Reborn as a tycoon in Hong Kong

Although Hutchison Whampoa's profits in 1978 were HK$240 million, part of these profits were proceeds from the sale of the company and were not profits from business operations.

And if Hutchison Whampoa's investment profits in 1978 are included, Hutchison Whampoa's profit the year before last could exceed HK$3 billion.

In the previous year's annual report, Hutchison Whampoa's total market value was approximately HK$25 billion, and Lin Baicheng held 49.9% of the company's shares, equivalent to holding shares worth more than HK$12 billion.

What Lin Baicheng is looking at now is Hutchison Whampoa's 1979 annual report.

After Hutchison Whampoa issued an additional 40 million shares, its total share capital was 440 million shares. The 199.6 million shares held by Lin Baicheng accounted for about 45.364% of the total share capital.

Hutchison Whampoa's current share price fluctuates between HK$110 and HK$120. The company's total market value is approximately HK$50 billion. Lin Baicheng's shareholding value is more than HK$22 billion, an increase of HK$10 billion in market value compared to last year.

In 1978, including investment profits, Hutchison Whampoa's total profits exceeded HK$3 billion.

In 1979 last year, Hutchison Whampoa made a profit of US$213.4 million from its gold futures long position settled in February. It made a profit of HK$920 million from selling its foreign trade business in March. The price of selling the Golden Gate Building in August was HK$600 million and after listing. The remaining 28.5% of the shares of the Carin Group made a profit of US$983 million from the settlement of long gold futures orders in October. In November, an additional 40 million shares were issued, allowing Hutchison Whampoa to obtain HK$2.8875 billion in cash.

If these are converted into Hong Kong dollars, it is a little more than 9.43 billion Hong Kong dollars, plus 28.5% of the shares of Jianing Group that cannot be converted into exact figures.

This does not include the US$200 million principal that Hutchison Whampoa invested in long gold futures in 1978. However, this principal is still long in gold futures today, and this time it took US$400 million of principal to go long, so it won The principal of US$200 million will be deducted from the cash generated from the profits.

Nearly 8.6 billion Hong Kong dollars in cash, 28.5% of the shares of Carin Group, and long gold futures orders with a principal of 400 million US dollars. These are the profits made by Hutchison Whampoa from investing in this area in 1979. The cash alone is 8.6 billion Hong Kong dollars. That’s nearly three times Hutchison Whampoa’s 1978 profits.

What's more, the long gold futures with a principal of 400 million US dollars are not calculated. The 400 million US dollars of principal is long with 2.5 billion US dollars, and the profit is at least 1.3 billion US dollars. Adding the 400 million principals is at least 1.7 billion US dollars, seven More than one billion Hong Kong dollars.

However, the long gold futures with a principal of 400 million US dollars began to be shipped in January 1980, so the profits here are calculated in 1980. The annual report of 1979 can only reflect that this investment was in 1979. The value as of the last day of the year, and this value cannot be converted into real cash.

Hutchison Whampoa made a lot of profits from its investment in 1979, and also invested a lot.

First, Lin Baicheng participated in the financing of several companies, acquiring 3% of Apple's shares for US$7.5 million, 4% of New Century Software's shares for US$22 million, and 3% of Zhonghe Game Company for US$6 million.

The completion of the Hutchison Hotel, the ongoing construction of the Hutchison Hospital, the establishment of a pharmacy chain named Hutchison Health, the acquisition of Kowloon Bus, the expansion of Watsons, investment in real estate, etc. all cost money.

The construction and decoration of the Hutchison Hotel in Hong Kong are all based on the highest-end hotels. Therefore, this hotel alone cost Hutchison Whampoa almost 800 million Hong Kong dollars.

Hutchison Whampoa Hospital also spends a lot of money. The construction cost of the hospital itself is HK$340 million, not to mention the purchase of advanced equipment and the recruitment of doctors with excellent skills. The investment here has now reached HK$700 million. More than 100 million Hong Kong dollars.

The investment of the pharmacy chain Hutchison Health is not as much as HK$1 billion, but it is still more than HK$300 million. In fact, the construction of a chain pharmacy does not cost that much money. The main thing is to purchase medicines. At the beginning, it requires a lot of capital to purchase a batch of goods and sell them in the pharmacy.

The acquisition of Kowloon Bus actually didn't cost much. A few hundred million Hong Kong dollars is not a big sum for Hutchison Whampoa today.

The bulk of Hutchison Whampoa's investment is in Watsons and its real estate business, both of which are expanding overseas markets. Among them, Japan's real estate business has invested US$400 million, or nearly HK$1.7 billion.

Coupled with the expansion of real estate in Hong Kong, Hutchison Whampoa's investment in the real estate department alone in 1979 was about 2.5 billion Hong Kong dollars.

It can be said that the more Hutchison Whampoa earns, the more it invests. The total investment in 1979 was nearly 7 billion Hong Kong dollars. In addition, the company distributed a dividend of 800 million Hong Kong dollars in 1979 and repaid a loan of 1.2 billion Hong Kong dollars.

However, although the loan was repaid with 1.2 billion Hong Kong dollars, another loan of US$100 million was taken out in 1979, so the loan was actually only repaid with about 800 million Hong Kong dollars in 1979.

After entering and exiting, Hutchison Whampoa's investment profits were invested in the development of the company, allowing the company's net assets to continue to increase.

In 1979, the real estate industry in Xiangjiang continued to rise, and Hutchison Whampoa's real estate department naturally benefited. Whether it was investment in building shopping malls or self-built projects by the company, the value increased a lot, and the net assets were greatly increased.

In terms of business operations, Hutchison Whampoa's profit in 1979 was more than HK$700 million. In addition to benefiting from the increase in real estate value, Watsons' retail business also began to develop in this year, which brought Hutchison Whampoa considerable profits.

If you only look at Hutchison Whampoa's profit of more than HK$700 million in 1979, it is definitely not worthy of Hutchison Whampoa's current market value of about HK$50 billion. However, if the company's net assets of more than 20 billion Hong Kong dollars are deducted, the company's price-earnings ratio is actually less than 40 times.

The P/E ratio of less than 40 times is not low, but it is not ridiculously high either.

Lin Baicheng can accept the revenue and profit of Hutchison Whampoa, because at his request, only a small part of Hutchison Whampoa's properties are sold, and most of them are kept. It is not yet time to sell, so Xiangjiang Real Estate's Going well will only increase Hutchison Whampoa's net assets a lot, but its revenue and profits will not actually increase much.

If Hutchison Whampoa develops and sells at the same time as other real estate companies do, then Hutchison Whampoa's profit last year may not even exceed HK$1 billion, but may even exceed HK$2 billion.

Hutchison Whampoa's development route cannot be copied by other real estate companies, because only by selling properties can funds be recovered, and real estate companies can continue to acquire land for development. The reason why Hutchison Whampoa is able to do this is because the company's investments are very profitable, and the money earned from investments can be invested in real estate development. With bank loans, there is no shortage of money.

After reading Hutchison Whampoa's annual report, Lin Baicheng looked at the annual report of Xingyue Electronic Games Company, which he valued very much.

The Xingyue console went on sale on May 12, 1979. In the first month, the regular model of the Xingyue console was priced at US$179 each. The total sales volume in Hong Kong, Japan and the United States was 154,000 units. The deluxe version was sold 460 units were released, and 1.18 million game cartridges were sold, with total revenue of approximately US$74 million.

After the first month, the price of the regular Xingyue console increased from US$179 to US$189, while the price of the deluxe version and game cartridges did not change.

More than a month after the price increase, the sales of regular consoles were only about 80% of the previous level. Later, driven by publicity and "Mario Bros.", console sales increased, and in October they had exceeded the first month's sales. .

Starting from December 12, the price of the regular Star and Moon console will increase again from US$189 to US$199, while the price of the deluxe version of the console and game cartridges will remain unchanged.

During the Christmas event, Xingyue Console not only announced that the price of the console had been reduced from US$229 to US$199, but after all, the price was still US$20 higher than the first month's price. Therefore, if you buy the console during Christmas and New Year's Day, you will get two game cartridges. As a gift, even though these are two games with low sales, it still costs the company to produce the cartridges.

Xingyue Electronic Game Company was split from Xinghe Game Company in April 1979, so of course it is impossible for the company to have data in 1978.

Star and Moon Electronic Game Company's revenue in 1979 was US$667 million, of which console revenue was only US$210 million. The bulk of it was game cartridges, with revenue of US$457 million.

In terms of profit, the console no longer wants to make money. Instead, it has to repay the money. What makes money is the game cartridge.

The total global sales of ordinary Xingyue consoles is about 1.05 million units. The 150,000 units in the first month will only cost a loss of US$60 each, and the 600,000 units will lose a cost of US$50 each. The remaining 30 Ten thousand units cost US$40 per unit.

Add it all up, and the ordinary console will lose $51 million in cost alone. This does not include customs duties and other taxes, as well as the 10% commission for sales to these two companies in Zhiyin Comics physical stores and Starlight Company physical stores.

The deluxe version console can make money, but the problem is that the total revenue of the deluxe version console is only over one million US dollars, and the profit is only a few hundred thousand US dollars, which is not useful at all.

Xingyue Electronic Game Company still relies on game cartridges to make money. In 1979, the company's game cartridges sold a total of 12 million copies, of which about 600,000 were given as extras when buying a console at Christmas, so there was no sales.

Of the total revenue of game cartridges of US$457 million, profits accounted for a little more than half, almost US$240 million.

However, of the total revenue of Xingyue Electronic Game Company of US$667 million, US$66.7 million is for Zhiyin Comics, Starlight Company and Jupiter Toys physical stores responsible for sales, with the first two companies accounting for the majority.

123 million U.S. dollars, this is the remaining operating profit of Xingyue Electronic Game Company.

In terms of net profit, taxes, salary bonuses for employees, factory water and electricity and other expenses must also be deducted. In the end, the net profit left by Xingyue Electronic Game Company is only 75 million US dollars.

In 1979, the revenue was US$667 million but the net profit was only US$75 million. The profit margin was just over 11%, which can be said to be not high. But there is nothing we can do about it. We are losing money on console sales, and our profit margins will naturally not increase.

However, as more and more Xingyue consoles are sold, this situation will gradually improve in the future.

Xingyue Electronic Game Company relies on game cartridges to make money. When millions of consoles are sold in the future, when a game is launched, the potential market will be millions. Even if only one million players buy the cartridge of this game , then Xingyue Electronic Game Company can also make tens of millions of dollars in profit.

The more Xingyue consoles are sold, the more efficient the company will be in making money from game cartridges in the future.

It can be seen that the prospects of Xingyue Electronic Game Company are still very good, at least Lin Baicheng thinks so.

Lin Baicheng has invested US$100 million in Changsheng Medical and Biological Company. The company is building an experimental area, purchasing advanced scientific research equipment, and inviting top industry talents from European and American countries, so the company is not slow in spending funds.

The total initial investment in this company will reach US$500 million, of which Lin Baicheng will personally invest US$490 million, and the Rockefeller family will contribute the remaining US$10 million. However, because Lin Baicheng does not have that much money for the time being, the remaining US$390 million and the Rockefeller family's financing have not yet been carried out.

After all of Lin Baicheng's long gold futures orders are settled, he will find a time to transfer US$390 million to the account of Changsheng Medical and Biological Company in a reasonable manner, and at the same time sign a financing cooperation contract with the Rockefeller family.

What Lin Baicheng is looking at now is not the annual report of Changsheng Medical and Biological Company. The company has no specific business, so where does the annual report come from? What he is looking at is the progress of all aspects of the company. What is the progress of the construction of the pilot area? What equipment has been purchased? Which experts the company has invited and which experts are still under negotiation, etc.

This company, which was just established in 1979, actually has nothing to say at the moment. It only has expenses but no income, and it may not have any income in the next one or two years until the team led by Lin Baicheng develops results with commercial value.

Lin Baicheng is somewhat confident about research and development, but he usually doesn't have that much time and doesn't stay in the laboratory all day like other scientists, so research and development won't progress too fast. In addition, having research and development results does not necessarily have commercial development value. These are two different things.

The most important thing about Changsheng Medical and Biological Company is the future, and Lin Baicheng believes that the future prospects of this company will be very good because it has an excellent scientist, himself.

After reading the report of Changsheng Pharmaceutical and Biological Company, Lin Baicheng was only left to read the annual report of Asia Star Media Group.

In fact, if you really want to talk about it, Lin Baicheng still has a company, but this company is not registered in Xiangjiang, but it is managed by Xiangjiang, and it is managed by Lin Baicheng himself.

This company is Leishen Security, which is the security company established by Lin Baicheng.

Lin Baicheng personally manages Thor Security. The security company is usually managed by bodyguards such as Chen Yaoxian and Brian Owen, but they are in charge of different departments.

Today, the security company is still purchasing an island as a base, and is still in contact with the country where the island is located. However, a lot of manpower has been recruited, and currently we can only let them wait with a low basic salary; the sellers of firearms and other equipment have also been contacted, and we will wait for the base to be confirmed before purchasing.

The investment in Thor's security will definitely not be small, at least several hundred million dollars, and basically don't think about how much money this company can make for Lin Baicheng every year. It basically requires Lin Baicheng to invest a large amount of money every year.

Just giving without getting anything in return does not seem to be what a businessman should do.

But the properties of the security company are different. Although he is not sure whether it can be used, Lin Baicheng will feel more at ease with it, so he is willing to pay the money as if he is buying peace of mind.