Background and career
Sir Ka-shing Li (Chinese: 李嘉誠; born 29 July 1928) is a Hong Kong tycoon and philanthropist. He previously served as chairman of CK Hutchison Holdings and CK Asset Holdings, before retiring from those roles in May 2018. Following his retirement, he assumed the position of senior advisor to both companies. He is an investor, developer, and operator of the largest health and beauty retailer in Asia and Europe. In the 2026 Forbes list of The World's Billionaires, Li Ka-shing was ranked 42nd with a net worth of $47 billion. Li has invested in a range of industries, including transportation, real estate, financial services, retail, and energy and utilities. His conglomerate, Cheung Kong Holdings has operated businesses across multiple sectors of the Hong Kong economy and has at times accounted for a notable share of the total market capitalisation of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Forbes magazine and the Forbes family honoured Li Ka-shing with the first ever Malcolm S. Forbes Lifetime Achievement Award on 5 September 2006 in Singapore. In spite of his wealth, Li has cultivated a reputation for leading a frugal no-frills lifestyle, and is known to wear simple black dress shoes and an inexpensive Seiko wristwatch. He lived in the same house for decades, in what has now become one of the most expensive districts in Hong Kong, Deep Water Bay in Hong Kong Island. Li is also a philanthropist, donating billions of dollars to charity and various other philanthropic causes, and owning the second largest private foundation in the world after Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2019, Forbes put Li in the list of most generous philanthropists outside of the US.
Li was born in Chao'an, Chaozhou, in Guangdong Province in 1928 to Teochew parents named Li Yun-ching (1898–1943) and Cheung Bik-chin (1893–1984). Li and his family fled to Hong Kong in 1940 as refugees from the Sino-Japanese war. Following his father's death from tuberculosis, Li left school at 15 years old to work in a plastics trading company for 16 hours a day. In 1950, he started his own company, Cheung Kong Industries. From manufacturing plastics, Li developed his company into a leading real estate investment company in Hong Kong that was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 1972. Cheung Kong expanded by acquiring Hutchison Whampoa and Hongkong Electric Holdings in 1979 and 1985 respectively.
In 1950, after learning how to operate a plant, Li founded a plastic manufacturing company in Hong Kong with personal savings and funds borrowed from relatives. Li read trade publications and business news before entering the artificial flowers industry. Li learned the technique of mixing colour with plastics that resemble real flowers. After retooling his shop, Li received a large order from a foreign buyer and subsequently grew to be the largest supplier of plastic flowers in Asia.
In 1958, Li purchased a site to develop his own factory building. An opportunity to acquire more land arrived after the 1967 riots when many people fled Hong Kong, and, as a result, property prices plummeted. Li believed the political crisis would be temporary and property prices would eventually rise, and bought land from the fleeing residents at low prices. In 1971, Li officially named his real estate development company Cheung Kong (長江實業). Cheung Kong Holdings was publicly listed in Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 1972. During board meetings, Li stated on a number of occasions his goal of surpassing the Jardines-owned Hongkong Land as a leading developer. The successful bid by Cheung Kong for development sites above the Central and Admiralty MTR stations in 1977 was the key to challenging Hongkong Land as the premier property developer in Hong Kong. Despite its size, Jardines decided in the 1980s to protect itself from hostile takeover by Li or other outside investors. The company implemented a cross-shareholding structure that was designed to place control in the hands of Britain's Keswick family despite their less than 10% holdings in the group. In 1984, the company also moved its legal domicile from Hong Kong to another British overseas territory – Bermuda, in anticipation of the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong to People's Republic of China in 1997. In an effort to drive forward divestitures of assets in Hong Kong and mainland China, Li agreed to sell The Center, the fifth-tallest skyscraper in Hong Kong. With a value of HK$40.2 billion (US$5.15 billion), the deal constitutes the biggest ever office space real estate sale in the Asia-Pacific region. Li sold the Century Link complex in Shanghai for US$2.95 billion, the second largest transaction for a single building, according to the Financial Times. In 1979, Li purchased a major stake in Hutchison Whampoa from Hong Kong Bank through Cheung Kong.
A subsidiary of CK Hutchison, AS Watson (ASW), is a retail operator with over 15,000 stores. Its portfolio encompasses retail brands in Europe such as Superdrug (UK), Marionnaud (France), Kruidvat (Benelux countries), and in Asia including health and beauty retailer Watson's store and wine cellars et al., PARKnSHOP supermarkets (and spin-off brands), and Fortress electrical appliance stores. ASW also produces and distributes water products and beverages in the region.
CK Hutchison builds up new businesses and sells them off when shareholder value can be created. Profits were obtained in the sale of its interest in Orange to Mannesmann Group in 1999, making a profit of US$15.12 billion. In 2006, Li sold 20% of Hutchison's ports business to Singapore rival PSA Corporation, making a US$3.12 billion profit on a US$4 billion deal. Group subsidiary Hutchison Telecommunications sold a controlling stake of 67% in Hutchison Essar, a joint venture Mobile operator in India, to Vodafone for US$11.1 billion.
