Stanley Ho’s daughter Angela asks Hong Kong court to name administrators for casino tycoon’s estate, with fees of up to HK$6,600 per hour

Late gaming tycoon Stanley Ho Hung-sun’s eldest surviving child has asked a Hong Kong court to name two members of a global consulting firm as the administrators of his estate, at a rate of up to about HK$6,600 per hour.

Angela Ho Chiu-yin on Monday applied for a High Court order to appoint Tiffany Wong Wing-sze and Edward Simon Middleton, both managing directors of Alvarez & Marsal Asia, as administrators, with their fees to be paid out of the estate, at an hourly rate of HK$2,535 to HK$6,630 (US$327 to US$855).

The application was made under the Probate and Administration Ordinance, which allows the court to appoint administrators “where a person dies wholly intestate as to his estate or leaving a will affecting estate but without having appointed an executor thereof willing and competent to take probate … or where it appears to the court to be necessary or convenient”.

A month ago she lodged a caveat with the Probate Registry in Hong Kong demanding that her solicitors be notified before the sealing of her father’s grant, which includes court orders authorising the administration of his estate.

Her notice was the fourth one filed over the estate of Stanley Ho, who was counted as one of Asia’s richest men for decades, with a personal fortune estimated at HK$50 billion (US$6.4 billion) at the time of his retirement in 2018.

The other three who filed – her sisters Deborah Ho and Pansy Ho Chiu-king as well as her cousin Michael Hotung – have been named as defendants in the present application, which also sought liberty for the parties, including the administrators, to apply for further orders, clarifications and sanctions.