Rebirth: From arcade game to business empire

October 1st, National Day!

This day is also the day of bidding for the Heung Kong Metro.

In fact, in the whole of Xiangjiang, the number of companies that want to participate in the subway bidding is definitely not a small number, this is a big project, in addition to the advance payment of the Xiangjiang government on the surface, and most importantly, its own influence.

Jardine Matheson, Swire & Co., Wheelock & Co. and Hutchison & Co. have all come.

In addition to this, there is a consortium of island nations.

Triangular Heavy Industries!

Finally, the representatives of Chinese-funded enterprises, Hongmeng Group, and Lin Mu also came over in person.

Basically, the people who can come over this time are people with heads and faces.

Hutchison & Co. Qi Dezun came in person, Jardine Matheson & Co., John Jack Schwya, Swire & Co., John Jack Schwya, head of Wheelock & Co., John Madden, and finally the head of Triangular Heavy Industries Group.

There is also forest husbandry.

To be honest, what I can pay a little attention to now is actually Trilogy Heavy Industries.

Everything else is nothing to worry about.

Among the four major foreign companies in Xiangjiang, the most powerful is Jardine Matheson, but soon Jardine Matheson began to decline, and it is no longer the Jardine Matheson that built the Beijing-Kowloon Railway, and its influence is getting smaller and smaller.

The second is Hutchison & Co., which was about to break out in the oil crisis, and Hutchison & Co. had to take care of itself, and finally it was rectified into Hutchison Whampoa.

The best situation is Swire & Co., and the other 3 foreign companies are all in debt due to business errors. Swire has been developing for more than 100 years, always taking care of it, and this is their consistent strategy. Because Swire has always been cautious, and has never given anyone a chance to take advantage of it.

Subsequently, Swire has only developed six projects in the mainland after 18 years of real estate development, and their debt ratio is now only about 10%. In 2018, Swire Group's total revenue reached more than 80 billion yuan, and its profit was close to 30 billion yuan.

However, in 2020, Swire Group began to have problems, first starting to make significant layoffs at Cathay Pacific and then selling its own building.

Apparently, it is also in a financial crisis.

Finally, there is Wheelock & Co., John Madden is clearly not a very good businessman, or an entrepreneur.

In 1971, Wheelock acquired Federal Real Estate Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Chinese businessman Cheung Yuk Leung, by about 30% of the share capital by issuing new shares, so that the group owned two high-end commercial buildings in Central, International Building and Federal Building.

In 1972, through Harriman Development Limited, he developed real estate properties in various districts of Hong Kong and Kowloon. In the 1970s, Wheelock became one of the leading property developers in Hong Kong. However, although Wheelock has 200 subsidiaries and many businesses, its flagship business is still the shipping industry.

Last year, Wheelock decided to reorganize its listed company Steel Co., Ltd. into Wheelock Shipping International Co., Ltd., which was responsible for the development of shipping, and in 1974, it formed Wheelock Co., Ltd. with Wang Gang, a charter ship, with a 51% stake. However, during the same period, with the outbreak of the oil crisis and the reopening of the Soys Canal, Wheelock's recurrent surplus in 1973 had fallen from HK$180 million to HK$69 million in 1974 and to HK$29 million the following year.

At this point, the head of Wheelock, John Madden, had already arranged for Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land to propose the acquisition of Wheelock on October 21, 1976, and the news caused a sensation in the market.

Lin Mu glanced at this John Madden more, and knew that this guy looked full of distress now.

Naturally, Lin Mu also knew very well that John Madden was already in the mood and did not have much interest in Wheelock.

"Mr. John!"

John Madden knew that he had come here to make up the numbers, and the failure of the business made him feel a strong sense of anxiety, and even wanted to give up Wheelock & Co.

It's really hard now, and as soon as the stock market crash comes, the pressure on John Madden is simply increased exponentially.

In fact, if John Madden had held out a bit, he would have waited until 1976 for the economy to recover.

At that time, the property market was booming again, which led to the expansion of Wheelock's real estate business, and in 1977, the development of Fortune Garden Phase 1 in North Point with HK Electric, as well as the construction of industrial buildings in Tsuen Wan and San Po Kong, led to a significant increase in the Group's asset value.

Now, John Madden has little interest, and he now wants to turn his Wheelock & Co. into a fortune.

Wheelock's lack of confidence in Hong Kong's prospects and its overly conservative approach to business practices have left its profitability far behind those of developers such as Cheung Kong and Sun Hung Kai.

John Madden looked at Lin Mu sitting beside him, and naturally knew that Lin Mu was now a hot celebrity in the entire Xiangjiang River, and he really came to compete for the subway project, and he was only here to make up the numbers, and for a while, he only felt that his mood was even more bitter.

At that moment, he smiled reluctantly: "Mr. Lin has something to discuss?"

"Wheelock & Co. doesn't seem to have developed very well over the years!" Lin Mu took a sip of coffee and took a sip unhurriedly, and then said slowly: "I don't know, Mr. John, is there any idea of transferring Wheelock & Co.?"

John Madden was shocked, feeling that his mind had been seen through by Lin Mu at once.

"Mr. Lin is interesting?" John Madden immediately couldn't help but speak.

Lin Mu couldn't help but glance at John Madden more, and really couldn't help but sigh, this is too straightforward, this kind of person is from the legendary second fool, he showed his mentality a little, and this guy immediately began to climb down the pole.

Historically, in fact, Madden waited until 1976, and Wheelock & Co. still made a lot of money, but at this time, Wheelock & Co. also gave birth to another major shareholder, Zhang Yuliang, a descendant of Chinese businessman Zhang Zhushan.

The two major shareholders, the two have been in dispute for many years, and they are already inseparable, and later they are eager to split Wheelock, because they are optimistic about the prospects of Xiangjiang, both have the intention of withdrawing shares, but in the end it is a cheap charter king.

In the end, ShipKing privatized Wheelock and restructured its assets to make Longfeng International an in-house holding company until 1993, when Longfeng International changed its name to Wheelock and became a constituent stock of the Hang Seng Index again on November 24.

"Of course it's interesting!" Lin Mu laughed and said slowly.

"How much can you pay?" asked John Madden directly.

Lin Mu: "..."

I feel that this day, I can't talk anymore, I have been cheating for so long, this is the first time I have encountered such a straightforward one, and it is a bit silly to be straightforward.

"This, how about we talk about it later?" Lin Mu smiled.

"Okay, okay!" John Madden nodded fiercely: "I can trust Mr. Lin!"

Just when the two were chatting, Hong Kong Governor MacLehao walked out and directly announced the bidding results: "Hongmeng Group, Hongmeng Heavy Industry, Lin Mu, bid 20 billion Hong Kong dollars!"

Last year, Hong Kong's nominal GDP was 322,130,000,000 Hong Kong dollars, in other words, Lin Mu took out one-fifteenth of last year's GDP to bid.