As pressure grows on Macau to locate new causes of revenue, scion of casino dynasty imagines a different future for the other SAR
Sabrina Ho Chiu-yeng is performing what she could to aid Macau diversify. The 26-year-old daughter of Stanley Ho Hung-sun may be more well known for gracing society and entertainment pages, but in January she organised the first Macau sales by China’s state-owned Poly Auction and then in November held her own annual hotel art fair, having already launched an exhibition in promoting the task of young art graduates in September.
“Macau has been evolving,” she tells The Collector. “We don’t wish to rely just about the gaming industry. We would like more families ahead in charge of holidays, we should boost our cultural and creative industries.”
This is the politically correct view for the daughter of your casino magnate. Macau is in the cross hairs of Beijing’s war on corruption and capital outflow. The central government started urging the location to relinquish its dependence on the gaming sector, the taxes from which spend on most public expenditures, back through the boom years, when the “build it and they’re going to come” mentality ruled the casino industry. Today, mainland policies to discourage high rollers joined with a slowing economy have risen pressure to locate new revenues.
Fundamental change has become slow ahead. Five casinos have opened since 2012 and more are on the way in which, including two from branches with the Ho empire – the Grand Lisboa Palace, led by Ho’s mother, Angela Leong On-kei (Stanley’s so-called “fourth wife”), and MGM Cotai, headed by Sabrina ho chiu yeng‘s half-sister Pansy Ho Chiu-king.
So can be Sabrina’s cultural endeavours all just a bit of soppy public relations for the clan?
Well, China’s biggest auction house is treating her seriously, and hopes her youthful energy and family connections may help it break into a whole new and wealthy market where no international house features a presence. In return, Ho says, she wants the auctions to aid attract tourists as well as perhaps encourage the city’s 600,000 residents to produce a greater portion of a desire for culture. The partnership, called Poly Auction Macau, is 51 % owned by Poly along with the rest by Ho’s company, Chiu Yeng Culture.
Ho spent my youth surrounded by art along with other collectables owned by her parents but she is fairly new on the auctions business. After graduating by having an arts degree in the University of Hong Kong, in 2013, she done the branding and marketing side with the family’s hotel and property businesses. “But I love art and that i asked Poly easily will work part-time in their Hong Kong office, to discover the auction world,” she says.
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