One is known as the “Oracle of Omaha”, the other as “Superman”. Warren Buffett and Li Ka-shing are the two most revered investors in the West and East. Now that both, in their 90s and just two years apart in age, are hoarding cash, is it an omen of a major financial downturn?

Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway’s cash pile is already the subject of rampant market speculation. The conglomerate is entering 2025 with $US334 billion ($531 billion), or a record 29 per cent of total assets.

Warren Buffet has a long history of cashing out at the right time. Credit: Bloomberg

CK Hutchison Holdings’s recent corporate actions will only add fuel to the guesswork. The Hong Kong-based conglomerate has been steadily deleveraging since 2020. It held on to cash after selling its European tower assets to Cellnex Telecom for €10 billion ($17.2 billion) that year, and might be debt-free once the controversial $US19 billion sale of most of its ports to a BlackRock-led consortium concludes. CK didn’t announce special dividends at its earnings release last week.

Both have a long history of........

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