【Hong Kong】Is Hong Kong Tycoon Joseph Lau Really at the End of His Rope? Once Spent HKD 230 Million on a Blue Diamond for His Daughter, Now Selling at a 20% Discount

Recently, Hong Kong billionaire Joseph Lau has once again become a hot topic online, not because of his “ex-girlfriends” or his “luxury car collection,” but because of a “top-tier blue diamond” he gifted to his daughter eleven years ago.
In 2014, Joseph Lau spent HKD 230 million to purchase this blue diamond for his eldest daughter, Zoe, and named it “The Zoe Diamond” after her. This not only set a new record for the total price of a blue diamond auction at the time but also solidified Lau’s reputation as a genuine “daughter spoiler.”
However, this diamond recently reappeared on the auction market, with a final transaction price of only HKD 180 million. This represents a discount of nearly 20% from the original price, leading many netizens to speculate: Is Big Lau (Joseph Lau) really at the end of his rope, having to “sell off” even his daughter’s diamond at a low price?

In the business world, most people think of Joseph Lau as a “stock market raider.”
In 1985, Lau withdrew from the board of “Evergo Holdings” due to disagreements with partners and sold his shares. When the company’s stock price plummeted from HKD 4 to HKD 0.7, he seized the opportunity to buy back a large number of shares. This move not only allowed him to gain full control of Evergo Holdings but also netted him a profit of HKD 200 million.
Through similar low-buy, high-sell operations, he amassed nearly HKD 10 billion in just three years. By the age of 36, Lau was already the actual controller of five listed companies. In 2020, his net worth reached USD 16.9 billion, ranking fourth on the Forbes Hong Kong Rich List.

With a fortune in the billions, Lau certainly did not hold back on spending. His annual consumption at the “Fook Lam Moon” restaurant alone reached HKD 4 million. He would buy trousers costing HKD 300,000 by the dozen, and private jets worth over a billion Hong Kong dollars were purchased in pairs.
This was nothing compared to his generosity towards his “girlfriends.” Upon first meeting actress Carina Lau, he gifted her a property worth HKD 80 million. To provide storage space for her extensive clothing collection, he spent HKD 20 million on a semi-mountain villa. He even paid off the hundreds of millions in gambling debts owed by actress Ada Choi’s mother without batting an eye. It must be said that the young Joseph Lau was truly extravagant.

However, Lau’s path in recent years has not been smooth. His unrestrained lifestyle in his youth took an early toll on his health. In 2016, a sudden acute kidney failure caused him to collapse. At 68, to “stay alive,” Lau spent HKD 300 million to get a new kidney. Hong Kong media later revealed his daily health maintenance regimen, with a single pill costing over HKD 500,000.
Just last year, he appeared with his wife at a concert by Eason Chan, full of energy, dancing and clapping, a stark contrast to the man who previously relied on a wheelchair. This shocked many netizens at the time, with many speculating that he had used some anti-aging “black technology.” After all, several years ago, this technology was already prevalent abroad. Singaporean scientists had verified in experiments on 42 volunteers aged 60 and above that a component called “Ca-AKG” caused a biological age difference of 8 years over 7 months.
In recent years, such “black technology” products have become increasingly common in the domestic market. A professor from the Chinese Academy of Sciences has already commercialized the aforementioned experimental results into an anti-aging supplement brand, “Genad/Revive/New,” launching it in the market. Although Lau has not publicly responded to these claims, fellow Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing has shown great interest in such products. Not only has he introduced the substance into his Watsons stores in Hong Kong, but he has also publicly claimed that the anti-aging supplement makes him “feel like he’s back to 20.” As of November this year, Genad/Revive/New has already entered over 500 Watsons stores globally.

Not only that, but even the wealth and capital that Joseph Lau prided himself on have been shrinking in recent years. Due to the market crash, the value of his heavily held HKD 24 billion in stocks plummeted to HKD 230 million. The HKD 20.5 billion he had accumulated through Chinese Estates Holdings over the years has now dwindled to less than HKD 3 billion.
In the latest Forbes Hong Kong Rich List, Lau’s ranking has dropped to eighth place, with his wealth decreasing by USD 3.4 billion (approximately RMB 23.9 billion) compared to the previous year. Joseph Lau, who once made fortunes by trading stocks, now has no choice but to sell assets to fill the financial gap.

Famous paintings, famous wines, diamonds—what will Joseph Lau sell next?
Since 2021, Lau has begun selling famous paintings he has collected for many years, with single transaction amounts far exceeding HKD 50 million. In two famous painting auctions this year, he directly cashed out HKD 110 million.
In addition to famous paintings, famous wines collected for over twenty years have also become his targets for cashing out. In 2023, Lau specifically held an auction for his collection, with a total transaction amount reaching HKD 25.22 million.

From famous paintings to famous wines, from one auction a year to two in half a year, Lau’s pace of cashing out is becoming increasingly urgent. Now that even the diamond gifted to his daughter is up for sale, what will Big Lau have to sell next to raise cash?