“TOO long” was how Li Ka-shing, known fondly by locals as chiu yan (Superman) for his business nous, described his working life when he announced on March 16th that he would be retiring in May. Asia’s pre-eminent dealmaker has been around for longer than his fictional namesake, scoring and selling assets in ports, telecoms, retail and property to amass a fortune estimated at $36bn.
Few expect Mr Li, who will turn 90 this summer, to hang up his cape for good. He says he will stay on to advise his eldest son, Victor Li, who will inherit his two main businesses. The first is CK Hutchison, a conglomerate with interests in power plants, perfume and much in between. It runs 52 ports and owns 14,000 high-street stores, including Watsons at home and Superdrug in Britain. The second is CK Asset, one of Hong Kong’s biggest property developers. Combined they are worth $79.7bn.
Many a tycoon has proved hopeless at planning for his departure. Discussing death is regarded as unlucky. Most cling on past their prime. Not so the meticulous Mr Li. As early as 2000 it became clear that Victor would inherit his empire, after his second son, Richard, stepped down as deputy chairman of Hutchison Whampoa (now CK Hutchison) and went his own way. In 2012 Mr Li made this line of succession official.
Although both father and son speak of continuity, many in Hong Kong see Li senior’s exit as the end of an era—and not just for his empire. Mr Li came to Hong Kong as a wartime refugee, fleeing Guangdong with his family in 1940 at the age of 12.
He went on to operate container ports, and belonged to the first wave of outsiders to invest in China when it opened up in the late 1970s. In Hong Kong he bought into everything from groceries to pharmacies, and supplied swathes of the city with electricity. Through Hutchison, an old British trading house that he bought in 1979 (the first time a Chinese took control of a British firm), he expanded abroad in a way no other local tycoon has. Unusually for a head of a family firm, he sought out professional managers, many of them foreign.
The incoming boss has worked with some of them for decades. Victor is credited with CK Hutchison’s push into overseas utilities, including three big recent investments in energy infrastructure in Australia, Canada and Germany. Still, if he has his own vision for the business, it may not become apparent for two to three years, says Mr Rui.
As for Hong Kong, it is less fertile ground for would-be tycoons than before. Oligopolies are entrenched locally. Mainland China, meanwhile, produces a dollar billionaire every five days. Pony Ma and Jack Ma, (unrelated) founders of Tencent and Alibaba, two tech giants, are richer than Mr Li. A new Li Ka-shing is more likely to rise in next-door Shenzhen than in Hong Kong.
Source: Mar 24th 2018; https://www.economist.com/news/business/21739191-tycoons-retirement-marks-end-era-hong-kong-li-ka-shing-cedes-sprawling