Sabrina Ho looks to Macau art fairs and auctions to diversify economy faraway from casinos
As pressure grows on Macau to find new options for revenue, scion of casino dynasty imagines a different future for your other SAR
Sabrina Ho Chiu-yeng is performing what she could to assist Macau diversify. The 26-year-old daughter of Stanley Ho Hung-sun might be more well known for gracing society and entertainment pages, in January she organised the first Macau sales by China’s state-owned Poly Auction and also in November held her very own annual hotel art fair, having already launched an exhibition to promote the job of young art graduates in September.
“Macau is evolving,” she tells The Collector. “We don’t want to rely just on the gaming industry. We would like more families into the future in charge of holidays, you want to boost our cultural and artistic industries.”
It is a politically correct view for your daughter of a casino magnate. Macau is in the cross hairs of Beijing’s fight against corruption and capital outflow. The central government started urging the location to give up its addiction to the gaming sector, the taxes that pay for most public expenditures, back during the boom years, when the “build it and they’ll come” mentality ruled the casino industry. Today, mainland policies to discourage high rollers along with a slowing economy have risen pressure to find new revenues.
Fundamental change may be slow into the future. Five casinos have opened since 2012 and much more are stored on the way, including two from branches with 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 Stanley ho daughter‘s half-sister Pansy Ho Chiu-king.
So are Sabrina’s cultural endeavours all just a bit of soft public relations for your clan?
Well, China’s biggest auction house is treating her seriously, and hopes her youthful energy and family connections might help it break into a brand new and wealthy market where no international house includes a presence. Inturn, Ho says, sherrrd like the auctions to assist attract tourists as well as perhaps let the city’s 600,000 residents to build up really an interest in culture. Their bond, called Poly Auction Macau, is 51 per-cent belonging to Poly and the rest by Ho’s company, Chiu Yeng Culture.
Ho grew up in the middle of art and other collectables belonging to her parents but she is a novice towards the auctions business. After graduating having an arts degree through the University of Hong Kong, in 2013, she done the branding and marketing side with the family’s hotel and property businesses. “But I prefer art and I asked Poly basically will work part-time within their Hong Kong office, to find out about the auction world,” she says.
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