CK Infrastructure’s Victor Li open to investing in Hong Kong if project yields ‘reasonable returns’

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CK Infrastructure, along with group companies CK Asset and Power Assets, is seeking avenues to invest its HK$13 billion (US$1.7 billion) cash pile

‘Hong Kong is our hometown, [and] if there are projects with reasonable returns, we will definitely invest,’ Victor Li says at annual general meeting on Wednesday

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Victor Li Tzar-kuoi, chairman of CK Infrastructure, says he is open to investing anywhere in the world provided the returns are reasonable. Photo: Handout

Salina Li

Published: 3:33pm, 22 May 2024

CK Infrastructure Holdings (CKI) will look to invest in Hong Kong provided the returns are reasonable even as it scours opportunities globally, according to chairman Victor Li Tzar-kuoi.

CKI has been deploying its HK$13 billion (US$1.7 billion) cash hoard to snap up utilities, picking up renewable energy assets in the UK as part of a consortium with group companies CK Asset Holdings and Power Asset Holdings.

The group has been on an asset shopping spree since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, taking advantage of cheap valuations caused by the pandemic-led global economic slump to hunt for bargains.

“Hong Kong is our hometown, [and] if there are projects with reasonable returns, we will definitely invest,” said Li, the elder son of tycoon Li Ka-shing, during CKI’s annual general meeting on Wednesday.

The flags of CK group companies fly outside the Cheung Kong Center building in Hong Kong. Photo: Dickson Lee

Li also reiterated comments made in March about strengthening Hong Kong’s status as an international financial centre, as the city faced headwinds from global economic turmoil. He had made the comments after his two flagship companies CK Hutchison Holdings and CK Asset Holdings reported lower full-year profits for 2023.

“If we have more multinational corporations and family offices established here, regardless of ethnicity or nationality, Hong Kong’s position as an international financial market should be and would be further strengthened,” Li said.