Kou Ho Neng

A native of Panyu city of Guangdong province, Kou Ho Neng was a Chinese merchant well-known across Macao and Hong Kong who had earned the reputation of “Pawnshop Mogul” for the many pawnshops he opened successively in these two cities. Besides being a pawnbroker, Kou used to run fan-tan houses, opium trade and a steamship company. In 1911, he won the bidding for operating fan-tan houses opened by the Portuguese government in Macao and set up a fan-tan house at Rua da Caldeira in the name of Tak Seng Company. By 1914, he undertook a joint-venture, the Sup Yau Tong (Hall of Ten Friends), with his friends to run opium business in Macao. Later on, he founded Tong On Steamship Company to operate shipping routes between Macao and Hong Kong and between Mainland China and Macao.

Kou Ho Neng was most known to the Chinese community for putting up capital to set up the Tai Heng Company with Fu Lo Yung in 1937, with which they won the bidding for the exclusive right of gaming operation in Macao. This struggle for exclusivity had been the talk of the town in those days.