Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Ltd, the road and utility company controlled by billionaire Li Ka-shing, said it's looking at more than 20 assets globally for possible acquisition.

"If we manage to get one asset out of 20, that would not be too bad," Chairman Victor Li said at a media briefing Tuesday, declining to comment if the company has placed a bid for E ON AG's UK power assets.

Cheung Kong Infrastructure, known as CKI, and its sister company Power Assets Holdings Ltd are expanding overseas to counter slowing growth in the Hong Kong power market. E ON's UK power grid has drawn interest from CKI, MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co and PPL Corp in a sale that may fetch about $6 billion, people with knowledge of the talks said last month.

"We never ever bid on anything with a must-win mentality. It has never happened in CKI's history. We look at what is fair value. When we bid, sometimes we get it, but more often we don't," he said, adding that CKI is examining assets in countries that it operates in.

CKI and Power Assets are both under billionaire Li Ka-shing's ports-to-telecoms conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. Power Assets recently changed its name from Hongkong Electric Holdings Ltd to reflect the growing importance of its overseas business.

A group led by CKI and including Power Assets concluded the 5.8 billion-pound ($9.4 billion) purchase of Electricite de France SA's UK power grid networks in October 2010, in Li Ka-shing's biggest acquisition overseas. Other purchases in the past year include the 211.7 million-pound sterling acquisition of a 50 percent stake in the UK power producer Seabank Power Ltd.

CKI also holds utility assets on the mainland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the Philippines. About two-thirds of its revenue came from outside Hong Kong in 2009.

Shares of CKI rose 29 percent in the past 12 months in Hong Kong, outstripping the 15 percent gain by the benchmark Hang Seng index in the same period. E ON, the world's largest utility by sales, was working with Barclays Capital and JPMorgan Chase & Co on the possible sale of its UK power grid, two people with knowledge of the matter said on Nov 24.

Power Assets may bid for E ON's UK assets, Group Managing Director Tso Kai-sum said on Feb 16.

Bloomberg - Reuters

(HK Edition 03/02/2011 page3)