It’s one of those tantalising might-have-beens of history. In the 1880s the Kadoorie family migrated from Baghdad to Bombay and one son Sir Elly Kadoorie decided to go further east to Shanghai to seek his fortune. Today his grandson Sir Michael Kadoorie is one of the czars of Hong Kong’s business world, the owner of the city’s storied Peninsula Hotel and a group of nine other hotels and also CLP Holdings which supplies electricity to 80 per cent of Hong Kong.
Sir Michael doesn’t spend much time wondering what it might’ve been like if his grandfather had stayed on in Mumbai. But he’s a regular visitor, coming to check out his business interests in India and also
a string of charities that operate from Warangal in Telangana to Uttaranchal.
“Indians are the most welcoming people and I like Indian philosophy too,” he says. Most recently, he was here as one of the judges for the heritage car blockbuster the Cartier Concours d’ Elegance in Delhi that offers a majestic line-up of India’s best vintage and classic cars.
“We run a couple of wind farms in Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan as well as a gas
and coal power plants in India,” says Sir Michael. The gas powered and coal powered plant are in Gujarat and Haryana respectively. The company ventured into the country by acquiring a stake in the 655MW gas powered Paguthan Combined Cycle Power Plant in Gujarat in 2002.
of Sir Michael Kadoorie’s The Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited. The hotel has a fleet of
Rolls-Royces like this one painted in the hotel’s signature green
But Sir Michael — though he presides over a giant, multi-pronged conglomerate — is first and foremost a hotelier, with an eye for minute details in each of his hotels. The flagship property of his Hong Kong & Shanghai Hotels, The Peninsula Hong Kong, is one of the city-state’s most famous landmarks. The first Peninsula Hotel was started by his grandfather Sir Elly Kadoorie in December 1928 at Kowloon.
Today, Sir Michael is on a carefully planned global expansion spree and has carefully grabbed ultra-prime locations in the world’s great cities. The group’s newest hotel — and its first in Europe — is located on the super-premium Avenue Kléber just a few hundred yards away from the iconic Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
Says Sir Michael proudly: “The Peninsula hotels are in the gateway cities at the best locations. Of course we need money and the right partner for that — which takes a long time.” Another property is coming up in London while Kadoorie is also keen on expanding to Burma, Istanbul and India.
.jpg)
When it comes to ensuring that the hotels get it right, Sir Michael and his team take no chances. “We make mock-ups of rooms where breakfast trolleys can move smoothly without hitting something; the draught from the AC shouldn’t hit your neck during the night; shower heads that are appropriate for tall and short people,” he says.
His greatest passion outside the realm of business has always been cars and that’s on show at The Peninsula Hong Kong, with its Rolls-Royces fleet — ranging from a restored classic, a 1934 Rolls-Royce Phantom II and 14 more modern Rolls-Royce Phantoms — and two Mini Cooper S Clubmans painted the signature Peninsula Green.
Perhaps it’s no surprise that some of Peninsula’s limousines have been tweaked and given modern touches. The 1934 Phantom Rolls Royce II points out Sir Michael gleefully, “Looks exactly like the original with old-fashioned telephones — which operate through satellites. There’s power steering but the passengers can’t make out the difference.”
Besides that another property owned by Sir Michael, the Quail Lodge & Golf Club, plays host to The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering that celebrates the ultimate in automotive design and engineering.
Sir Michael has followed the family traditions when it comes to philanthropy — he feels that charity is a demeaning term. His projects in India, for instance, bring him here very regularly. The Kadoorie Charitable Foundation has also been working with former Gurkha soldiers in Nepal for about 40 years. More recently, it’s been involved with acid attack victims in Bangladesh. Each project is supported for a two-year cycle and renewed if it’s working effectively.
He also supervises each philanthropy project very closely and tries to visit each site regularly and spend about a week there at a time. “My wife comes with me and I try that my three children accompany me so that they can understand that with privileges come the obligations,” says the tycoon who’s firmly in the driver’s seat in more ways than one.
