CK Hutchison’s $23bn ports sale produced the Hong Kong conglomerate’s best one-day gain in almost 10 years when it was announced in March, and was reminiscent of the swashbuckling transactions that made founder Li Ka-shing’s name. The ongoing negotiations with Beijing, which has come out in opposition to the sale, reflect a more prosaic reality.
As initially presented, the sale of CK’s ports outside China to a group including BlackRock would net $19bn in proceeds — as much as again as its undisturbed market capitalisation. In return, it would offload a unit that last year made up 9 per cent of revenue. When the news first broke CK shares jumped 22 per cent, their third-best day ever, just behind the stir caused by an internal reorganisation in 2015 and a 1998 feng shui-like boost fro