Hong Kong’s richest woman loses half her wealth on paper as Kingston shares plummet

Pollyanna Chu has lost her title as Hong Kong’s richest woman after her listed company turned into Asia’s worst performer this year.

Worth almost US$12 billion as recently as January, she’s seen more than half of her wealth wiped out as the stock crashed. Kingston Financial Group, which operates businesses including Macau casinos and margin lending, has tumbled 52 per cent since Hong Kong’s securities regulator in January warned investors that the company’s shares were overly concentrated among a small number of stockholders.

Kingston Financial plunged 12 per cent on Monday after FTSE Russell, one of the world’s most-followed index providers, removed the stock from its benchmarks. For its financing, the firm relies largely on unsecured loans provided cheaply by Chu and her family, according to January analysis from activist investor David Webb. 

The stock is the worst performer on MSCI Inc.’s Asian gauge this year, after surging 88 per cent in the last quarter of 2017.

Some speculators may have made a killing from Kingston’s misfortunes -- short interest was about 6.3 per cent of free float as of Friday, according to IHS Markit data. The company declined to immediately comment on the slump in shares.