Update | Court rules Nina Wang intended her foundation to hold fortune as a trustee, not beneficiary

Hong Kong's top court has rejected a final attempt by the Chinachem Charitable Foundation to take greater control of tycoon Nina Wang Kung Yu-sum's HK$83 billion estate, ruling the foundation is instead a trustee and must spend the cash only in accordance with her wishes.

The Wang-family-led foundation will not receive any part of her estate as an absolute gift, the Court of Final Appeal decided yesterday. The five judges ruled the foundation and the secretary for justice must come up with a "scheme" to fulfil Wang's last wishes, as spelled out in her will dated July 28, 2002.

The scheme would have two objectives: the establishment of a supervisory body and arrangements for the creation of a Chinese Prize, which will be the equivalent of the Nobel Prize.

The foundation, which is led by the family, lost its appeal against the Court of Appeal's earlier ruling that it was to manage the estate as a trustee, with discretionary power to distribute funds.

Patrick Hamlin, a specialist in trust and succession litigation with international law firm Withers, said that, as a trustee, "the foundation will be subjected to a higher degree of supervision by the court".

Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe said, having considered the effects of the imperative language and specific phrases used in the entire context of the will, it was clear that the will imposed a trust for charitable purposes.

Also, the court held that the language of a clause in the will was clear to indicate that Wang wished to "entrust" the foundation to the supervision of a managing organisation outside the foundation.