Aug. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing used another asset sale to keep profit growing at his biggest company and cover a fourth year of losses on high-speed wireless services. Some investors aren't convinced he can keep it up.

Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. pared gains on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange after the company reported a 53 percent increase in net income, boosted by a HK$35.8 billion ($4.5 billion) profit on the sale of its stake in India's third-biggest mobile-phone operator.

The 79-year-old Li, Asia's richest man, has drawn comparisons with Warren Buffett for his ability to buy, build and sell businesses -- capped by the $52 billion gain Hutchison made on the sale of U.K. mobile operator Orange Plc in 1999. That reputation is being tested as Hutchison's third-generation wireless unit has lost more than $14 billion since starting operations in 2003.

``Investors' expectations of Li's ability to dispose of his 3G units are getting slim,'' said William Fong, who helps manage $6.8 billion as Asian equities investment manager at Baring Asset Management in Hong Kong. ``It won't be easy for Li to find a buyer for 3G now, like when he sold Orange.''

3 Group, Hutchison's European high-speed wireless unit, posted a first-half loss of HK$11.3 billion before interest and tax in the first half, compared with HK$12 billion a year earlier. The unit is two years behind its original break-even target of 2005. Li said today he expects 3G to end losses next year.

`Not Exciting'

Hutchison stock has fallen 2.3 percent in 2007, compared with a 15 percent gain in the benchmark Hang Seng Index. It closed 0.3 percent higher at HK$77.20 today after climbing as much as 3.8 percent before the earnings announcement.

Canning Fok, Hutchison's managing director, said at a news conference today that the company has no plans to sell its U.K. 3G unit ``at this time.'' Li, at the same conference, said he's interested in the high-speed wireless business in China.

The Hong Kong-based company with assets including ports, energy and property reported net income of HK$28.76 billion, in line with the HK$28.2 billion median estimate of five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Stripping out the one-time gain from the sale of Hutchison Essar Ltd. in India, earnings were ``fine but not exciting,'' Winson Fong, who helps oversee about $2.5 billion at SG Asset Management in Hong Kong, said in a phone interview. Earnings before interest and tax from established business rose 10 percent to HK$20.9 billion.

Cheung Kong

``The challenge for Hutchison is to find another earnings driver when its port business is quite established and its energy division will benefit less from oil prices, which have been falling from record highs,'' Fong said.

Li has managed to keep Hutchison's net income increasing in the past three years even as the European high-speed wireless networks remain unprofitable. In addition to the Essar disposal, Li has sold a stake in Hutchison's port unit and its holding in a China venture with Procter & Gamble Co.

The 3G unit, with operations in the U.K., Italy and five other countries, has lost HK$115 billion, or about $14.7 billion, before interest and tax since 2003.

Hutchison's earnings helped first-half profit at parent Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd. rise 52 percent to HK$18.54 billion. Excluding the contribution from 49.9-percent held Hutchison, profit rose 48 percent to HK$4.17 billion on surging investment earnings and gains from the revaluation of real estate.

Hong Kong developers are boosting profits as rising wages push up property prices in Hong Kong and China. Li, Asia's richest man according to Forbes magazine, has spent at least 4.65 billion yuan ($612 million) buying land in China this year, according to filings to Hong Kong's stock exchange.

China Property

Cheung Kong and its ventures added at least 3 million square meters (32.3 million square feet) of property in China to their land bank in the first half, more than triple the amount acquired during the whole of 2006. Population growth and demand for housing have eased in Hong Kong, Cheung Kong's home market.

At today's press conference, Li said some China projects have returns of more than 20 percent. Cheung Kong shares closed 2.6 percent higher at HK$109.50 after climbing as much as 4.3 percent in the morning session.

``It won't be easy for Cheung Kong to keep such a strong profit growth in future without adding new driving forces, as Cheung Kong's core property business is already pretty big in Hong Kong,'' SG Asset's Fong said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Joshua Fellman in Hong Kong at jfellman@bloomberg.net; Mark Lee in Hong Kong at wlee37@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: August 23, 2007 07:59 EDT