Li Ka-Shing, the world’s wealthiest real estate billionaire, was born on June 13, 1928, in Chaozhou, China. His $30.5 billion net worth places him as the 41st richest person in the world, equating to 17.6 million troy ounces of gold or 314 million barrels of crude oil.
Despite warnings about the growing threat of a global recession, Hutchison Holdings Ltd., the conglomerate founded by billionaire Li Ka-Shing, saw its profit rise 4.3% in the first half of this year as a result of its global operations.
According to recent statistics, the CK Group’s flagship company had a net profit of HK$19.09 billion (US$2.43 billion) for the six-month period ending in June. In comparison to the same period the previous year, total revenue increased by 8.1% to HK$229.6 billion. In comparison to the previous year, it increased the interim dividend to HK$0.84 per share.
The majority of Li’s fortune is made up of stock in publicly traded companies such as Zoom Video Communications in San Jose, CK Hutchison Holdings in Hong Kong, Cenovus Energy in Canada, and CK Asset, a real estate developer. He reorganized his businesses in 2015, removing the network of firms that had shares in one another.
Li controls 30% of CK Hutchison, which holds assets such as ports, infrastructure, and mobile phone networks, as well as CK Asset, which owns his real estate holdings. Other publicly traded holdings include CK Infrastructure and Hutchison Telecom Hong Kong.
According to paperwork filed with the Hong Kong stock exchange, the shares are held by a number of holding companies and trusts incorporated in Hong Kong, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, and Panama. In order to highlight his status as the creator, Li is also given credit for the shares held by his son, Victor Li.
Li’s family fled to Hong Kong when the Japanese invaded China in 1940. After his father died, Li was compelled to begin working as an apprentice at a factory at the age of 14. He created a business that produced plastic flowers in 1950, following which he began investing in real estate.
After the Cultural Revolution-related turmoil reduced prices in 1967, he bought real estate in Hong Kong (he did so again after the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989). Cheung Kong, Li’s biggest company, had built nearly one in every seven private dwellings in the city twelve years later.
