Li Ka-shing's sudden sell-off once again sparked heated discussions in the market.
Recently, there have been market reports that Cheung Kong Group, owned by the Li Ka-shing family, plans to sell properties in the UK and Canada at a 50% discount.
These include 150 luxury homes in west London, a large development in east London and a commercial building in downtown Toronto, Canada.
The total valuation of these assets exceeds HK$10.5 billion (approximately RMB 9.3 billion).
In response, Cheung Kong Group said that the company often receives different bid proposals, but not all proposals have been accepted or will be accepted.
In fact, this is the third time this year that Li Ka-shing has been reported to be selling overseas assets.
In July this year, Cheung Kong Group sold an office building in Canada to American real estate company Brookfield for 1.25 billion Canadian dollars (about 6.5 billion yuan); in the same month, there was news that Cheung Kong Group was interested in selling Shanghai Century Plaza for about 20 billion yuan.
Although the news of Li Ka-shing's "50% off sale" has not been confirmed, his frequent sales of overseas assets inevitably lead to speculation from the outside world: Why does Superman Li do this?
Judging from his past investment experience, every move Li Ka-shing makes seems to have a traceable pattern.
In the late 1950s, Hong Kong's population increased dramatically, industry and commerce developed rapidly, and the demand for land resources became increasingly strong.
Li Ka-shing decisively invested in the real estate industry and made a fortune through a series of buy low and sell high operations.
In the early and mid-1990s, when the Hong Kong property market was sluggish, he took advantage of the low prices to buy land and expanded aggressively.
From 2015 to 2016, he successfully escaped the peak and bought at the bottom by accurately judging the trend of the mainland real estate market.
Now, with the overall real estate market in a period of adjustment, Li Ka-shing has started selling assets again.
According to incomplete statistics, Li Ka-shing has sold assets worth more than HK$250 billion since August 2013.
It is worth noting that the assets sold by Li Ka-shing this time are all located in the United Kingdom and Canada.
According to public information, Li Ka-shing's overseas assets are mainly distributed in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and other places.
Among them, assets in the UK account for the largest proportion, reaching 40%; followed by Canada, accounting for 15%.
This means that the assets sold by Li Ka-shing this time account for a large proportion of his overseas assets.
Why did Li Ka-shing choose to sell off his overseas assets at this time? Some analysts believe that this is related to the current global economic situation.
In recent years, the global economic recovery has been sluggish, and central banks around the world have implemented loose monetary policies to stimulate the economy.
However, the side effects of this policy are also very obvious, which is that it has pushed up global asset prices.
Therefore, in the current environment, selling assets is undoubtedly a wise move.
In addition, as expectations of a Fed rate hike heat up and the U.S. dollar index strengthens, global funds may outflow from emerging markets at an accelerated pace in the future.
In this case, it is wise to plan overseas markets in advance and diversify risks.
