Hong Kong - The ex-wife of a Chinese telecom tycoon has had her divorce settlement of nearly 50 million US dollars slashed to just 1 million US dollars, a news report said Thursday.

Ma Lin was awarded 378 million Hong Kong dollars (48.7 million US dollars) by Hong Kong's Family Court after her divorce from 45-year-old Yang Jun, vice chairman of China Motion Telecom.

At a Court of Appeal hearing Wednesday, however, the payout was slashed to 9.97 million Hong Kong dollars (1.28 million US dollars), the Hong Kong Standard newspaper reported.

The couple, who have two sons and homes both in Hong Kong and mainland China, separated in 2006 and filed for divorce on both sides of the border.

Ma filed for divorce in the Hong Kong courts but her husband filed separately for divorce in Shenzhen, southern China, and the hearing in China took place in 2007, a year before the Hong Kong hearing.

While the China hearing awarded Ma 1.28 million US dollars, the hearing in Hong Kong in May 2008 concluded that Yang should pay his ex-wife a lump sum of 48.7 million US dollars.

At Wednesday's hearing, Yang successfully applied to have the Hong Kong ruling overturned on the grounds that the earlier judgement in China should be respected by the court, the Standard said.

Yang made his fortune in the 1990s when he played a key role in setting up China Motion Telecom, which had 20 million users in 1999.(dpa)