Playground weaklings give Li Ka-shing bloody nose

Hong Kong

HONG KONG'S scrawny public investors have given the biggest kid in the playground a bloody nose. By rejecting tycoon Li Ka-shing's US$12.4 billion bid to merge his listed energy and infrastructure units, institutions in the Chinese territory have shown they are increasingly willing to flex their limited muscles.

The bid by Mr Li's Cheung Kong Infrastructure (CKI) for the 61 per cent of Power Assets it doesn't already own always looked like a case of bullying. There are good reasons for combining CKI, whose assets include stakes in British rail-leasing and water distribution companies, with an affiliate that specialises in power stations and pipelines. The problem was the terms.