Houston Community News >> Hong Kong Tycoon Buys Boeing Dreamliner

5/22/2007 Hong Kong- A Hong Kong billionaire is buying a 153 million US dollar Boeing designed to carry up to 300 people as his private luxury VIP jet, a news report said Wednesday. Joseph Lau, 55, head of Hong Kong-based Chinese Estate Holdings, has placed an order for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner which has 223 square meters of cabin space, the South China Morning Post reported.

Lau is one of Asia's richest men with a personal fortune estimated by Forbes magazine at more than 2 billion US dollars and has a fine wine collection of 10,000 bottles.

He is also an avid art collector and hit the headlines last year
when he paid 17.4 million US dollars for an Andy Warhol portrait of late Chinese leader Mao Zedong.

Boeing claims to have seven private orders for Boeing 787
Dreamliners for use as private jets but Lau is the first owner to be publicly identified. The first 787 jets will be produced in July.

(Contributed by Germany Press Associates)