TPG Capital, the US private equity firm, has submitted a bid for a minority stake in the flagship telecommunications assets of Richard Li, the Hong Kong tycoon, ahead of Monday’s deadline for offers.

Mr Li has maintained a low profile ever since his aborted attempt two years ago to sell the telecom and multi-media assets of PCCW, Hong Kong’s largest telecoms group. That attempt was scotched by the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office, the cabinet body with policy responsibility for China’s two “special administrative regions”, which objected to foreign ownership of Hong Kong’s core telecoms network.