Telecoms giant Three has paid out a record £2 billion dividend to the Hong Kong-listed conglomerate of billionaire Li Ka-shing, as it cashes in on the sale of mobile phone masts across Europe.

Hutchison 3G, which trades as Three and has ten million customers and more than 4,500 employees in the UK, paid out the money months before increasing some of its contract prices by 14 per cent.

The British company is owned by 95-year-old Li’s CK Hutchison Holdings, which has drawn scrutiny in the past for dividends taken from its other UK assets.

The latest payout marks the first time that CK Hutchison has taken a dividend from Three, which it launched in the UK market 20 years ago.

Three said the money related to the proceeds of CK Hutchison’s €10 billion sale of about 24,600 telecoms towers and sites to Cellnex, which included 6,600 UK assets. It added that CK Hutchison had invested heavily in its development and the rollout of 5G mobile technology for its customers.

But the disclosure comes at an awkward time for Three, which agreed a deal this year to merge its UK operations with those of Vodafone. The merger faces serious regulatory hurdles as it would combine two of Britain’s four largest mobile operators.

The Unite union, which fears for the jobs of its members, has been campaigning against the deal, claiming it could lead to increased consumer bills.

CK Hutchison, which is incorporated in the tax haven of the Cayman Islands and listed on the stock exchange of Hong Kong, holds investments in dozens of countries. In telecoms, it operates Three-branded networks in Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Austria and Ireland, as well as the UK. It owns Three through Hutchison 3G UK Holdings, which is itself held through Genesis Lake Limited, a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, and other subsidiaries.

The UK holding company paid out a dividend of £1.9 billion last year. Li’s family owns just over 30 per cent of CK Hutchison and so stands to earn nearly £600 million. Li stepped down as chairman of CK Hutchison in 2018 and handed over control to his son Victor. He remains a senior adviser to the company.

The Three mobile brand was launched by CK Hutchison as Britain’s first mainland 3G mobile network — ahead of Vodafone and Orange — in 2003. It promised customers the ability to watch video clips and make video calls. It was a loss-maker for CK Hutchison until 2010.

Accounts recently filed at Companies House show that Three generated revenues of £2.4 billion last year, up 3 per cent on the previous year, as its customer base grew by the same proportion to 10 million. Earlier this year, Three — in common with other telecoms providers — raised prices by more than 14 per cent, passing on inflationary costs to its customers.

Hutchison 3G said its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation fell to £628 million because of higher costs, including energy prices.

Three said CK Hutchison had funded the company’s investments in technology that would bring 5G connectivity to its customers, and that its capital expenditure had totalled £2.3 billion over the past three years.

Hutchison-owned companies have come in for scrutiny over dividends in recent years. UK Power Networks, for example, has been criticised for paying out more than £2 billion in dividends since it was bought by Li’s empire in 2010 for £5.5 billion.

Li’s other investments in the UK include Superdrug, Northumbrian Water and Greene King pubs.