Tung Chee Hwa, the shipping tycoon who led Hong Kong as the city’s first post-colonial chief executive, died on Tuesday at the age of 89. He passed away peacefully surrounded by his family, Tung’s office said in a statement.

At the time of his death, Tung had a fortune of $3.2 billion, according to Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List. The bulk of his wealth stemmed from his family’s sale of their majority stake in shipping company Orient Overseas International to China’s state-owned Cosco Shipping Holdings in 2018. With a combined wealth of $7.5 billion, the Tung family ranked No.15 on Hong Kong’s 50 Richest list that was published by Forbes in February this year.

Born in Shanghai in 1937, Tung was the eldest son of influential shipping magnate Tung Chao Yung, who founded Orient Overseas, one of the world’s largest........

© Forbes