Li Ka-shing

Li Ka-shing is a widower. His wife Chong Yuet Ming, who he married in 1963 died in 1990. He has two sons, Victor Li and Richard Li who are also prominent business figures in their own right.

He is known for his adherence to moral values and for living a simple life. He does, however, own a luxurious house in Hong Kong's most expensive precincts, Deep Water Bay in Hong Kong Island.

Li Ka-shing was born in Chaozhou in Guangdong province, China, on 29 July 1928. His family was of modest means and his father, a teacher, headed a local primary school.

He grew up in a period of great political turmoil in China. His family fled to Hong Kong in 1940 after the Japanese invasion of China. The family struggled to re-establish their lives in their new surroundings when another major tragedy befell the family within a span of three years. His father became ill with tuberculosis and died a painful death when Li Ka-shing was just 15 years old.

He was forced to drop out of school and take up a job in order to provide for his family. He started working in a plastics trading company as a salesman selling plastic watchbands and belts. He worked hard, often working up to 16 hours a day and proved to be a capable salesman.

After gaining valuable experience working in plastic industries, Li was able to form his own business, a plastics company named Cheung Kong in 1950. Initially the company manufactured artificial flowers and exported them to the United States. Throughout the 1950s the company saw steady growth and Li began looking for opportunities to expand the business.

He purchased his first factory in 1958; this would be the first of his many real estate investments. Over the ensuing years he changed the focus of his plastics company which he eventually transformed into a property development and management company.

The business thrived over the following years and the company was renamed Cheung Kong Holdings in 1971. It was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 1972.

He expanded his business by acquiring Hutchison Whampoa from HSBC in 1979. This added multiple diverse industries to his existing business. He soon transformed Hutchison into the world’s largest independent operator of ports, with investments in container port facilities around the world, including in Hong Kong, Canada, China, the United Kingdom, Rotterdam, Panama, Bahamas and many others.

Li also forayed into the technology business. One of his firms, Horizons Ventures, an investment and venture capital firm, which specifically backs new internet and technology startup firms, bought a stake in doubleTwist, a digital . He also has a 0.8% stake in social networking website Facebook which he acquired through his other firm, Li Ka Shing Foundation. He also has a stake in Ginger Software Incorporated.

Li Ka-shing founded Cheung Kong Industries in 1950s as a plastics manufacturer. The company eventually expanded and diversified into various other fields and evolved into Cheung Kong (Holdings) Limited in the 1970s. It is today one of Hong Kong's leading multi-national conglomerates which operates in over 50 countries and employs over 240,000 staff worldwide.