Hong Kong, China: Hong Kong’s tycoons are worth a combined US$135 billion ($191 billion), with many of its wealthiest people boosting their fortunes from investments on the Chinese mainland, Forbes said Thursday.
   
The top 40 richest people have added US$82 billion to their wealth over the past year, much of it due to a stock market recovery and soaring property prices in Hong Kong and China.
   
Li Ka-shing, the 81-year-old head of conglomerate Cheung Kong Holdings, was once again the financial hub’s richest person with a US$21.3 billion fortune, according to the annual list compiled by Forbes business magazine.
   
Forbes in November ranked Li as the 16th wealthiest person in the world when his net worth was just US$16.2 billion.
   
Li had fared particularly well from Hong Kong’s soaring property prices.
   
He was the only one of the city’s tycoons to make the top 25 world ranking list, which placed Microsoft founder Bill Gates as the globe’s richest person with a US$40 billion fortune.
   
Li’s son Richard was in 26th on the Hong Kong list with US$1.3 billion dollars.
   
Henderson Land chief Lee Shau-kee, 82, grabbed second spot with US$19 billion owing to his company’s soaring share price, the magazine said.
   
Following were property giants the Kwok family at US$17 billion, developer Cheng Yu-tung with seven billion dollars, and real estate magnate Joseph Lau at six billion US dollars, the magazine said.
   
Macau casino tycoon Stanley Ho, 88, took 17th spot with a US$2.1 billion fortune.
   
Twenty-four people on the list bumped their net worth by at least 50 percent from a year ago and not one grew poorer, Forbes said.
   
The only woman on the list is Pong Hong Siu Chu, ranked 34th with a net worth of one billion US dollars.

The 88-year-old co-founded Hong Kong’s Shiu Wing Steel with late husband Pong Ding Yuen.
   
Forbes said it compiled its list based on shareholding and financial information gleaned from stock exchanges, analysts and the tycoons themselves.
   
The combined wealth of all 40 tycoons falls short of the record US$179 billion treasure chest the magazine recorded in 2008.