Li Ka-shing’s son Victor has a lot to live up to. Here’s how he, and any successor to a family business, can make a success of keeping it in the family
Li Ka-shing made headlines around the world last week by announcing his retirement, finally putting an end to a storied 70-year career.
Li famously grew up in humble surrounds and began his entrepreneurial journey selling plastic flowers, before rising to become Hong Kong’s wealthiest tycoon worth an estimated US$34.9 billion.
The 89-year-old tycoon announced he would hand over his two businesses, CK Hutchison Holdings and CK Asset Holdings, to his oldest son Victor Li.
The announcement was not unexpected. Li had already said publicly that Victor would take control of the two companies. In a way, it had been ordained since the day he was born.
“In the traditional Chinese way of doing things, control of the business is always passed on to the first-born son,” says Roger King, an adjunct professor of finance at HKUST and founding director of the Tanoto Centre for Asian Family Business and Entrepreneurship Studies.