An exclusive dinner club in Hong Kong that hundreds of wealthy patrons each paid thousands of US dollars to join has shut down, a news report said yesterday.
The closure of the Tower Club in Kowloon with debts of US$3.8 million follows the closure of two clubs in Taipei, the Mercantile and Bankers clubs, run by the same company.
CCA International, which runs 15 similar clubs around Asia, owes members of the Hong Kong club 2.4 million in dues, liquidators told yesterday's South China Morning Post.
The club, established in 1985, offered dining facilities to wealthy patrons and had casino tycoon Stanley Ho on its board of governors.
It had around 1,000 members.
Liquidator Adrian Yeung told the newspaper that the club owed a total of US$3.9 million to members and creditors, with the chances of the money being recovered "quite remote."
Two luxury boats that the club lent out to members also appear to have gone missing, according to Yeung, who blamed the club's collapse on the economic downturn rocking Hong Kong.
"The company was unable to pay its debts. It could not run the club because of the economic climate. It was losing members and the restaurant business was not as good as before," Yeung was quoted saying.
Members clubs in Hong Kong enjoyed their heyday in the 1990s, when the economy was booming and prestigious memberships fetched high premiums.
The territory is now locked in a spiral of deflation stretching back four years.
Property values have fallen more than 60 percent from the peak they achieved in 1997 and unemployment has risen to 7.4 percent.
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