Vincent Lo

Vincent LO Hong-shui GBS (born 1948) is the chairman of Hong Kong-based Shui On Group, a building-materials and construction firm. He graduated from the University of New South Wales, Australia, in 1969. Upon returning to Hong Kong, started business with the sum of HK$100,000 (US$16,700) borrowed from his father, a Hong Kong property tycoon.

In 1984, Lo began investing in Shanghai and built a hotel in partnership with the Shanghainese Communist Youth League. The Tiananmen Square crisis caused occupancy to plunge, and the league could not repay its construction loan. Lo assisted the league in dealing with the loan: Han Zheng was the Youth League secretary at the time, and is now mayor of Shanghai.

In association with Xu Kuangdi, a former Shanghai mayor, Han assisted Lo in gaining the right to develop a piece of land surrounding the hall where the Communist Party of China held its first meeting, now known as Xintiandi. The $170 million property development project is a 20,000 square meter complex of restaurants, bars and shops and is a prime entertainment spot in Shanghai.

In 1995, he bought his first cement plant in Chongqing, which has enabled the Shui On Group to become one of China's top three cement companies. Under Lo's direction, the Shui On Group is carrying out property development projects in other Chinese cities, such as Wuhan, Dalian, Foshan and Hangzhou, as well as Chongqing.