Reborn Tycoon Rise

"It's absolutely true!" Sides nodded and said. In addition to investing in Standard Chartered, Xu Zhi's other plan for the financial field was to acquire a medium-sized Chinese bank. Sides didn't know where he got the information, so he took the initiative to help. .

Xu Zhi asked: "Why did the Li family withdraw from the banking industry?"

"The Bank of East Asia was established in 1918 and is one of the oldest banks in Hong Kong. However, it almost went bankrupt during the bank run crisis in the 1960s. In order to cope with the run, the Li family had no choice but to sell half of the bank's equity to an Australian company. Consortium, due to the prosperity of the real estate economy in recent years, general banks have achieved good results, but the Bank of East Asia has suffered losses due to the increasingly serious conflict between the Li family and the Australian side.

After the death of the previous head of the Li family, the descendants of the Li family were no longer willing to continue to deal with the Australian side. However, the Australian consortium seemed to have noticed this and instead took the opportunity to suppress the purchase price. Therefore, the descendants of the Li family were unwilling to The shares were sold to the Australian side, hoping to find a capable Chinese family in Xiangjiang to take over their shares. ” Sides explained with a smile.

"So what's going on?" Xu Zhi nodded, and then asked: "What price is the Li family willing to sell?"

Sides said: "250 million Hong Kong dollars, 51% of the shares."

"It's too expensive." Xu Zhi shook his head and rejected it. A bank with total assets of only 4 billion Hong Kong dollars is not worth 500 million Hong Kong dollars.

The Bank of East Asia has 21 branches in Hong Kong, with total deposits of approximately HK$4 billion. Xu Zhi has long known that this scale can only be regarded as a medium-sized bank in Hong Kong.

Sides smiled and said: "If you can't agree on the price, don't rush. Just negotiate slowly. Moreover, Mr. Xu, part of the branches of Bank of East Asia are self-owned properties. The combined value of these is tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars."

"Then how sure are you that you can persuade Australian capital to withdraw?" Xu Zhi asked.

Sides smiled and said: "The performance of this Australian consortium in recent years has not been very good. It has been seeking to borrow profits from the Bank of East Asia to return to the country. This is also one of the fundamental reasons for the conflict between the Li family and it. Now we are willing to acquire it. They can cash out hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars at once, which is what they want! The rest is still a matter of price and time."

"Okay, when I return to Xiangjiang, I will arrange for professional lawyers to negotiate. No matter what, I would like to thank Mr. Sides for your help." Xu Zhi said with a smile.

Sides said: "Haha, as long as Mr. Xu takes care of our Standard Chartered Bank in the future!"

"No problem, I hope we can have more cooperation in the future." Xu Zhi said with a smile.

Generally, investors who need funds turn to banks, but companies like Xu Zhi's are extremely profitable. In this case, he basically chooses the bank.

In order to obtain subsequent huge loan orders, the Hong Kong branch of Standard Chartered Bank was naturally willing to help, including finding a suitable Chinese bank for Xu Zhi and making the acquisition.

Why is Standard Chartered willing to help?

First, even if Standard Chartered does not help, Xu Zhi has the ability to find appropriate targets on his own, and other large banks may also intervene in the process. This will make Xu Zhi owe other banks favors. For Standard Chartered Bank, , it’s too much of a loss.

The second reason is the most important, because according to Hong Kong’s banking law, no bank can lend money to other industries owned by the controlling shareholder. This is to prevent some people from opening a bank and taking advantage of the opportunity to make money, especially In the real estate industry, if there were no restrictions, I don’t know how many real estate giants would open their own banks and then use depositors’ funds to develop real estate.

This kind of behavior will cause serious financial risks. In the 1960s, Hong Kong's financial regulations were not perfect. Some Chinese commercial banks found that it was too slow to make money just by relying on the interest rate difference between deposits and loans, so they boldly ventured into it. On the one hand, it raises bank deposit interest rates to attract more funds; on the other hand, it uses depositors' funds to purchase properties or even develop real estate.

When operations were going well, this operating method was almost a huge profit, but the high amount of deposits caused other banks to have operational difficulties. Therefore, a group of other Chinese banks also jumped in to compete and began to develop the real estate industry desperately.

In 1965, Mingde, a medium-sized bank in Xiangjiang, was exposed by the media because a check was not cashed in time, which made ordinary people panic and come to withdraw money. Eventually, a run occurred.

Most of the banks in Hong Kong have a tradition of cooperation with each other. This crisis soon spread to other Chinese-owned banks in Hong Kong. At that time, the famous Chinese-owned banks Hang Seng, Hang Lung, Guang On, and Dao Heng all suffered from runs. Hang Seng Bank He even sold most of his shares to HSBC in order to survive. There were also many bankruptcies at that time.

Therefore, in the late 1960s, the Hong Kong government promulgated a series of regulations to supervise the banking industry. The most important one was that bank shareholders were not allowed to borrow money from banks at will and had to report it to the Hong Kong government for approval.

But once this article is applied for, it means that the capital flow of one's own projects will be thoroughly monitored by the Hong Kong government. No consortium will agree to this request. Over time, some large consortiums have either lost the interest of investment banks, or some banks have They will not apply for the use of their own bank funds through the Hong Kong government. This is actually one of the main reasons why the four major families that later monopolized Hong Kong were not involved in the banking industry.

In other words, even if Xu Zhi acquires a Hong Kong bank, he will not be able to use internal funds to develop large-scale projects that he needs to invest in. In the future, whether it is mainland infrastructure investment, building construction in Hong Kong or even overseas mergers and acquisitions, they will not be able to go through their own banks, which leaves a huge opportunity for Standard Chartered.

Of course, there are not all loopholes. For example, Xu Zhi can arrange for all his employees to open accounts in his own bank, and can also provide loans to his own employees. In the future, most of the company and supplier funds will also go to his own company, and banks can provide suppliers or Partner loan financing and more.

…

Although a bank with a total deposit of 4 billion Hong Kong dollars is nothing in the eyes of Hong Kong's top capital, it involves the safety of the property of tens of thousands of ordinary residents. The Hong Kong government is also extremely cautious about bank mergers and acquisitions.

After nearly a month of hard work by Standard Chartered Bank, Xu Zhi successfully acquired 100% controlling stake in Bank of East Asia for HK$430 million.

"Xu Sheng, congratulations, I hope we will only be partners in the future, not competitors." After the acquisition contract was signed, Sides shook hands with a smile.

"The financial market in Xiangjiang itself is huge. I don't think one more bank will affect the interests of Standard Chartered Bank. Moreover, in Xiangjiang, we combined cannot compare to the other two banks, right?" Xu Zhi said with a smile.

Two banks in Hong Kong have the supreme power to issue banknotes, one is HSBC and the other is Standard Chartered.

As the quasi-central bank of Hong Kong, it is not surprising that HSBC is the largest. However, the second-ranked bank in Hong Kong is not Standard Chartered, but Hang Seng Bank, which is controlled by HSBC. This is undoubtedly a shame for Standard Chartered, which has the right to issue banknotes. .

"That's right, the road should be walked step by step." Saides said with an awkward smile.

"If you want to surpass HSBC, it is impossible to only be in the Xiangjiang market. The only opportunity is to develop internationally. Standard Chartered Bank is actually at the forefront of HSBC in this regard." Xu Zhi said with a smile.

"Yes, but I am only the manager of the Xiangjiang branch. I can't do anything about the headquarters." Saides sighed. The headquarters of Standard Chartered Bank failed to invest in the international market one after another and suffered serious losses. Even his Xiangjiang branch was also affected. The company was affected and was forced to transfer profits back to the headquarters, which was extremely detrimental to the development of the Xiangjiang branch.

Xu Zhi smiled and said nothing. According to the development history of HSBC in later generations, it is basically impossible for Standard Chartered to surpass it. It was impossible for the bank he acquired to achieve this goal, because HSBC was able to be so successful in later generations not only by relying on the huge profits that were almost monopolized in Hong Kong, but more importantly, by the large number of talents and talents gradually cultivated in the course of hundreds of years of development. British resource channels.

The only possibility to compete with HSBC is for Standard Chartered to cooperate with it. Although it may not necessarily succeed, it can at least create an international bank.

From the beginning to the present, Xu Zhi currently has two main business directions, one is the electronics industry, and the other is real estate infrastructure.

Relying on the prophetic advantage of future generations, in the field of electronics, if we only look at the company's profits, Midea Electronics is already no less than top companies such as Sony and Panasonic, but the real background is still far away.

In fact, Midea has invested a lot in research and development in the past two years, but the strength of a company cannot only rely on itself. Supporting supporting industries are also a top priority. The strength of companies such as Sony and Panasonic is also related to the strength of companies around them. Hundreds of small suppliers with huge relationships.

Midea Electronics' suppliers need funds to build factories and purchase production lines. This process often requires financing. Having its own bank will be very convenient.

As for real estate and infrastructure, although according to the law, it is difficult for its own banks to participate in Evergrande's investment in infrastructure in the mainland, how many projects can Evergrande participate in no matter how powerful it is? Many projects in the mainland are constructed solely by themselves and will not be shared with foreign investors. However, they will be open to foreign banks in terms of financing. If you have your own bank, as long as the scale is large enough, you can obtain great benefits in this regard. At the same time, as a creditor, it will also greatly increase your influence.

Not to mention, a consortium must have its own bank. For example, the Mitsui Consortium, the strongest among the six major consortiums in Japan, owns large manufacturing companies such as Sony, Toyota, and Nippon Steel, but these are only on the surface. industry, Mitsui's core assets are actually financial investments all over the world.

In areas such as iron ore, large-scale grain trade, super-large farms, and supply of various minerals, energy and raw materials, the Mitsui Consortium is more or less present.

In addition to investing in shares, the reason why the Mitsui Consortium has such great influence is because it owns several top-ranked banks in Japan. These banks absorb domestic funds in Japan and control the lifeblood of many industries around the world through financial lending.

It is very difficult to develop into an existence comparable to the Mitsui Foundation, but the development model of the Nippon Foundation has great reference value.

The acquisition of a small bank in Hong Kong is just the first step in the financial field.