In latest Li Ka-shing shake-up, Cheung Kong Infrastructure plans merger with Power Assets

In the latest step in the reorganisation of Li Ka-shing's business empire, Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings (CKI) has announced a proposed merger with associate Power Assets Holdings.

The proposed merger would give the group's infrastructure and utilities arms a stronger balance sheet in order to capture global infrastructure opportunities, CKI chairman Victor Li Tzar-kuoi, Li's eldest son, said.

He told a press conference yesterday the latest reorganisation had no "political angle".

There had been rumours that his father, Hong Kong's richest man, was losing interest in Hong Kong when he unveiled a sweeping restructuring of his business empire in January this year, switching its base of incorporation to the Cayman Islands from Hong Kong. The massive restructuring, completed in June, merged all non-property businesses formerly owned by Li's two flagships - Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong (Holdings) - into Cayman Islands-based CK Hutchison. All property businesses in the two companies were injected into another new entity, Cheung Kong Property Holdings.

Victor Li said the proposed reorganisation of the group's infrastructure and utilities units was "simply about returns" and "shareholders' benefits".

"Eighty-five per cent of CKI's assets are located overseas. They are international businesses," he said. "Infrastructure is a highly capital-intensive industry where bigger is better."