Hong Kong tycoon Stephen Hung has just ordered the largest fleet of Rolls-Royce vehicles in the world, agreeing to pay $20 million USD for 30 Phantoms. This doesn’t quite match the madness of buying one Ferrari for over $38 million, but it’s an impressive feat nonetheless.
The luxury vehicles will be used to chauffer Hung’s guests at an exclusive resort that he is building in Macau. With casino revenues of $45 billion last year, it’s easily the most profitable gambling city in the world – seven times more lucrative than the Las Vegas strip. The hotel will be called Louis XIII and is scheduled to open in 2016.
This large order of 30 Extended Wheelbase Phantoms surpasses the previous record of 14 Phantoms bought by Hong Kong’s Peninsula Hotel back in 2006.
Rolls-Royce said that two of the Phantoms Hung has purchased are the most expensive ever commissioned, complete with “gold-plated accents” on the outside and inside.
The base price for a Phantom in Britain is about 450,000 pounds ($734,000), with taxes, but prices can vary based on the market or special customizations. Consumers have been known to spend more than $1 million on certain models.
The deal was made official on Tuesday when both Hung and Rolls-Royce signed the contract at the company’s Goodwood factory in England. The payment schedule requires the Louis XIII Holdings Ltd. to pay a $2 million deposit, another $3 million more by the end of the year and the remaining $15 million when the cars are delivered in the first half of 2016.
Hung is a former investment banker who is known for his flamboyant style. The resort he is building is named after the French King who started building the Palace of Versailles. The hotel will feature a 1,860 square metre villa that is deemed the world’s “most extravagant” hotel suite and will reportedly cost occupants $130,000 per night. Hung has also enlisted a descendant of Louis XIII to help with the hotel’s design.
Since the majority of the population cannot afford a single Phantom, let alone 30 of them, a Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class or Lexus ES might make for a more affordable alternative.
