You may have your doubts about the man, but when Li Ka- shing sets out to improve his net worth you can get quite a nice ride on his coat-tails if you know where they are.
Take his latest venture, Global Transport Exchange (GTX), a Web site (oops, portal these days) 90 per cent owned by Hutchison, which aims to become the global leader in on-line transactions for the US$800 billion a year spent on the global freight market.
With Hutchison operating 120 berths in 18 ports around the world it should be one of those rare things, an Internet company that makes money.
Let your correspondent make his declaration here. He is a very pleased Hutchison shareholder but, like any investor, he wants even more and here is his suggestion on how to run this new venture.
It may be exactly what Mr Li already has in mind. Who knows? We start by making Hutch pay GTX a fat service charge. It does not really matter how big it is. Hutch gets 90 per cent of it back anyway.
We also make this a three to five-year contract to give it an appearance of permanence. We cannot reasonably ask for longer, can we? This provides the immediate base of GTX profits.
