There comes a time in most people’s lives, usually very late in the lives of self-made billionaires, when they settle their affairs and divide up their assets to put everything in order for the family. It has the added benefit for business moguls of pleasing the shareholders.
That is probably the reason Li Ka-shing has split his Hong Kong conglomerate, rather than because he has converted to the US view that conglomerates are inefficient; or is hedging against a collapse in the Chinese property market; or is shifting his companies’ registrations to the Cayman Islands in case he has to leave Hong Kong (having fled there as a child during the Japanese invasion of China).
At 86, Mr Li has followed 83-year-old Rupert Murdoch in dividing his business empire. Like the media mogul, he has been greeted by applause from the stock market, which had lost hope of either man making greater sense of his assets . Mr Li no doubt enjoyed the 14 per cent jump in the combined value of Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa on Monday.