香港富豪家族準備交棒

As Robert Kuok completed his memoirs in 2003, he began to have second thoughts. Worried that he had been too critical in parts — especially of some people he felt had cheated him over the years — the Chinese-Malaysian tycoon decided that he needed to “clean up” the manuscript.

2003年，當郭鶴年(Robert Kuok)完成他的自傳時，他開始產生疑慮。他擔心，書中的某些內容批評太多，特別是對那些他覺得多年欺騙他的人，這位馬來西亞華裔大亨決定，需要“清理”底稿。

“This took time because except for very short spells, I never retired from managing my companies,” Mr Kuok said via email.

郭鶴年通過電郵說：“這很費時，因爲除了一些短暫的間隙，我從未放棄管理我的公司。”

Some people close to Mr Kuok also thought that it was perhaps not the most opportune time for him to publicly criticise the Malaysian government’s “excessive” racial preference policies that discriminate against Chinese and Indian communities.

一些熟悉郭鶴年的人還認爲，那可能不是他公開批評馬來西亞“過度”種族優先政策的合適時機，這些政策歧視華裔和印度裔社區。

Fifteen years later, the tycoon’s memoirs are finally out. Published in November, they have indeed stirred up controversy in his native Malaysia, where he once controlled 85 per cent of sugar imports and helped found its national shipping line. As one senior member of the ruling United Malays National Organisation said shortly after publication, “anybody who finds success in Malaysia shouldn’t forget where they came from”.

15年後，這位大亨的自傳終於在去年11月出版。該書的確在他的出生地馬來西亞激起了爭議，在馬來西亞，他曾控制85%的糖進口，並幫助創建了該國的國家航運公司。正如馬來西亞執政黨馬來民族統一機構(United Malays National Organisation)的一位高官在自傳出版後不久所說的，“在馬來西亞取得成功的任何人都不應該忘本”。

Mr Kuok left Malaysia for Singapore before finally settling in Hong Kong in 1979 — a move that he attributes in his memoirs to the then “punitive” tax rates in the two Southeast Asian countries. With a fortune estimated to be worth $14.2bn, the founder of Kerry Holdings, the commodities-to-property group, is now the territory’s sixth-richest person.

當年，郭鶴年離開馬來西亞到新加坡發展，最後於1979年在香港紮根——他在自傳中把此舉歸因於這兩個東南亞國家當時的“懲罰性”稅率。這位身價達到142億美元的大亨現在是香港第六大富豪，是橫跨大宗商品到房地產業務的集團嘉裏控股(Kerry Holdings)的創始人。

The 94-year-old’s new-found willingness to court such controversy is a sign that, though “still remarkably spry” according to one person who knows him well, he has at least one eye on posterity.

這位94歲的大亨變得願意面對爭議表明，儘管據一位非常瞭解他的人稱，他“仍然相當活躍”，但他至少在一定程度上關注後世子孫。

Mr Kuok is not alone. Many of Hong Kong’s richest families are preparing for a generational changing of the guard. Unfortunately for the UK colony turned Chinese “special administrative region”, the sons and daughters who will inherit Hong Kong’s biggest fortunes will continue to dominate an economy defined by rent-seeking monopolies.

郭鶴年並不是唯一一個。很多香港最富有的家族正準備向下一代交棒。對於以前是英國殖民地、現在是中國“特別行政區”的香港而言，不幸的是，將繼承香港最多財富的這些後代們，將繼續主宰一個以尋租壟斷爲主要特色的經濟體。

Li Ka-shing, Hong Kong’s most global tycoon, is reportedly preparing to step aside as chairman of CK Hutchison Holdings when he turns 90 in July.

據報道，全球意識最強的香港大亨李嘉誠準備在今年7月年滿90歲時，卸任長江和記實業(CK Hutchison Holdings)董事長一職。

Stanley Ho, 96, has been incapacitated by frail health in recent years. The carve-up of SJM Holdings, his transportation, property and Macau gambling empire, has featured Winnie, an estranged sister; 17 children, the most prominent of whom is Pansy, 55, and Angela Leong, 56, his fourth wife.

最近幾年，96歲的何鴻燊(Stanley Ho)的健康狀況一直不佳。參與他旗下的澳門博彩控股(SJM Holdings)股權分配的有一直與他不和的妹妹何婉琪(Winnie Ho)；17位子女，其中最知名的是55歲的何超瓊(Pansy Ho)；以及第四任太太、56歲的樑安琪(Angela Leong)。澳門博彩控股是一家交通、房地產和澳門博彩集團。

At Sun Hung Kai and Henderson Land, Hong Kong’s largest property developers, Kwong Siu-hing and Lee Shau-kee, aged 88 and 89 respectively, continue to call the shots.

在香港最大房地產開發商新鴻基(Sun Hung Kai)和恆基兆業(Henderson Land)，88歲的鄺肖卿(Kwong Siu-hing)和89歲的李兆基(Lee Shau-kee)繼續掌舵。

The generational transition at Ms Kwong’s empire has been even more of a soap opera than Mr Ho’s. One of Ms Kwong’s three sons was unceremoniously pushed aside while another is serving a five-year prison term for bribing a senior government official.

與何鴻燊相比，鄺肖卿的商業帝國的代際交棒甚至更像一部肥皂劇。鄺肖卿的3個兒子中的一個被不客氣地晾在一邊，另一個因行賄政府高官被判5年監禁，目前正在服刑。

As the old saying has it, the hardest million dollars you will ever earn is your first million. Hong Kong’s next generation of tycoons never had to earn their first million, let alone their first billion. The city’s property, ports, electricity and supermarket sectors, to name just a few, have been locked up by just eight families.

正如老話所說，人生中的第一桶金是最難賺的。香港的下一代大亨從來不需要賺取他們的第一桶金，更別提他們的第十桶金了。舉幾個例子，該市的房地產、港口、電力和超市行業已被8個家族控制。

Hong Kong’s monopoly madness extends far down the economic food chain to its licensing systems for taxis and public minibuses. The number of taxi licences has not increased since 1994, while those for minibuses has been frozen since 1976. So when the Heritage Foundation proclaims Hong Kong the world’s “freest economy”, as it does year after year, it says more about the conservative US group’s approval of the city’s low tax rates than it does about competitiveness.

香港的壟斷瘋狂延伸至經濟食物鏈的底層，連出租車和公共小巴的牌照體系也不放過。自1994年以來，香港出租車牌照數量一直沒有增加，公共小型巴士的牌照從1976年起一直被凍結。因此，當美國傳統基金會(Heritage Foundation)年復一年地宣告香港是全球“最自由經濟”時，它在更大程度上說明了這個保守的美國機構對香港低稅率的讚許，而不是競爭狀況。

In his memoirs, Mr Kuok rues missing an opportunity on his first trip to Hong Kong to buy land in the city centre at HK$5 a square foot. He did not make that mistake a second time. One of his first decisions after deciding to base himself in the city in the late 1970s was to establish a property development company, although he admits he did not fully appreciate at the time that “as China developed?.?.?.?[Hong Kong] rents would soar and soar”.

郭鶴年在自傳中後悔自己沒有抓住機會，在第一次到香港時以每平方英尺5港元的價格買下香港市中心的地皮。他沒有再次犯錯。上世紀70年代末，在他決定落戶香港之後，他的首批決定之一是成立一家房地產開發公司，不過他承認，他當時沒有完全意識到，“隨着中國內地的發展……（香港）租金將持續飆升”。

Four decades ago, it was indeed difficult to envisage China’s economy taking off as it has. As recently as 2012, only one person on the Chinese mainland was richer than Mr Kuok. Now 14 people are, led by the founders of some of the world’s largest and most innovative internet and ecommerce companies.

40年前，確實很難想象中國內地經濟發展如此之快。就在不那麼久之前的2012年，中國內地只有一人比郭鶴年更富有。如今，比他富有的中國內地富豪達到了14位，首當其衝的是全球一些最大也最具創新性的互聯網和電商公司的創始人。

And that, unfortunately, says much about Hong Kong. In terms of entrepreneurial dynamism, the city has changed less in the last 40 years than China has in the past five.

不幸的是，這說明了香港的很多問題。從創業活力來看，香港過去40年的變化都趕不上中國內地過去5年的變化。