Pacific Century Group

Pacific Century Group (PCG), chaired by Richard Li, is an Asia-based private investment group founded in 1993 with interests in technology, media and telecommunications (TMT), financial services, infrastructure, property and other investments. It operates mainly in the Asia-Pacific region, including Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan.

Its subsidiaries include Pacific Century Cyberworks, the holding company of the Hong Kong Telecommunications Limited (HKT) and through which it has a majority interest in Pacific Century Premium Developments Limited. Pacific Century Group also owns a majority interest in PineBridge Investments.

Richard Li first became interested in the TMT space in 1989 when he foresaw the opportunity for the creative development of information and home entertainment services in Asia and set-up STAR TV, Asia's first satellite-delivered cable-TV service. By 1993 STAR TV had a viewer base of 45 million. In 1993, Richard Li sold STAR TV to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation in 2 tranches for around US$1.0 billion, achieving a return of 9x over 3 years, and went on to form Pacific Century Group (PCG) and Pacific Century CyberWorks (PCCW).

PCCW is the largest telecommunications and IT solutions provider in Hong Kong, operating fixed-line, broadband internet, mobile and TV services. It launched the world's first major IPTV service, now TV, in 2003; today it is the world's largest commercial deployment, accounting for a fifth of all IPTV subscribers worldwide. In 2006, the company launched its 3G service in Hong Kong and delivered the world's first real-time broadcast mobile TV service to 3G users.

PCG has a strong track record of holding and developing assets over the long term, and has a network of well-established connections in Asia. Its first foray into financial services came from the acquisition of Pacific Century Insurance ("PCI") in 1994. PCI was listed on the stock exchange of Hong Kong in 1999. By 2007, PCI was the sixth largest life insurer in Hong Kong.PCI Investment Management was included in this statistic. Between 2000 and 2007 this company's assets increased seven-fold and the firm received numerous awards from Standard & Poor's, as well as Lipper. Having grown the business in Hong Kong into a public company with a strong agency force and sound financial performance, there were limited opportunities for expansion in Asia at that time. In 2007, PCI was sold to Fortis to better position the business for the next phase of growth as part of a broader international platform.

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