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Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited (SHKP) has long put its Building Homes with Heart belief into practice by proactively contributing to the community. The Group has been named a Caring Company for the 18th consecutive year, and 85 of its business units have earned the same recognition.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, SHKP has continued to care for and help the community, especially the underprivileged. In addition to providing subdivided unit households with rent subsidies to alleviate their financial burdens, SHKP donated about 320,000 surgical masks to the Hospital Authority and various social service organizations. To help shopping mall tenants affected by the pandemic, SHKP has provided rent reductions for several months in a row; the Group has also implemented a series of measures across its malls and offices to fight the pandemic.

Among the 85 SHKP business units named Caring Company, 51 were awarded the honour for the 10th or even 15th year with businesses ranging from shopping mall, property management to construction and hotel. The Group will continue to leverage its expertise and resources as a responsible corporate citizen while Building Homes with Heart and creating long-term value for society.

Over the years, SHKP has committed to supporting the less fortunate and young people through various initiatives, including Sports for Charity, the Building Homes with Heart Caring Initiative, the Modern Apprenticeship Programme, the Hong Kong X-Tech Startup Platform, the INDEX co-working space, and SHKP-Kwoks' Foundation scholarships.

Early this year, the Group and the Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui Welfare Council announced their cooperation in developing a large-scale transitional housing project, called United Court. Upon expected completion in early 2022, it will provide a comfortable home for 1,600 underprivileged families and ultimately benefit 5,000 families.

SHKP also encourages healthy and sustainable living, and exercise for good by staging the annual SHKP Vertical Run for Charity, as well as being the title and charity sponsor of the Sun Hung Kai Properties Hong Kong Cyclothon. To date, donations generated from these two events have supported more than 35 projects for children and youth development, benefitting over 100,000 people. Through the SHKP Reading Club, the Group promotes the joy of reading and holistic development among young people. An innovative online reading platform, Read For More, provides inspiring content to encourage the general public, especially young people, to enjoy reading and make it a habit. Also, the Read and Share programme is organized to provide a diverse range of activities for local primary and secondary schools to create a fun and joyful reading atmosphere.

The Caring Company Scheme, run by the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, aims to connect the business sector, the public and the social service sector, inspire corporate social responsibility, and promote partnerships among business and social service partners.

Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited (SHKP) is pleased to announce that Ping An Life Insurance group (Ping An Life) will become another long-term strategic investor, along with the Kwok Family Companies, in the office portion of the commercial project atop the High Speed Rail West Kowloon Station.

Ping An Life will purchase from SHKP and the Kwok Family Companies 25% and 5% of the interests in the project’s office portion at the prices of HK$9,394 million and HK$1,879 million, respectively. Upon completion of the transactions, the interests in the office portion will be owned by SHKP (50%), Ping An Life (30%), and the Kwok Family Companies (20%). The retail portion of the project will remain wholly owned by SHKP. 

In December 2019, the Kwok Family Companies became the first strategic partners to participate in the development of the office towers on the site. SHKP had indicated on a number of occasions in the past that the Group intended to invite other long term strategic investors as well.
SHKP Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Raymond Kwok, said, “We are delighted to welcome Ping An Life as a strategic investor in this project. Ping An Life is a leading and highly reputable life insurance company with a strong financial position. We share the same vision in that we both intend to hold this landmark project as a long-term investment, as testimony to our confidence in and commitment to the future of Hong Kong.”

“The presence of major strategic investors in this project should act as a catalyst in attracting more multinational corporations and leading financial institutions to move in, thus further strengthening the reputation and market position of the project and that of the adjacent International Commerce Centre (ICC) as a key business and finance hub both in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area,” Mr Kwok said.

The development of ICC, which has become an iconic commercial hub of Hong Kong over the past 10 years, showcases SHKP’s solid experience in West Kowloon. The new site, atop the High Speed Rail West Kowloon Station, being Hong Kong’s largest commercial land plot in recent years in terms of site area, is widely acclaimed for its strategic location. It is the city’s only transportation hub of four railway lines, sitting atop a High Speed Rail station and adjoining the Airport Express Line, the MTR Tung Chung Line and the West Rail Line. It offers convenient access to different districts in Hong Kong and major cities on the Mainland, along with excellent global connections via the Airport Express and the Hong Kong International Airport. All these unique advantages will help develop the site into an international integrated commercial landmark.

Upon completion, the project will generate excellent synergy with ICC and drive West Kowloon’s evolution into an integrated commercial, retail, cultural, entertainment and transportation hub, as well as a vital commercial core in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area.

The SHKP Reading Club, under Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP), is committed to promoting the joy of reading among young people. Recently, it enriched its free online reading platform, ‘Read For More’, and launched an online campaign, titled ‘Read at Home with You’, to provide continuous learning and reading opportunities during the school suspension period. The campaign will recruit students as ‘Read For More’ contributors, in order to showcase their creative works and inspire more people to develop a passion for reading. 

The SHKP Reading Club promotes happy reading in primary and secondary schools across Hong Kong through its Read & Share programme. This spirit has not abated despite the suspension of activities amid the school closure to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Since February, the SHKP Reading Club has beefed up the content of ‘Read For More’. For example, brand-new video clips in the ‘Bookshelves’ section were launched to recommend a variety of good books in a lively way. Writers Leong Monk-fung, Kevin Tong, Jayford and others have been invited to craft exclusive serial stories for binge-reading. In addition, the platform introduced feature articles, such as a ‘Poet’s Corner’, ‘Workplace Rookies’, and ‘Witty Quotes’, to make reading part of people’s daily lives. Since its launch early last year, ‘Read For More’ has provided the public with a down-to-earth and inspiring reading platform. It produced audio clips of excerpts from selected books, special features such as an exploration of ‘Architecture in Books’, and interviews with popular writers and celebrities, including local influencer Uncle Siu and high jump star Cecilia Yeung.

To encourage sharing of the reading experience, the SHKP Reading Club launched a special online campaign ‘Read at Home with You’ to recruit primary and secondary school students as ‘Read For More’ contributors. After reading a designated series of articles by ‘Read For More’, participants can creatively adapt the theme to craft their own works in the form of an article, video clip, or audio clip of book excerpts. Students whose works are selected by the editorial team and published on ‘Read For More’ will receive a HK$200 book coupon, and the primary and secondary schools with the highest participation will be awarded book coupons worth HK$2,000. Submissions to the ‘Read at Home with You’ campaign should be made before the closing date on 15 July 2020; there is no limit to the number of submissions or selections. All students in the schools participating in the SHKP Reading Club’s Read & Share programme are eligible for enrolment. Participants may take part as an individual or in teams (please visit ‘Read For More’ for details).

The SHKP Reading Club has partnered with the Hong Kong Aided Primary School Heads Association to organize the Read & Share programme since 2014. In past years, the programme has held 500 interesting interactive activities in 230 primary and secondary schools, and kept pace with the times to cater for the different needs of teachers regarding reading promotion at school using direct and flexible approaches. Primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong are welcome to join Read & Share and enjoy the activities free of charge.

About the SHKP Reading Club

SHKP believes in Building Homes with Heart while promoting reading and holistic development. The Group established the SHKP Reading Club in 2013 to consolidate its reading-related initiatives, such as seminars by renowned speakers and guided cultural tours, to inspire more people to enjoy reading and make it a habit. Those interested in becoming members are welcome to register for free at: www.shkpreadingclub.com.