Asia's richest man Li Ka-shing has been busy of late, buying and selling stakes in his globally-expanding empire. Companies, in which Li's family has stakes, have sold over $3.2 bln US dollars in assets on the Mainland and in Hong Kong since last August. For a man who earned his chops through his astute business acumen, what is Mr. Li now up to?

Asia's richest man Li Ka-shing has been very busy this year, dabbling into all sorts of businesses – from an American start-up food tech that makes plant-based eggs, where he invested money - to an Australian gas-transmission company – where his two-point-two billion U-S dollar takeover is giving him access to pipelines spanning households and businesses in cities such as Melbourne and Adelaide.

Now, word is Asia's richest man, at 86, is wanting to take flight – and get into the aircraft leasing business, something he hasn't done before in his entire career.

All this makes one wonder what Mr. Li – known for his astute business acumen – is up to.

"We always have a joke or saying that when you can correctly predict the financial results of Cheung Kong or Hutchison, you should be a genius. They have a lot of operations so it is very difficult for an analyst to understand all the businesses," said Lewis Wan, Chief Investment Officer of the Pride Group.

"I think the main reason of Mr. Li divesting from mainland and HK is that he foresees there are some risks and uncertainties in the global economy," said Louie Shum, Chief Executive Officer of Sincere Securities.

But just as Mr. Li is diversifying, he is divesting from property assets on the Mainland. Earlier this week, a Li-owned firm is reportedly in talks to sell its Shanghai building for a quarter of a billion U-S dollars.

Companies in which Li's family has stakes have sold over three-point-two billion U-S dollars in assets on the Mainland and in Hong Kong since last August. Much of these divestments are property-related, a move analysts think is a concerted strategy of cutting exposure to real estate and raising funds to deploy elsewhere.

Li's companies have not purchased any land in Hong Kong or the Mainland for three years now, reports CLSA.

Cheung Kong group's increased infrastructure investments could be a result of it having the need to find low risk assets which have provide higher return for their surplus cash.

Jonas Kan, Head of Hong Kong Research of Daiwa Securities, says the group is looking to park their surplus cash in low risk assets such as infrastructure investments, which can provide higher returns. Reason enough for Kan to flag buy ratings on Mr. Li's Cheung Kong group.

"At this moment, we favour Chinese equities rather than Cheung Kong or Hutchiso. These two companies are very difficult to valuate." Lewis Wan said.

Mr. Li's buying spree is likely to continue in the months ahead, say Kan. Cheung Kong has nearly four billion U-S dollars in cash on hand, and will be at a net cash position in the second half. All this diversification, it appears, is just about halfway done.

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