HONG KONG: Hong Kong tycoon Nina Wang, believed to be the
richest woman in Asia, has died, her secretary said
Wednesday.
"Mrs Wang passed away (Tuesday) night," secretary Ringo Wong told
AFP.
Wang, who emerged victorious from a long and bruising court battle
over her late husband's estate, died at an undisclosed Hong Kong
hospital, Wong said without indicating the cause of death.
Despite a fortune estimated at more than US$4b, her frugality was
widely documented by Hong Kong media, who nicknamed her "Little
Sweetie" because her trademark pigtails resembled a Japanese comic
character.
She once admitted that her favourite meal was American fast food
and was reputed to have kept her monthly expenditure below 3,000
Hong Kong dollars (US$385).
Wang and husband Teddy - who was declared legally dead in 1999,
nine years after he was kidnapped and never heard from again - were
together so thrifty they were known to buy cut-price tickets to
shows.
Teddy built up Chinachem, mostly on real estate deals, and she
helped transform it after his disappearance into a US$3.5b empire
that owns more than 200 office towers and 400 companies around the
world.
Forbes magazine last year estimated her personal fortune at
US$4.2b, 154th in their ranking of the world's richest people. -
AFP/yy
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/268453/1/.html
