Li Ka-shing and his top lieutenants at Hutchison Whampoa, the Hong Kong tycoon's conglomerate, don't like to be called “asset-traders”. Hutchison is in the business of building businesses, they say, and has the global ports, retailing and oil operations to prove it.

Then, however, there is the case of Hutchison Telecommunications International. Three years ago HTIL presided over an attractive portfolio of emerging market telecom networks, including India's fourth-largest mobile phone company.

That was sold to Vodafone in 2007 for $11bn. HTIL paid shareholders a special dividend totalling $4bn, and retained another $5bn for potential acquisitions. Unable to find any, it returned the excess cash to shareholders at the end of 2008.

Last year, HTIL shed its two remaining profitable networks – spinning off its Hong Kong and Macao operations in a separate listing on the local stock exchange, and disposing of its controlling stake in Israel's Partner Communications for $1.4bn. That left the company with four loss-making networks in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

Having been reduced to a shadow of its former self, HTIL announced on Monday that Hutchison is considering making a “potentially imminent” buy-out for what remains of the company.

HTIL investors determined to hang on until Mr Li applies the inevitable coup de grace could always choose to reinvest their cash in parent Hutchison, which remains committed to its loss-making 3G networks in the UK and Italy.