何鴻燊

繁體中文

何鴻燊（1921–2020），廣東寶安人，生於香港，歐亞混血，出身顯赫的何東家族，係何東爵士胞弟何福的孫兒，在兄弟姊妹中排行第九，人稱「九爺」。他九歲入讀皇仁書院，1934年父親因股票投資失利破產、遠走越南，家道中落；1937年他在首屆香港中學畢業會考取得佳績，獲政府全費獎學金，1939年入讀香港大學理學院。1941年日軍攻港，他未及畢業便隻身赴澳門，加入中葡日聯營的聯昌公司做押船工作，並自學日語，半年後已成為公司股東。他其後涉足煤油、船務同地產，1961年與霍英東、葉德利、葉漢合組財團，以三百一十六萬七千元投得澳門賭場專營權，翌年成立澳門旅遊娛樂有限公司，1970年葡京酒店開幕，長期獨佔澳門博彩業，被稱為「賭王」。他創辦的香港信德集團業務遍及航運、地產、酒店同娛樂，並曾任全國政協常委，2007年獲頒大紫荊勳章，2020年5月26日在香港逝世，享年九十八歲。

English

Stanley Ho (1921–2020) was born in Hong Kong into the prominent Eurasian Ho Tung family — a grandson of Sir Robert Ho Tung's brother Ho Fook — and was known as 'Ninth Brother'. He attended Queen's College; when his father lost the family fortune in the stock market in 1934 and fled to Vietnam, he won a government scholarship on the strength of his results in Hong Kong's first school-leaving examination and entered the University of Hong Kong in 1939. When Japan invaded in 1941 he left without graduating and went alone to Macau, working on cargo boats for the Sino-Portuguese-Japanese trading firm Leung Cheong and learning Japanese; within half a year he was a shareholder. He moved into kerosene, shipping and property, and in 1961 joined Henry Fok, Teddy Yip and Yip Hon to win Macau's casino monopoly for HK$3.167 million; Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau was formed the following year and the Lisboa hotel opened in 1970, giving him decades of dominance as the 'King of Gambling'. His Hong Kong flagship Shun Tak Holdings spanned shipping, property, hotels and entertainment, and he served as a Standing Committee member of the CPPCC; he received the Grand Bauhinia Medal in 2007 and died in Hong Kong on 26 May 2020, aged 98.