Hysan Development

Hysan Development Company Limited is a Hong Kong property investment, management and development company that is listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. The company was formed in Hong Kong in 1923, when businessman Lee Hysan acquired plots of land in East Point, now known as Causeway Bay, Hong Kong Island. On 30 April 1928, Hysan, who was aged 48–49, was killed. His descendant expanded the plots of land into a business empire. Today, Hysan is said to be the largest commercial landlord in the Causeway Bay area.

The predecessor of the company began when Lee Hysan incorporated Lee Hysan Estate Co., Ltd. , acquiring the land lease (crown lease) on Jardine's Hill, Hong Kong Island, in 1923 and other land leases around nearby East Point; which is now known as Causeway Bay. Before his death in 1928, Lee had distributed the most of the shares of Lee Hysan Estate to his wife, concubines, children and relatives in 1925. The shares he retained, 1/5 of the share capital, was inherited by his wife. East Point in colonial times contained mostly residential areas, with some offices dedicated to a British trading company. The development of the Jardine's Hill property into an entertainment ground—the modern day Lee Garden—and the following construction of the Lee Theatre as a Chinese opera venue set the trend for the continual redevelopment of Causeway Bay.

Hysan Development was incorporated on 20 October 1970 as Hennessy Development Company Limited (unofficial translation appeared in Chinese media as or ) It was said to acquire a land lease (leasehold of Crown land) from the parent company Lee Hysan Estate in 1971 to re develop into 興利中心 in Hennessy Road , which was demolished in 2010s for another re development. In 1973, the company became an unlisted public limited company, selling 25% of its shares to the general public. 大昌集團 was a minority shareholder of Hysan Development. The Chinese language media also reported another unofficial translation of the company name Hysan Development, as
It was said the company acquired three more sister companies from its parent company; these were Leighton , Sunning and Avenue respectively in the 1970s. After it became a listed company, Hysan Development acquired more land leases from the family members of Lee Hysan and from the family owned company Lee Hysan Estate in 1980s to 1990s for re development. These included a land lease on 74–86 Kennedy Road, now known as Bamboo Grove and Lee Gardens Hotel into Lee Theatre Plaza and Lee Garden One respectively. It was reported that 74–86 Kennedy Road was the former location of the Lee family mansion, for which a building plan for another potential re development was approved in 2017. The company also acquired some properties in 恩平道 and re developed it into Lee Garden Two (called Caroline Centre at that time) in the early 1990s. At the same time, the company issued 393.7 million new shares for HK$1.25 each, equal to 10% of the total share capital, to the Lee family. The event occurred right before the Black Monday crash in the same year. In 1988, a scandal regarding the listing of those new shares of Hysan and other listed companies not connected to Hysan was exposed. It was alleged that a securities brokerage firm had bribed Ronald Li, chairman of the exchange, as an incentive for approval. Both the Lee and Li families were considered two of the four big families of the colonial era, which were the social elites that formed a network of collaboration. In 1991, Hysan Development announced they were negotiating to sell their residential portfolio Garden Terrace in the Mid Levels. At the same time, they also developed Tanner Garden in North Point as a for sale portfolio, According to another columnist, Hysan Development owned 30% stake in the Tanner Garden project. Hysan Place was one of Hysan Developments' re development projects of the 2010s; the site was formerly known as Hennessy Centre. It was opened in 2012 and comprises 15 levels of office space and 17 floors of retail outlets, totalling Hysan Place achieved pre certification at the Platinum level for the United States Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (USGBC LEED), The re development also caused a minor controversy; Sunning Plaza, which was set to be demolished in 2013 to make way for Lee Garden Three, was designed by architect I. M. Pei and was considered an oasis in the business district by some citizens. In 2016, Hysan partnered with HKR International to form a joint venture called Strongbod Limited, which won a tender to buy two neighbouring residential land leases in Tai Po from the government. Named Villa Lucca.

Hysan Development shares are listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. and was the site of Hennessy Centre and Mitsukoshi department store

Six of the complexes were partially or entirely on a land lease called Inland Lot No.29, According to a columnist, if those 999 year land leases were not revised, they had a very low government rent payable to the government in the modern day standard. Hysan Developments is known for suing the Hong Kong government in civil court. Despite the height of the building structure above sea level, which was not restricted by the terms in the land lease but by plot ratio, the Town Planning Board introduced new height restrictions in their draft Outline Zoning Plans (OZPs) of the Wan Chai and Causeway Bay areas, causing a potential decrease in re development values of the area. Public consultations on height restriction was started in 2000. Those policies were interpreted as the continuation of the policy to protect the ridge line of Hong Kong Island from high rise buildings. Hysan sued the government, quoting clause in the Hong Kong Basic Law on protecting private property rights as rationale, and after losing the case in the High Court, the company appealed the result at the Court of Final Appeal, which referred the case back to the Town Planning Board in 2016. Eventually, the draft OZP was revised again, announced in January 2018, approved in September 2018; the media concluded the revisions would benefit Hysan and other developers that own properties in that area. The former Hysan properties Sunning Plaza and Sunning Court were demolished for Lee Garden Three. The site in Tai Po was under construction.

Hysan Development was incorporated in 1970, while its predecessor and the largest direct shareholder, Hysan Estates Limited—formerly known as Lee Hysan Estate Company Limited—was incorporated in 1923. and activist David Webb, the latter was a Jersey incorporated company. Lee Hysan Company Limited is believed to be controlled by members of 利希慎家族. Despite being a family business, as of 1981, the company also had non Lee directors such as Kwok Tak seng of Sun Hung Kai Properties, Geoffrey Yeh of Hsin Chong, Chan Pun of Tai Cheung Holdings and Hu Fa kuang on the board. after he left the government in late 1980s. Akers Jones later became an independent non executive chairman of Hysan until he was replaced by Irene Lee in 2011. As of December 2017, out of nine directors of the board, four were independent non executive directors, for example Lawrence Lau. While members of Lee family took four of the remaining seats, the last seat was occupied by Hans Michael Jebsen, who is also a business partner of the company in 利園二期, which is incorporated as Barrowgate Limited, as a minority shareholder. Three of the four directors from Lee families were also the directors of Hysan Estates and Lee Hysan Co. Ltd. The executive chairman Irene Lee, who is not a director of the parent companies, is the sister of Anthony Lee, another director. They also served as non executive directors on other companies in which the Lee family and Hysan Development had invested, such as Cathay Pacific Airways (Irene Lee as independent director) and TVB (Anthony Lee). While Lee Chien had served as a director of Swire Pacific, Swire Pacific and Cathay Pacific Airways were part of the Hong Kong real estate conglomerate Swire Group.