Li Ka-shing Biography & Net Worth

Li Ka-shing Biography & Net Worth

Famously called “Superman” by fans and supporters in the media, Hong Kong entrepreneur and philanthropist Li Ka-shing is regarded as one of the wealthiest and most influential businessmen in Asia. A very powerful icon in the business world as well as in his country of origin, he has run many businesses while also occupying numerous positions across companies and organizations in several industries.

Li was the board chairman of the now non-operational Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL) and now serves as the Chairman of one of the leading multinational conglomerates in Hong Kong, called Cheung Kong Holdings. He’s known to have businesses involved in diverse fields including internet, telecommunication, real estate, and ports. The story of his extraordinary success is truly an inspirational one. Born into a poor family in mainland China, he absconded to Hong Kong as an immigrant after Japanese invasions in 1940. He was a young boy when his father died, and this forced him to start taking up jobs at the age of 15. An intelligent and determined boy, Li went on to start his own businesses in the years that followed and rose to become one of his country’s leading industrialists. Respected world over as a man fully committed to moral values and ethics, this hardworking man is also a distinguished philanthropist and has bequeathed over a billion dollars to charitable causes. Despite being one of the richest persons on the planet, he is known for his modesty and as someone who prefers to lead a frugal lifestyle. Let’s discuss the full details of his life and successful career in the article below.

Early Life: Childhood & Education

He was born on 29 July 1928 in Chaozhou in Guangdong province, China. His family was very poor and had to struggle for basic stuff, though, his father worked as a teacher and headed a local primary school.

Li happened to be born in a period of great political chaos in China. His family had to run to Hong Kong after the Japanese invasion of China in 1940 and struggled to find a balance in their new surroundings. A major tragedy befell them within a span of three years, as Li’s father, the family’s breadwinner, became sick with tuberculosis and painfully died when Li was just 15 years old. This forced the young boy to drop out of school to take care of the family by doing small jobs. He started working in a plastics selling company as a salesman selling things like plastic watchbands and belts. He worked hard, spending up to 16 hours a day and showed to be a capable salesman.

Furthermore, he has no educational qualifications, as he never completed his education.

Professional Life: Business Career

After gaining helpful experience during the time he worked in the plastic business, Li was able to start up something for himself using the little money he has saved up. He came up with his own business, a plastics production and marketing company named Cheung Kong in 1950. Initially, his company manufactured artificial flowers and shipped them to the United States. Throughout the 1950s this company saw steady growth and the businessman began looking for the perfect ways to expand the business. Eight years later, purchased his first factory in what became the first of his numerous real estate investments.

Over the years that followed his debut in the business world, Li changed the focus of his plastics business which he eventually converted into a property improvement and management company. His new business enjoyed success in the following years and he renamed his company to Kong Holdings in 1971. The following year, it got listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Li Ka-shing purchased Hutchison Whampoa from HSBC in the year 1979, thus expanding his business as the move added several diverse industries to his prevailing business. He soon transformed Hutchison into the largest independent operator of ports in the world, with investments in container port structures around the world, including in China, Hong Kong, Canada, Panama, the United Kingdom, Rotterdam, Bahamas, and many other countries.

Once he had achieved enough capital and connection, Li forayed into the booming technology business. One of his companies, Horizons Ventures, an investment and venture capital company, which unambiguously supports new internet and technology startup companies, purchased a stake in doubleTwist, a digital telecommunications company. He also owns a 0.8 percent stake in the popular social networking platform Facebook which he purchased through his other company, Li Ka Shing Foundation. Li owns a stake in Ginger Software Incorporated. He was also an early investor in the conferencing app called Zoom. His Zoom stake is reportedly worth around $6.5 billion.

Philanthropy

In addition to being famous as a wealthy businessman and active investor, Li Ka-shing is also well known for his works as a philanthropist who has donated millions of dollars to hospitals, educational institutes, and multiple worthy causes across the world through his Li Ka Shing Foundation which was established in 1980.

In 2001, Li gifted HK$100 million to the Hong Kong Polytechnic University following which a tower in the institution was named after him. The following year, he gave £5.3 million to the University of Cambridge in the UK, which inaugurated the Li Ka Shing Center, an establishment that houses a Cancer Research facility. Another beneficiary of his kind gestures is the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, which received a donation of $100 million from the business tycoon in 2007.

Achievements: Awards & Honors

Li Ka-shing has accomplished many things starting from the year 1950 when he founded his Cheung Kong Industries as a plastics manufacturer. His company eventually exploded and diversified into other fields and evolved to become Cheung Kong (Holdings) Limited within twenty years of existing. It is today regarded as the leading multinational conglomerate in Hong Kong, operating in more than 50 countries with more than 240,000 staff worldwide.

Asides from his triumph with his businesses, Li has been recognized and appreciated by the people through various ways. Respected bodies have also identified his works and honored him for his remarkable contributions and achievements.

In 2000, Li Ka-shing was knighted as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. The following year, he received the Grand Bauhinia Medal which is considered to be the highest award in the Hong Kong awards and honors system, and it was presented to him in recognition of his lifelong and noteworthy contributions to the country.

Personal Life: Family. Wife, Children, Personal Interests

Li Ka-shing is a widower. He has remained single after his wife, Chong Yuet Ming, passed away in 1990. They got married in 1963 and their marriage produced two sons, Richard Li and Victor Li, who are also successful businessmen in their own right.

He is famed for his devotion to moral values and for maintaining a simple life. He never shows off or pops up in the media for irrelevant reasons. However, he is known to be the owner of a luxurious house in the most expensive precincts of Hong Kong, the Deep Water Bay situated in Hong Kong Island.

Li Ka-shing Net Worth: Salary, Income Sources, Real Estate

As of this writing, Mr. Li is among the 30 richest people on the planet. The Hong Kong-born businessman’s wealth has come from a lot of things, but mostly the result of his investments in many companies in several industries, ranging from telecommunication to the real estate development industry which he manages through his Cheung Kong Property Holdings. His other companies include the Hong Kong Corporation CK Hutchison Holdings and the Canadian energy firm Husky Energy. In addition, he is also dedicated to philanthropy and oversees the largest private philanthropic foundation in the world, second only to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Li Ka-Shing’s net worth is $35 billion according to recent reports. He has been actively involved with a number of real estate deals over recent years. Some of the most notable deals during the course of his business career include the sale of the fifth-tallest skyscraper in Hong Kong, known as “The Center”. He sold the structure for $5.15 billion in a transaction that was regarded as the biggest office real estate deal ever finalized in the Asia-Pacific region. He also sold Shanghai’s Century Link complex for $2.9 billion in what became the second-largest real estate transaction for a single building. Li Ka-shing spent $4.6 billion on land acquisitions in 2018, buying lands after attracting a property development agreement in Hong Kong. He had previously acquired a residential site in the country for $248 million in 2016. In 2019, he raised brows after purchasing the English brewery firm Greene King for $5.5 billion. Recently, in 2020, it was publicized that his company had been given a go to begin construction on a housing development project in London said to be worth $1.26 billion.