Reborn as a tycoon in Hong Kong

Asia Star Media Group has a lot of subsidiaries, and it took Lin Baicheng a lot of time to read them all.

"Let's take a little rest."

Looking at the time, he found that more than an hour had passed, and Lin Baicheng decided to take a rest first.

He called the secretary in and asked him to make a pot of tea. Lin Baicheng drank tea and rested for a while.

After the break, Lin Baicheng continued to read the annual report.

Star and Moon Electronic Games Company.

The company's products only include the Xingyue console and the game cartridges that come with the console.

The Xingyue console went on sale on May 12, 1979, and was divided into luxury and regular models. The luxury model only sold a few thousand units, while the regular model sold 1.05 million units. In terms of price, the deluxe version of Xingyue Electronic Game Company can make money, while the regular version is sold at a loss. However, the sales volume of the deluxe version is too small. Compared with the huge loss of the regular version, the profit can be said to be basically useless.

The real money maker for Xingyue Electronic Game Company is game cartridges. In 1979, a total of 12 million copies were sold, with a total revenue of US$457 million, of which the profit was a little more than half. This shows how profitable the game cartridges are.

Last year, in terms of consoles, more than 10,000 units of the luxury model were sold, and the profit was still not much. 1.8 million units of the regular model were sold, and they were still sold at a loss.

In 1979, Xingyue Electronic Game Company's external statement was that the company was reducing prices at a loss to sell consoles, and the consoles were priced at $199 after a discount from $229.

By the 1980s, the regular model of the Xingyue console was priced at US$229. Except for holiday discounts at US$199, it was usually sold at US$229.

Although the price seems to have increased, it does not affect the sales of Xingyue consoles, because many customers purchased them at the price of US$199 during the holidays. At the same time, the price of Atari's console is much higher than that of the Xingyue console. The price of 260 US dollars is 31 US dollars more than the peak price of 229 US dollars for the Xingyue console. Customers will naturally not think that the Xingyue console is too expensive after comparing it.

Of the 1.8 million regular consoles sold by Xingyue Electronic Game Company in 1980, a total of 650,000 units, more than one-third, were sold for US$199, and the remaining 1.15 million units were sold for US$229. .

In terms of cost, due to increased production volume, increased raw material procurement, and technological advancements, the cost of ordinary consoles has decreased. In 1980, the average cost of each console was only US$244.7.

In other words, if you sell it at $199, you will lose $45.7 per unit; if you sell it at $229, you will lose $15.7 per unit.

In 1980, Xingyue Electronics sold 650,000 units at US$199, which meant a loss of US$29.705 million; it sold 1.15 million units at US$229, a loss of US$18.055 million.

In total, Xingyue Electronics suffered a total loss of US$47.76 million in the console area.

In 1979, Xingyue Electronics sold 1.05 million ordinary consoles, and its loss on the host was US$51 million. However, in 1980, Xingyue Electronics sold 1.8 million ordinary consoles, and its loss was only US$47.76 million.

The more you sell, the smaller your losses will be.

The fundamental reason is that sales have increased, raw material procurement has become cheaper, and technological advances have saved costs, which has narrowed losses.

If this situation continues, in a few years, Xingyue Electronics may be able to break even on the mainframe.

In fact, Xingyue Electronics can completely increase the selling price of the console and set the selling price above the cost price, so that the sales of the console will not lose money. But if you do this, it will inevitably affect the sales of consoles, and the sales of consoles are related to the size of the market and the sales of cassettes, and cassettes are the bulk of profits.

Therefore, according to the regulations formulated by Lin Baicheng, he would rather let the Xingyue console be sold at a loss and expand the market so that each game cartridge can have more sales, thus allowing the company to make more money.

Last year, the sales of Xingyue consoles increased by more than 70% compared with the year before, and the increase in cassette sales was naturally even greater.

In 1979, Xingyue Electronics sold a total of 12 million cassettes, and in 1980, Xingyue Electronics sold a total of 53 million cassettes, more than four times the number.

Of course, among the 53 million cassettes, only 38 million cassettes of games produced by Xingyue Electronic Game Company were sold, and the remaining 15 million were games produced by other game companies. After being poured into cassettes by Xingyue Electronics, Sold through Xingyue Electronics channels.

Among the cassettes sold, 3 million cassettes operated by Xingyue Electronics were given to customers by the sales consoles, so there was no revenue profit; there were also 1 million cassettes filled by other game companies on behalf of the sales consoles, and there was no profit. Revenue profit.

Unlike the Xingyue console, the price of the cartridge has neither increased nor decreased, and is still $40 per copy.

In other words, in the self-operated business, among the 38 million copies of cassettes sold, excluding the 3 million copies given away, the remaining 35 million copies brought revenue of US$1.4 billion to Xingyue Electronics.

Xingyue Electronics filled the 15 million cassettes on its behalf at a cost of US$25 per cassette, excluding the 1 million copies given as a gift. These 14 million cassettes brought Xingyue Electronics a revenue of US$350 million. .

As for the cost of Star and Moon Electronic Game Company's production of cartridges, the average cost per cartridge in 1980 was US$19.42, which was slightly lower than in 1979. The reason why the cost reduction is not much is because Xingyue Electronics has improved the imaging effect, making the picture clearer after the cassette is inserted into the host.

To put it simply, for the sake of the market, we should not kill the goose to retrieve the eggs.

In terms of profit from cassettes, the cost of self-operated 38 million cassettes is US$737.96 million. The 35 million copies sold will also be paid to the channel partners Starlight Company, Zhiyin Comics, and Jupiter Toys for a commission of US$4 per copy, which is US$140 million. , so that the revenue of US$1.4 billion is left at US$522.04 million.

This is not over yet. Promotional fees, transportation fees, etc. have not yet been calculated, but these can be calculated together with the operating costs of the host.

The cassette filled on behalf of Xingyue Electronics sold 14 million copies, and Xingyue Electronics earned US$5.58 per copy. Transportation fees, channel fees and other expenses were paid by the game producer and had nothing to do with Xingyue Electronics, so the US$78.12 million here is purely Profit earned.

Calculated, the cassette business brought Xingyue Electronics about US$600 million in profits.

In addition to the loss of the console, Xingyue Electronic Game Company has other expenses that need to be paid, such as the share of senior talents, employee salaries, factory water and electricity, product research and development, game production, etc., and taxes also need to be paid.

After deducting all aspects, the net profit of Xingyue Electronic Game Company in 1980 was only US$330 million, which was more than four times the net profit of US$75 million in 1979.

It can be said that Xingyue Electronic Game Company is very profitable, and as Xingyue consoles sell more and more, the cost becomes lower and lower, more and more games are produced, and the sales of cassettes will also increase. Xingyue Electronic Game Company's annual revenue and profits will only get higher and higher.

Lin Baicheng couldn't be more satisfied with the revenue and profits of Xingyue Electronic Game Company. Regarding the company's annual report, he will not publish it. Only a few senior executives of the company and group know about it.

The fewer people know about it, the lower the possibility of being coveted. Lin Baicheng still wants to make more money from Xingyue Electronic Game Company for a few more years.

Of course, if Wall Street sets its sights on this piece of fat, Lin Baicheng will not resist it. He will definitely choose to let Wall Street capital become shareholders and then list the company on Nasdaq.

The products of Xingyue Electronics Company are very dependent on the markets of the United States, Japan and Western countries. Once American capital is targeted, if Lin Baicheng does not want to give up his interests, there are many ways to deal with it. Even if he has connections in the United States, it may not be of much use. After all, who will let him? You are not willing to share the benefits.

Moreover, it is not a bad thing that Xingyue Electronic Game Company can be listed. After the company is listed, Lin Baicheng's shares will be more easily liquidated, and the returned funds can be used to develop other more important companies, such as the semiconductor industry.

Lin Baicheng continued to read the annual reports of other companies, and the next one was Galaxy Financial Group.

Galaxy Financial Group currently only has three subsidiaries: Galaxy Bank, Galaxy Insurance, and Yum Securities.

Under the financial troika of banking, insurance, and securities, there are also related subsidiaries, but the annual reports of these subsidiaries have been reported to the corresponding parent company.

Among the Troika, insurance companies were the smallest at that time.

Throughout 1980, the total premium of Galaxy Insurance Company was HK$350 million, and the profit was about HK$52 million, but the net profit was only HK$23 million.

Lin Baicheng is very dissatisfied with the scale of Galaxy Insurance Company, because most of the people who pay premiums are employees of companies under Lin Baicheng's name. The reason why these people pay premiums is because they trust Lin Baicheng, the big boss, and Galaxy Insurance Company develops its own business The marketing business of the company is really not that much, so how can Lin Baicheng be satisfied with it.

Yum Securities, the company's net profit in 1979 was HK$450 million, and by the end of the year, the company's principal was HK$700 million.

In other words, Yum Securities invested with a principal of HK$700 million in 1980.

The higher the principal, the more profits can be created. Of course, if management is poor and investment is unfavorable, the more principal you invest, the more you will lose.

In 1980, although there was no personal guidance from Lin Baicheng, Yum Securities still created huge profits with the help of the secretariat and various information from Lin Baicheng's companies. The company's net profit reached HK$310 million.

Yes, net income in 1980 was lower than net income in 1979.

But the reason why the net profit in 1979 was high was because under the guidance of Lin Baicheng, Yum Securities made huge profits during several stock price fluctuations of Hutchison Whampoa, with a profit of at least HK$200 million. In other words, excluding the guidance of Lin Baicheng, the real performance of Yum Securities management in 1979 was just over HK$200 million.

In this way, the HK$310 million in 1980 was an increase compared to 1979, and the increase was not low.

Lin Baicheng also knows the situation, so he is satisfied with Yum Securities' performance in the past 80 years.

Counting the profits in 1980, in 1981, the capital available to Yum Securities exceeded HK$1 billion, and the company became larger.

Moreover, Lin Baicheng believed that Yum Securities' net profits in 2081 and 2082 would be higher than last year. Because the stock market crash was coming, Lin Baicheng would definitely let Yum Securities make arrangements in advance. If this kind of thing is not mentioned in advance, he is worried that Yum Securities will suffer huge losses. After all, not everyone has the ability to judge the coming stock market crash.

If you don't remind me, you won't make the money that you could have earned, but you will suffer huge losses. Over and over again, the difference may be ten digits of Hong Kong dollars.

Galaxy Bank.

By the end of 1979, Galaxy Bank's depositors' funds had exceeded 10 billion Hong Kong dollars. The net profit of Galaxy Bank that year was 180 million Hong Kong dollars, but 40 million Hong Kong dollars of the profit was the profit brought by Galaxy Bank's recommendation of depositors to buy gold. Excluding this business, Galaxy Bank’s net profit in 1979 was actually less than HK$150 million.

By the end of the 1980s, Galaxy Bank's depositors' funds had exceeded HK$60 billion.

At present, the depositors' funds of Galaxy Bank are still divided into three parts, one is Xiangjiang citizens and other enterprises, the other is enterprises under Lin Baicheng's name, and the third is Lin Baicheng's own funds.

Of the depositors' funds of more than 60 billion Hong Kong dollars, Lin Baicheng himself owns nearly 15 billion Hong Kong dollars. The companies under Lin Baicheng's name contributed about 33 billion Hong Kong dollars, and the remaining 12 billion Hong Kong dollars were It is the funds deposited by Xiangjiang citizens and other enterprises in Galaxy Bank.

Among the depositors' funds of Xiangjiang citizens and other enterprises, many enterprises have business dealings with enterprises under Lin Baicheng's name, and the transactions of enterprises under Lin Baicheng's name go through Galaxy Bank, so these enterprises have to open accounts at Galaxy Bank and store part of their funds at the same time.

Among the citizens of Xiangjiang, the reason why many people save money in Galaxy Bank is because they are employees of companies owned by Lin Baicheng. The company pays wages through Galaxy Bank instead of directly giving them cash. They can't even open an account if they don't want to.

It's up to the employees to decide whether the money is deposited in the bank, but for many people, it doesn't matter which bank it is deposited in. After all, bank interest rates are similar. At least the bank where the richest man in Hong Kong is deposited seems safer.

In other words, the reason why Galaxy Bank can reach its current scale is mainly due to Lin Baicheng himself. Without him, Galaxy Bank, which had only been established for about two years, would have been very good if its depositors' funds could exceed ten digits.

Because of the expansion of scale and business, Galaxy Bank should have made money in the 1980s, and it should have made a lot of money. However, the fact is that Galaxy Bank suffered huge losses of more than ten digits in 1980, with losses as high as More than 1.3 billion Hong Kong dollars.

The reason why Galaxy Bank lost so much money is because Galaxy Bank continued to expand overseas in the 1980s, setting up branches, recruiting employees, etc., and its expenses exceeded the sky. The profit of HK$600 million from banking business was simply not enough to cover expenses. of.

However, Galaxy Bank's market expansion is limited and cannot continue like this forever. Therefore, it can be expected that starting from next year, Galaxy Bank may turn losses into profits.

That's right, Galaxy Bank will still lose money this year as expected, and the losses will be considerable. The main task of Galaxy Bank this year is to expand and establish an overseas branch network.

Lin Baicheng was not surprised by Galaxy Bank's huge losses in 1980. He had expected this, and the magnitude of the losses was within his acceptable range.