Chow Tai Fook

Chow Tai Fook group is a Hong Kong–based, privately owned conglomerate with holdings in the jewellery, property development, hotel, department store, transportation, energy, telecommunications, port,^{[citation needed]} casino, and other businesses. Despite the holding companies of the group, namely Chow Tai Fook Capital Limited, Chow Tai Fook (Holding) Limited, Chow Tai Fook Enterprises Limited, etc. being privately owned, the group has been partially listed on the stock market via associate company New World Development (SEHK: 17, listed since 1972) and subsidiary Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group Limited (SEHK: 1929, listed since 2011). As of 31 December 2018, New World Development was ranked as the 47th-largest company by market capitalization on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, which was HK$105.68061 billion.

However, the size of the unlisted portions of the Chow Tai Fook business empire is unclear. The Financial Times quoted one banker of the Cheng Yu-tung family, who said, "You can't look at [Cheng] YT without looking at the private side of the business and his ability to spot early investment opportunities". Notable unlisted businesses of the group include Rosewood Hotel Group, as well as Australia-based Alinta Energy and the Loy Yang B power station, which were acquired in 2017.

Chow Tai Fook Capital is owned by the descendants of the late Chow Tai Fook Jewellery founder Chow Chi-yuen (Chinese: 周至元) and his son-in-law, the late Cheng Yu-tung, which includes the current Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group chairman, Chow Tai Fook (Holding) director Henry Cheng.

The Chow Tai Fook group began with the Chow Tai Fook jewellery store, founded by Chow Chi-yuen in 1929 in Guangzhou, China. The store shifted its business to Portuguese Macau in 1940 (some say 1931) and then to British Hong Kong after the breakout of the Second Sino-Japanese War in the 1930s and the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949. The group returned to mainland China after the market reforms of the 1980s, notably as New World Department Store China and former listed company New World China Land.

Cheng Yu-tung took over the business empire from his father-in-law Chow Chi-yuen in 1956. Other sons of Chow emigrated after the outbreak of Hong Kong 1967 leftist riots, such as Stephen Chow Shue-tong (周樹堂), an architect who emigrated to Canada. Stephen Chow also involved in the founding of the real estate division of Chow Tai Fook group in the 1960s. Cheng transformed the group into a diversified empire, with interests in jewellery retailing, real estate, hotels, transportation, public utilities, and other businesses. In 1961, Chow Tai Fook Jewellery built a residential building at 265–275 Tai Nan Street, Sham Shui Po, Kowloon. The building was also named after Tai Fook (大福唐樓). The real estate division became the listed company New World Development in 1972; the group, via Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, also made private investments in real estate and hotels.

One of the main holding companies of the group, Chow Tai Fook Enterprises Limited, was incorporated on 10 August 1966 in British Hong Kong, while the flagship listed company New World Development Company Limited was incorporated in 1970 in British Hong Kong. The jewellery store chain was incorporated as Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Company Limited in 1961 in British Hong Kong, and a new holding company for the jewellery division was incorporated in the Cayman Islands and listed in the Hong Kong S.A.R., now part of China, as Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group Limited in 2011.

As of 2018, the group also consists of two more parent companies in the group structure, namely Chow Tai Fook Capital Limited and its subsidiary Chow Tai Fook (Holding) Limited. They were incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. Chow Tai Fook (Holding) is the parent company of Chow Tai Fook Enterprises and Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group.

The Chow Tai Fook group, via Chow Tai Fook (Holding) Limited (incorporated in the British Virgin Islands) and Chow Tai Fook Enterprises Limited (incorporated in Hong Kong), owned two listed companies as the significant shareholder: Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group Limited (周大福珠寶集團有限公司, incorporated in the Cayman Islands; 89.3%) and New World Development Company Limited (新世界發展有限公司; 44.39%). New World Development also owned a few listed second-tier subsidiaries (with regard to Chow Tai Fook Enterprises), such as New World Department Store China, NWS Holdings, etc. New World China Land, another second-tier subsidiary, was a listed company until its privatization by New World Development in 2016. The privatization of listed second-tier subsidiary New World Department Store China by New World Development was not approved by the minority shareholders in 2017. Another second-tier listed subsidiary, New World Hotels (Holdings), was privatized by New World Development and Chow Tai Fook Enterprises in 1990.