Hong Kong tycoon Victor Li off to solid start as new boss as CKI reports rise in first-half profit
The rise was due mainly to acquisitions in Australia and Germany, as well as to strong business in the UK
Hong Kong conglomerate Cheung Kong Infrastructure (CKI) reported a rise in first-half profit thanks largely to overseas business acquisitions, handing new chairman Victor Li Tzar-kuoi a solid start after he took the reins in May of the business empire founded by his father Li Ka-shing.
Net profit for the first six months was HK$5.94 billion (US$756.9 million), up 5 per cent from HK$5.66 billion in the same period last year, and amounted to 51.8 per cent of the HK$11.47 billion average full-year profit estimate by seven analysts polled by Bloomberg.
Revenue grew 39.2 per cent year on year to HK$19.45 billion, Victor Li said in a filing to Hong Kong’s stock exchange on Thursday. The board declared an interim dividend of 68 HK cents per share, up from 67 cents last year.
“If not for a few one-off items which occurred in [the] UK and Australia in the first half of 2017, the 2018 interim profit contribution of our underlying businesses would have posted a double digit [percentage] increase over the same period last year,” he said.
“A pipeline of potential acquisitions is currently being explored including a large-scale project in Australia,” he said of CKI’s business outlook.
Victor Li became chairman of CK Hutchison Holdings and CK Asset – the two flagship companies making up the busines empire – after his father stepped down at the age of 89. The elder Li had built up the business from nothing, and is Hong Kong’s richest man. CKI is 75.7 per cent-owned by CK Hutchison Holdings.