Exclusive | Hong Kong-listed Techtronic executive emerges as buyer of 3 villas on The Peak: sources

An executive with ties to a Hong Kong-listed company has emerged as the buyer of three houses on The Peak, the second such distressed sale in weeks by the beleaguered owners in the upmarket district, according to sources.

Stephan Horst Pudwill, the vice-chairman of power-tools maker Techtronic Industries, has bought 99, 101 and 103 Peak Road, which were put up for sale by the family of Ho Shung-pun, a low-key clan of real estate developers, one of the sources said.

Pudwill is currently the tenant of one of the three houses, said another source, who did not want to be identified for discussing a private matter.

The houses were sold for a combined HK$860 million (US$110.4 million), local media reported late last month, without disclosing the buyer’s identity.

In reply to the Post’s query to verify the property purchase, Techtronic said it will not comment on personal matters. On Tuesday, Techtronic posted a 15.7 per cent year-on-year jump in first-half profit to US$550 million, according to its interim report.

The proceeds from the sale of the three town houses, ranging from 4,627 to 5,067 sq ft, will be partially used to repay a HK$1.6 billion private loan extended to the Ho family by Gaw Capital and due in January 2025, one of the sources said, adding that the loan carries an interest rate in the “teens”.

In addition to the three villas, the Ho family had also pledged as collateral four more houses at 46 Plantation Road on The Peak, the source added.

Although the four houses were sold on July 9, the deal was concluded only recently, with the buyer emerging as Yeung Kin-man, the founder and chairman of Biel Crystal Manufactory, the world’s largest producer of smartphone screen glass, according to Land Registry records on August 1. The deal was transacted at HK$1.1 billion.

The family obtained a one-year HK$85 million loan on January 17 from X8 Finance, a wholly owned unit of Hong Kong-listed Termbray Industries International, a stock exchange filing showed.

The loan, carrying an annual interest rate of 29 per cent in the first two months of its drawdown, and 18 per cent thereafter, used another Ho family property as collateral.

The loan was used to refinance a HK$44 million facility drawn in June 2023 that carried an interest rate of 25 per cent per annum in the first month, and 13 per cent thereafter.