Name and long-past history doens't matter. Don't forget that Li Ka Shing hasn't given up the name of Hutchison Whampoa after his Cheung Kong bought it. And both Hutchison and Whampoa, as well as Watson's, all have long colonial histories - much longer than Cathay Pacific's. All those names are still in use by Li's group extensively.

More recent history is another matter, of course.

Also notice that the colonial government, at least in its final 20 or so years when I was growing up in HK, never let itself to favor any "hong" tycoons at least in the public eye, as the current HK/Beijing leaders are shamelessly doing with the Li family. (e.g. the Cyberport project) I seldom saw any past governors hanging out with or mentioning Simon Keswick of HK Land before 1997, even though his group own the most of the Class A office space in Central (at least until the late 80's).

The irony is that this favoritism has really helped politicize Hong Kong - which is exactly what Beijing doensn't want to see - as well as creating a little backlash against the Lis, especially after the Hong Kong Tel fiasco. On my recent trip to Hong Kong, a friend of mine told me she does not shop at Park'n Shop or Watson's because it's in the Li group. I've never heard of such stuff in the 70's and 80's, when people hardly cared about politics or ownership. We just shopped where the prices were lowest.