McAulay is a shareholder of CLP Holdings, Hong Kong's biggest power supplier, which also has customers in China, Taiwan, India and Southeast Asia. He controls the publicly traded company with his brother-in-law, Michael Kadoorie. The pair also owns shares in Hongkong & Shanghai Hotels, which operates the Peninsula chain.
The majority of McAulay's wealth is derived from a 10% stake in CLP Holdings, Hong Kong's biggest electricity supplier. He owns the shares through trusts, one of which he shares with his brother-in-law, Michael Kadoorie. McAulay left the board of CLP Holdings on Oct. 1, 2016, and his shareholding hasn't been disclosed in annual reports, including the 2022 report, since then. The stake used in this analysis is calculated to be unchanged from the amount provided in the 2015 report.
He also owns about 13% of Hongkong & Shanghai Hotels, which operates Peninsula Hotels in Asia, the U.S. and Europe, according to an analysis of the company's 2023 semi-annual report.
More than $2 billion in commercial and residential property was added to the valuation on Aug. 28, 2018. This represents a half share of the properties' net value because he shares them with Kadoorie, according to a Bloomberg report.
The value of McAulay's cash investments is based on an analysis of dividends, insider transactions, taxes and market performance.
Mark Lee, a CLP spokesman, declined to comment on the net worth calculation.
Ronald McAulay was born in October 1935 and graduated from the University of Glasgow with a Masters of Arts degree. He's also been a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Scotland. He later married Rita Kadoorie, a third-generation child of the wealthy Kadoorie clan, a Hong Kong-based Jewish family with roots in Baghdad, Iraq.
Rita's grandfather Elly Kadoorie and his younger brother Ellis first came to the Far East in 1880. The duo moved to Hong Kong to work for E. D. Sassoon and Co., a company run by another Mesopotamian Jewish family. Elly purchased 25 shares of the Hongkong Hotel Co. in 1890, and the company acquired 85 percent of Shanghai Hotels in 1922, changing its name to the Hongkong & Shanghai Hotels.
Elly moved his business and family to Shanghai in 1911, shortly before World War I. His wife died in a fire that destroyed their first home in 1919, and the family built a second home -- the Marble Hall -- which still stands today.
He returned to Hong Kong to start a brokerage business in 1948. The family made a fortune through finance, property and utilities. They accumulated a stake in what was then called China Light & Power, and eventually became the controlling shareholder of the electricity provider. The company later became CLP Holdings.
McAulay was appointed to the board of CLP Holdings in 1968 at the age of 32. Four years later, he became a board member of the Hongkong & Shanghai Hotels.
He supports causes including medical research and the arts, and is a trustee of the Tate Foundation and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Son Andrew is chairperson of Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden, set up in Hong Kong in 1945 to provide agricultural aid to farmers.