Billionaire Li Ka-shing, chairman of Cheung Kong Holdings Ltd. and Hutchison Whampoa Ltd.
Li Ka-shing’s Cheung Kong Holdings Ltd. made a bid to buy a portfolio of planes from lessor Awas as the Hong Kong billionaire’s flagship company diversifies its investments into infrastructure.
Cheung Kong has submitted a preliminary, non-binding proposal for the assets, the company said in a Hong Kong Stock Exchange statement without providing details. The announcement confirms a possible bid reported by Bloomberg News Aug. 1.
The acquisition would be Li’s first major investment in aircraft leasing as Asia’s richest man expands his businesses from real estate, retailers, ports and power producers. Awas, the aircraft-leasing company of Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd., plans to break up its fleet of about 280 planes and sell about 100 newer aircraft for as much as USD5 billion, people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg News last week.
“The group as a whole is an investing machine,” said Jonas Kan, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Daiwa Securities Group Inc., referring to the number of companies owned by Li. “In the past, Cheung Kong had a lot of capital tied up in property development in China, but that’s now coming to fruition. With surplus cash, they’re considering areas outside of property and investing in infrastructure is not too great a risk.” Bloomberg
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