Sabrina Ho looks to Macau art fairs and auctions to diversify economy far from casinos
As pressure grows on Macau to find new reasons for revenue, scion of casino dynasty imagines a different future to the other SAR
Sabrina Ho Chiu-yeng has been doing what she could to aid Macau diversify. The 26-year-old daughter of Stanley Ho Hung-sun could be also known for gracing society and entertainment pages, in January she organised the 1st Macau sales by China’s state-owned Poly Auction and then in November held her own annual hotel art fair, having already launched an exhibit to market the project of young art graduates in September.
“Macau is evolving,” she tells The Collector. “We don’t want to rely just for the gaming industry. We wish more families in the future here for holidays, you want to boost our cultural and artistic industries.”
This is a politically correct view to the daughter of your casino magnate. Macau influences cross hairs of Beijing’s fight against corruption and capital outflow. The central government started urging the city to give up its dependence on the gaming sector, the taxes from where buy most public expenditures, back throughout the boom years, in the event the “build it and they can come” mentality ruled the casino industry. Today, mainland policies to discourage high rollers along with a slowing economy have raised pressure to succeed to find new revenues.
Fundamental change has become slow in the future. Five casinos have opened since 2012 plus much more take presctiption the way in which, including two from branches of the Ho empire – the Grand Lisboa Palace, led by Ho’s mother, Angela Leong On-kei (Stanley’s so-called “fourth wife”), and MGM Cotai, headed by Sabrina ho chiu yeng‘s half-sister Pansy Ho Chiu-king.
So may be Sabrina’s cultural endeavours all just a bit of soft public relations to the clan?
Well, China’s biggest auction house is treating her seriously, and hopes her youthful energy and family connections can help it enter a whole new and wealthy market where no international house features a presence. Inturn, Ho says, she wants the auctions to aid attract tourists and possibly encourage the city’s 600,000 residents to produce a greater portion of an interest in culture. The partnership, called Poly Auction Macau, is 51 % of Poly and also the rest by Ho’s company, Chiu Yeng Culture.
Ho grew up encompassed by art and other collectables of her parents but she actually is a novice for the auctions business. After graduating with an arts degree through the University of Hong Kong, in 2013, she done the branding and marketing side of the family’s hotel and property businesses. “But I prefer art and I asked Poly easily can perform part time at their Hong Kong office, to discover the auction world,” she says.
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