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Payson Cha, prominent Hong Kong tycoon and chairman of conglomerate HKR International, dies of cancer at 77

  • Cha was a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference between 1993 and 2013
  • The Cha family was valued at US$2.6 billion by Forbes in 2018

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Cha’s family is best known for developing Discovery Bay on Hong Kong’s Lantau Island. Photo: Roy Issa
Yujing Liu

Payson Cha Mou-sing, the chairman of Hong Kong conglomerate HKR International, famed for its development of the Discovery Bay community on Lantau Island, died on Saturday morning, according to two sources.

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Cha, 77, died in San Francisco, the sources said, declining to be named as they were not authorised to speak to the media. A spokeswoman for HKR International declined to comment.

Cha was the eldest son of the late Cha Chi-ming, a well-known industrialist who fled to Hong Kong from Shanghai to start China Dyeing Works, a textile business, following the end of the second world war. HKR International, which spans industries ranging from property development to hospitality to health care, was founded in the 1970s.
The Cha family is best known for its role in developing the 650-hectare Discovery Bay in the 1970s and growing it into a district with a population of more than 20,000 in 2016, according to the latest census data. Cha assisted his father and played an important role in the project. The community now consists of a 27-hole golf course, two shopping malls, a man-made beach and more than a dozen residential building blocks.

The Cha family has close ties with officials in China and is held in high regard by the Communist Party. Cha was a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the country’s top political advisory body, between 1993 and 2013. His father “made great contributions to the smooth handover of Hong Kong”, Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong said in a statement of condolence when he died in 2007.

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Payson Cha Mou-sing died in Los Angeles, according to sources. Photo: Sam Tsang
Payson Cha Mou-sing died in Los Angeles, according to sources. Photo: Sam Tsang

The family has also been active in philanthropy in Hong Kong and China. Cha Chi-ming founded the Qiu Shi Science & Technologies Foundation with a donation of HK$150 million (US$19 million) in 1994 to award outstanding Chinese scientists. The foundation had been managed by Cha.

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