Asia's richest woman Nina Wang poses with a comic character of herself called "Nina" that was sold for HK$3,500 ($450) during a charity at the Hong Kong Comic Fair in this July 29, 2001 file photo. Wang has died after an illness, her personal assistant said on Wednesday. [Reuters]

Wang, who emerged victorious from a long and bruising court battle over her late husband's estate, died at an undisclosed Hong Kong hospital, Wong said without indicating the cause of death.

Despite a fortune estimated at more than US$4 billion, her frugality was widely documented by Hong Kong media, who nicknamed her "Little Sweetie" because her trademark pigtails resembled a Japanese comic character.

She once admitted that her favourite meal was American fast food and was reputed to have kept her monthly expenditure below 3,000 Hong Kong dollars (US$385).

Wang and husband Teddy -- who was declared legally dead in 1999, nine years after he was kidnapped and never heard from again -- were together so thrifty they were known to buy cut-price tickets to shows.

Teddy built up Chinachem, mostly on real estate deals, and she helped transform it after his disappearance into a US$3.5 billion empire that owns more than 200 office towers and 400 companies around the world.

Forbes magazine last year estimated her personal fortune at US$4.2 billion, 154th in their ranking of the world's richest people.

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