Tycoon gives his side of split in full-page ads

A FLAMBOYANT Hong Kong tycoon has placed full-page adverts in local newspapers to announce that he has separated from a girlfriend.

Joseph Lau is the 65th-richest man in the world with a net worth of $12.6-billion (about R180-billion), according to Forbes.

In front-page announcements in several newspapers, he told former lover Yvonne Lui she would not get any more than the $248-million she had already received from him. He announced the pair had split in 2014.

“Ms Lui has accumulated considerable wealth, and is now a very wealthy woman,” his statement read. “She can maintain a luxurious lifestyle by herself without my financial support.”

The 65-year-old retail billionaire met Lui in 2001 at a Louis Vuitton store in London, where the former beauty pageant contestant was studying for a PhD in chemical engineering at King’s College. They had two children together but never wed.

The tycoon’s current lover is Kimbie Chan, a former assistant.

Lau said he made the announcement in response to “untrue reports” about his relationship with Lui.

He made headlines in November last year when he spent almost $40-million on the flawless “Blue Moon” diamond and renamed it to honour his sevenyear-old daughter, one of the two children he has with Chan. — ©