Billionaire boss of Three to bow out before his 90th birthday

THE Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing is to bow out of frontline business weeks before his 90th birthday this year by retiring as chairman of his conglomerate CK Hutchison, the owner of major UK assets including the mobile operator Three and retailer Superdrug.

Mr Li announced that his son Victor, 53, will in May step up to rule the empire he founded 68 years ago as a manufacturer of plastic flowers.

Nicknamed “Superman” for his business acumen, Mr Li is passing on a vast portfolio of businesses that includes ports, power networks and rolling stock. In recent years he has reduced his exposure to mainland China with multibillion-dollar property sales.

Mr Li’s highest-profile UK investment, Three, is yet to produce a return after gatecrashing the mobile market in a spiralling auction of 3G airwaves in 2000. Yesterday it unveiled a new round of investment to overhaul its network. The £107m increase in capital expenditure comes as Three prepares for a high-stakes auction of 5G airwaves, which begins on Tuesday.

The operator, the smallest of Britain’s four mobile networks with 10m customers, reported a 7pc increase in revenue last year to £2.4bn and the addition of more than half a million contract customers. However, average revenue per user, a closely watched measure in the mobile industry, declined 6pc. The operator’s network and IT upgrade is expected to squeeze profits for the year ahead.

Dave Dyson, Three’s chief executive, said it is aiming to double its customer base in the next few years despite having failed to seal an attempted takeover of rival O2 in 2015. It is expected to make a push to encourage households to abandon fixed-line broadband in favour of wireless connections.

He added: “Investment in spectrum, next generation network and IT underpins the opportunity to deliver improved results over the long term.”