Li Ka-Shing, the richest real estate mogul in the world, was born on June 13, 1928, in Chaozhou, China. He ranks as the 41st richest person in the world with a net worth of $30.5 billion, making 17.6 million troy ounces of gold or 314 million barrels of crude oil equal to his wealth.
Hutchison Holdings Ltd., the conglomerate founded by billionaire Li Ka-Shing, saw its profit rise 4.3% in the first half of this year despite warnings of growing threats from a worldwide recession.
According to recent reports, the CK Group’s flagship business earned HK$19.09 billion (US$2.43 billion) in net profits for the six-month period that ended in June. Total revenue climbed 8.1% from the same period last year to HK$229.6 billion. It enhanced the interim dividend to HK$0.84 per share in contrast to the prior year.
The majority of Li’s wealth is made up of stock in publicly traded companies like the Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings, the Canadian oil and gas producer Cenovus Energy, the San Jose-based Zoom Video Communications, and the real estate developer CK Asset. He restructured his companies in 2015, dismantling the network of companies that held stock in one another.
Li holds 30% of both CK Asset, where his real estate interests are kept, and CK Hutchison, which includes a variety of assets including ports, infrastructure, and mobile phone networks. There are two further publicly traded holdings: CK Infrastructure and Hutchison Telecom Hong Kong.
The shares are owned through a number of holding companies and trusts that were established in Hong Kong, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, and Panama, according to paperwork presented to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Li is also given credit for the shares that his son, Victor Li, owns in order to emphasize his standing as the originator.
Li’s family fled to Hong Kong in 1940 when the Japanese occupied China. After his father passed away, Li was compelled to begin working as an apprentice in a factory at the age of 14. He established a facility that made plastic flowers in 1950, following which he began investing in real estate.
In 1967, after the Cultural Revolution-related turmoil reduced prices, he bought property in Hong Kong (he did so again after the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989). Cheung Kong, Li’s largest company, built about one in every seven private dwellings in the city twelve years later.
