Li Ka-shing and his top lieutenants at Hutchison Whampoa, the Hong Kong tycoon's conglomerate, don't like to be called “asset-traders”. Hutchison is in the business of building businesses, they say, and has the global ports, retailing and oil operations to prove it.
Then, however, there is the case of Hutchison Telecommunications International. Three years ago HTIL presided over an attractive portfolio of emerging market telecom networks, including India's fourth-largest mobile phone company.
That was sold to Vodafone in 2007 for $11bn. HTIL paid shareholders a special dividend totalling $4bn, and retained another $5bn for potential acquisitions. Unable to find any, it returned the excess cash to shareholders at the end of 2008.
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