Sir Ka-shing Li, GBM, KBE, JP (born 29 July 1928 in Chaozhou, China) is a Hong Kong business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. According to Forbes, as of February 2017 Li is the richest person in Asia, and 18th richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$31.3Â billion. He is currently the chairman of the board for CK Hutchison Holdings; through it, he is the world's leading port investor, developer, and operator, and the largest health and beauty retailer in Asia and Europe.
Li is one of the most influential entrepreneurs in Asia, presiding a business empire with a diverse portfolio of businesses from a wide array of industries, including transportation, real estate, financial services, retail, and energy and utilities. His conglomerate company Cheung Kong Holdings is influential in many sectors of the Hong Kong economy and makes up 4% of the aggregate market capitalisation of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Forbes Magazine and the Forbes family honoured Li Ka-shing with the first ever "Malcolm S. Forbes Lifetime Achievement Award" on 5 September 2006, in Singapore. In spite of his wealth, Li has cultivated a reputation for leading a frugal no-frills lifestyle, and is known to wear simple black dress shoes and an inexpensive Seiko wristwatch. He continues to live in the same house as he has for decades, which has now become one of the most expensive districts in Hong Kong, Deep Water Bay in Hong Kong Island. Li is also regarded as one of Asia's most generous philanthropists, donating over US$2.56Â billion to charity and other various philanthropic causes. Li is often referred to as "Superman" in Hong Kong because of his business prowess.
Li Ka-shing was born in Chaozhou in Guangdong province, China, in 1928 to Teochew parents. Due to his father's death, he was forced to leave school before the age of 15 and found a job in a plastics trading company where he worked 16 hours a day. In 1950 he started his own company, Cheung Kong Industries. From manufacturing plastics, Li developed his company into a leading real estate investment company in Hong Kong that was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 1971. Cheung Kong expanded by acquiring Hutchison Whampoa and Hongkong Electric Holdings Limited in 1979 and 1985 respectively.
Business career
A Harvard Business School article summarises Li's career in the following way:
From his humble beginnings in China as a teacher's son, a refugee, and later as a salesman, Li provides a lesson in integrity and adaptability. Through hard work, and a reputation for remaining true to his internal moral compass, he was able to build a business empire that includes: banking, construction, real estate, plastics, cellular phones, satellite television, cement production, retail outlets (pharmacies and supermarkets), hotels, domestic transportation (sky train), airports, electric power, steel production, ports, and shipping.
Li's businesses cover almost every facet of life in Hong Kong, from electricity to telecommunications, from real estate to retail, from shipping to the Internet. The Cheung Kong Group's market capitalisation is HK$1,193Â billion (US$154Â billion) as of April 2016. (This includes the Group's controlling stake in 15 listed companies around the world.) The Group operates in over 50 countries and employs around 300,000 staff worldwide.
Plastics Manufacturing
In 1950, after learning how to operate a plant, Li founded a plastic manufacturing company in Hong Kong with personal savings and funds borrowed from relatives. Li avidly read trade publications and business news before deciding to supply the world with high quality plastic flowers at low prices. Li learned the technique of mixing colour with plastics that resemble real flowers. After retooling his shop and hiring the best technicians he could find, he prepared the plant for a visit from a large foreign buyer. Impressed with the quality of Li's plant, the buyer placed a large order. A few years later, Li grew to be the largest supplier of plastic flowers in Asia and made a fortune selling them.
Real Estate
In 1958, recognizing the rents would continue to rise, Li decided to purchase a site and develop his own factory building. An opportunity to acquire land arrived after the 1967 riots were in full swing when many people fled Hong Kong, and as a result, property prices plummeted. Li, believing the political crisis would be temporary, and property prices would eventually rise, bought parcels of land at low prices. By 1971, Li officially named his real estate development company Cheung Kong (長江實æ¥), named after Cheung Kong, (Chang Jiang or the Yangtze River) the longest river in China.
Cheung Kong Holdings was publicly listed in Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 1972. During board meetings, Li stated on a number of occasions his goal of surpassing the Jardines-owned Hongkong Land as a leading developer.
The successful bid by Cheung Kong for development sites above the Central and Admiralty MTR stations in 1977 was the key to challenging Hongkong Land as the premier property developer in Hong Kong. Despite its size, Jardines decided in the 1980s to protect itself from hostile takeover by Li or other outside investors. The company implemented a cross-shareholding structure that was designed to place control in the hands of Britain's Keswick family despite their less than 10% holdings in the group. In 1984, the company also moved its legal domicile from Hong Kong to another British overseas territory â€" Bermuda, in anticipation of the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong to People's Republic of China in 1997.
Ports and Electricity
In 1979, Li closed a unique transaction and acquired his current flagship company, Hutchison Whampoa Limited, from HSBC. The purchase created a massive conglomerate with business interests in multiple industries. The most notable branch of his business is the investment in container port facilities around the world, including in Hong Kong, Canada (Deltaport in Vancouver), China, the United Kingdom, Rotterdam, Panama, Bahamas and many developing countries. In total, Li's businesses handle about 12% of all container port capacity in the world.
Retail
A subsidiary of CK Hutchison, the A.S. Watson Group (ASW), is a retail operator with over 12,000 stores. Its portfolio encompasses retail brands in Europe such as Superdrug (UK), Marionnaud (France), Kruidvat (Benelux countries), and in Asia including health and beauty retailer Watson's store and wine cellars et al., PARKnSHOP supermarkets (and spin-off brands), and Fortress electrical appliance stores. ASW also produces and distributes water products and beverages in the region.
Asset Trader
CK Hutchison group has the reputation of being an astute asset trader. It builds up new businesses and sells them off when shareholder value could be created. Huge profits were obtained in the sale of its interest in Orange to Mannesmann Group in 1999, making a profit of $15.12Â billion. In 2006 Li sold 20% of Hutchison's ports business to Singapore rival PSA Corp., making a $3.12Â billion profit on a $4Â billion deal.
Group subsidiary Hutchison Telecommunications sold a controlling stake of 67% in Hutchison Essar, a joint venture Mobile operator in India, to Vodafone for $11.1Â billion. It had invested roughly $2Â billion earlier.
Internet and Technology
Li has also made a foray into the technology business, where his investment and venture capital firm Horizons Ventures is specifically allocated towards backing new internet and technology startup firms, and bought a stake in doubleTwist. His other firm, the Li Ka Shing Foundation bought a 0.8% stake in social networking website Facebook for $120Â million in two separate rounds, and invested an estimated $50Â million in the music streaming service Spotify.
Some time between late 2009 and early 2010, Li Ka-shing led a $15.5Â million Series B round of financing for Siri Inc.
In 2011, Horizons Ventures invested in Summly, a website-summarizing app. Notably, the investment made Nick D'Aloisio, Summly's founder, the world's youngest person to receive a venture capital investment at just fifteen years old.
In 2012, Horizons Ventures invested $2.3Â million in Wibbitz, a company that provides a text-to-video technology that can automatically convert any article post or feed on the web into a video in a matter of seconds.
In August 2012, Li acquired a stake in Ginger Software Incorporated.
In 2013, Horizons Ventures invested in Bitcoin payment company BitPay.
In February 2015, Horizons Ventures participated in a $30Â million Series C funding round in Zoom Video Communications.
Australian Tax Dispute
In 2013 a claim was lodged by the Australian Tax Office (ATO) against Cheung Kong Infrastructure (CKI) to pay approximately A$370 million in unpaid tax, penalties and interest relating to tax disputes concerning SA Power Networks and Victoria Power Networks.
The dispute was resolved in 2015 when CKI entered into an agreement with the ATO. No penalty was levied against CKI and a sum of approximately A$24 million was refunded from the A$64 million previously paid to the ATO by CTI.
Others
Besides business through his flagship companies Cheung Kong Property Holdings and CK Hutchison Holdings Limited, Li Ka-shing has also personally invested extensively in real estate in Singapore and Canada. He was the single largest shareholder of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), the fifth largest bank in Canada, until the sale of his share in 2005 (with all proceedings donated, see below). He is also the majority shareholder of a major energy company, Husky Energy, based in Alberta, Canada.
In January 2005, Li announced plans to sell his $1.2Â billion CAD stake in the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, with all proceeds going to private charitable foundations established by Li, including the Li Ka Shing Foundation in Hong Kong and the Li Ka Shing (Canada) Foundation based in Toronto.
Li was the non-executive director of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation since 1980 and became Deputy Chairman of the bank in 1985. He was also Deputy Chairman of HSBC Holdings in 1991â€"1992.
Personal life
His two sons, Victor Li and Richard Li, are also prominent figures in the Hong Kong business scene. Victor Li works directly with his father as Co-Managing Director and Deputy Chairman of CK Hutchison Holdings, while Richard Li is the head of PCCW, the largest telecom company in Hong Kong. They are both Canadian citizens.
Li is famously plainly dressed for a Hong Kong tycoon. In the 1990s he wore a $50 timepiece from Citizen Watch Co. and plain ties. He later wore a Seiko. In 2016, he wore a $500 Citizen watch.
Li remains physically fit, and says that no matter what time he sleeps at night, he gets up before 6Â am each morning to play golf for about an hour and a half. His golfing partner is Hong Kong movie mogul Raymond Chow. Li says that during that time, '...the ninety minutes that I have are mine.' His preferable amount of time for sleep is eight hours. It is also said that he walks on the treadmill for fifteen minutes a day at noon.
Awards and honours
- Grand Bauhinia Medal
- Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire
- Commandeur, Légion d'honneur
Politics
On 4 August 2011 at the interim results announcement for Hutchison Whampoa, Li endorsed Henry Tang for the forthcoming chief executive election. Then Li said "You all can be just like me, one-person-one-vote (一人一票)." The media then looked at Li in disbelief, and pointed out that regular citizens do not get one-person-one-vote. Li then tried to laugh it off and said "maybe in 2017 they will have one-person-one-vote to choose the chief executive, I probably just said it a little early." Li was, however, criticised by Xinhua for not being unambiguous in his opposition to the Umbrella movement protests and his support for Leung. Later, prior to the Legco vote, Li said that the largest threat to Hong Kong's future was if the government failed to ensure passage of the 2014â€"5 round of political reform.
Li's business empire has presence around the world, including China. Li came under attack from Global Times in early 2015, when his companies put out word that it was considering selling prime Shanghai and Beijing properties. It became apparent that Li aimed at re-weighting his asset portfolio to more stable and transparent markets in the West. Concerted attacks ensued and went into a crescendo as China's economy slowed down dramatically in the second half, and the central government sought a way to stem the capital outflows. Specific reproaches were that his asset disposals were "an act of ingratitude" and "immoral at such a sensitive juncture". Security Times, a People's Daily publication, estimated that Li has sold at least 73.8Â billion yuan worth of assets since 2014. Li's holding companies denied divesting in China, saying that its asset disposals were being undertaken in the ordinary course of business. The attacks stopped abruptly several weeks later, when editorials in official publications such as People's Daily, Beijing Youth Daily took a neutral stance in unison.
Charities
- Li's donation in 1981 resulted in the founding of Shantou University (STU) and the Shantou University Medical College, near his hometown of Chaozhou. Li has earmarked grants of HK$8 billion through 2018 to develop STU. In 2013, Li granted US $130 million to establish the Guangdong Technion - Israel Institute of Technology in Guangdong Province as a joint venture between Technion - Israel Institute of Technology and Shantou University.
- In September 2001, the newest tower in the Hong Kong Polytechnic University was named after Li, following a HK$100Â million donation to the University.
- The Li Ka Shing Centre in Cambridge, England, houses a Cancer Research UK facility, which is a part of the University of Cambridge. The Centre was named after Mr. Li following a £5.3 million donation, and was opened in his presence in May 2002. The Li Ka Shing Foundation endowed a professorship of oncology at the university in 2007 with a subsequent gift of £2 million.
- In November 2002, the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business in China was founded with a large donation from the Li Ka Shing Foundation.
- The Li Ka Shing Library at the Singapore Management University is also named in his honour after a US$11.5Â million donation in 2002 to the higher education institution.
- After the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake disaster, Li reportedly pledged a total of US$3Â million.
- In 2005, Li announced a HK$1Â billion (US$128Â million) donation to the Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong. It was renamed to Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine on 1 January 2006, which provoked controversy between the university and quite a number of alumni of the faculty, notably Kwok Ka Ki, over the university's naming procedures.
- Also in 2005, Li donated US$40Â million to the University of California, Berkeley, citing that he was impressed with the university's accomplishments in the biosciences. In recognition of Li's donation, the university has named the campus' new biosciences facility the Li Ka Shing Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences, which opened in October 2011.
- In 2014, The Li Ka Shing Foundation provided a US$10 million gift to support UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco to jointly launch the Innovative Genomics Initiative (IGI), based on a new technology discovered at UC Berkeley by Professor Jennifer A. Doudna, executive director of the initiative.
- A long-time supporter of Stanford University since the 1980s, Li is the principal benefactor to the US$90Â million Li Ka-shing Center for Learning and Knowledge, which opened in Fall 2010 and is now the headquarters for the Stanford University School of Medicine.
- On 9 March 2007, Li Ka-shing contributed SGD$100Â million to the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in the National University of Singapore. Also, "to honour and recognize Dr. Li's support and generosity, LKY SPP will name one of its three buildings at the historic Bukit Timah Campus after him".
- Li Ka-shing donated C$25Â million to St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto to found the Li Ka-Shing Knowledge Institute, which will serve as a medical research and education centre in downtown Toronto.
- Li Ka-shing donated C$25Â million to the University of Alberta to found the Li Ka-shing Institute of Virology.
- Li Ka-shing (through the Li Ka-shing foundation) donated HK$30Â million (US$3.85Â million) to aid relief efforts in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake
- Li Ka-shing donated C$6.6Â million to McGill University in 2013 to establish three exchange programs: the Li Ka Shing Initiative for Innovation in Legal Education, the Li Ka Shing Liberal Arts Exchange Initiative and the Li Ka Shing Program in International Business between McGill and Shantou University.
- In 2013, Li Ka-shing donated US$2Â million to the University of California, San Francisco to support their advance precision medicine initiative. The funds will be used to build a worldwide network of clinicians and researchers, launch leadership exchanges between UCSF and China, and create a systems-pharmacology program to develop more precise medications.
- With a donation from Li of over HK$1.7 billion, Tsz Shan Monastery was developed over a period of ten years as an institute of Chinese Buddhist practice and education as well as a place for spiritual contemplation. It was opened to the public in April 2015.
- (Hong Kong, 28 April 2015) In the aftermath of the devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Nepal and its neighboring regions, the Foundation has made a donation of US$1 million from its Just In Time Fund to provide immediate aid to help ease human suffering and to support ongoing relief efforts in Nepal.
See also
- The Hongs
- List of Hong Kong people by net worth
- Li's field
References
External links
- Profile at Cheung Kong Holdings