The story
Predecessor
The predecessor of the company began when Lee Hysan incorporated Lee Hysan Estate Co., Ltd. (Chinese: 利希慎置業), acquiring the land lease (crown lease) on Jardine's Hill, Hong Kong Island, in 1923 and other land leases around nearby East Point; which is now known as Causeway Bay.
Before his death in 1928, Lee had distributed most of the shares of Lee Hysan Estate to his wife, concubines, children and relatives in 1925. The shares he retained, 1/5 of the share capital, was inherited by his wife.
East Point in colonial times contained mostly residential areas, with some offices dedicated to a British trading company. The development of the Jardine's Hill property into an entertainment ground—the modern day Lee Garden—and the following construction of the Lee Theatre as a Chinese opera venue set the trend for the continual redevelopment of Causeway Bay.
Hysan Development
Hysan Development was incorporated on 20 October 1970 as Hennessy Development Company Limited (unofficial translation appeared in Chinese media as 軒尼詩興業有限公司 or 興利建設有限公司) It was said to acquire a land lease (leasehold of Crown land) from the parent company Lee Hysan Estate in 1971 to re-develop into Hennessy Centre (Chinese: 興利中心) in Hennessy Road (Chinese: 軒尼詩道), which was demolished in 2010s for another re-development. In 1973, the company became an unlisted public limited company, selling 25% of its shares to the general public. Tai Cheung Holdings was a minority shareholder of Hysan Development. The company was listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (Chinese: 香港聯合交易所; lit. 'Hong Kong united exchange') in September 1981. The Chinese-language media also reported another unofficial translation of the company name Hysan Development, as 希慎發展有限公司.
It was said the company acquired three more sister companies from its parent company; these were Leighton (Chinese: 禮頓發展), Sunning (Chinese: 新寧地產) and Avenue respectively in the 1970s. The company also owned a subsidiary called "Kwong Wan". Hysan Development and the four subsidiaries owned five building complexes at that time, namely Hennessy Centre, Leighton Centre, One Hysan Avenue, Sunning Court and Sunning Plaza.
After it became a listed company, Hysan Development acquired more land leases from the family members of Lee Hysan and from the family-owned company Lee Hysan Estate in 1980s to 1990s for re-development. These included a land lease on 74–86 Kennedy Road, now known as Bamboo Grove and the re-development of Lee Theatre and Lee Gardens Hotel into Lee Theatre Plaza and Lee Garden One respectively. It was reported that 74–86 Kennedy Road was the former location of the Lee family mansion, for which a building plan for another potential re-development was approved in 2017.
The company also acquired some properties in Yun Ping Road and re-developed it into Lee Garden Two (called Caroline Centre at that time) in the early 1990s.
In 1987, the company agreed to acquire 5% shares of the soon-to-be-listed HKR International. At the same time, the company issued 393.7 million new shares for HK$1.25 each, equal to 10% of the total share capital, to the Lee family. The Lee family sold the same number of shares to third parties. The event occurred right before the Black Monday crash in the same year.
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In 1988, a scandal regarding the listing of those new shares of Hysan and other listed companies not connected to Hysan was exposed. It was alleged that a securities brokerage firm had bribed Ronald Li, chairman of the exchange, as an incentive for approval. Both the Lee and Li families were considered two of the four big families of the colonial era, which were the social elites that formed a network of collaboration.
In 1991, Hysan Development announced they were negotiating to sell their residential portfolio Garden Terrace in the Mid-Levels. At the same time, they also developed Tanner Garden in North Point as a for-sale portfolio, as well as owning 5% shares of Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways as an investment. According to another columnist, Hysan Development owned 30% stake in the Tanner Garden project.
Hysan Place was one of Hysan Developments' re-development projects of the 2010s; the site was formerly known as Hennessy Centre. It was opened in 2012 and comprises 15 levels of office space and 17 floors of retail outlets, totalling 710,000 square feet (66,000 m2). Hysan Place achieved pre-certification at the Platinum level for the United States Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (USGBC LEED), and the Hong Kong Building Environmental Assessment Method (HK BEAM) standard.
Another re-development, Lee Garden Three, was completed in 2017. The re-development also caused a minor controversy; Sunning Plaza, which was set to be demolished in 2013 to make way for Lee Garden Three, was designed by architect I. M. Pei and was considered an oasis in the business district by some citizens. It was only used for 31 years.
In 2016, Hysan partnered with HKR International to form a joint venture called Strongbod Limited, which won a tender to buy two neighbouring residential land leases in Tai Po from the government. Named Villa Lucca.
From Wikipedia’s article on Hysan Development, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5