coincidental? Russian billionaire Abu began selling assets in britain, and almost at the same time, Lianhe Zaobao reported that the Li Ka-shing family planned to sell UK Power Networks, Britain's largest electricity distribution company, for $20 billion.
Russian billionaire Abramovich decided on March 3 to sell Chelsea Football Club and pledged to donate the net proceeds to the victims of the war in Ukraine. Not long ago, Abramovich handed over the management to the charitable foundation because he was worried about the club's influence, but now he has to sell it bitterly, and may be under a lot of pressure.
According to Forbes magazine's March 2021 statistics, Abramovich's assets are about $14.5 billion, making him the 12th richest man in Russia and the 142nd richest man in the world. In June 2003, he spent £130 million to buy the bankrupt Chelsea club, which was on the verge of bankruptcy, and then invested heavily in paying off the club's debts and buying superstars.
On January 30, 2018, 114 Russians, including Abramovich, were added to the Kremlin List by the United States.
It can be seen that what "private property is sacred and inviolable" is only the slogan of the West, and when it comes into practice, the West will not respect property rights at all, and will stop at nothing to target specific countries and their rich people.
Lianhe Zaobao reported on March 4 that a consortium led by international investment bank Macquarie Group and private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is in takeover talks with the Li Ka Shing family, involving Li Ka Shing and UK Power Networks, the largest British power distribution company controlled by the company. The company's distribution network serves approximately 8.3 million households.
As we all know, Li Ka-shing's sense of business smell and risk aversion has always been "super first-class", and it has always been laid out in advance. In the past few years, the Lee family has been optimistic about the United Kingdom and has continued to invest in the United Kingdom. Selling UK Power Networks today is likely to release some sort of signal.
In fact, the Lee family, jokingly called "owning half of Britain", has long been selling British assets. For example, in December 2021, Bloomberg disclosed that Changshi Group, a subsidiary of the Li Ka-shing family, would sell the London headquarters building of UBS Group to a South Korean consortium for about 1.25 billion pounds (about 10.5 billion yuan).
What's more, now that some emergencies have caused the so-called "neutral countries" such as Switzerland to tear off their disguises and turn to the United States, it is normal for these rich people with a keen sense of smell to make arrangements in advance.
