Li Ka-shing has finger in every pie, says report
Staff Reporter 2013-09-28 12:08
Sir Li Ka-shing. (Photo/Xinhua)
Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing has been dumping assets worth around 32 billion yuan (US$5.2 billion) over the past month, triggering market speculation over his intentions. Li's large commercial projects have subsequently been highlighted by the media, but the man considered the wealthiest in Asia also has interests in industries closer to people's daily lives such as health products, the Shenzhen-based Securities Times reports.
Li is involved in the health product industry under one of his companies which was founded more than 10 years ago. Li's real estate developer Hutchison Whampoa set up a medical technology company which has cooperated with counterparts in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou such as the Beijing Tong Ren Tang Group, China's leading producer of traditional Chinese medicine.
In 2004, Li said Chinese medicine will be Hutchison Whampoa's sixth main industry, then in 2006 Li's pharmaceutical company listed on the London Stock Exchange. Nutrition and health giant Nestle has valued Li's judgment in the Chinese medicine industry, with the company recently forging a partnership with the tycoon in a bid to find out ways to use traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of gastrointestinal disorders.
Li has also invested heavily in the internet and information technology sector. The tycoon has invested in Facebook, Skype and Siri. According to reports, it only took Li five minutes to decide to invest in Facebook, and in just five years, his 3% stake has a profit return of 580%, or more than US$2 billion.
He has an investment company specializing in technology, with four low-profile experts in charge of its global investment and digging out good targets for Li. He has also invested in rice production, setting up a joint venture in northeast China's Heilongjiang province in 1988 to develop farm land covering 1.5 million square kilometers.
In the aviation industry, Hutchison Whampoa has cooperated with China Southern Airlines in setting up a joint venture, Guangzhou Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Co, to service 25 international airlines for maintenance, base maintenance, machine parts repair and other services.
Li has his hands in nearly every industry, the paper said, adding that he even goes to New Zealand to recycle garbage, plant vineyards and develop ecological fertilizer in Australia.
