The Industrial Giant Reborn

"England? Isn't it the Iron Lady who invited me to invest?" Chen Zhiwen suddenly asked curiously.

"This is not clear. That person just conveyed the words of an official from the British Ministry of Commerce." Zhou Jiayang said.

Chen Zhiwen didn't care and asked again: "Did you tell me what you want me to invest in? There are so many industries, I can't just invest at will, right?"

"They didn't say anything. I guess if you go to the UK, maybe they will communicate with you." Zhou Jiayang replied.

"Okay, then send a message back and I'll go take a look at the beginning of next year." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

Over the years, Chen Zhiwen's main capital has been in the United States and Hong Kong, followed by the mainland and Japan, and then some countries in Southeast Asia. Europe is almost not involved. The reason for this is very simple. There are so many countries in Europe, so many History, as a time traveler, who the hell can know?

The few companies that are certain to grow rapidly, such as Nokia, may still be peers in the future. After all, mobile phones are also considered electronic products. Midea will definitely try to make mobile phones in the future, and it is still early for Nokia to rise. And now in Europe, similar to Japan, the entire business landscape has basically taken shape, and it is difficult for there to be any new players. The wealthy families in 40 years will basically come from the current wealthy families.

Because they have not grasped the electronic age, the computer age, the Internet age, the smartphone age, and the mobile Internet age, the giant companies in Europe in the future will basically be traditional companies. In the 1980s, they basically had a large scale. .

Of course, it cannot be said that there is absolutely no such thing. There are still some entrepreneurial geniuses in Europe who can change their lives against the odds, but the scale of growth is limited. Therefore, when he was short of capital, Chen Zhiwen basically did not think about investing in Europe. At most, he acquired this place. Some companies that already have a foundation provide supporting services for home appliance technology.

But now that I have enough capital, I can consider investing in Europe, but there are not many choices, and there are indeed some opportunities in the UK recently.

Starting from the 1970s, the British economy began to slump, and was affected by the oil crisis. After entering the 1980s, the economy became even worse. A naval war over the Falklands was fought. Although it won face, it directly consumed 6 billion US dollars, and British industry suffered another It's so bad that a lot of people are unemployed.

Under such circumstances, after the Iron Lady came to power, in order to stimulate the economy, she began a vigorous privatization policy of state-owned enterprises, allowing countless capitalists to take the opportunity to swallow up a large amount of British wealth.

Although it may be difficult to do this as a Chinese, there are indeed many suitable industries in the UK, such as the automobile industry. Although it is a bit worse than France and Germany, there are still good car brands, such as Rolls-Royce. , mini, Land Rover, etc., no matter how good the technology is, at least the brand is already famous around the world.

"Okay, then I will send a message back tomorrow." Zhou Jiayang said.

Christmas is coming soon, and many companies across Hong Kong are on holiday, making shopping malls bustling with activity.

Chen Zhiwen also moved Liu Xiaoli from the mainland and opened an international-level dance hall for her in Hong Kong. At the same time, he also began to let her develop in the direction of educating people.

After all, for an art-loving person, if he cannot play on his own due to some reasons, then training other children is also a good choice.

People don’t have to work. When you have money, you don’t have to work, but you always need to find something to do. Chen Zhiwen also agrees with this. It is also a good thing to let Liu Xiaoli train the next generation of dance superstars.

Being in Hong Kong together, the relationship between the two naturally improved by leaps and bounds.

Christmas and New Year’s Day can be said to be a highly entertaining combination of two festivals.

The time has also arrived in 1984. One year and three months have passed since the economic crisis in Hong Kong, but there is still no good trend, because some negotiations between the mainland and the United Kingdom have begun to fail to reach an agreement, which eventually led to the Hong Kong Hang Seng The index fell a little.

Although it is not a sudden drop, it is already at a trough after all. How could it still be falling like crazy?

On January 5, Land held a general meeting of shareholders. Niubijian announced with a burst of warm applause that it would spend HK$700 million to distribute stock dividends to all shareholders in Hong Kong. At the same time, Exchange Square, Tai Tam Road White House on Hong Kong Island The reconstruction plans for the villas in the Bishan area and the Miramar Hotel will proceed as scheduled.

After the news came out, Land's stock price rose sharply again, and even pushed the Hang Seng Index up a little, but not much. After all, the general trend is still not good.

Hutchison Building Headquarters:

"According to our shareholding, we can get more than 100 million Hong Kong dollars. Niubijian is really generous." Chen Zhiwen read the data in the newspaper and did some mental calculations to come up with this figure.

Hutchison Whampoa currently holds more than 21% of Land's shares, which amounts to almost HK$150 million. This amount of money is still a large amount in this era of economic crisis, even if the Hong Kong dollar has not depreciated for a long time.

"Newbijian is obviously doing this to win over shareholders. The Keswick family is probably preparing to attack them." Zhou Jiayang said with a smile. Hutchison Whampoa naturally has its own channels. When preparing to acquire Land, about They will pay attention to any major events involving Land and Jardine. When Simon Keswick comes to Hong Kong, he does not keep a low profile. Naturally, he has known about it for a long time.

"It seems that our loan has helped Niubijian." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said. In the original history, Niubijian broke the capital chain of the real estate operation and didn't even need the shareholders meeting to open. He knew that there was no chance. , so he could only take the US$1 million "severance package" given by Simon Keswick and left Hong Kong in despair.

In this life, history has changed too much. The emergence of Chen Zhiwen has made Land and Land even more in debt. However, the capital chain has not been broken because of the loan from Hisense Bank.

Loss is not a problem for any company. If it has too much debt, it can slowly negotiate with the bank. Anyway, the bank will not let a large company go bankrupt unless it has to, because then it will also have a lot of bad debts. But if the capital chain is broken, Even if there is profit, it will go bankrupt soon.

"According to the plan announced by Newbikin, I estimate that by the end of this month, more than half of the 3 billion we lent them will be spent. However, it is the beginning of the year and the Chinese New Year is about to begin, so there may be a large amount of rent. In addition to the repayment of foreign debt, Land is expected to recover a lot of loans." Zhou Jiayang said.

Chen Zhiwen said: "Then we need to find out more about Land's recent income and expenditure. When we take action, we must make the capital chain of Land collapse as quickly as possible, either going bankrupt or on the verge of bankruptcy."

Only real estate that is forced to go bankrupt can be given the opportunity to acquire it. If it cannot be acquired, then it will really go bankrupt. If it goes bankrupt, various properties may be arranged into the hands of different banks, or the Hong Kong government may come forward to arrange it. Then he still remains Opportunity to acquire a large number of Land's core Central properties.

As for other fringe properties, shopping malls, land or non-real estate industries, it would be better if these can be acquired. It doesn’t matter if they don’t have them. The most valuable properties of the entire land are the dozen or so properties in Central and several in Tsim Sha Tsui and other commercial bustling areas. area building.

"Don't worry, Mr. Chen, our people are also keeping an eye on this. He estimates that based on past annual income during this period, Land's income should be around HK$800 million. But based on Land's current spending rate, it won't last long." Time." Zhou Jiayang paused and said: "If you don't have enough Niubijian, you won't be a fool. He will always leave about 1 billion in cash for turnover."

"I know this, but it's only 1 billion, which is not enough to consume the entire Land for a long time. Once we can apply to freeze the money, Land will be finished." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

"I'm just worried about the court, right?" Zhou Jiayang said.

"Don't worry, I will make this matter known to everyone around the world who is interested in Hong Kong. If the court dares to cover it up, it will become a joke." Chen Zhiwen said with confidence.

Although the Hong Kong government has always favored British capital, some legal provisions in Hong Kong are obviously more important. It is one thing to skirt around the edges, but it is another thing to openly show illegal favoritism.

And his relationships overseas are also very good. Although the largest TV station in the United States is not his own, it is okay to let them broadcast some news in this area. In Asia, he has also made friends with many wealthy Chinese over the years, and these Rich people also have the same tycoon level in their own homeland.

"In this case, Land will be dead." Zhou Jiayang said happily. Once the acquisition of Land is successful, it will also be an achievement for him. Even Chen Zhiwen has long said that Land will remain independent after the acquisition and will remain independent from Wharf. Same.

The end of the month is coming soon.

An informant within Landmark came to the news that Landmark had paid out its stock dividends and had also remitted funds to start several large-scale projects to relevant partners. The funds in Landmark's own account had dropped sharply, leaving only enough money to maintain operations. of funds.

After confirming with his boss Chen Zhiwen again, Zhou Jiayang came to a conference room and said: "Everyone, our operation has officially begun. The purpose this time is to directly kill the opponent."

"Understood." Everyone said almost at the same time.

The next day, Hong Kong Economic News, Ming Pao, and Ta Kung Pao simultaneously received an important piece of news: Land, when submitting review materials to a large bank in Hong Kong, deliberately concealed a large amount of overseas loans, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars.

Among them, the evidence that can be obtained is that Thailand's Agricultural Bank loaned US$18 million to Land in early 1983. However, this project was not included in the information submitted by Land.

As soon as the news came out, regardless of whether it was true or not, it immediately caused panic among investors. As soon as the opening time came, countless investors went to sell their stocks. Half an hour after the opening, Land's stock price plummeted 9%.