When Li Ka-shing speaks, people in Hong Kong listen. Even so, interest in Mr Li’s announcement on Friday that his son Victor would succeed him at the helm of the family’s property conglomerate Cheung Kong and the ports to telecoms company Hutchison Whampoa, was remarkable.
Mr Li, Asia’s richest man with a net worth of US$26bn according to Forbes, had not said he would retire, even though he is 83.
Victor has long been managing director of Cheung Kong and deputy chairman of Hutchison. Nevertheless, it was front-page news on Saturday in Hong Kong’s newspapers.
The subject of succession is largely taboo among Asian billionaires, in part because of superstitious concerns about death, according to some observers, and in part because Asian tycoons are not keen on retirement because it means being perceived to have given up power.
“In successful family businesses in the west, one of the most common factors is a clear separation between family issues, business issues, and ownership issues,” says Joseph Ngai, who heads the consultancy McKinsey’s Hong Kong office.