BRIEF - 94-year-old Li Ka-shing is world’s richest real estate magnate worth $30.5 billion

 The wealthiest real estate magnate in the world is Li Ka-Shing, who was born in Chaozhou, China, on June 13, 1928.

His $30.5 billion net worth makes him the 41st richest person in the world thus his net worth is equivalent to 17.6 million troy ounces of gold or 314 million barrels of crude oil.

Despite warnings of increasing threats from a global recession, Hutchison Holdings Ltd., the conglomerate established by billionaire Li Ka-Shing, saw its profit increase 4.3% in the first half of this year thanks to its global activities.

Recent reports show the flagship company of the CK Group achieved a net income of HK$19.09 billion (US$2.43 billion) for the six-month period ending in June. From the same time the previous year, total revenue increased by 8.1% to HK$229.6 billion. In comparison to the previous year, it increased the interim dividend to HK$0.84 per share.

Li’s wealth portfolio

• The majority of Li’s wealth is made up of shares in publicly traded businesses such as the San Jose-based Zoom Video Communications, the Hong Kong-based conglomerate, CK Hutchison Holdings, the Canadian oil and gas producer Cenovus Energy, and the real estate developer, CK Asset. In 2015, he reorganized his businesses, eliminating the network of firms that had shares in one another.
• Li owns 30% of CK Hutchison, which has a variety of assets, including ports, infrastructure, and mobile phone networks, as well as CK Asset, which is where his real estate holdings are held. CK Infrastructure and Hutchison Telecom Hong Kong are two other publicly traded holdings.
• According to documents submitted to the Hong Kong stock exchange, the shares are owned through a number of holding companies and trusts incorporated in Hong Kong, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, and Panama. In order to highlight his status as the creator, Li is also given credit for the shares held by his son, Victor Li.

When the Japanese invaded China in 1940, Li’s family escaped to Hong Kong. Li was forced to start working as an apprentice at a factory at the age of 14 after his father passed away. In 1950, he founded a facility that produced plastic flowers, after which he started making real estate investments.

After violence sparked by the Cultural Revolution lowered costs in 1967, he purchased real estate in Hong Kong (he did so again after the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989). Twelve years later, Li’s leading business, Cheung Kong, had built roughly one in every seven private homes in the city.