From China Daily:
Li Ka-shing(ÊùéÂòâËØö), 78, will bequeathe at least a third of his fortune – which is estimated at $18.8bn and rising fast – to his eponymous charitable foundation, as Asia’s richest man follows in the footsteps of his American peers Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.
Li, sometimes called “Superman” by the Chinese-language press, has built the reputation of being a canny investor. Li became a tycoon by buying Hong Kong real estate in 1967 when riots tied to Cultural Revolution caused land prices to collapse.
After arriving in Hong Kong as a refugee from the mainland at age 13, Li swept factory floors to survive during the Japanese occupation of the city in 1942-45. After the war, he opened a plastic flower factory and then began buying real estate. Among his other successes was a $30 million investment in 1988 with Procter & Gamble Co. to sell shampoo and toothpaste in mainland. He sold his stake in the venture for $2 billion in 2004. In 1999, he made a $15 billion gain selling his Orange mobile-phone unit in the U.K. to Germany’s Mannesmann AG. [Full Text]
