Tycoon Li Ka-shing's Cheung Kong Infrastructure to sell US$593m shares

[HONG KONG] Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Ltd (CKI) said on Wednesday it planned to raise HK$4.6 billion (US$593 million) in a share sale, hours after the company controlled by tycoon Li Ka-shing announced it had bought Britain's Eversholt Rail.

Hong Kong's CKI bought Eversholt Rail for an enterprise value of 2.5 billion pounds (US$3.8 billion), becoming the latest in a string of Asian buyers to target European assets.

CKI said it had agreed to sell 80 million new shares to a unit of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd at HK$58 each after the unit completes its sales of the same amount of existing shares to third-party investors.

The new shares represent 3.18 per cent of the enlarged share capital, and the net proceeds to be raised will be for general funding purposes, CKI said in a filing to the Hong Kong bourse.

Li, Asia's richest man, has been eyeing overseas assets to diversify his business empire's sources of income.

He announced a plan earlier this month to restructure his businesses to create two camps, with one focusing on property and the other on telecoms, retail and energy, in a bid to boost their value.

REUTERS