Allan Zeman’s journey from college dropout to billionaire businessman dubbed ‘Hong Kong’s Mouse Killer’

ALLAN Zeman, the Hong Kong proponent of the Cleland cable car, has a history of turning around huge projects.

Lan Kwai Holding’s chairman Allan Zeman (centre) with Premier Jay Weatherill (left), Environment Minister Ian Hunter (right) and Isaac the python (centre) at Cleland Wildlife Park. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

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BILLIONAIRE businessman Allan Zeman’s property, entertainment, retail and leisure conglomerate has operations in Hong Kong, mainland China and Thailand.

His Lan Kwai Fong Group takes its name from the Hong Kong district which the company has been credited with transforming into one of Asia’s premier party districts.

Mr Zeman, 68, dubbed the ‘Father of Lan Kwai Fong’ for his significant property holdings, was born in Germany and raised in Montreal, Canada, where he started making his fortune at age 19 importing women’s fashion from Hong Kong. The college dropout moved to Hong Kong in 1983, where he opened his first bar in Lan Kwai Fong. In 1992 he added the 24-storey California Tower to a property portfolio.

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He built the five-star Andara Resort in Phuket and has expanded the Lan Kwai Fong brand to Chinese cities including Chengdu and Shanghai.

In 2003 the Hong Kong government appointed him chairman of the Ocean Park hotel in a bid to revive the attraction’s fortunes at a time when Walt Disney opened its Hong Kong theme park. His stewardship of the park to record profits, while Disneyland struggled, earned him another nickname: ‘Hong Kong’s Mouse Killer’.

Allan Zeman, Lindsay Fox and Jay Weatherill meet a kangaroo. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

He told Forbes magazine last year that health was the most important thing in life and that he starts each day with “100 sit-ups with my feet in the air, 100 forward crunches, 40 dumbbell curls with each arm, an hour on the elliptical.”

LKF Group has 400 employees and also does film production and distribution. It has its own digital entertainment platform LKFtv, and last year launched LKF Attractions in response to Asia’s booming theme park market.