Cheung Kong is a major shareholder of Hutchison Whampoa Limited ("HWL"), with a 49.97% interest. Founded in Hong Kong in the 19th century, Hutchison Whampoa is a major global conglomerate with operations in more than 50 countries in six core businesses: ports and related services, real estate and hotels, retail, infrastructure, energy, and telecommunications.
Cheung Ho is also the largest shareholder of CK Life Sciences Group Limited, with a 45.31 percent interest. The company is engaged in the research and development, commercialization, marketing and sale of health and agriculture-related products. Mr. Li Ka-shing is currently the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Cheung Kong Hutchison Holdings Limited and Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL). The Cheung Kong Group has operations in over 50 countries and employs more than 290,000 people worldwide. The Group has seven listed companies in Hong Kong*** with a total market capitalization of approximately HK$1,197 billion (March 31, 2015). Hutchison is one of the Fortune Global 500 companies.
Born in 1928 in the coastal city of Chaozhou in southeastern China, Mr. Li Ka-shing was forced to drop out of school at the age of 12 to escape the war and fled with his family to Hong Kong, where his father later died of lung disease. With the burden of providing for his family, Mr. Li took a job in a plastics trading company when he was less than 15 years old, working 16 hours a day. With his hard work, prudence and dedication to excellence, Mr. Lee set up his own company, Cheung Kong Industries Limited, in 1950, initially dealing in plastics, which he later developed into a dominant property development company in Hong Kong and listed on the Stock Exchange in 1972. Cheung Kong continued to expand its business through the acquisitions of Hutchison Whampoa Limited and Hongkong Electric Holdings Limited (renamed Power Assets Holdings Limited) in 1979 and 1985 respectively.
The Cheung Wo Group was founded in Hong Kong and is engaged in property development and investment, real estate agency and management, ports and related services, telecommunications, hotels, retailing, energy, infrastructure, finance and investment, e-commerce, building materials, media, and life sciences. Mr. Lee believes that all hands make light work and all minds make the world go round, which is reflected in the fact that he has named his company after the Yangtze River, which is a great river in China that gathers together a hundred streams without choosing the smallest of them. Mr. Lee was named a "Millennium Entrepreneur" by The Times and Ernst & Young.
The Li Ka Shing Foundation was founded by Mr. Li in 1980 with three core strategies: fostering a culture of giving, promoting education reform, and supporting healthcare development. Mr. Li regarded the Foundation as his "third son" and invested one-third of its assets in it, believing that education strengthens human and cultural resources, and that medical services and research build a caring society, both of which are important social capital. Since its inception, the Li Ka Shing Foundation has contributed more than HK$15 billion to education, healthcare, culture and public welfare projects in 19 countries and regions around the world, with about 90% of that amount going to projects in the Greater China region.
In 1981, Mr. Li founded Shantou University, the only privately funded public university in China, with a commitment of over HK$6.2 billion to date. Shantou University is the core program of the Foundation and a platform for promoting education reform in China's universities. To date, Shantou University has trained more than 100,000 students, including more than 35,000 medical students.
Because of Mr. Li's dedication to the public good and his contributions to various societies, he has been awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, the University of Calgary in Canada, Peking University in the Mainland, the University of Hong Kong in Hong Kong and other universities. He has also been awarded the Grand Officer of the Vasco Nunez de Balboa of Panama, the Commander in the Leopold Order of Belgium, the Commander of the Order of the KBE of the British Empire, the Grand Bauhinia Medal of the Hong Kong SAR, the Justice of the Peace, and Commander of the Legion of Honor (Commandeur de la Légion d'Honneur) by the French government. (Commandeur de la Légion d'Honneur) by the French government.
Mr. Li has two sons. His eldest son, Li Tzar Kuoi, is the Managing Director and Deputy Chairman of Cheung Kong Hutchison Holdings Limited, the Deputy Chairman of Hutchison Whampoa Limited, the Chairman of Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Limited and the Chairman of CK Life Sciences Group Limited. His youngest son, Richard Li, is Chairman of PCCW Limited, one of Asia's leading information technology and telecommunications companies.