His family's roots in business in the Far East go back to his grandfather Elly Kadoorie, a descendant of Iraqi Jews originally from Baghdad, who first settled in Shanghai in 1880.

After a spell in Bombay, British India, his grandfather made a fortune in Shanghai, mostly lost in 1949, and later, in Hong Kong through finance, real estate and utilities.

[4] The utility company provides electricity to 75% of Hong Kong as sole operator (licensed through a Scheme of Control) in Kowloon and the New Territories, and has equity interests in power plants in China, Southeast Asia, Australia and India.

[1] In 1998, he spent two months recovering from serious injuries at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, England after an accident in his vintage Ferrari when the spokes in two of the rebuilt wheels tore through the tyres.

[9] His sister, Rita Laura Kadoorie, is married to fellow Hong Kong billionaire Ronald McAulay.