Hong Kong’s ‘Superman’ calls it a day
Hong Kong business legend Li Ka-shing, a wartime refugee who used to sweep factory floors for a living, has retired after a career spanning more than half a century, and amassing one of Asia’s biggest fortunes.
The 89-year-old chairman of CK Hutchison Holdings and CK Asset Holdings will stay on as an adviser to the group after stepping down in May.
Elder son Victor, 53, will take over a conglomerate that touches the lives of practically everyone in Hong Kong — the family’s Power Assets Holdings generates their electricity and ParknShop supermarkets sell their groceries. The group also operates mobile-phone stores and Superdrug and Savers in Britain, owns ports around the world and a controlling stake in Husky Energy in Canada.
With a fortune of about US$34 billion ($47b), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Li has been the city’s richest man for an entire generation of Hong Kongers.
“Li’s retirement symbolises the end of an era,” said Joseph P.H. Fan, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “No one can replace Li Ka-shing as the legendary founder of the largest conglomerate in Hong Kong.”
Dubbed “Superman” by local media, Li is the most prominent among the Hong Kong tycoons who charged across the border to China after Deng Xiaoping and his successors promoted economic reforms. His investments in the mainland span industries ranging from energy to retail and infrastructure.