Hong Kong surveyor C Y Leung is tipped for the top when the colony is handed back to China. He talks to Lauren Mills about his political and business aspirations.
Humour is a funny thing. Few successful businessmen appreciate their pet projects being ridiculed. So it comes as a shock when C Y Leung – one of Hong Kong’s leading property players and a candidate to take over from Chris Patten – happily admits that his head office is jokingly referred to as “the building of a thousand arseholes”.
The nickname, he is quick to point out, has nothing to do with his 250-strong surveying practice, but applies to the 2,000 porthole windows in Jardine House.
“I prefer to think it looks more like a Swiss cheese,” he smiles.
Leung’s ability to take a joke is part of the charm that has taken him to the upper echelons of political life in Hong Kong. At just 42, the UK-educated surveyor is a vice-chairman on the 150-member Preparatory Committee of Hong Kong’s special administrative region (SAR). He also served on the Basic Law Consultative Committee which helped Hong Kong and China to draw up mutually acceptable legal foundations to be implemented after the takeover.
Now he is tipped for the top post – chief executive of Hong Kong. He has the backing of Dr T KAnn, one of Beijing’s most trusted men in Hong Kong, but the very mention of the nomination brings a wry smile to Leung’s face.
“As soon as I heard that Dr Ann thought I would be a choice for the position, I came out and said I wasn’t interested. I’m more interested in being a real estate professional than a chief executive,” he insists demurely.
Ethics and principles
Leung’s colleagues claim he is playing down his political ambitions. Nick Brooke of Brooke Hillier Parker believes Leung would be an excellent choice: “He’s a professional, which gives people confidence because he has ethics and principles. And he doesn’t have a particular axe to grind so far as any sector of the community is concerned.
“Politically he is seen as close to China – but not too close.”
Surprisingly, it’s the political dimension that seems to deter Leung. “Politics are very restrictive. I’d have to make a choice – either be chief executive, or the owner of my company. There are strict rules when it comes to possible conflicts of interest and whoever takes up the post will have to be seen to be impartial.”
With his open youthful face and apparently sincere modesty, Leung is a person who invites trust. It is hard not to take him at his word. But cynics in the Hong Kong business community believe he is biding his time, preparing himself for 2002 when the post will be up for grabs again. “All eyes will be on the first chief executive. Why be a guinea pig and risk damaging your business?” says one who prefers to remain anonymous.
Ever the diplomat, Leung refuses to be drawn on Chris Patten’s track record as governor of Hong Kong, or the fact that Patten has been ostracised by the British and Chinese members of the Joint Liaison Forum which will continue to have a say in the running of Hong Kong after the handover.
He prefers to comment on the colony’s prospects post-1997 when Patten has returned to Britain. “We look forward to a good relationship with Britain and Europe. The British population in Hong Kong has grown by 70% in the past three years and I always subscribe to the view that people know a lot more about the real world than politicans!”
Confidence
Leung’s confidence, professionally and politically, has been built up over a relatively short period. He first displayed his negotiating skills at the tender age of 17 when he blagged a place at Hong Kong Polytechnic without an A-level to his name. Three years later he went to Bristol Polytechnic to study valuation and estate management.
“This was very unusual, but I thought that if I went to England to do a degree course, I’d see a bit of the world and I treated HK Poly as my A-levels,” he laughs.
After graduating in 1977, Leung flew back to Hong Kong, where he worked his way up the ladder at Jones Lang Wootton. He defected to set up his own practice in 1993.
C Y Leung &Co now has 450 staff and offices in the booming Chinese cities of Shenzhen, Guangzhon, Shanghai and Beijing as well as Teipei in Taiwan. He also runs a joint venture in south east Asia with another ex JLW employee, Edmund Tie.
Instructions in China include managing the 278,000m2 (3m sq ft) Shun Hing Square office, retail and residential block in Shenzhen, letting and marketing Printemps’ 18,580m2 (200,000 sq ft) shopping centre in Shanghai and selling office space in the 55,740m2 (600,000 sq ft) Bright China Chang An building in Beijing.
Leung is keen to expand his business in China and it’s difficult to imagine his ambition being deflected.
That is, unless he launches himself fully into the political arena.
C Y Leung
1954
1971
Attended Hong Kong Polytechnic
1977
Graduated from Bristol Polytechnic in estate management. Joined Jones Lang Wootton in Hong Kong
1993
Founded C Y Leung &Co
