HONG KONG -- By betting big on bankrupt Air Canada, Hong Kong tycoon Victor Li may be showing a bit of his billionaire father's legendary eye for snapping up a deal when the price is right. Li, the 39-year-old eldest son of Hong Kong's richest man, Li Ka-shing, got the nod over the weekend to invest $650 million Cdn for a 31-per- cent stake in the carrier seeking to restructure under an arrangement that will leave creditors in control.

Analysts yesterday called it a risky move -- the boom-to-bust airline industry is notorious for swinging from big profits to big losses.

And it thrusts Victor Li into the limelight he has rarely courted while working with his father's big Hong Kong-based conglomerates, in contrast to younger brother Richard Li's flamboyant wheelings and dealings that have made headlines for years.

After a quick glance at the Air Canada deal, announced late Saturday night, Victor Li comes out looking more like his father.

"There are similarities in style and mentality," said Ben Kwong, director of the brokerage KGI Asia Ltd.

"I'm sure he asked his father for advice on the deal."

The elder Li is known locally as "Superman" for what seems like a magic touch at buying low and selling high. It has enabled him to grow from humble beginnings as a young man making fake flowers into a powerful tycoon with worldwide interests ranging from ports to property to telecom services and oil and gas.

Victor Li holds top posts in the family empire -- managing director of the conglomerate Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd. and deputy chair of the conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa Ltd.

Li has Canadian citizenship which makes it possible for him to hold nearly a third of Air Canada. Canadian law limits foreign ownership of its airlines to 25 per cent.

The Air Canada board accepted Li's bid over an offer from Cerberus Capital Management LP of New York, an asset management firm with Canadian interests. A $1.1 billion Cdn Air Canada bailout will also require cash to be injected by creditors in a rights offering backed by Deutsche Bank.

Li's portion of the deal is being arranged through his company Trinity Time Investments, which said the cash will come from "Victor Li's personal financial resources and may include investment from other family holdings and foundations and is not subject to financing conditions."

Air Canada was granted bankruptcy protection April 1 and hopes to return to financial health as a leaner operation, cutting its aircraft fleet and payroll.

Li wants to work with Air Canada's management to rebuild the carrier into a "leading competitor" globally, said Frank Sixt, speaking for Trinity Time Investments.

Sixt declined to be drawn on details.

"There's a fair amount of risk attached," said airline analyst Timothy Ross at the Hong Kong office of UBS Securities. But Ross said that if Li called the deal correctly big profits are also possible.

Ross said he believes Li is hoping to make cash by investing in Air Canada at the bottom then eventually selling out rather than becoming a longtime player in the airline industry.

Li's 37-year-old brother, Richard, has often made more of a splash with bold plans to build businesses rather than buying them on the cheap.

Richard Li's company PCCW Ltd. pulled off what many viewed as an audacious takeover of Hong Kong's top telephone company, formerly known as Cable & Wireless HKT, in a 2000 deal financed largely by stock that promptly plunged and has stayed low ever since.

The original plan was to use telephone revenues to finance potentially lucrative Internet ventures, but that faded away along with the dot-com bust.

Richard Li also was chosen to build a high-tech and residential development in Hong Kong, known as Cyberport, in a deal that stirred much criticism when it was awarded by the government with no bidding.

One brush with notoriety was unwelcome, when Victor Li was kidnapped in the late 1990s -- a crime that was never reported to the police.

A Hong Kong gangster, Cheung Tze-keung, netted a record $210 million US in ransom from kidnapping Li and a rival tycoon, Walter Kwok. Cheung was later arrested in mainland China and executed for kidnapping and gun-running.