Text: Chu Jing
After more than 70 years of business in the sea, he rarely lost battles, and he relied on "never earning the last copper plate", and received it before the peak came. Like hunters who know the sea and know the sea, they can always retreat before the tide comes, so they are called "tidal hunters" by the outside world. Ten years ago, he ran out of the domestic market and earned hundreds of billions of yuan. Now that British assets have risen sharply, he has once again smelled the signal and begun to withdraw from the European market, he is Li Ka-shing.
According to reports, not long ago in the United Kingdom came the news that Li Ka-shing wanted to sell the communication tower business. Now the buyer of this business has also emerged, that is, a company from Spain, the business involves more than 70 billion yuan of funds, which means that as long as the communication tower is sold, Li Ka-shing can cash out more than 70 billion yuan.
Perhaps because of the previous sale of UBS's London headquarters, the UK Competition and Markets Authority soon stepped in for the "Communication Tower" transaction. It is reported that the Market Authority investigated the transaction in the name of anti-monopoly because the transaction was too large.
Li Ka-shing's success can be said to be unmistakable, but to this day, everyone is lamenting Li Zekai's choice at that time, believing that if Li Zekai did not sell 20% of Tencent's shares, his achievements might surpass Li Ka-shing. However, things will not happen again, but Li Zekai still stands out in the capital market with the brilliance of "Little Superman". In fact, many people only know that Li Zekai sold his shares in Tencent, but they don't know why Li Zekai invested in Tencent in the first place.
In fact, when Li Zekai invested in Tencent, it was not because he was optimistic about Tencent, but because of Ma Huateng's father, who was the owner of a state-owned enterprise and had a very good relationship with Li Ka-shing, so Li Ka-shing asked his younger son to support Ma Huateng, who had just started a business, not for investment. If it is for investment, it is absolutely impossible for Li Ka-shing and Li Zekai to invest in Tencent, because at that time, even Ma Huateng himself did not know how to make money by this, a company that did not even have a clear business model, and it was obviously impossible for Li Ka-shing to invest.
Back in April 2000, IDG and Li Zekai invested a total of $2.2 million in Tencent, each holding a 20% stake. Tencent's valuation is $5.5 million. But at that time, Tencent was still in a precarious period, so although it invested money, IDG and Li Zekai were not optimistic about Tencent and always wanted to find opportunities to sell.
So when the MIH in South Africa appeared in 2001 and valued Tencent at $60 million, Li Zekai couldn't wait to sell 20% of his shares to $12.6 million and make $11.5 million. At the same time, IDG also sold 12.8% of the shares and retained 7.2%, so MIH owned 32.8% of Tencent's shares and became the second largest shareholder. As a venture capital company, it is clear that this investment can be regarded as very successful, and no one will think that Li Zekai's original choice was wrong, after all, no one would have thought that Tencent would later develop into today's giant enterprise.
Today, Tencent's market capitalization is as high as HK$4.54 trillion, and I wonder how Li Zekai will feel when he, a company he is not optimistic about, has achieved such amazing results. Li Zekai once said that selling Tencent's equity is a big lesson for himself, but after all, there is no regret medicine in the world, even if he is Li Ka-shing's son.
So suppose Li Zekai did not sell Tencent's shares and still holds 20% of Tencent's shares, then how much will his value reach today? Suppose that Li Zekai still holds 20% of the shares, and considering that mih investment has also been holding these 32.8% of the shares, it has not been diluted, so we also think that Li Zekai's holding ratio has not been diluted and has been 20%.
In this way, his value will reach about 922 billion Hong Kong dollars, which translates into about 752.4 billion yuan, or about 118.3 billion US dollars. Today, China's richest man, Zhong, is worth only 398 billion yuan, so even if Li Zekai does not count his wealth, he is already the richest man in China just by virtue of his equity stake in Tencent. Of course, it also exceeded the wealth of his father, Li Ka-shing. In addition, according to the Forbes 2021 World Rich List, it can be ranked fifth, and if you add Li Zekai's other industries, the world's richest man is not a dream.
In addition to Tencent, there is also an Internet giant that has a very similar experience. In fact, another big Internet giant in China has also made an investment company, that is, Alibaba founded by Jack Ma. Ma Yun once experienced a particularly difficult period, when he and Sohu founder Zhang Chaoyang drank and talked about the e-commerce economy, Zhang Chaoyang was actually "dismissive" of him.
But in 2000, Ma Yun met his life's Bó Lè - SoftBank's Son Zhengyi, who had a discerning eye and directly invested $20 million in Alibaba, so he is still the largest shareholder of Alibaba. In 2014, Alibaba went public, bringing Thousands of times the benefits to Son Zhengyi, and even directly made him the richest man in Japan. And Sun Zhengyi also invested in Alibaba in the first world war, and it is still a myth in the global investment community until now.
Now Li Zekai has no regrets, after all, the funds held by him are worth more than 900 billion Hong Kong dollars, but he should also learn the essence of Li Ka-shing's investment, that is, never earn the last copper plate. In fact, there are always many things missed in life, whether it is ordinary people or rich people, Lei Jun also missed Alibaba that year. However, the past is over, no one can foresee the future, opportunities are always fleeting, and perhaps the next opportunity is waiting for you ahead. What do you think about that? Have you ever made a decision that you regret?