By Chester Yung
HONG KONG--Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing said Friday he
plans to list his global retail business this year in Hong Kong and
one other venue.
The 85-year-old Mr. Li's comments were the first concrete
details on the future of his A.S. Watson & Co. retail empire,
which is part of this Hong Kong-listed conglomerate Hutchison
Whampoa.
Hutchison owns Watson and said late last year that the company,
which sells products as diverse as aspirin in its drugstores and
ovens in its electronics shops globally, was looking into several
options, including an initial public offering. It gave no other
details then, but people familiar with the matter said early this
year that a dual-listing in Hong Kong and London was the most
likely plan. No IPO fundraising amount has been fixed, but analysts
have previously valued Watson at over $20 billion.
"No matter what, Watsons will definitely list in two locations,
with Hong Kong being one of them," Mr. Li said.
Watson is closely working with HSBC Holdings Ltd., Goldman Sachs
Group Inc. and Bank of America on the IPO, people familiar with the
matter said earlier. Watson owns health and beauty retailer
Superdrug, which has more than 870 stores across the U.K. and
Ireland, as well as the ParknShop grocery chain in Hong Kong. It
tried to sell ParknShop for up to $4 billion but aborted that sale
in October when offers, from bidders including Australia's
Woolworths Ltd., failed to meet its target.
Write to Chester Yung at chester.yung@wsj.com
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