The Industrial Giant Reborn

"Stocks of Jardine Matheson and Land? How many shares?" Chen Zhiwen also became interested immediately. During this period, he took advantage of the Hong Kong dollar exchange rate crisis and made a lot of money from it. Although he could only earn about a month, the profit was huge. , exceeding the total profits of all his companies during the same period. This kind of income has been rare in the entire history of mankind.

However, no matter how big the profit is, it is short-term and speculative. Just like Soros attacked the British pound and the Mexican peso in the 1990s, triggering the Southeast Asian financial crisis, and almost became the only financial capitalist in the world who can confront sovereign countries, but that's it. Even though he has become one of the world's top super-rich people, his final net worth is far behind those of Buffett, Bill Gates and others, and even less than that of lower-level entrepreneurs or entrepreneurs. This is the most fundamental thing. The reason is naturally that although speculation can make a lot of money in a short period of time, if you want to be rich and prosperous for a long time, you still have to rely on normal business operations or long-term investment. Whether it is the technology industry, civil industry, real estate industry, etc., long-term operation is the key to the capital society. King.

With Chen Zhiwen's current status, what he is still interested in is the world's top 500 companies in the future. Although Land will not be among the world's top 500 companies in the future, it will surpass many of the top 500 companies because the top 500 rankings are based on business. The amount is calculated based on the base number, but the core business of Real Estate is leasing. Naturally, this kind of leasing business cannot be compared with others selling products, but the profit is another matter. Among the world's top 500 companies, only a small half can exceed Land, and this is still in the hands of Jardine Matheson, if it is in the hands of Chen Zhiwen, it will be a completely different matter. On the other hand, Land's assets are of very high quality and can be easily cashed out, mortgaged, etc.

At present, in Hong Kong, it can be said that land is the target that he is most interested in. There is no one.

"This fund owns 2.3% of Land shares and 3.1% of Jardine Matheson shares. The total amount can be said to be very large. None of the shareholders we have tried to find before have this amount." Zhou Jiayang also said happily.

"So many? Who is behind this fund?" Chen Zhiwen asked in surprise. Even though Jardine Land's stock has plummeted due to the real estate crisis, the combined market value of the two exceeds HK$15 billion. How many people can he own? Those who order are all the best.

And before that, he had arranged for Hutchison Whampoa's team to secretly search for shareholders of Jardine Matheson Land and ask them to buy stocks. However, some of the shareholders on the surface had good relations with the Keswick family or Newbigan and others. It would be easy to expose them if they were approached. The others are all small shareholders, very small ones. To have 0.1% is an unexpected surprise. Now that such a big one suddenly appears, Chen Zhiwen is really surprised.

"This is an investment fund under the British Railway and Coal Union Fund. They have shares in many large companies in Hong Kong. Now that the Hong Kong dollar is in crisis, they came to us and wanted to exchange their shares for US dollars." Yang said.

"Are there any other companies' stocks? Which ones?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

"There are also companies such as Swire, Wheelock, Dingdi, and HSBC. They are basically all British-owned foreign companies. They have been their minority shareholders a long time ago, but they have never participated in shareholders' meetings or announced their ownership. No one in the outside world knew about the stocks, and it was the problems with the Hong Kong dollar that drew them out." Zhou Jiayang said.

"Forget it, there is no need to acquire these stocks. Just acquire Jardine Matheson and Land." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said. Wheelock is now suffering from serious losses and its stock price has fallen sharply. Although the company currently has some There are many high-quality properties, but their main business is shipping. Once they acquire it, they have to wipe the butt. It is too troublesome. It is better to invest the money elsewhere. In later generations, Pao Yugang was able to quickly integrate it after acquiring Wheelock. The reason why they are integrated is because the Bao family itself is in the shipping business, which is their strength.

Swire will always be doing well, even in the 2020s. However, the investment efficiency in the future will not be very high, and there is no investment significance. Moreover, 50% of the company's shares are in the hands of the controlling family (because it is not in Hong Kong, Therefore, it is not restricted by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange) and has no debt itself. Chen Zhiwen has nothing to do about it. Otherwise, Cathay Pacific is still very good.

As for the final HSBC, its future income is indeed very high, no less than that of General Electric and Coca-Cola. It has to be said that Shen Bi is very capable and has paved the way for HSBC's future very successfully. However, HSBC is The "quasi central bank" is protected by Hong Kong law. No one is allowed to acquire more than 1% of HSBC's stocks. This is a direct provision of the law, and no one can break through it. It is stricter than the German law that protects the public.

If Chen Zhiwen acquires HSBC shares from an investment perspective, he can do it at any time with only 1% of the quota. Besides, Jardine Matheson itself also holds 1% of HSBC shares and is one of the directors of HSBC. When he acquires Land in the future, will he It is still unknown whether they will acquire Jardine Matheson together, and it will not be too late to decide when the time comes.

"But the other party proposed to trade in US dollars, but it must be done according to the exchange rate stipulated by the Hong Kong government." Zhou Jiayang said with some hesitation. The stocks of these two companies are what he needs most. But if he follows the Hong Kong government's regulations, If you want to trade, you will have to spend a lot more money.

"That's impossible, but we can talk about it and make some concessions. Generally, we need a premium to acquire stocks, so it's about the same amount, but we can't give up too much. If they want to exchange the stocks in their hands for U.S. dollars, , you can only come to us." Chen Zhiwen said decisively. Although he really wants these stocks, it is still early for the Hong Kong government to set an exchange rate of 7.8. This is the general trend and it is difficult to change. The exchange rate of 7.8 must be based on multiple economic data. What you calculate is not determined with your eyes closed. It's impossible for him to trade at 5.5. No matter how much he makes, at least he can't lose.

"Okay, then what is our bottom line?" Zhou Jiayang asked.

"About 9, even on the black market now, there are still around 9." Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and said, Hisense Bank's public exchange will have a huge impact on the black market. However, Hisense's queue is relatively long and the quota is limited. Therefore, the black market There is still a chance, and these people will also use scalpers to exploit Hisense Bank's loopholes. Huo Jianning's people also discovered some and directly captured them and sent them to the police station.

"Okay, I'll talk to them with 9 as the bottom line." Zhou Jiayang nodded and said. Only his side can meet such a large demand for US dollars. This is their advantage, but the other party may not know that his side is certain. If you want to acquire real estate, you can only rely on guesswork.

"Follow this matter closely and report to me at any time. Don't delay it for too long." Chen Zhiwen said again. In short, a balance must be mastered. After all, the other party is a large British fund and may be relatively close to Buckingham Palace. The news channels are even Being stronger than himself is also an unstable factor.

"Understood." Zhou Jiayang nodded and said.

"What's the progress in property and real estate?" Chen Zhiwen asked again. Hutchison Whampoa is responsible for acquiring high-quality properties and land in Hong Kong with US dollars. It has the same logic as Hisense, but the direction is different. The biggest assets in the hands of many Hong Kong rich people are properties or land. Instead of a large amount of cash, if they are allowed to sell the real estate first and then exchange it for US dollars, the first emergency sale will cause serious losses, and the second one will be too late. At this time, Hutchison Whampoa will naturally come forward and directly acquire US dollars.

"Swire, Wheelock, and a dozen British-owned foreign companies of various sizes. They all have a lot of land in their hands and want to sell it for US dollars. I negotiated with them for more than 100 pieces of land and property, with a total area of ​​almost 2 million. Their total quotation is US$330 million. Here is the list, Mr. Chen, please take a look at it." Zhou Jiayang had already prepared it before he came.

Hisense Bank only needs Chen Sheng's approval on the exchange rate to exchange Hong Kong dollars, and it can be done with confidence. However, Hutchison Whampoa acquires various land properties of different sizes and locations with different values, so naturally it needs to be negotiated first. Report to the boss when it's almost done.

"Average 160 US dollars per square foot? Let me see." Chen Zhiwen took the list. Although the land price in Hong Kong has been cut in half, the price is still very high because there are a lot of leeks to buy at high prices. Nowadays, the land on the edge of Central on Hong Kong Island still costs 1 It costs more than 10,000 Hong Kong dollars per square foot. As for the core location, it is still expensive but not marketable. The land is almost cheap. There are also 100 per square foot in the fringe areas, but unless the area is very large, Hutchison Whampoa will not look at it. It is too Too much worthless land will only increase management costs.

"Many of these locations are quite good. Although they are not in the prosperous areas of Hong Kong Island, they are located in good locations now that they can be located by these century-old companies." Zhou Jia Yang said with a smile.

"It's a pity that the core land of Dayang Bank has not been released yet." Chen Zhiwen shook his head and said regretfully. In fact, this is normal. Who will sell high-quality land until it is a matter of life and death? As for Land, in the 1985 year of its original history, the capital chain had been broken, but it would rather sell Hong Kong Electric, which monopolized the power generation business, than sell the land at Exchange Square.

Of course, it turned out later that this was a wrong choice. Hong Kong Electric was worth much more than Exchange Square. Not to mention the stable power generation business, the value of the land owned by Hong Kong Electric under Li Jiacheng's development exceeded Exchange Square.

"These ghost guys are actually very good." Zhou Jiayang said helplessly.

Chen Zhiwen looked at Huo Jianning again and asked, "Has the US dollars in Hisense's hands been exchanged almost?"

"That's not enough, but it's only about 600 million U.S. dollars, almost one-tenth. If it continues like this, there won't be enough U.S. dollars." Huo Jianning said, although in recent days due to "price increases", the exchange rate There are a little less people, but Hisense Bank has more than 50 million US dollars exchanged every day, and the foreign exchange reserves in hand are still sharply reduced.

"It doesn't matter. If there are insufficient funds, I will continue to mobilize funds for you, but this will be an emergency loan from an overseas bank. Do you have to add some handling fees?" Chen Zhiwen said with a smile. The money is naturally his own. , he still had some money from investing in gold before. Under normal circumstances, he would buy a large number of stocks and treasury bonds of American companies to ensure that he could cash them out immediately when needed. The reason for borrowing money is that there is no need to let his subordinates Many people around me know about this matter, including gold investment, including my parents, but only I know how much money I have earned.

"Okay, I understand. I'll add an additional 3% handling fee." Huo Jianning said with a smile.

"Let's change it to 5%. People who have no confidence in Hong Kong's future at this time probably don't care about spending more money." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

It's a big deal if you can, and I just took this opportunity to bring some of the US dollars in my hand into Hong Kong. During this time, I was sweeping gold with a dustpan on the road.

Time has quickly entered October, and there are already fewer people coming to Hisense Bank to exchange U.S. dollars. It may be that those who were in urgent need of exchange before have already exchanged them.

However, large-scale transactions have not stopped. Many British-Chinese consortiums in Hong Kong want to exchange for US dollars. In order to avoid the possible risk of Hong Kong dollar collapse, coupled with Huo Jianning's tough attitude, they can only give in.

On the other hand, under the instruction of Chen Zhiwen, Zhou Jiayang negotiated with many British-owned foreign companies and finally acquired a total of 2 million square feet of their land across Hong Kong for US$290 million.

Since then, Hutchison Whampoa has become the largest real estate company in Hong Kong in a real sense, with more than 10 million square feet of reserve land, surpassing Cheung Kong Holdings and Land, but the average value is still not as good as the latter.

On October 12, the Hong Kong government officially announced that the official exchange rate was set at 7.8 Hong Kong dollars to 1 U.S. dollar. The Foreign Exchange Reserve Bureau and HSBC Bank will exchange without restrictions. It has obtained authorization from the British government and will use the British government's authority when necessary. foreign exchange reserves to stabilize the Hong Kong dollar market.

When the news came out, the Hong Kong dollar transactions in the black market collapsed instantly, and the foreign exchange office of Hisense Bank was also immediately closed. There were only a bunch of people crying for their parents and shouting to cancel the transactions. Some of these people were scalpers, and some were scalpers. The middle class, they knew immediately that they had lost at least 20%.

But the deal is done. Even if you want to exchange for Hong Kong dollars now, Hisense Bank will comply with the Hong Kong government’s exchange rate regulations.