Vincent Lo's plans for new vehicle China Xintiandi

At 64, Vincent Lo Hong-sui has not taken a holiday for seven years. A workaholic still, despite being a billionaire, Lo is hoping all that effort will pay off as he begins building one of the nation's largest property investment companies.

The grand plan, unveiled earlier this month, involves restructuring the Hong Kong-listed Shui On Land, in which Lo has a 60 per cent stake, by injecting up to 68 billion yuan (HK$83.75 billion) of commercial assets into China Xintiandi, a wholly owned subsidiary with a planned separate listing, which will start operations on March 1.

Lo, who remains chairman of Shui On Land, a medium-sized developer with a market capitalisation of HK$2 billion, is taking the lead in setting up China Xintiandi.

"I have never stopped working for the past two years, although I had stepped down as chief executive of Shui On Land," he said.

The restructuring plan aims to unlock the value of quality assets held by Shui On Land, a subsidiary of Shui On Group, which itself was started by Lo in 1971 with a HK$100,000 loan from his late father, Lo Ying-shek, the founder of Great Eagle Holdings.

Four decades later, Vincent Lo has built up a substantial property portfolio in Shanghai, Chongqing, Wuhan and Dalian through his two listed companies, Shui On Land and Socam Development. He was number 17 in Forbes' latest list of Hong Kong's richest people, published on January 11, with a personal wealth reckoned by the American magazine at US$2.65 billion.