3D-Gold: Hong Kong's gold king borrowed to expand — and his loans died with him

3D-Gold Jewellery Holdings, listed in 1999 as Hang Fung Gold Technology, was built by Lam Sai-wing, Hong Kong's self-made 'King of Gold'. By September 2008 the company ran about 200 outlets in Hong Kong, Macau and mainland China — 162 stores by the company's own count, 15 of them overseas — and Lam was famous for spending on spectacle: a 380 kg golden toilet that set a Guinness World Record, and a 'golden palace' hotel built with HK$380 million in cash and HK$62 million in gold.

The business was profitable when the trouble started. For the year to March 2008, 3D-Gold earned a record HK$304 million net profit, up 263%, on HK$3.4 billion of revenue. But the expansion was financed with borrowed money: total liabilities reached HK$2.845 billion, up 83% in a single year, after the company issued US$170 million of notes to HSBC in October 2007.

On 26 September 2008 Lam died of a heart attack at 53. The loan agreements contained covenants that treated the founder's death as an event of default, letting lenders demand repayment. Shares were suspended on 30 September, and on 17 October HSBC filed a winding-up petition against the company and its wholly-owned subsidiary Hang Fung Jewellery; the same day the High Court appointed Deloitte partners as provisional liquidators. The company called it 'confirming and protecting the assets' — not liquidation.

The rescue came in parts. In January 2009 a consortium led by Hong Kong Resources Holdings and mainland jeweller Liu Wangzhi agreed to pay up to HK$500 million for the business, and HSBC approved the plan in July. On 7 September 2009 the Court of First Instance wound up Hang Fung Jewellery — 'hopelessly insolvent', in the judge's words. During the provisional liquidation, about HK$179 million of gold bars allegedly went missing from the company's vault. The 3D-Gold brand survives under rescuers; Luk Fook took control in 2024.