Just a few days ago, Forbes released the "2024 Hong Kong, China Rich List", and the shortlisting of a female face made countless netizens shine.
Her name is Zhou Kaixuan, and she ranked 35th on the list with a net worth of $2.3 billion, becoming the "dark horse" on the list for the first time.
Compared with the female rich, she herself is more well-known as the "confidante" of Li Ka-shing, the former richest man in Asia.
For more than 30 years, Zhou Kaixuan has accompanied Li Ka-shing in a low-key manner, not only helping him make money, but also taking care of his life.
According to the news, the residence of the two is only a 5-minute drive away, and they often dine together and go shopping together.
has been with each other for decades, although Zhou Kaixuan and Li Ka-shing are not married, and Li has not given her any name, it is obvious that Li Ka-shing's career and life have been deeply bound to her.
What few people know is that the woman whose name is always shrouded in the halo of Li Ka-shing is seriously underestimated in her own ability.
As early as 2006, Zhou Kaixuan, who is still regarded as the "gossip heroine" in the Chinese world, has been named a strong woman in Asian business by the Wall Street Journal.
As she herself said:
"I am not an appendage of Li Ka-shing, but a completely independent individual. ”
It is worth mentioning that Li Ka-shing's many investments have been able to make a lot of money, largely thanks to Zhou Kaixuan.
Although Zhou Kaixuan was born in a relatively ordinary businessman family, she has been enrolled in prestigious schools with her grades since middle school.
When she was in middle school, she studied at Diocesan Girls' School, the first girls' school in Hong Kong, and her classmates were basically wealthy businessmen, and they were picked up and dropped off by a special car, only Zhou Kaixuan walked to and from school every time.
But these did not make Zhou Kaixuan feel inferior, on the contrary, she was more motivated and hardworking than anyone else.
During her time at the school, she learned to swim, hockey, and drama performances by participating in various club activities, and her social skills were extremely strong, and she also served as the student president.
In short, Zhou Kaixuan when he was a student was definitely a popular figure in the school.
During the holidays, most of the students were busy traveling, eating, drinking and having fun abroad, only Zhou Kaixuan ran to work part-time, and also worked as an intern DJ in Hong Kong TVB.
After the internship, in order to thank the leaders and colleagues for their care, Zhou Kaixuan invited them to a high-end private club for dinner at his own expense.
As for such a large amount of consumption, how the young Zhou Kaixuan undertook it, no one knows so far, maybe he emptied his part-time savings, or maybe his parents gave support.
According to the memories of the leaders and colleagues of the year, Zhou Kaixuan's bold payment at that time left a deep impression on everyone.
From this time on, it is enough to see that Zhou Kaixuan is quite talented in dealing with people, and he is very "open-minded" in order to accumulate contacts.
After graduating from high school, Zhou Kaixuan went to the University of New South Wales in Australia to continue his studies, and after graduation, he went to London, England to work, and soon used his Chinese identity to facilitate the first business in his life.
At that time, she not only negotiated a deal for the Terracotta Warriors and Horses exhibition in Xi'an for her British boss, but also stumbled upon a lucrative new business opportunity: selling domestic customized terracotta souvenirs to the United Kingdom.
In the end, the souvenir order was sold more than ten times higher than the original price.
This success not only allowed Zhou Kaixuan to earn the first large bonus in her life, but also made her aware of the current situation:
Compared with the overseas market that has become saturated, the domestic development prospects are broader.
Soon, Zhou Kaixuan resolutely quit his job and returned to Hong Kong.
At that time, Shi Nansheng, a well-known film manager, was gearing up to expand overseas markets and needed an assistant with an overseas life background.
At this time, Zhou Kaixuan's earlier accumulated contacts came in handy, and he met Shi Nansheng through recommendation, and successfully spread Shi Nansheng's film works to Europe.
Under the guidance of Shi Nansheng, Zhou Kaixuan successfully entered the upper social circle in Hong Kong and met Zhang Peiwei, the cousin of Tung Chee-hwa, the head of "OOCL".
Later, Zhou Kaixuan and Zhang Peiwei not only became good girlfriends, but also formed a company called "Victoria Harbour" together.
At that time, at the peak of Hong Kong's real estate development, cement was in high demand and rising prices, and Zhou Kaixuan, who had a keen sense of business, quickly invested in cement trading and made a lot of money.
After this battle, Tung Chee-hwa attached more and more importance to Zhou Kaixuan's ability, and in 1989 he made suggestions to Zhou Kaixuan:
"Your current business is all small fights, why don't you find a big project and we work together!!"
How?
In 1992, seeing that Hong Kong's real estate market was "too many monks and too little porridge", and the mainland economy began to take off, Hong Kong's major real estate developers turned their investment focus to the mainland.
At that time, OOCL also wanted a piece of the pie, so Tung Chee-hwa sent Zhou Kaixuan to Beijing to look for projects.
At that time, Zhou Kaixuan, who had no experience in real estate projects, had to use the most "stupid" way: wandering around the streets of Beijing and then looking for opportunities.
After some searching, Zhou Kaixuan finally took a fancy to a children's theater in Wangfujing.
However, after inquiring, I learned that if we wanted to develop this building, we must develop it as a whole together with the surrounding 10,000 square meters of land.
Zhou Kaixuan thought:
"Wealth and opportunity only come to the bold but cautious. ”
So, after careful consideration, she made a very crazy decision:
Directly contract all the land between Wangfujing and Dongdan "Golden Street" and "Silver Street", and then build it into "Oriental Plaza" in the future.
It is said that newborn calves are not afraid of tigers, and it is really not fake!
Think about it, it's 100,000 square meters.
Unexpectedly, Tung Chee-hwa not only supported Zhou Kaixuan's choice, but also did his best to help her find a partner who shared the risk.
This person is Li Ka-shing.
At that time, in order to persuade Li Ka-shing to contribute, Zhou Kaixuan prepared a lot of information in advance.
But it is said that Li Ka-shing only talked to Zhou Kaixuan for less than 5 minutes before deciding to invest $2 billion to cooperate with her.
Zhou Kaixuan also lived up to expectations, and completed the relocation of dozens of national, municipal and district units and more than 1,800 residents in just six months.
After that, Zhou Kaixuan was still repeatedly challenged, but in the end, she still settled all and spent 5 years to build the "Oriental Plaza".
The success of "Oriental Plaza" not only allowed Zhou Kaixuan to receive a remuneration of 400 million Hong Kong dollars, but also made her famous in the Hong Kong business community.
According to the memories of many luxury brands, on the day he got paid, Zhou Kaixuan visited all the shops in the most prosperous areas of Hong Kong, causing a sensation in Hong Kong.
After that, Tung Chee-hwa wanted to promote Zhou Kaixuan to the company's director, but Zhou Kaixuan refused.
Because she knows that real estate projects are not her passion, she wants to find new areas.
At that time, Zhou Kaixuan was 37 years old and Li Ka-shing was 70 years old.
Since then, she and Li Ka-shing have been complementing each other for decades, and have become each other's most trusted friends.
After the success of the project, Zhou Kaixuan gained further trust from Li Ka-shing, and she was able to get closer to Li Ka-shing's Cheung Kong Group.
At that time, it was the early stage of the rise of the Internet, so Zhou Kaixuan suggested that Li Ka-shing invest in the Internet.
However, Li Ka-shing has always been only interested in "industry", and he feels that he should not catch this trend when it comes to illusory things.
However, under Zhou Kaixuan's repeated persuasion, Li Ka-shing finally wavered and established TOM in 1999.
Zhou Kaixuan is the second largest shareholder, and she is personally responsible for all the big and small matters in TOM.
However, just a few months later, TOM was listed on the Growth Enterprise Market in Hong Kong, and hundreds of thousands of people rushed to buy it on the day of listing.
Zhou Kaixuan, who originally invested 300,000 Hong Kong dollars, soared to 12.7 billion Hong Kong dollars, and directly advanced to 10 billion female billionaires.
The battle of TOM not only proved Zhou Kaixuan's ability in the field of science and technology, but also helped Li Ka-shing make new adjustments in the industrial structure, which made Li Ka-shing trust and support Zhou Kaixuan even more.
In 2007, when Zhou Kaixuan again persuaded Li Ka-shing to invest in Facebook, which was barely profitable, Li Ka-shing did not hesitate to come up with $60 million.
Zhou Kaixuan naturally did not disappoint Li Ka-shing, and when Facebook went public in 2012, it directly increased Li Ka-shing's investment by 5 times.
Since then, Zhou Kaixuan has led the investment team to continue to emerge in the technology business industry, investing in more than 100 companies in total.
In 2013, she strongly recommended Li Ka-shing to invest in Zoom, which successfully helped him return to the richest man in Hong Kong.
From being unknown to becoming a hot venture capital queen to becoming Hong Kong's top richest man, Zhou Kaixuan first relied on his talent and courage.
Third, it relies on the resources obtained from Shi Nansheng, Zhang Peiwei, Tung Chee-hwa, and Li Ka-shing.
However, although Zhou Kaixuan is a rare talent, the most mentioned by the Hong Kong media is still the story of her relationship with Li Ka-shing.
According to reports, it is only a five-minute drive from Mr. Zhou's villa to Mr. Li's residence, and the two often eat together and go shopping together.
When asked how he got along with Li Ka-shing, Zhou Kaixuan just said lightly:
"Be as wise as a fox and as simple as a dove. ”
In front of Li Ka-shing, Zhou Kaixuan, who is in his 30s younger, has never deliberately shown his beauty.
Instead, she often ages herself, with a pair of shell-shaped vintage earrings that she has worn for more than 20 years.
In addition, Zhou Kaixuan will help Li Ka-shing take pictures and play umbrellas in front of everyone, and will also squat to help him tie his shoes.
And Li Ka-shing has never been reluctant to show his close relationship with Zhou Kaixuan in front of the public, and he has not shied away from being photographed holding hands and traveling together many times.
But Zhou Kaixuan does not flatter, nor does he play tricks, and he will not lower his figure.
She and Li Ka-shing rely on each other, but they are independent.
Although, when the media asked Li Ka-shing about the relationship between the two, Li Ka-shing always avoided talking about it, and he never gave Zhou Kaixuan a name, but Zhou Kaixuan never minded.
On the contrary, she would also propose to add the word "Li" to the "Zhuang Yueming Building" built in the name of Li Ka-shing's original wife, so that it would become "Li Zhuang Yueming Building".
Doing so not only shows Zhou Kaixuan's respect for Li Ka-shing's late wife, but also shows Zhou Kaixuan's magnanimity and demeanor.
Although, the outside world has always called Zhou Kaixuan Li Ka-shing's "woman behind him", and also called her Li Ka-shing's "confidant". But Zhou Kaixuan said: "Between me and him, I am the most irreplaceable friend."
What is an irreplaceable friend? The most concise commentary I can think of is that we should always support each other and never hurt each other.
The intimate relationship between the two has been solid for decades, which is really commendable.
As for the classification of this relationship, whether it should be regarded as love or friendship, we, as outsiders, really can't and don't need to delve into it.
Born as a heroine, Zhou Kaixuan has embarked on a path worthy of reference for all women, and has also generously shown her winning magic weapon to the world:
knows how to borrow, but never blindly attached, ambitious, but can always be free.
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Author: Red One
Editor: Lu Yao