Ka-shing Out?

摘要

Hong Kong tycoon-in-chief Li Ka-shing has kept tongues wagging since late last year, when Hutchison Whampoa, his infrastructure and retail conglomerate, announced that it was selling the ParknShop supermarket chain. He later scrapped that idea but unloaded a slew of other assets, including three commercial properties in mainland China, for a total of 12.8 billion yuan ($2.1 billion). Li, whose estimated $31.9 billion fortune makes him Asia's wealthiest man, is on an overseas spending spree. In recentyears his companies have allocated more than $51 billion to the U.K. alone, making him that country's biggest foreign investor. Li's sales could destabilize Hong Kong's economy, charged the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China's leading government think tank, in a recent report that mentioned rumors of a Hutchison withdrawal from Hong Kong. Li, 85, called the accusations a big joke, but analysts say he's justplaying smart, especially with Hong Kong real estate prices at record highs. "Even Tokyo is cheaper , than Hong Kong," notes Paul Schulte, CEO of Schulte Research International, a Hong Kong-based research firm.