Topic

Hutchison Whampoai

Hutchison Whampoa is controlled by the Cheung Kong Group, and headed by Li Ka-shing, Asia’s wealthiest man, who has been nicknamed “Superman” because of his investment prowess. Its operations include ports, with property and hotels, retailing telecommunications (Hutchison Telecommunications International) and infrastructure (Cheung Kong Infrastructure).

Advertisement
  • When the South China Morning Post made its first print run in November 1903, Hong Kong was already a bustling entrepot teeming with a vibrant business community
  • AS Watson, founded in Guangzhou in 1828 and established in Hong Kong formally in 1841, is the oldest surviving business the city
videocam

Billionaire Li Ka-shing ’s conglomerate CK Hutchison counts businesses spanning ports, retail, infrastructure and telecommunications, with holdings in about 51 ports in 25 countries, its website shows.

Advertisement
Advertisement

From Li Ka-shing’s empire to an office tower bought by James Tien Pei-chun’s Manhattan Garments Group, the whipsawing British pound could draw blood from some of Hong Kong and China’s biggest businesses.

videocam

A combination of Vodafone and Three UK has been speculated for years, and Vodafone has teamed up with CK Hutchison in other markets including Australia.

The conglomerate, with businesses touching almost every aspect of the average Hongkonger’s life, said it was able to pull through the pandemic because of its “financial discipline, resilience and agility.”

Merger of CK Hutchison’s Indonesian wireless operations with PT Indosat will allow the combined business to better compete with Indonesia’s dominant carrier Telkomsel.

videocam

The two sets of financial results by one of Hong Kong’s bellwether conglomerates underscore how two successive quarters of economic growth is slowly trickling into corporate earnings, as the city continues to grapple with a recession and record high unemployment wrought by the coronavirus pandemic.

CK Hutchison and CK Asset posted sharply lower profits as economic disruptions caused by the pandemic took a toll on operations ranging from ports to property.

videocam

Property owners have been encouraged to lock in the appreciations of their investments, after Wharf (Holdings) paid a record HK$12 billion for a parcel of land on Mansfield Road on The Peak via government tender in December.

Backed by Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, Solina Chau has turned Horizons Ventures, established to finance Li’s philanthropy, into one of Asia’s most formidable venture capital funds.

CK Hutchison is backing an US$18 billion merger between its unit Husky Energy and Canadian rival Cenovus Energy to help end losses from global oil-market slump.

The introduction of the test kits comes as the coronavirus pandemic is developing a so-called second wave of worldwide infections in Europe and North America.

videocam

All eyes are on Li as he steers one of Hong Kong’s most renowned companies through a pandemic. The last time the city’s economy caught a similar slump in 2003, Cheung Kong’s reins were in the grips of an entrepreneur dubbed “Superman Li” for his deal making prowess.

CKI has signed an agreement to set up a venture with Shenzhen-listed Jilin Power, a unit of State Power Investment Corporation, it said in a statement

videocam

Super Typhoon Mangkhut, which left Hong Kong with a HK$3.1 billion (US$397 million) insurance bill as it swept past the city last summer, could have been even more devastating, if it had hit during high tide.

videocam

In the US alone, 96,000 new cases of melanoma - skin cancer that primarily afflicts people with fair skin after severe exposure to ultraviolet light - are expected this year, resulting possibly in 7,000 deaths, according to CK Life’s chief operating officer Alan Yu Ying-choi

China Evergrande Group was the biggest donor last year, handing out HK$4.3 billion, some 5.7 per cent of its annual profit, according to a study by Sodata Analytics Foundation Association.

Hong Kong, once the world’s busiest container port, has lost volumes to its neighbours in the last two decades and slipped in global rankings to seventh place last year, falling behind Shanghai, Singapore, Ningo, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Busan.

The explosive growth in China’s ports since the country’s WTO membership has bolstered home-grown vendors in the shipping industry, helping them dominate the supply of cranes and shipping containers

The ports business is a reflection of commerce, and Chinese harbours have prospered with the explosive growth of trade since China joined the World Trade Organisation in December 2001.

Hong Kong conglomerate Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings posted a below expectation 1.8 per cent increase in profit on Wednesday, with chairman Victor Li Tzar-kuoi reporting the company’s first set of annual results after taking over from his father, Li Ka-shing, in May 2018.