Asia’s richest man to restructure assets into two companies

Global Business

Asia’s richest man — Li Kashing– will be the owner of two distinct companies: one in real estate, and one in utilities, telecom, and other industries. CCTV’s Cathy Yang reported from Hong Kong.

Asia’s richest man to restructure assets into two companies

Asia's richest man -- Li Kashing-- will be the owner of two distinct companies: one in real estate, and one in utilities, telecom, and other industries. CCTV’s Cathy Yang reported from Hong Kong.

Li, 86, is worth an estimated $34.2 billion, according to Forbes.

“Instead of a parent-son company, they have become sister companies and the line of business will become very clear,” Alex Wong, asset management director of Ample Capital Limited, said.

“The restructuring is quite good for the market,” Lewis Wan, CIO of The Pride Group, said.

Li said real estate assets of Cheung Kong and its affiliate Hutchison Whampoa — which have a combined market cap of about $40 billion and employ more than 280,000 people globally — will be carved out into a new company, CK Property. It will be listed in Hong Kong.

The rest of Li’s assets, including ports in over 25 countries, Telecom assets in the U.K. and continental Europe, and a stake in Canadian oil company Husky Energ, will be listed separately as CKH Holdings.

Investors are now weighing which company would hold far greater value in the long run.