By Donny Kwok and Farah Master
MACAU/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Macau casino magnate Stanley Ho has sued family members in a bid to recover billions of dollars of assets in another bizarre U-turn to a feud over the ailing tycoon's empire.
Ho, chairman of Macau's biggest casino operator, SJM Holdings, hours earlier had gone on television to say he would not sue and that he wanted to resolve the matter privately with his family.
The latest move in the zig-zag tussle for the 89-year-old tycoon's billions of dollars of assets suggests an escalating scramble between factions of Ho's family, which includes four wives and at least 17 children.
Ho's lawyer, Gordon Oldham, said he had filed a court claim on Ho's behalf against the children, including Pansy and Lawrence Ho, other relatives and companies, late on Wednesday.
A copy of the court claim filed at Hong Kong's High Court obtained by Reuters said Ho was suing his third wife and the five children of his second wife for issuing new shares in Lanceford, the main holding company for Ho's interest in SJM, without his consent, effectively diluting Ho's stake to nothing.
The writ, signed by Ho, sought a reversal of the transaction and a declaration that the "shares were improperly and unlawfully allotted" while seeking an injunction to "restrain each of them" from making further share allotments or disposals.
"Regarding his statement on television, this was not his sentiment. He wants to continue. He is trying to get his wealth back," Oldham told Reuters in a telephone interview.
"He had been pressurised into making that statement."
For centuries a sleepy Portuguese outpost down the South China coast from bustling financial hub Hong Kong, Macau made gambling its business in a region where most betting has long been illegal. It reverted to Chinese rule in 1999, two years after Hong Kong.
Ho was granted a casino monopoly in the early 1960s and his company remains dominant even though the monopoly came to an end in 2002, opening the way to a flood of Las Vegas operators who have turned the enclave into the world's biggest gambling market, eclipsing even Las Vegas.
FAMILY FEUD
Ho, who underwent brain surgery in 2009, appeared calm during his televised comments on Wednesday, but his voice was weak and slurred as he read from a cue card to appeal for harmony within his family.
Analysts say the tussle over Ho's fortune may have been triggered by a move to pave the way for an orderly succession.
Last month, Ho's fourth wife, Angela Leong, a former dance teacher who has five children, was given a 7.03 percent stake by Ho in his gambling flagship company SJM, taking her shareholding up to 7.63 percent to make her the second-largest single shareholder.
Leong is the managing director of SJM, where she plays a key day-to-day role, but has not received any assets in the recent share transaction.
Some analysts say the gift of shares to Leong may have upset rival branches of Ho's clan under his second wife, Lucina Laam, and third wife, Ina Chan un-Chan, leading to the latest disputed asset transfer.
The restructuring in effect bolstered the third wife's stake in SJM to 8.9 percent while the second wife's five children plus Shun Tak Holdings' interest, now have effective control of about 15 percent of SJM.
"BUSINESS AS USUAL"
Pansy Ho, a daughter of the second wife, is managing director and a major shareholder of property to transport conglomerate Shun Tak.
Adding spice was a plea from Angela Ho, a daughter of Ho's late first wife, Clementine Leitao, who said she couldn't believe her father would leave nothing to her mother's family.
"Her connections in Portugal and standing in Macau society were a big factor for my father winning the gambling monopoly in 1961," she was quoted as saying in a statement by the South China Morning Post.
A press conference was called by Angela Ho in Macau but after keeping reporters waiting for hours, she didn't show up, citing an asthma attack, witnesses said.
Oldham, who said the family was now discussing matters, said late on Thursday that "everything is in a holding pattern."
The back and forth between the octogenarian and his family has amplified concern over succession plans and rattled investors.
Shares in SJM Holdings, Macau's largest casino operator, plunged as much as 8.8 percent on Wednesday on fears the dispute would hurt the $10 billion company.
SJM shares fell another 3 percent on Thursday, with the firm having lost 11.6 percent this week, stripping a total of $1.17 billion from the company's market value.
Even so, analysts said the firm's solid management including veteran CEO Ambrose So were expected to steer a steady course, and with SJM still dominating Macau's booming casino landscape with a third of the market.
"In the very near term I think it's business as usual at the SJM level. It is kind of in autopilot mode," said Gabriel Chan, an analyst at Credit Suisse. "Unless what is going on will change things at the SJM management level, things seem to be okay in the near term. But of course if there is a change at the senior or top level, well no one knows."
At Ho's glitzy New Lisboa Casino, shaped like a giant golden lotus and popular with hordes of mainland Chinese gamblers, it was business as usual with punters giving little thought to the dynastic feud.
"We don't care actually," said an elderly couple in their 60s surnamed So. "Actually we're only here to win money."
(Additional reporting by Alison Leung, Writing by James Pomfret; Editing by Nick Macfie)
