For Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, it is his “third son”. Alibaba’s founders thought it deserving of 2 per cent of the proceeds of the world’s largest initial public offering. And for a group of wealthy Asian businessmen it offers the opportunity to save a vast stretch of coral.

The “it” is the charitable foundation. Philanthropy it is big business in Asia. The wealth is here — 560 US dollar billionaires at the last count, according to Wealth-X, the data provider that tracks the super-rich — and so too is the growth. Fittingly for a continent of largely self-made tycoons who came from roots both humble and ghastly, there is a desire to give back to society.

Take Li, one of Asia’s wealthiest tycoons whose charitable foundation, which he has called his “third son”, will receive the same inheritance as his two flesh-and-blood offspring.