Li Ka-shing, coming back from England again? Will Hong Kong still welcome him?

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Li Ka-shing, coming back?

In the past two days, the news about "Li Ka-shing changed her nationality back to China" has been widely circulated on the Internet. At the same time, the Li family has recently carried out a series of large-scale asset sales operations in Britain. All these remind people of the scene that he gradually withdrew his capital from China Mainland and Hongkong in the past ten years.

Now, Li Ka-shing, who "bought half of Britain", will "run away" from Britain again? Why did Li Ka-shing sell its assets in Britain and even Europe at this time? What will be his target choice for this round of "asset relocation"? Will the Lee family focus on Hong Kong and the Mainland again?

1

The speculation about "Li Ka-shing is back" first comes from the rumor that he changed his nationality back to China.

About two days ago, a news began to circulate on the Internet, saying that Li Ka-shing, the richest man in Hong Kong, had recently changed from British to China. "According to insiders, the total tax paid for Li Ka-shing's second naturalization is about 5 billion yuan."

As evidence, someone turned up an entry about Li Ka-shing in Baidu Encyclopedia, and the nationality column showed "China".

However, it is impossible to confirm whether this news is true for the time being.

Before that, rumors about Li Ka-shing's change of nationality would be lively at regular intervals. The last time was last August, when the news that "Li Ka-shing changed back to China nationality" was circulated on various social platforms in the mainland, but it was later dropped.

Information from Google search shows that Li Ka-shing's nationality is still "Canadian" and he lives in Hong Kong, and he obtained the permanent residency in Hong Kong after 1997.

I don't know whether it has changed its nationality, but it is obvious that Lee's assets are "retreating from Britain".

On the 11th, the Li Ka-shing family's Cheung Kong Industrial Group announced that it would sell all the shares of "5 Broadgate", an office building in London, England, held by its wholly-owned subsidiary, at a price of 729 million pounds, or about 6 billion yuan.

Compared with the price of 1 billion pounds when it was purchased in 218, the deal lost 271 million pounds. However, Cheung Kong Group said that it is still expected to gain 18 million pounds from the sale, taking into account the comprehensive factors such as property rental in the past four years.

This is the second big sale of assets in Britain by the Li Ka-shing family in just one week.

Bloomberg reported on the 4th that the Li family has put its British power distribution company, UK Power Networks, on the shelves with a valuation of 15 billion pounds, or about 126 billion yuan. Compared with 5.8 billion pounds when I bought it in 21, the price is now nearly three times.

This transaction is expected to become one of the biggest transactions in the industry this year, and an agreement may be reached with the bidder in the next few weeks.

Coupled with the earlier sale of its British telecommunications company Three UK, a series of large-scale asset disposals of the Li Ka-shing family in the UK are regarded by the outside world as another asset leap.

This time, it's the turn of British public opinion to shout "Don't let Li Ka-shing get away".

About 1 years ago, Li Ka-shing began to sell his properties and real estate projects held in mainland China and Hongkong, which triggered speculation and accusations that he withdrew his capital or even "fled" at the critical moment of China's economic development and transformation.

Li Ka-shing has invested its transferred assets in Europe, especially in Britain.

In 211, it acquired the Northern England Water Supply Company, in 212, it acquired the British natural gas company Wales and West Utilities, and in 215, it successively bought the British railway car rental company and the passenger train company Eversholt Rail Group；; In 216, it acquired the natural gas pipeline business of British National Grid ...

Some people joked that Li Ka-shing's business empire "bought half of Britain".

The fact data also confirms this statement. According to the statistics of the Financial Times, the Li Ka-shing family controls about 25% of the electricity distribution market, nearly 3% of the natural gas supply market and nearly 7% of the water supply market in Britain, and there are more than 4% of the telecommunications market and nearly 3% of the British docks.

What's Li Ka-shing's next choice to increase asset disposal in the UK?

An executive in charge of the sale of the "5 Broadgate" office building in Cheung Kong Group told the media that "the whole world is our potential market." He said that Cheung Kong will continue to look for new investment opportunities in different markets around the world, "including Hong Kong and the Mainland".

In the past two years, news of Li Ka-shing's layout of Hong Kong and the Mainland has been incessant.

At the beginning of last year, it spent 1.28 billion yuan to buy a piece of land near Kai Tak Airport in Hong Kong, and in August of the same year, it spent 7.16 billion yuan to buy another piece of land in Yuen Long. A little earlier, in 22, Li Ka-shing's subsidiaries successively acquired Chengdu Jingronghui and Shanghai Sanlin Impression City, and at the end of the year, they jointly invested with Jidian Co., Ltd. to discuss the cooperation plan of power and energy.

Li Ka-shing, are you really coming back?

2

Regarding the new developments in Li Ka-shing, He Liangliang, a commentator on Phoenix TV, told Buyidao that the financial pages of the Hong Kong media reported these developments, but there were not many comments, and Li Ka-shing himself and his company did not give any explanation.

He Liangliang believes that Li Ka-shing's asset transfer or disposal in Britain or other places is an investment behavior, and there are two reasons for doing related operations: profit and risk aversion. In this series of operations, geopolitics is the most likely to avoid risks. Hong Kong people generally think that Li Ka-shing is wily and has his own views and judgments on geopolitics.

Since the outbreak of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the overseas assets of Russian rich people have been "encircled" by the United States and the West, and even the so-called "permanently neutral country" Switzerland has frozen the assets of Russian individuals and institutions in Switzerland. France, Italy, etc. also detained the yachts of the Russian rich.

Britain is no exception. On March 1th, Britain froze the assets of seven Russian businessmen, including roman abramovich, the owner of the Premier League team Chelsea, whose total assets in Britain were about 15 billion pounds.

It is worth noting that Britain is still considering confiscating Russian assets.

Usmanov's yacht (data map)

He Liangliang said that the laws of capitalist society generally think that private property is "sacred" as long as it is legally acquired, especially in common law countries like Britain. If you want to confiscate property, you also need a clear legal basis.

But now Britain seems to be arbitrarily depriving these people of their property just because they are from Russia, which is almost unprecedented and sets a bad precedent.

Considering Li Ka-shing's decision in Britain from this perspective, he will certainly not ignore this situation. In the context of the intensified game between China and the United States, and London is considered as one of Washington's main followers, the rich will definitely want to consider asset security and reconfiguration to avoid risks as much as possible.

However, Chen Fengying, a researcher at China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, told Buyidao that Li Ka-shing's move just happened to meet the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which has nothing to do with geopolitics. In addition, it has nothing to do with the economic development of Britain. Many real estate projects in the UK are invested by Hong Kong people, which is related to the past connection between Hong Kong and the UK, and investors prefer to buy assets they are familiar with.

Chen Fengying thinks that Li Ka-shing is mainly concerned with profit and income. When he sold real estate in China before, he should have judged that it had reached a stage high point. Now, the quantitative easing policy implemented by western societies such as Britain and the United States will definitely lead to bubbles in the prices of real estate and stock market assets, so it is a wise choice to make timely moves.

Li Ka-shing should have spotted this trend.

3

According to He Liangliang's observation, the views of Hong Kong society on Li Ka-shing are generally positive.

On the whole, Hong Kong society thinks that he is patriotic. Since the late 197s, Li Ka-shing has been supporting reform and opening up. His wealth grew rapidly in this process. Li Ka-shing has also donated a lot of money to promote education, medical care, public welfare and poverty alleviation projects in Hong Kong and the Mainland. In the first phase of the Hong Kong epidemic, Li Ka-shing donated HK$ 3 million to private hospitals to help them receive undiagnosed patients from public hospitals, which also provided side support for the fight against the epidemic.

Of course, as one of the four major property developers in Hong Kong, Li Ka-shing has been at the forefront of public opinion in recent years because of the persistently high housing prices in Hong Kong. In addition, during the storm of amending the law in 219, some words he said also caused dissatisfaction among patriotic people who love Hong Kong. Li Ka-shing didn't defend himself at that time, and things later dropped.

For example, before Li Ka-shing sold its assets in Greater China to buy Britain, the subtext was that Li was "not optimistic" about the economic development of Hong Kong and the Mainland. This time, it is believed that there are similar factors in transferring assets from Britain and Europe.

Another expert, who asked not to be named, told Buyidao that Li Ka-shing is a businessman first, so it doesn't need to give too much meaning to the purchase and sale of his assets, because an investor has to consider many factors when making a decision, and political factors will only be one of them.

There is another trend that deserves attention. He Liangliang believes that the influence of the rich, represented by Li Ka-shing, in Hongkong is not as great as before, and its symbolism is also weakened.

Hong Kong experienced the storm of amending laws and the impact of epidemic situation, and the ordinary people with poor economic conditions and crowded living conditions were the most affected. People's distrust of the wealthy class has increased, and the influence of the rich has been declining. In the past two years, due to the promulgation of Hong Kong's national security law and the reform of the electoral system, the influence of Hong Kong's rich class on politics is also weakening.

Under the background of intensified international turmoil and persistent epidemic impact, China has become a stable force in the world economy, especially in the industrial chain supply chain, which is an important guarantee for good investment and income.

From this perspective, it is only natural that the Li Ka-shing family will focus their investment on Hong Kong and the Mainland again.