yee (; born April 1939) is a Hong Kong property

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...

Early life

Lee was born in April 1939. He was educated at Diocesan Boys' School in Mong Kok, before earning bachelor's and master's degrees in civil and environmental engineering from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

in 1964. Lee then earned an MBA from

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

Career

After finishing his studies, Lee returned to Hong Kong to join Prudential Enterprise, the real estate company founded by his father and uncle in 1958. He took control of the entire business from his brother Lee Tak-Yan in 1985. Prudential Enterprises owns the Prudential Hotel in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

and has significant holdings in Hong Kong, Japan, Switzerland and Singapore. In the UK, he purchased the 14 acre

Langham Estate The Langham Estate is a property estate in Fitzrovia, London, and is owned by the Mount Eden Land Limited (Guernsey). The company controls 14 acres of real estate in central London. Background The Langham Estate originates from an entity first ...

in London's Fitzrovia district in 1994. A real estate portfolio Lee indirectly established in Tokyo in 1999 was eventually sold in 2017 for approximately $1.2 billion. By 2019 Lee had become the largest shareholder in

Shaftesbury plc Shaftesbury PLC was a British real estate investment trust which invests exclusively in the heart of London's West End. It was headquartered in London and was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it merged with Capital & Counties Properties ...

a large London real estate investment trust with a 26.3 per cent stake. There was persistent media speculation that Lee would eventually bid for control of Shaftesbury. ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' also reported that Lee was suing Shaftesbury for £10.4 million in alleged losses over a share placing. His interest in Shaftesbury was subsequently sold at a discount to

Capco Capco is a business and technology management consultancy owned by Wipro, operating primarily in the financial services and energy sectors. Capco's operational headquarters are in London, England, with 32 offices across the Americas, Europe, and ...

for $544 million in June 2020. Lee has been noted for his vigorous defence of his estate’s legal rights and business interests. According to ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'', he had a net worth of $3.6 billion, as of January 2021.

Philanthropy

In 2007, Lee donated HK$9 million to Hong Kong's Diocesan Boys' School, of which he was a student between 1951 and 1958. The donation was made to fund residential student growth with a new dormitory block for the school. One of Lee's sons was studying at the school at that time. Lee donated $118 million in 2015 to the

, to be used to establish a real estate entrepreneurship lab focused on China. The lab has been researching the impact of poor urban air quality on residents' health, social lives and behaviour.

Personal life

Lee is married with seven children and lives between Hong Kong and London. He reportedly owns the yachts ''Pelorus'' and ''Kogo''. The Lee family reported owns a Boeing aircraft and a large car collection. Lee maintains a low profile and rarely speaks out about his many business dealings. According to media reports and court documents Lee has a colourful personal life. Samuel's son, Samathur Li Kin-kan, is famous for his divorce settlement, which the court of Hong Kong awarded his ex-wife HK$1.2 billion.

Gallery

File:Opening Ceremony of the Samuel Tak Lee Building at Diocesan Boys' School.webm, alt=Opening Ceremony of the Samuel Tak Lee Building Video, Opening Ceremony of the Samuel Tak Lee Building at Diocesan Boys' School File:Samuel Tak Lee Building of Diocesan Boys' School.JPG, Samuel Tak Lee Building at Diocesan Boys' School File:Great Titchfield Street and Margaret Street, London.JPG, Lee's

Offices on Margaret Street, London File:Yacht Pelorus in Croatia - 01.jpg, Samuel Tak Lee yacht Pelorus

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Samuel Tak 1939 births Living people Hong Kong real estate businesspeople Hong Kong billionaires Harvard Business School alumni MIT School of Engineering alumni Hong Kong philanthropists