Robert Ng

Robert Ng Chee Siong (黄志祥, born 1952) is the chairman of Hong Kong property development conglomerate Sino Group, a position he has held since 1981. He is the eldest son of Ng Teng Fong, the Singaporean real estate billionaire. Forbes listed the two as the 30th richest people in the world in 1997.

Career
History
Ng was speculating in futures contracts on the Hong Kong Futures Exchange through two Panamanian-registered companies when the October 1987 global stock market crash began; his paper losses reportedly reached HK$1 billion. At first, Ng refused to pay, claiming to be protected by the limited liability of the companies through which he had traded. This led to the collapse of the futures exchange; trading was also halted on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for four days. An investigation by the Commercial Crime Bureau of the Royal Hong Kong Police revealed that Ng had avoided required margin calls through collusion with one of his brokers. Instead, a deal was worked out which saw Ng repay HK$500 million, with Hong Kong taxpayers providing the rest of the funds needed by the Exchange through a government bailout. Their battle to gain control of the company was later described as 'one of the most colourful take-over struggles in Singapore history' and led to YHS' transformation from a food company to a luxury real estate developer.

The Sino Group also spun off their hotel interests into a new company, Sino Hotels, in that year; Ng became chairman of the board of the new company as well from its inception. In early 1997, under Ng's direction, Sino Hotels made several acquisitions, including an 80% stake in the local branch of the Conrad Hotel for HK$2 billion. Ng also predicted that office properties would perform well during that year. For the latter six months of that year, Sino Hotels reported a 66% fall in net interim profits and 80% fall in operating profit, which Ng attributed to lower c