The author | Cat brother
The source | Big Cat Finance
The current price of natural gas is equivalent to $200 of crude oil, and the price of crude oil is not yet at $100.
With the lack of energy supply, energy prices are also rising, such as natural gas, the main gas producers Russia, Norway have begun to reduce supply, and Europe's gas benchmark prices have repeatedly set a new record.
It's like an energy crisis sweeping across Europe.
The price of natural gas is also affecting the price of electricity, after all, Europe's electricity mainly relies on natural gas.
In 2021, energy prices are higher, and electricity prices in the major economies of the European Union have more than doubled compared with 2020, while prices have risen even higher in recent months, especially in the United Kingdom.
There is no electricity price limit in the UK, the price is completely determined by the market, and in the context of energy shortages, the price of electricity in the UK fluctuates greatly.
The data shows that the electricity price in September has exceeded 200 pounds / mwh, and many times broke through the record high, and even broke people's imagination, when the record price of 285 pounds / mwh is not the highest, but compared with the same period last year, it is also up 700%, and then there are 424.6 pounds / mwh, which is a 10 times year-on-year increase.
The United Kingdom has also a lot of heart in order to reduce electricity prices.
As the world's largest offshore wind power market, it was planned to expand the installed capacity of offshore wind power to reduce electricity prices; later, after the carbon reduction target came out, the United Kingdom began to engage in low-carbon power generation, and solar photovoltaics will be the cheapest electricity.
But so far, in fact, this low-carbon power generation method has not played much role, the price of electricity has not decreased but increased, and the British are now suffering from rising electricity prices.
However, behind the energy crisis, there are still people who can eat dividends.
That person was Li Ka-shing.
As the richest Man in China, Li Ka-shing's investment actions have been very concerned, and in the past two years, the investment in Chinese mainland has also been back and forth, dazzling, and various operations have emerged in an endless stream, and indeed made a lot of money.
In Britain, Li Ka-shing's tentacles are also very long, and some people laugh that Hong Kong's "Li Bancheng" bought half of Britain.
The Li family's investment in the UK began very early, in the 90s in the UK bought a lot of port assets, after 2000, infrastructure construction became one of the protagonists of investment, during this period, Li Ka-shing controlled a lot of British energy and electricity and other assets:
In 2004, £2.4 billion was spent on the acquisition of Northern Gas;
In 2010, Li Ka-shing's Yangtze River Infrastructure acquired a 50% stake in seabank power plant for £212 million and uk power network for another £5.8 billion.
In 2012, £645 million acquired the gas distribution company Walles and West;
Later, Li Ka-shing also set a high price of £11 billion for the gas business of the British power grid, and when Brexit risks soared, he targeted electricity north west.
With a total investment of more than £30 billion in the UK, the Li Ka-shing family currently controls nearly 30% of the UK's natural gas market, a quarter of the electricity distribution market and about 5% of the water supply market.
Previously, Li Ka-shing's investment was not optimistic, especially in the power investment, and even recorded losses, but now, the price of electricity is becoming more and more expensive, Li Ka-shing is afraid to make a profit.
How much money did you make?
Of course, there is no exact data yet, but Li Ka-shing's Changhe is the main beneficiary of British investment.
According to the data of Changhe's semi-annual report, the total revenue of Yangtze River Hutchison in the first half of 2021 was HK$212.3 billion, and the profit was HK$32.8 billion, an increase of 23% year-on-year, of which 51% of the performance contribution came from Europe, 17% of the revenue was in the UK, of course, in addition to the port, the profit contributed by electricity and gas was also quite a lot.
Li Ka-shing's earning power is still very strong, and if calculated on a daily basis, it earns 180 million Hong Kong dollars (about 150 million yuan) a day.
According to the current data, Changhe's profit will exceed 60 billion, and in the second half of the year, especially in the current era of the european energy crisis, energy-related businesses such as electricity and gas may earn more profits for Li Ka-shing.
In addition, in addition to landing in mainland Europe and the United Kingdom, Changhe has also invested in related energy infrastructure projects in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and other countries, and in view of the global energy shortage, Li Ka-shing still has a lot of profit margins in these regions.
According to the Forbes Real-Time Rich List, Li Ka-shing currently ranks 42nd in the world with a net worth of US$31.4 billion.