Tycoon Li Ka-shing denies pulling out of China

Hong Kong businessman and Asia's richest man Li Ka-shing denied speculation that he is withdrawing investments from markets in Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland, a media report said Thursday.

"It's a big joke that I am withdrawing capital" from Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland markets, Li Ka-shing was quoted by Guangzhou-based Nanfang Daily as saying.

Li's group sold an office building in Shanghai in October and a shopping plaza in Guangzhou in September with a combined value of around 10 billion yuan ($1.64 billion).

Commenting on these sales, Wang Shi, chairman of China Vanke Co Ltd, the largest Chinese real estate developer in terms of market value, said in his personal Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, in September, that "it is a signal to be wary," raising market expectations about a downturn in China's commercial property market.

Hong Kong media reports said in October that Li's company will possibly sell 70 percent in equities of Hong Kong Electric Co Ltd and seek an independent listing, adding to public concern that the business tycoon is withdrawing money from Hong Kong.

Li was quoted by the Nanfang Daily as saying that his Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd has businesses in over 50 countries and regions, and it is a normal and strategic commercial acts for him to sell or buy assets in any of these places.

Li also noted that the registration locations for his Cheung Kong (Holdings) and Hutchison Whampoa Ltd will always be in Hong Kong, denying rumors saying Li will leave Hong Kong and transfer its investments to other global markets.

Industry watchers had optimistic attitudes about the outlook of China's commercial property markets.

"Li's selling move was just a strategic activity to cash in once he thought the return for his capital investment had hit a margin of safety," Yang Song, national director and head of commercial services at Knight Frank, a global real estate consultancy, told the Global Time Thursday.

Yang noted that buyers purchasing commercial properties sold by Li at relatively high prices also indicated that investors have confidence in prime properties in China's major cities such as Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.

"Both the rents and asset prices of scarce office buildings in major Chinese cities such as Shanghai still have a room for growth," said Yang.

The number of inquires for rents of office buildings in Shanghai have increased in the third quarter, as some multinational enterprises restarted their plans of expansion in China, which is seeing an economic recovery, according to a report by Jones Lang LaSalle, a global commercial property consultancy, that was e-mailed to the Global Times Wednesday.