Telecom tycoon Richard Li Tzar-kai may bid for ING Group's Asia insurance and asset management businesses, according to sources.
The giant Dutch financial firm last month announced plans to sell the two units together or separately and has invited firms to submit bids. People familiar with the situation told the South China Morning Post that Li Ka-shing's younger son is looking at both.
Li's spokesman would not comment.
Last week Li Ka-Shing said he would financially back Richard Li's attempts to expand beyond the family's property flagship Cheung Kong Group. Li senior did not give any details but had said Richard was in talks for possible acquisitions of 'long-term' interest.
The octogenarian billionaire had said businesses that Richard Li (pictured) was interested in would not compete with Cheung Kong or its conglomerate subsidiary Hutchison Whampoa, which would be passed to elder son Victor Li Tzar-kuoi as part of the succession plan outlined by the patriarch. Neither Cheung Kong nor Hutchison is into insurance or asset management.
Richard Li has expanded beyond the business scope of his father's empire since quitting as a director at Hutchison Whampoa in 2000. He is now chairman of PCCW, the largest telecommunications operator in the city. He also used to own Pacific Century Insurance, which he sold to Fortis Insurance International in 2007.