Hong Kong - "Nobody remembers who came in second," once remarked Charles Schulz, the master cartoonist who introduced that ultimate underdog, Charlie Brown, to the world.

For much of his life, Mr Lee Shau Kee has sailed in at No. 2 after Hong Kong's richest man Li Ka Shing.

Relatively small change separates the two. Mr Li is currently worth US$22 billion (S$28 billion) according to Forbes, while Mr Lee comes in at US$20.3 billion.

Well, in this town, it matters.

As businessman Robert Wang wrote in his memoirs Walking The Tycoons' Rope, "the difference between No. 1 and No. 2 is huge".

"The former gets all the attention; when prime ministers visit, they ask to see him. He gets all the media attention. He is sought after by money men.

Deals are often presented to him on silver plates.

He gets the first bite of the cherry."

But while the charismatic Mr Li nicknamed "Superman" holds court, Mr Lee - his moniker "Hong Kong's Warren Buffet" is perhaps more mortal but hardly shabby either - has made darn sure that nobody forgets who he is.

On Monday, he announced that he is personally donating 100,000 sq ft of farmland in Fanling, in the New Territories, for the construction of 1,000 affordable flats for first-time home buyers.

The initiative - the first of its kind here - is a game-changer in Hong Kong's philanthropic scene.

While tycoons and conglomerates have regularly dispensed largesse over the years, the intense anxiety over land scarcity and property prices, especially in recent years, has made Mr Lee's land donation especially resonant among the masses.

The donation will thus earn Mr Lee more than its value in brownie points, although cynics will also note that it is but a drop in the ocean for the tycoon and his company Henderson Land Development - which holds about 42 million sq ft of land in the New Territories as of last June.

Shrewdness has always been a hallmark of the 85-year-old.

Financial perspicuity runs in his blood. Born in the southern Guangdong province to a gold trader and money changer, Mr Lee fled to Hong Kong when he was 20, just before the Communists took power on the mainland.

For a while, he dabbled in imports and exports, but dreamed big. Real estate, he determined, was the way to go.

In 1958, he co-founded Sun Hung Kai Properties with Mr Kwok Tak Seng. In 1976, he broke away to form his own company, Henderson, of which he remains chairman and managing director till today. His two sons Peter and Ka Shing are in place as vice-chairmen.

As Hong Kong boomed, so did Henderson. Under his helm, Henderson largely avoided the competition among other developers in mass market residential housing, tapping an overlooked vein - the lower end of the market, such as cheaper and smaller New Territories flats for young couples.

It also quietly amassed agricultural land in the vast rural swathes up north, and now holds the largest collection among all property developers in the New Territories, waiting to reap dividends after the area is developed.

Mr Lee also found rich pickings in areas such as energy. He acquired Hong Kong & China Gas Company Limited which supplies town gas to 85 per cent of households, and is known to have made a fortune in astute stock picking.

"Use money to make money," was a favourite phrase of his. "Save your 'first bucket of gold' - but use it for investments. Don't just park money in the bank."

While he is more low-key than Mr Li, there is intense rivalry between the two behind the scenes.

Mr Wang describes it thus: "They were often at each other's throats vying to be No. 1."

In 1996, Mr Lee won and pipped Mr Li to pole position after taking over the Miramar Group - to the fury of the latter who had also eyed the investment.

That year, Forbes rated Mr Lee the world's fourth richest man behind Mr Buffet, Wal-Mart's Waltons and Mr Bill Gates - a fact proudly noted on the man's biography on the company website.

Yet, like all pragmatic businessmen, both worked together when it suited them. For instance, in the 1980s, they launched a bid for Hong Kong Land, which owned many prestigious office buildings in Central - turf traditionally in the hands of the British.

That Mr Li is more iconic of the Hong Kong Get-Rich Dream - for how he soared from salesman to Superman - may rankle. But this has also shielded Mr Lee from the recent backlash against the tycoons.

He has also clearly deftly managed his public image, such as through the latest philanthropic initiative, on top of earlier donations to the city's education institutions, from primary schools - such as Lee Shau Kee Primary School in Tin Shui Wai - to all nine universities.

He has waxed lyrical thus: "For those already successful, money can become a controlling factor in life and make you a slave to it. One way to avoid that - philanthropy."

Mr Lee may be in second place. But it doesn't seem too bad a place to be in.

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