Rich dad offers $64M

Tycoon insists he wants a kind son-in-law

One of Hong Kong’s richest men has offered a reward of nearly $64 million to the man who can woo his lesbian daughter.

Cecil Chao Szetsung, a property magnate, announced the $64 million bounty this week after reports that his daughter Gigi Chao, 33, a University of Manchester graduate, married her long-term girlfriend in France.

“I don’t mind whether he is rich or poor,” Chao said, “the important thing is that he is generous and kindhearted”.

Chao also told the South China Morning Post that reports of his daughter’s marriage were “false”.

The tycoon said he hoped to help the successful suitor start a business. The reward was “an inducement to attract someone who has the talent but not the capital

I don’t mind whether he is rich or poor CECIL CHAO SZE- TSUNG

to start his own business”.

“Gigi is a very good woman with both talents and looks,” the doting father said. “She is devoted to her parents, is generous and does volunteer work.”

It was reported that Chao married Sean Yeung, her girlfriend of seven years, who also uses the name Sean Eav, in France on April 4.

A photograph on Chao’s Facebook page confirmed that she and her girlfriend flew to France two days earlier. “Going to Paris to buy a few businesses,” read the caption to a picture apparently taken in the first class section of a plane.

Chao’s search for a husband for his daughter appeared to contradict a description Chao gave of her father in a 2007 interview.

“My father took a hands-off approach in parenting,” she told HK Magazine. “I see him as a friend more than a father.

“My parents never pressure me with high expectations.”

It also exposed a traditional streak in a man known for his playboy lifestyle.

Chao made headlines in 2003 when his Rolls-Royce caught fire while he and his girlfriend were inside.

The tycoon has never married and once claimed to have had “intimate relations” with about 10,000 women. However, this week he denied that he would force his daughter to marry a man.

Chao has yet to comment on her father’s offer.