Date set for court battle over fortune of Asia`s richest woman

The hearing into the 4.2 billion US dollar fortune of Nina Wang, who died aged 69 last year, leaving her money to an unknown feng shui master, is due to begin on February 16, 2008.

At a hearing Wednesday, a High Court judge ruled that a further assessment could be made in October to decide if the case can proceed in February. It is expected to last eight weeks.

Wang, the former chairwoman of the Chinachem property empire, died of cancer in April last year, leaving a will which bequeathed her entire fortune to a part-time feng shui master Chan Chun Cheun.

The will is being challenged by relatives of Wang acting through a Chinachem charitable foundation who say that the will is not valid and that the family should inherit the money.

Wang was named as the richest woman in Asia in 2006 with a fortune estimated at 4.2 billion US dollars, although some estimates suggested her real worth may have been closer to 13 billion US dollars.

With no children of her own, Wang wrote a new will in 2006, two years after her ovarian cancer was diagnosed, making 48-year-old Chan her sole beneficiary.

However, her sisters and ...