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HONG KONG: Hong Kong tycoon Nina Wang, believed to be the richest woman in Asia, has died, her secretary said Wednesday.
"Mrs Wang passed away (Tuesday) night," secretary Ringo Wong told AFP.
Wang, who emerged victorious from a long and bruising court battle over her late husband's estate, died at an undisclosed Hong Kong hospital, Wong said without indicating the cause of death.
Despite a fortune estimated at more than US$4b, her frugality was widely documented by Hong Kong media, who nicknamed her "Little Sweetie" because her trademark pigtails resembled a Japanese comic character.
She once admitted that her favourite meal was American fast food and was reputed to have kept her monthly expenditure below 3,000 Hong Kong dollars (US$385).
Wang and husband Teddy - who was declared legally dead in 1999, nine years after he was kidnapped and never heard from again - were together so thrifty they were known to buy cut-price tickets to shows.
Teddy built up Chinachem, mostly on real estate deals, and she helped transform it after his disappearance into a US$3.5b empire that owns more than 200 office towers and 400 companies around the world.
Forbes magazine last year estimated her personal fortune at US$4.2b, 154th in their ranking of the world's richest people. - AFP/yy
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