Behind every billionaire there is a story!

Ho to rebuild his gaming image out of Lisboa’s ashes

Earlier this month Stanley Ho, the Macao gaming tycoon, did something he had previously refused to contemplate.

On January 2 his gaming flagship, Sociedade de Jogos de Macau, announced it would tear down the Lisboa hotel and casino.

Completed in 1970 and immortalised four years later when it was featured in a James Bond film, The Man with the Golden Gun, the Lisboa and its roulette-wheel design have long been synonymous with both Mr Ho and Macao, which in 2006 eclipsed the Las Vegas strip as the world’s largest gaming market.

The decision to redevelop the 12-storey landmark casino was motivated by more than economics - the Lisboa could be replaced by a much taller tower. Coming just weeks before SJM’s planned $1bn initial public offering in Hong Kong, it also symbolised a break with Macao’s past and a new beginning for the group.

Macao, a former Portuguese colony that reverted to Chinese sovereignty in 1999, has only recently begun to shed its reputation as a sleazy, triad-infested den of iniquity, an image that has rendered Mr Ho, who has long denied having any links to the territory’s underworld, persona non grata in the eyes of many overseas gaming regulators.

The tycoon, who recently celebrated his 86th birthday and is estimated to have a fortune worth more than $7bn, has fathered at least 17 children by four wives.

“This is as much about succession planning as it is about the IPO,” says one person involved in the transaction.

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http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/274cfabe-c3d6-11dc-b083-0000779fd2ac.html