Wong—who joined the company
Wong—who joined the company in 1985 after graduating from Hong Kong Polytechnic University as a surveyor and rose through the ranks to become the CEO six years ago—has earned a reputaaation for seizing opportunities and staying the course amid a crisis. At the turn of the millennium, between the Asian financial crisis and the 2003 SARS outbreak, he started rebuilding from scratch Hongkong Land’s residential property business, which it had divested in the 1980s. Underlying profit, its measure of income from ongoing businesses, rose 8% to $425 million, but the company expects it to drop “significantly” for the full year following pandemic-related construction delays. The developer’s stock has risen around 15% in the past 12 months as of Aug. 25, compared with declines of roughly 26% and 30% in rivals Henderson Land and New World Development, respectively, and an over 21% drop in the benchmark Hang...