But the 5-foot Wang, known as “Little Sweetie” and considered Asia’s richest woman, is squaring off with her 89-year-old father-in-law in one of Asia’s most bizarre and bitter battles for corporate control.
Nina has overseen Hong Kong-based Chinachem Group, a privately held property, paint and chemicals conglomerate, since her husband, Teddy, was kidnapped in 1990. His body has never been found. Though Teddy’s 1968 will left everything to his father, Wang Din Shin (because of Nina’s alleged infidelity), Nina wrested control of Chinachem: In 1963 she had been given power of attorney over Teddy’s estate in his absence. So she declared that he was alive - just missing.
Estimated to be worth $3.4 billion, Nina, 63, recently insisted to Hong Kong’s Next magazine that the younger Mr. Wang “will come back someday.” Chinachem patriarch Wang doesn’t agree. After waiting the statutory seven years, he had Teddy declared legally dead. Last month he began a probate battle, based on the 1968 will, to retake control of his family’s company.
Nina now says there’s a 1990 will, written shortly before Teddy’s disappearance, that names her as sole beneficiary. Her husband’s family insists the will is a fake. Nina, who’s just published a comic book about her life, complete with a Little Sweetie doll, remains unfazed. She has also announced that all her money will be donated to charity. Someday.
