- From: The Cairns Post
- December 21, 2013
This is an interesting article by Nick Dalton especially the area that has been marked in red, which way is this meant to be read?.
WHEN Tony and Justin Fung arrived in Cairns to expand their business empire, little was known about the billionaire family.
While the people behind the proposed $4.2 billion Aquis Great Barrier Reef Resort remain intensely private, The Weekend Post can reveal a glimpse of their charmed lives.A high-profile investor from Hong Kong, Mr Fung Sr is a former champion go-kart racer who once raced against the late Formula One legend Ayrton Senna, a fan of golf, boats and planes and has a deep interest in Australian agriculture.
His son Justin has two degrees from universities in the US and loves fishing and basketball
While the Far North is set to swelter in 30-plus degrees and 65 per cent or more humidity on Christmas Day, the wealthy Fung family behind the proposed $4.2 billion Aquis mega-resort at Yorkeys Knob will be cooling off in Antarctica.
Hong Kong-based Tony Fung flew his family including Aquis chief executive Justin and other sons Jason and 12-year-old John to Chile to board their luxury expedition yacht Asteria for two weeks of cruising the waters of Antarctica.
PROPOSAL: What a new Aquis resort and casino development at Yorkeys Knob might look like. Pic. Supplied
Family is very important to Mr Fung Sr and Justin told The Weekend Post that families would be their target customers for the resort, which will include an international casino, nine luxury hotels with 3750 rooms, 1200 apartments, 135 villas, 13,500sq m of high-end retail shopping, an aquarium, two theatres, a 13ha lagoon, 65ha lake, 18-hole golf course, 25,000-seat sports stadium, 45,000sq m convention and exhibition centre and 1800 staff accommodation units.
He said the resort would be designed for entire families to enjoy and not just for men.
Mr Fung Jr said it would give Aquis a point of difference to casinos with integrated resorts in Singapore and Macau.
"Aquis will be for all the family to come to Australia and not only enjoy the facilities of the resort, but the natural attractions of the Great Barrier Reef and rainforests," he said.
FAMILY: Aquis Great Barrier Reef Resort Chief Executive Officer Justin Fung. Picture: Marc Mccormack
When The Cairns Post asked Hong Kong's South China Morning Post newspaper for photographs of the family, senior staff there said they had not heard of Tony Fung and the last picture they had of him on file was from 1996.
Mr Fung Sr is the billionaire scion of one of Hong Kong's best-known banking families and has dug into the economic fabric of Queensland.
He owns two luxury homes in the Noosa hinterland, a cattle farm at Mt Garnet west of Cairns, wagyu beef-breeding business at Innisfail and sugar cane plantation on the Atherton Tableland.
His substantial fortune was inherited from his father Fung King Hey, known as "the godfather of traders", a billionaire who was at one time the largest shareholder in the world's largest stock brokerage firm, Merrill Lynch.
He also founded Sun Hung Kai Securities.
Fung King Hey made his fortune in tandem with his two business partners, Kwok Tak Seng and Lee Shau Kee.
The partners were the best of friends and were widely known in China and Hong Kong as "the three musketeers".
Their children also became the best of friends.
Tony Fung started closely held stock trading firm Yu Ming Investments in 1996.
He served as chairman of SHKI Group, which was managed by Yu Ming until May 2008.
He is the younger brother of Thomas Fung Wing-fat,who moved to Canada in 1986 and built the Fairchild Group media company.
Staying in Hong Kong after his father's corporation was taken over by Arab banking interests in 1985, Tony Fung sold his remaining 25 per cent stock in SHK Finance and began building up Yu Ming Management Ltd, which consequently made him a billionaire.
He is an avid cook and loves scouring markets for fresh produce.
He has been through Cairns' fresh food markets, including Rusty's, many times to buy ingredients.
Mr Fung Sr is a former champion go-kart racer and competed against Ayrton Senna, though Senna lapped him plenty of times.
He loves his boats and planes, including the family yacht Asteria.
Mr Fung Sr has a passion for Australian agriculture and the fact that Australia is a major trading partner for China.
His properties focus on wagyu and grain-finished beef plus sugar cane.
He has a strong belief in "water rights" as a hugely important asset for Australia's future and believes Australia hugely undervalues the natural resource.
Mr Fung Sr loves golf and getting lessons from his staff on his own golf course at Noosa so he can go home and beat his mates in Hong Kong.
Justin Fung has spent all his career working for his father in the family businesses based in Hong Kong. He was educated in the United States and has two degrees: one a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in history, from Duke University; the other a law degree from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
Justin said that after graduating with the BA, he realised the degree was not going to be of much use for his father's real estate interests and went back to school to obtain the law degree over three years.
Since then he has worked for his father in Hong Kong until being appointed to oversee the development of Aquis, splitting his time between Cairns and the family business headquarters in Hong Kong.
The chief executive leases an apartment in the Harbour Lights building and the company has an office at Cairns Square.
Justin is single and enjoys fishing and basketball.
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