With a net worth topping $12 billion, li ka-shing stands on an equal footing with such Americans as Michael Dell and Steven Ballmer. But in Hong Kong, Li, 75, has no peer. Through his pub- licly listed Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings, Li is a leading provider of electricity in Hong Kong. He is the city's biggest cell phone service provider and among its biggest real estate developers and retailers. His companies account for 11.5% of the market capitalization of Hong Kong stocks. He is also the world's biggest investor―$11 billion so far―in 3-G cell phone technology, a format that promises to deliver mobile video and multimedia telecommunications. The foreign press salivates over Li's risky telecom bets and flashy real estate deals. But the tastiest morsel in his empire has a brinier flavor. In the past four years Li has spent an estimated $1.5 billion buying 15 shipping container terminals, according to U.K.-based Drewry Shipping Consultants. Li's shipping container business is the world's largest: a presence in 32 ports (including several of the world's busiest) in 15 countries, handling 13% of the world's containers. Drewry says 42% of all containers leaving China depart from Li's terminals. Thanks to a surge in Chinese exports, which ballooned from $18 billion in 1980 to $325 billion last year, Hutchison Port Holdings has become Li's most profitable operation, generating 28% of Hutchison Whampoa's $3.1 billion in earnings before taxes and interest in 2002 while accounting for just 18.5% of its sales.
展开▼
