Hong Kong telecommunications billionaire Richard Li, the younger son of Asia’s richest man Li Ka-shing, is in acquisition talks with “several sizeable companies,” the elder Li said at a press conference on Friday, according to a front-page report in today’s South China Morning Post. The businesses hold “long-term” prospects and aren’t in the media and entertainment industries, the father said.
Li Ka-shing, 83, spoke about Richard while discussing his own succession plans with the press after annual shareholder meetings of his flagship companies Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa yesterday.
Reaffirming a plan he described in an exclusive interview with Forbes earlier this year, Li senior said his elder son Victor would be his successor at Cheung Kong and Hutchison Whampoa. (See link here to our interview with Li Ka-shing.) The elder Li ranked No. 9 on the 2012 Forbes Billionaires List with wealth of $25.5 billion.
Richard, who ranked No. 960 with wealth of $1.3 billion on the same list and runs his own telecommunications empire, “will also have a very successful career,” his father said, pledging his “full support” and also noting “there will be no conflict” among Victor’s and Richard’s businesses, the South China Morning Post reported. Businesses controlled by Richard include PCCW Ltd., Pacific Century Premium Developments and the HKT Trust. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Li said he would support Richard’s new projects with “cash,” and the younger son’s assets would increase “several-fold” through the father’s support.
Richard wasn’t present at the press gathering, the paper said. The elder Li, as he told Forbes earlier this year, stated yesterday that he has no plans to retire. Victor has been the deputy chairman of Cheung Kong since 1994 and managing director since 1999; he is also deputy chairman of Hutchison. Li senior is the chairman of both companies.
Hong Kong’s popular, saucy Chinese-language newspaper Apple Daily splashed the elder Li’s press comments across its front page this morning along with a family tree. Victor has three daughters and a son, Michael, and Richard has three sons, the eldest being Ethan, Apple Daily reported.
Li Ka-shing, an icon of Asia’s economic rise in the postwar era, through his businesses employs 270,000 people in more than 50 countries. He also has made personal investments in Facebook and Skype, and is one of the world’s top philanthropists. He started his remarkable career making toys and later, plastic flowers.
The changes under way in the Li empire are representative of those currently being faced by many of Hong Kong’s most powerful family business. Click here for a discussion about how they are faring with Roger King, director of the Center for Asian Family Business and Entrepreneurship Studies at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
From forbes.com
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