Billionaire lifestyle of Hong Kong’s coloured diamonds collector

Hong Kong property tycoon, Joseph Lau, has snapped up two rare diamonds this week for his seven year old daughter, Josephine.

Joseph Lau is now the proud owner of the record breaking auction jewel, the Blue Moon sold at Sotheby’s Geneva, and the 16.08ct fancy vivid pink diamond auctioned at Christie’s.

The billionaire made his fortune as the founder of the property firm Chinese Estate Holdings.

Lau paid £19m for the rare, pink diamond on sale at Christie’s on November 10 and named the stone Sweet Josephine. It seems the pink gem wasn’t enough though and a day later he paid a record breaking £32m for the 12.03ct blue diamond which he has now christened the Blue Moon of Josephine. These stones will join a 7.03ct rectangular blue diamond named the Star of Josephine which was purchased for his daughter in 2009 when she was just a year old.

Blue diamonds certainly seem to catch Lau’s eye as last November he bought a $33m (£21.6m) 9.75ct blue diamond for another daughter, Zoe, 13. This stone has been named Zoe Diamond and joins a $8.4m (£5.4m) ruby and diamond brooch weighing a total of 10.10cts called Zoe Red.

For his eldest son, Lau Ming-wai, 34, his jewels come in the form of the family business. After studying at the London School of Economics at King’s College London, Lau Ming Wai took over as non-executive chairman of Chinese Estate after his father was convicted for crimes of money laundering and bribery in 2014. Although sentenced in Macau to five years, he was saved from jail time as Hong Kong does not have an extradition treaty with Macau.

Lau is known as one of Asia’s richest men. In addition to a large diamond collection Lau is the proud owner of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, over 10,000 bottle of fine wines, a wide range of fine art (including a £11.4m Andy Warhol portrait of Mao Zedong) and a £70m home in Belgravia, West London, complete with a gold-lined swimming pool. Lau also owns three quarters of Chinese Estates and is one of Hong Kong’s largest real estate investors.

In Hong Kong Lau constantly makes the headlines, often referred to as Big Lau. He is known in the media for building Hong Kong’s tallest retail complex and charming several actresses and beauty queens following his divorce from his wife in 1992. Lau is the father of six children and is currently with his former assistant, Kimbie Chan.

According to Forbes, Lau is the 114th richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $9.8 billion.