On August 15, the “Vietnam Tesla” Vinfast successfully landed on Nasdaq. On the first day of listing, the stock price soared by more than 250, and the market value once exceeded 86 billion US dollars. The company’s founder and Vietnam’s richest man, Fan Ri Wang, was worth 39 billion US dollars to 44.3 billion US dollars a day.
On August 22, Vinfast continued its ferocious rally, rising more than 108 per cent in intraday trading, with a market capitalization of more than $100 billion at one point, making it the third-largest car company in the world after Tesla and Toyota.
At the same time, Vinfast backdoor company, Black Spade Acquisition (Spade Acquisition), surfaced. The company is a big part of Melco International’s Black Spade Capital (Spade Capital), which is the family office of Macau’s gambling king’s son, He Youlong.
# Spades Capital
# Gambling King II’s First Family Office
Spade Capital is the family office where Melco International Chairman He Youlong manages his private investment. It is also the first family office founded by the second generation of gambling king. It was established in 2017 and is headquartered in Hong Kong.
Spade Capital operates a global portfolio. Including stocks (SPAC and pre-IPO), bonds, real estate, medical technology, cultural industry, green energy, etc., has invested in 51 credit card, Blued, exploration, PP car rental, bean fruit network and other leading enterprises in many vertical fields.
In 2018, Spade Capital issued 2 billion MOP bonds, becoming Macau’s first MOP-denominated bond issuer. In 2019, China Resources Power established a joint venture with China Resources Spade New Energy Co., Ltd. to lay out the new energy business of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. In 2021, Spade Capital acquired Hong Kong’s largest professional medical scanning diagnostic group, Zhuozhi Medical, and invested in My Platform, a medical pulse platform for Hong Kong medical technology enterprises.
At the same time, Spade Capital also manages He Youlong’s equity assets of about HK $108 billion in Aoneng Construction, earning a return of at least 23 times. At the end of 2021, Spade Capital had an average management size of not less than HK $8 billion over the past three years.
In addition, spades capital actively layout SPAC. SPAC, a special purpose acquisition company, also known as a “bad check company”, is a way to go public overseas. The Spade Acquisition, a subsidiary of SPAC, was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in July 2021 and raised approximately $0.15 billion million, focusing on technology, lifestyle brands, products or services and entertainment media.
The spade acquisition is expected to be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange after the listing of the spade acquisition and the Vietnamese electric car vinfast. According to SPAC rules, the promoter makes a small contribution, typically 3%-5% of the amount raised, and if the merger is successful, the SPAC promoter can get 25% of the equity, which is a considerable return.
Spade Capital’s other SPAC company, Black Spade Asia Acquisition Co (Spade Asia), submitted a form to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in March 2022, focusing on entertainment and lifestyle, and is not yet listed.
Spade Capital has also entered the mainland private equity market. One Peach Private Equity Fund (Shanghai), after a year and a half of operation, suddenly canceled in January 2023, during which no private equity products were registered. In March, Yitao Private Equity announced that it had completed another filing, with the business type being QDLP and other pilot institutions.
# “Little King of Gamblers”
# Invisible family heir?
Ho, 46, is the oldest son of the late Macau gambling king Stanley Ho. He Youlong once had an elder brother, He Youguang, the eldest son of the big house. He Youguang was trained as a successor before he died in a car accident.
He Youlong was relatively marginalized. He moved to Canada with his mother Lan Qiongying at the age of 4. His relationship with his father was not close, but it also shaped his unique temperament of avoiding family struggles and having more opportunities for independent investment and independent management.
He Youlong is the youngest son of Erfang. He has four sisters with his mother, He Chaoqiong, He Chaofeng, He Chaoqi and He Chaoyi. In 2022, Macao’s gambling cards were reshuffled. The successor of the gambling king, He Chaoqiong, led the second generation of the family to hold three gambling cards, including He Chaoqiong’s MGM, He Chaofeng’s Australian Entertainment, and He Youlong’s Melco.
The second house, who has three gambling cards, is the biggest winner in the “infighting” of the gambling king family, and the eldest daughter He Chaoqiong’s position as a family member is also increasingly consolidated.
Unlike other family members who are frequently seen in the newspapers, He Youlong is unusually low-key. After graduating from the School of Business Sciences of the University of Toronto in Canada in 1999, He did not directly enter the family business, but successively worked in financial companies such as Citibank and Jardine Fleming Securities.
In 2000, He Youlong married Luo Xiuyin, granddaughter of Luo Guixiang, founder of Vitasoy in Hong Kong. The two were childhood sweethearts, Qin Se and Ming. Because of his weakness, after Luo Xiuyin gave birth to his daughter He Kaizi, He Youlongjian never gave birth again. Occasionally, the media photographed him carrying a bag to go shopping with his wife and daughter. Luo Xiuyin became the “best-lived rich woman” in the circle “.
In 2001, He Youlong entered the list of successors. Stanley Ho handed over Melco International, which had been losing money for many years, to He Youlong. In just three years, He Youlong turned it into a profit, and the market share once surpassed his father’s old and new lisboa.
In 2006, He Youlong officially took over the palm of Melco International from his father and became the chairman and chief executive officer of Melco International. In the same year, He Youlong, together with the Australian gambling king, bought the secondary card held by his father’s competitor, Wynn Macau, for 0.9 billion US dollars, and became one of the “six major players” in Macau. The name of “Little Gambling King” spread from then on.
Also in December 2006, He Youlong led Melco Boa Entertainment to go public in the United States, raising more than US $2 billion, creating the largest gambling stock IPO at that time. This year, he was 29 years old.
In 2023, He Youlong ranked 46th in Forbes China Hong Kong Rich 2023 with a net worth of 1.4 billion US dollars.
* Intercepted 2023 Forbes China Hong Kong Rich List *
Today is different from the past. Although the He family occupies half of Macau’s gambling, the most beautiful era has passed and the income is not as good as before.
Since taking the helm of Melco International, He Youlong has begun to diversify his layout. On the one hand, it has built a number of cultural and tourism projects around Melco International, including an investment of 20 billion yuan to build “city of dreams”, the largest leisure complex in Asia, and an investment of 3.2 billion US dollars to build “Melco Film Exchange”, Macao’s first large-scale comprehensive resort with film as its theme.
On the other hand, the establishment of a personal family office in Hong Kong, Spade Capital, responsible for private wealth and asset management.
In the eyes of outsiders, He Chaoqiong is the family’s keeper, while He Youlong is more like an entrepreneur in the second generation, bringing more possibilities to the Lao Qian family, and is the “most competitive” son of the gambling king.
No wonder, there are many rumors in the market that He Youlong is the real heir of the gambling king family. He Chaoqiong, who has never remarried and has no children, only temporarily keeps the palm seal for his younger brother. When the time is ripe, he will naturally hand it over to him.
But no matter how the future changes, fate is always in their own hands. Through the family office, He Youlong has created a “safe haven” for wealth creation and wealth keeping independent of the family. In addition, He Youlong, who is low-key and pragmatic, happily married and good at management, may get more than other family members who are vying for each other……
(Source: Taiyi Holding Group)
