 "Li Ka-shing")
A Hong Kong billionaire is making another attempt to buy big-money assets in Australia despite rising skepticism about foreign investors there, particularly those from China.
An investment vehicle controlled by Li Ka-shing, one of Asia’s richest men, has offered to acquire the Australian pipeline and electricity company Duet Group for roughly $5.4 billion, Duet said in a news release dated Sunday. The news sent its shares up about 14 per cent in mid-morning trading in Australia on Monday.
Duet said it was evaluating the offer. Li’s company, Cheung Kong Infrastructure, based in Hong Kong, did not answer phone calls.
The offer represents the second time this year that Li has tried to acquire Australian infrastructure assets. Earlier, he had teamed up with a Chinese state-owned power company, State Grid Corporation of China, to acquire Ausgrid, a major electricity distributor.
But that deal fell victim to rising worries in Australia about foreign investment. In August, the Australian government rejected the deal on national security grounds, citing the services that Ausgrid provides to local businesses and governments.
Australian officials said the nationality of the bidders was not a factor. Still, Chinese investment has come under a microscope in Australia. The country is a major source of the natural resources China needs to feed its fast-growing economy, and Chinese money has become an important part of Australian economic life. Chinese money has fuelled surging home prices and deals for assets such as food companies and ranch land. But that has provoked a backlash in some Australian quarters and calls from lawmakers to limit deals.
Chinese involvement became an issue in a high-profile bidding fight this year involving huge tracts of Australian cattle land, though a buyer that included a Chinese minority investor eventually prevailed.
Li acting alone could have an easier time than he did in his last foray, when he joined with the state-owned Chinese partner. Li is a longtime buyer of global infrastructure assets and does not typically team up with Chinese government-connected companies.
Two years ago he clinched a deal to acquire an Australian natural gas distributor, Envestra, now known as Australian Gas Networks.
©2016 The New York Times News Service
