A Winner Emerges in Macau
After Battling Family Rivals, Leong Controls Key Stake in Ho’s Casino Business. Angela Leong, the youngest of the four women with whom ailing casino magnate Stanley Ho has produced more than a dozen children, has emerged from a bruising fight with his heirs to stand atop one of the world’s most lucrative gambling empires.
The former dancer, 50 years old, has steadily amassed influence within Mr. Ho’s sprawling family, and, following a recent family reconciliation, she now controls a $1.2 billion interest in Mr. Ho’s core casino holdings. Ms. Leong fended off a messy public challenge mounted by two of Mr. Ho’s other wives and their children to box her out, winning the power to shape the future of Macau’s most lucrative gambling operation, which earned $457 million on revenue of $7.4 billion from its 20 casinos last year.
The family agreement reached last month allows Ms. Leong to remain as executive director of the Ho-empire flagship SJM Holdings Ltd. for six years, according to people familiar with the agreement, consolidating her influence on the company’s board. “For now, it’s basically resolved,” Ms. Leong said in an interview. “Everybody has their different roles….I manage the casino to figure out how to make it bigger, how to earn more money.”