Betting on Li Ka-shing, chairman of Hutchison Whampoa, has made a lot of money for a lot of people in Hong Kong. Now Mr Li is offering the same opportunity to investors in Singapore with an initial public offering of Hutch’s Pearl River Delta ports that is set to raise between $4.9bn and $5.8bn next week.
The IPO is being marketed as an opportunity to achieve direct exposure to China’s economic growth through Hutch’s established container terminals in Hong Kong and Yantian, in neighbouring Shenzhen, together with some smaller Pearl River ports and logistical assets.
Another way of looking at it, though, is as a recapitalisation of the conglomerate following years of heavy losses from its controversial gamble on third-generation mobile telecommunications in 2002.