Background

Ka-shing Li was born on June 13, 1928, in Chao'an Chaozhou, Guangdong, China. His family was of modest means and his father, a teacher, headed a local primary school.

Education

Although his father was the head of a primary school in Guangdong province, Li had little opportunity for formal education. He grew up in a period of great political turmoil in China. His family fled to Hong Kong in 1940 after the Japanese invasion of China.

The family struggled to re-establish their lives in their new surroundings when another major tragedy befell the family within a span of three years. His father became ill with tuberculosis and died a painful death when Li Ka-shing was just 15 years old. He was forced to drop out of school and take up a job in order to provide for his family.

Though Li dropped out of school at a young age and never received a university degree, he has always been a voracious reader and attributes much of his success to his ability to learn independently. For instance, he completed Cheung Kong's accounting books in the company's first year himself with no accounting experience - he simply taught himself from textbooks.

Career

Without much formal education, Li started working in a plastics trading company as a salesman selling plastic watchbands and belts. He worked hard, often working up to 16 hours a day, and proved to be a capable salesman. In 1947 Ka-shing borrowed money from close family and established his own company that produced and supplied high-quality plastic flowers. In a few years, Ka-shing’s company was one of the leading suppliers of plastics flowers in Asia.

Li proved to be a capable salesman and started his own plastics factory in Hong Kong in 1950. Initially, the company manufactured artificial flowers and exported them to the United States. Throughout the 1950s the company saw steady growth and Li began looking for opportunities to expand the business. By 1958 he had a flourishing business manufacturing plastic flowers and was ready to expand. He named the firm Cheung Kong Industries, after the Cheung Kong River - also known as the Yangtze - the longest river in China. The name was reportedly an allusion to both the river's many tributaries and the need for business alliances.

By 1958, when his landlord raised its rent, Li had enough cash to purchase his factory. This would be the first of many investments in real estate; by the 1960s Cheung Kong had transformed into a property development and management company. Li's strategy was to avoid debt by raising capital before building, both through the formation of joint ventures with landowners and by preselling apartments to friends and colleagues.

During the riots of 1967 in Hong Kong, while masses fled from the country, Ka-shing was busy buying land as the price of property had plummeted. As such Cheung Kong could incur fewer risks while still earning profits for both Li and his co-investors, fueling rapid growth. The company renamed Cheung Kong Holdings in 1971, had its initial public offering in 1972. By 1979 Li was Hong Kong's largest private landlord.

In 1979 Li bought 23 percent of Hutchison Whampoa from Hongkong & Shanghai Bank, becoming the first Chinese to control one of the old British companies that had long dominated Hong Kong's economy. This added multiple diverse industries to his existing business. He soon transformed Hutchison into the world’s largest independent operator of ports, with investments in container port facilities around the world, including in Hong Kong, Canada, China, the United Kingdom, Rotterdam, Panama, Bahamas, and many others.

This venture by Ka-shing is 13% of the world’s total port container capacity. A subsidiary of this company is the A.S Watson Group which is a retail operator that has more than 7,800 stores including some well-known brands such as Superdrug, Watson stores, Park n Shop markets, Kruidvat, and many more. The Hutchison Whampoa conglomerate is also reputed as a smart asset trader that makes new business ventures and sells them. This has gotten the company huge profits. His companies form 15% of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange’s market cap.

During the 1980s Hutchison Whampoa expanded its container ports and in 1985 bought 33 percent of Hongkong Electric Holdings. Li next began to extend his empire outside of Asia, starting in Canada, where his two sons were educated, with investments in the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Husky Oil. Hutchison Telecommunications, a Hong Kong mobile-phone service launched in 1985, became a major player in telecommunications in the 1990s, building the Orange PCS mobile network in Europe, which Li sold to Mannes-mann in 1999 for $14.6 billion in cash and equity.

Li's two primary corporate entities, Cheung Kong and Hutchison Whampoa have intertwined: Cheung Kong Holdings owned 49.9 percent of Hutchison Whampoa, and Hutchison Whampoa owned 85 percent of Cheung Kong Infrastructure. Cheung Kong, with 175,000 employees worldwide and operations in 39 countries, eventually moved into biotechnology and internet services. By early 2004 the various Cheung Kong companies represented 11.5 percent of the total market capitalization of Hong Kong's stock exchange. Hutchison Whampoa was the world's largest port operator as of 2004; meanwhile, its retail and manufacturing segments accounted for more than 40 percent of company sales, with thousands of retail outlets selling wide varieties of products across Europe and Asia.

In 2012, Li announced that he would hand off Cheung Kong to his eldest son Victor Li while providing cash to help his second son Richard develop his own businesses. He did not announce when he would retire at the time. In 2018, Li announced that he would be retiring to focus on his charitable foundation, which he has called his "third son." He has said that he hopes that as Asia becomes more wealthy, others will follow his lead in philanthropy. Li retired as chairman of CK Hutchison Holdings and CK Asset Holdings in May 2018 but remains Senior Advisor.

Li was one of the first big investors in Facebook and Spotify and also invested in a startup that aims to replace eggs with a plant substitute. Li only invests in technology that he sees as "disruptive" and will make his holdings more cutting-edge. This is consistent with his constant innovation in his businesses.

Achievements

• 

  Li Ka-shing is revered as one of the most influential businessmen in Asia. Li has been awarded the Grand Bauhinia medal and was knighted as Commander of the Order of the British Empire and Commandeur, Légion d’honneur. In 2006, he was given the first Malcolm S. Forbes Lifetime Achievement Award by the Forbes family.
  
  Often called Superman in Hong Kong due to his business dexterity and competence, Ka-Shing rose from his humble beginnings to become of the most influential people of the world. He was termed Asia’s Most Powerful Man by AsiaWeek in 2001.
  
  Li has received Honorary Doctorates from the University of Cambridge, the University of Calgary in Canada, Peking University, and the University of Hong Kong, among others.

Religion

Li Ka-shing is a follower of Buddhism.

Politics

Li’s ties with high-ranking officials in China and Hong Kong benefited his business but prompted criticism. After his son was kidnapped in 1996, the culprit was caught by mainland police and executed. This led to widespread speculation that Li had bypassed local Hong Kong police and sought help at the highest levels of China’s government. Li’s attempt to influence the political climate in Hong Kong by threatening to cancel a major development also resulted in a backlash. In the United States, some members of Congress worried that Li’s ties to Chinese leaders made his ownership of ports at both ends of the Panama Canal a security risk.

Views

Li Ka-shing is a well-known philanthropist and has donated millions to educational institutes, hospitals, and other worthy causes all over the world through the Li Ka-shing Foundation which he established in 1980. His philanthropy was well-known throughout Asia, where his Li Ka-shing Foundation, created in 1981, contributed about $500 million in the fields of health and education.

He donated HK$100 million to the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2001 following which a tower in the university was named after him. He made a £5.3 million donation to the University of Cambridge, which in 2002 inaugurated the Li Ka-shing Centre which houses a Cancer Research United Kingdom facility. He contributed $100 million to the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in the National University of Singapore in 2007. He also pledged support for rescue efforts after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the Sichuan earthquake of 2008.

In June 2019, The Li Ka-shing Foundation announced that it will cover the tuition of Shantou University's incoming class for up to five years as a part of an ongoing initiative to make higher education more accessible in China. Ka-shing also has pledged to give off 1/3rd of his wealth to charitable institutions and philanthropist developments all over the world. His Li Ka Shing Foundation has donated more than $3.3 billion; over 80% has gone to Greater China.

Quotations: "Buying land is not like buying antique. It is not the only deal available."

"If you don’t have a big heart, you will not succeed."

"A good reputation for yourself and your company is an invaluable asset not reflected in the balance sheets."

"Vision is perhaps our greatest strength, it has kept us alive to the power and continuity it makes us peer into the future and lends shape to the unknown."

"If you think, then you will be prepared. If you are prepared, then you will have no worries."

Personality

Most accounts described Li as personally unpretentious and frugal, leading a modest lifestyle that reflected his respect for traditional Chinese values. He is known for his adherence to moral values and for living a simple life. He does, however, own a luxurious house in Hong Kong's most expensive precincts, Deep Water Bay in Hong Kong Island.

Perhaps one of the most important factors that have contributed to Li's success is the passion he feels for his work. In 2010, he told Forbes, "The most important enjoyment for me is to work hard and make more profit."

Connections

Li Ka-shing is a widow. His wife Chong Yuet Ming, who he married in 1963 died in 1990. He has two sons, Victor Li and Richard Li who are also prominent business figures in their own right.

Father:

Li Yun

Li Yun was diagnosed with Tuberculosis, which made Li take up the family responsibility from a very early age.

Mother:

Zhuang Biqin

Spouse:

Chong Yuet Ming

Son:

Victor Li Tzar-kuoi

Victor Li takes care of Cheung Kong Holdings Limited. In 1996, Victor was kidnapped by the notorious criminal Cheung Tze Hueng and was released after his father paid $125 million in ransom and also reportedly asked the mainland government for help; in 1998 the kidnapper was captured and executed.

Son:

Richard Li Tzar Kai

Richard Li is known for his great business sense and philanthropy. He has been rated as the 26th richest in the Hongkong list of billionaires.

Acquaintance:

Michael Bloomberg

References

• Li Ka-Shing: The Biography
  1997