Sir Ka-shing Li (; born 29 July 1928)"SUPPLEMENT TO THE LONDON GAZETTE, 31st DECEMBER 1988". London Gazette. is a Hong Kong tycoon and philanthropist. He previously served as chairman of CK Hutchison Holdings and CK Asset Holdings, before retiring from those roles in May 2018. Following his retirement, he assumed the position of senior advisor to both companies. He is an investor, developer, and operator of the largest health and beauty retailer in Asia and Europe. In the 2026 Forbes list of The World's Billionaires, Li Ka-shing was ranked 42nd with a net worth of $47 billion.
Li has invested in a range of industries, including transportation, real estate, financial services, retail, and energy and utilities. His conglomerate, Cheung Kong Holdings has operated businesses across multiple sectors of the Hong Kong economy and has at times accounted for a notable share of the total market capitalisation of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Forbes magazine and the Forbes family honoured Li Ka-shing with the first ever Malcolm S. Forbes Lifetime Achievement Award on 5 September 2006 in Singapore.Li Ka-shing Receives First Malcolm S. Forbes Lifetime Achievement Award In spite of his wealth, Li has cultivated a reputation for leading a frugal no-frills lifestyle, and is known to wear simple black dress shoes and an inexpensive Seiko wristwatch. He lived in the same house for decades, in what has now become one of the most expensive districts in Hong Kong, Deep Water Bay in Hong Kong Island. Li is also a philanthropist, donating billions of dollars to charity and various other philanthropic causes, and owning the second largest private foundation in the world after Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2019, Forbes put Li in the list of most generous philanthropists outside of the US.
Early life Li was born in Chao'an, Chaozhou, in Guangdong Province in 1928 to Teochew parents named Li Yun-ching (1898–1943) and Cheung Bik-chin (1893–1984). Li and his family fled to Hong Kong in 1940 as refugees from the Sino-Japanese war. Following his father's death from tuberculosis, Li left school at 15 years old to work in a plastics trading company for 16 hours a day. In 1950, he started his own company, Cheung Kong Industries. From manufacturing plastics, Li developed his company into a leading real estate investment company in Hong Kong that was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 1972. Cheung Kong expanded by acquiring Hutchison Whampoa and Hongkong Electric Holdings in 1979 and 1985 respectively.
Business career Plastics manufacturing In 1950, after learning how to operate a plant, Li founded a plastic manufacturing company in Hong Kong with personal savings and funds borrowed from relatives. Li read trade publications and business news before entering the artificial flowers industry. Li learned the technique of mixing colour with plastics that resemble real flowers. After retooling his shop, Li received a large order from a foreign buyer and subsequently grew to be the largest supplier of plastic flowers in Asia. Forbes
Real estate In 1958, Li purchased a site to develop his own factory building. An opportunity to acquire more land arrived after the 1967 riots when many people fled Hong Kong, and, as a result, property prices plummeted. Li believed the political crisis would be temporary and property prices would eventually rise, and bought land from the fleeing residents at low prices. In 1971, Li officially named his real estate development company Cheung Kong (). Cheung Kong Holdings was publicly listed in Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 1972. During board meetings, Li stated on a number of occasions his goal of surpassing the Jardines-owned Hongkong Land as a leading developer.Taiwan's Business Weekly, December 2007, Issue 1047, p. 160-161
The successful bid by Cheung Kong for development sites above the Central and Admiralty MTR stations in 1977 was the key to challenging Hongkong Land as the premier property developer in Hong Kong. Despite its size, Jardines decided in the 1980s to protect itself from hostile takeover by Li or other outside investors. The company implemented a cross-shareholding structure that was designed to place control in the hands of Britain's Keswick family despite their less than 10% holdings in the group. In 1984, the company also moved its legal domicile from Hong Kong to another British overseas territory – Bermuda, in anticipation of the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong to People's Republic of China in 1997.
In an effort to drive forward divestitures of assets in Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland, Li agreed to sell The Center, the fifth-tallest skyscraper in Hong Kong. With a value of (), the deal constitutes the biggest ever office space real estate sale in the Asia-Pacific region. Li sold the Century Link complex in Shanghai for US$2.95 billion, the second largest transaction for a single building, according to the Financial Times.
In 1979, Li purchased a major stake in Hutchison Whampoa from Hong Kong Bank through Cheung Kong.
Retail A subsidiary of CK Hutchison, AS Watson (ASW), is a retail operator with over 15,000 stores. Its portfolio encompasses retail brands in Europe such as Superdrug (UK), Marionnaud (France), Kruidvat (Benelux countries), and in Asia including health and beauty retailer Watson's store and wine cellars et al., PARKnSHOP supermarkets (and spin-off brands), and Fortress electrical appliance stores. ASW also produces and distributes water products and beverages in the region.
Asset trading CK Hutchison builds up new businesses and sells them off when shareholder value can be created. Profits were obtained in the sale of its interest in Orange to Mannesmann Group in 1999, making a profit of . In 2006, Li sold 20% of Hutchison's ports business to Singapore rival PSA Corporation, making a profit on a deal.
Group subsidiary Hutchison Telecommunications sold a controlling stake of 67% in Hutchison Essar, a joint venture Mobile operator in India, to Vodafone for .
Internet and technology Li has also made a foray into the technology business, where his investment and venture capital firm Horizons Ventures is specifically allocated towards backing new internet and technology startup firms, and bought a stake in doubleTwist."Spotify Li Hutchinson Markets Equities Technology" . Forbes, August 2009 His other firm, the Li Ka Shing Foundation bought a 0.8% stake in social networking website :Facebook for in two separate rounds,Li Ka-shing ups Facebook stake to $120 million May 2008Li Ka-shing foundation buys Facebook stake December 2007 and invested an estimated in the music streaming service Spotify. Some time between late 2009 and early 2010, Li Ka-shing led a Series B round of financing for Siri Inc.A Personal Assistant on Your iPhone February 2010
In 2011, Horizons Ventures invested in Summly, a website-summarizing app. Notably, the investment made Nick D'Aloisio, Summly's founder, the world's youngest person to receive a venture capital investment at just fifteen years old. In 2012, Horizons Ventures invested in Wibbitz, a company that provides a text-to-video technology that can automatically convert any article post or feed on the web into a video in a matter of seconds. In August 2012, Li acquired a stake in Ginger Software Incorporated. In 2013, Horizons Ventures invested in bitcoin payment company BitPay.
In February 2015, Horizons Ventures participated in a Series C funding round in Zoom Video Communications. Later in the year, Li participated in a Series D round in Impossible Foods. In 2016, he continued investments in technology companies and Horizons Ventures led a Series A round in Blockstream, the leader in blockchain related technologies, and also invested in a startup incubator fund Expa, that works with the founders to build new companies.
In September 2017, Li worked with Alibaba's Jack Ma to bring AlipayHK, a digital wallet service, to Hong Kong.
Water Through CK Infrastructure Holdings Limited, Li owns 75% of British water supplier Northumbrian Water, the remaining 25% being held by US private equity firm KKR. Despite losses of ~£22 million between March 2022 and July 2023, CK Group and KKR between them took £159 million in dividends from the organisation which in the same period paid its chief executive, Heidi Mottram, $1.24 million. In 2022 the business was fined £240,000 for discharging untreated sewage into a water course in northeast England over a period of two days.
Australian tax dispute In 2013, a claim was lodged by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) against Cheung Kong Infrastructure (CKI) to pay approximately in unpaid tax, penalties and interest relating to tax disputes concerning SA Power Networks and Victoria Power Networks. The dispute was resolved in 2015 when CKI entered into an agreement with the ATO. No penalty was levied against CKI and a sum of approximately was refunded from the previously paid to the ATO by CKI.
Retirement After his almost-70-year reign over CK Hutchison Holdings and CK Asset Holdings, Li announced his retirement on 16 March 2018 and the decision to pass control of his empire to his son, Victor Li. He is still involved in the conglomerate as a senior advisor.
Others Besides business through his flagship companies CK Asset Holdings and CK Hutchison Holdings, Li Ka-shing has also personally invested extensively in real estate in Singapore and Canada. He was the single largest shareholder of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), the fifth largest bank in Canada, until the sale of his share in 2005 (with all proceedings donated, see below). He is also the majority shareholder of a major energy company, Husky Energy, based in Alberta, Canada. Husky was acquired by Cenovus in 2021, and Li owns 27.2% of the newly merged company.
In January 2005, Li announced plans to sell his stake in the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, with all proceeds going to private charitable foundations established by Li, including the Li Ka Shing Foundation in Hong Kong and the Li Ka Shing (Canada) Foundation based in Toronto, Ontario.lksf Li was the non-executive director of the Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation since 1980 and became deputy chairman of the bank in 1985. He was also Deputy Chairman of HSBC in 1991–1992.
According to Bloomberg, he had a net worth of in July 2021.
Personal life Li was married to his first cousin, Chong Yuet-ming (1933–1990) in 1962 until her sudden death on New Year's Day 1990 due to a suspected drug overdose (other sources name the cause as cardiac arrest). She was the daughter of his maternal uncle (mother's younger brother), Cheung Jing-on (1908–1996) and his wife, Hew Bik-yin (1911–2002), who were also from the Chaoshan region. Both settled in British Hong Kong long before Li migrated to the city. He has two sons, Victor and Richard, both Canadian citizens. Victor Li succeeded his father as Chairman of CK Hutchison Holdings and Chairman of CK Asset Holdings, while Richard Li is Chairman of PCCW, the largest telecom company in Hong Kong. He is a follower of Buddhism.
Li has been called "plainly dressed" for a Hong Kong tycoon. In the 1990s, he wore a timepiece from Citizen Watch and plain ties. He later wore a Seiko. In 2016, he wore a Citizen watch. Most recently he has been spotted wearing an Apple Watch.
His son Victor Li was kidnapped in 1996 on his way home after work by gangster Cheung Tze-keung (aka "Big Spender"). Li Ka-shing paid a ransom of directly to Cheung, who had come to his house."Kidnapper of Li Ka-shing's son rang tycoon to ask where he should invest HK$1billion ransom." Mimi Lau. South China Morning Post. 29 November 2013. A report was never filed with Hong Kong police. Instead the case was pursued by mainland authorities, leading to Cheung's execution in 1998, an outcome not possible under Hong Kong law. Rumours circulated of a deal between Li and the mainland.
Awards and honours Grand Bauhinia Medal