HONG KONG : Asia's richest woman Nina Wang was given an extravagant funeral send-off Wednesday attended by many of Hong Kong's rich and powerful, amid feverish speculation over who will inherit her fortune.

Shanghai-born Wang, who was famously frugal, died of cancer aged 69 earlier this month with an estate estimated as worth at least 4.2 billion US dollars.

She left no heirs, and some newspapers here have speculated she might have left all or a large part of her wealth to her personal fortune-teller.

Wang's funeral, organised by a committee of 45 businessmen and politicians including Asia's richest man, Li Ka-Shing, was shrouded in secrecy. Reporters were barred from the event venue in central Hong Kong before the ceremony.

Scores of people watched from across the street as the hearse carrying her body left for the crematorium afterwards, festooned with white orchids and red roses.

Police sources said Wang's family had booked the entire first floor of the funeral home, joining two halls together for the ceremony.

Local press said her family was spending millions of HK dollars on flowers for the ceremony, and a sea of floral wreaths accumulated outside the funeral home.

Newspapers said the hall would be decorated in red and white, her favourite colours, although red is traditionally symbolic of celebrations like weddings.

White orchids, white lilies, peonies and white chrysanthemums were to adorn the parlour, reports said in advance, along with more than 1,000 red roses in the shape of a heart and more roses covering her coffin.

A 10-foot (three-metre) memorial plaque lined with white chrysanthemums was carried into the funeral home.

The ceremony was not open to the public and Wang's company Chinachem would not comment on the funeral arrangements.

Among those who gathered for the funeral was casino tycoon Stanley Ho while Hong Kong's chief executive, Donald Tsang, paid his respects Tuesday.

Wang, who was nicknamed "Little Sweetie" because of her trademark pigtails resembling a Japanese comic character, developed Chinachem into a real estate empire after the disappearance in 1990 of her husband Teddy.

He was believed kidnapped and was officially declared dead nine years later although his body has never been found.

Nina Wang steadfastly refused to believe he was dead, and her death notice was placed in his name.

Wang never publicly named a beneficiary. Her lawyer, Jonathan Midgely, told the South China Morning Post she had left her fortune to just one person, but that he would not reveal the identity of the person until after the funeral.

The Standard newspaper here reported Wednesday that Wang may have left her money to her fortune teller Tony Chan.

Quoting its sister publication Eastweek, the Standard said another possible beneficiary was barrister Ramesh Sujanami, who helped Wang in her legal battle with her father-in-law to gain control of her husband's fortune.

Under her control Chinachem was transformed into a multi-billion US dollar empire with more than 200 office towers and 400 companies around the world.

Forbes magazine last year estimated her personal fortune at 4.2 billion US dollars, 154th in its ranking of the world's richest people, but reports here say in reality it was worth many millions more than that. - AFP/fa