Reborn Tycoon Rise

In recent years, takeover wars have broken out frequently on the Xiangjiang stock market. In addition to the impact on investors and shareholders, another group of people have also earned a lot of money from this, and that is the business lawyers in Xiangjiang.

Although Kowloon Bus is small in scale, it has a long history. It has been listed on the stock exchange for more than 30 years and has a very large number of shareholders.

Evergrande itself holds 38% of Kowloon Bus shares, and once again acquired 40% of the shares held by Lei Juekkun. According to Hong Kong law, when it holds more than 51% of the shares of a listed company, a comprehensive takeover offer will be triggered.

This law is aimed at acquirers. Once triggered, they must take over other stocks at the last purchase price and must not refuse. Otherwise, they must reduce their own shares to 35%.

The share price of Kowloon Bus has been lower than the market for a long time. Now, Evergrande Group acquires it at a premium of 40%. Many people are very satisfied and exchange the shares for cash.

Although there is a small group of people who disagree, when Evergrande acquired 90% of the shares of Kowloon Bus, according to the Listed Company Law, it was required to be forced to delist without cash exchange, and the shares in hand would become fixed assets in the future. Selling is difficult.

In the end, with the cooperation of professional lawyers, Evergrande Group finally spent HK$780 million to acquire the entire Kowloon Bus Company, and sold back many of the land owned by Kowloon Bus to the Lei Juekkun family for HK$550 million.

In other words, Evergrande spent a total of 220 million Hong Kong dollars to buy a bus company with 700 buses and nearly 4,000 employees. It also assumed liabilities of 350 million Hong Kong dollars, plus some bus stops in use. Below these bus stops The land will actually be a considerable asset in the future.

In addition to the bus station, the largest piece of land owned by Kowloon Bus is a bus repair station with an area of ​​more than 100,000 square feet near Yuen Long District. This piece of land is the most valuable land of the entire Kowloon Bus Company. Later, the Kwok family of the four major families in Hong Kong Therefore, Kowloon Bus was also acquired just for this piece of land.

Calculated in this way, just looking at the acquisition itself, it is very cost-effective.

Moreover, before the acquisition, the reason why the capital market was not optimistic about the future of buses was because the Xiangjiang Metro Company was preparing to vigorously build a subway network connecting the entire Xiangjiang. In any city in other countries, the large-scale construction of subways will indeed affect other public transportation. , but it has little impact in Hong Kong, because the Xiangjiang MTR Corporation is a public company and will not receive a penny of subsidies from the Hong Kong government.

The funds raised for Xiangjiang's subway come from the development of land next to the subway station, and the capital for subsequent operations comes from the subway's ticket sales. This has also led to the fact that the price of Xiangjiang's subway has always been the highest in the world. For many ordinary office workers, It is also difficult to afford the high cost of taking the subway every day. As long as you are not in a hurry, the bus is still the first choice for ordinary people.

Therefore, after the subway was built, the buses suffered a certain impact, but they were still able to live happily.

After the delisting of Kowloon Bus, Evergrande Group obtained all the equity. However, because buses are a public business, they are still subject to government supervision. However, in fact, as long as the bus prices are not raised arbitrarily, the government will not control too much under normal circumstances. .

After half a month of adjustments, the senior executives of Kowloon Bus who originally belonged to Lei Juekun either resigned voluntarily or completely lowered their profile. The senior executives dispatched by Evergrande Company successfully took over all the company's business.

On October 15, one month after Evergrande took over Kowloon Bus, Xu Zhi also held a small meeting in the conference room of Hutchison Building.

"Tianfan, how is the ATM arrangement going?" Xu Zhi asked after everyone had gathered.

"Chairman, as per your request, Bank of East Asia has installed 600 ATM machines throughout Xiangjiang. They are mainly located in large shopping malls, commercial blocks and some large residential areas in Xiangjiang. They can cover at least 80% of the wealthy families in Xiangjiang." Yuan Tianfan replied with a smile.

"Okay, but at present, the citizens of Xiangjiang are not familiar enough with the operation of ATM machines, and education in this area must be done well." Xu Zhi nodded and said.

Yuan Tianfan said: "I have arranged for employees and some temporary college students to be stationed near each ATM machine for a long time, so that everyone who has doubts can be taught.

At the same time, I have also contacted TVB and asked them to shoot a video advertisement, which can teach people how to use ATM machines through TV. "

"Okay, you can take care of this matter. You must arrange everything before other banks in Xiangjiang react." Xu Zhi said with a smile.

The ATM machine was invented in 1969, but it was not until 1978 that Citibank began to use it on a large scale for the first time. It relied on its convenience to gain a large number of customers for its bank, which also attracted the attention of other banks in the United States. Start investing.

In Asia, even in Japan, ATMs have not yet appeared on a large scale. Xu Zhi's first task for the Bank of East Asia was to introduce ATM machines from the United States, and then they bloomed throughout the wealthy areas of Hong Kong.

The price of each ATM machine in this era is as high as 10,000 US dollars, and the technology is immature, and the subsequent maintenance costs are also very high. Just looking at each machine, the money deposited every day is simply not enough.

But banks are also a service industry. Only by providing the best service and convenience can they obtain intangible returns. As long as ATM machines are spread across most areas of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, they will naturally attract a large number of people to open accounts at home banks.

Xu Zhi continued: "We have successfully acquired the Kowloon Bus Company and it has been fully privatized. Although the main purpose of the acquisition was to prepare for the future development of Tin Shui Wai, I suddenly had an idea some time ago and wanted to join the company. Let’s discuss it.”

He Guoyuan smiled and said: "What new business ideas does the chairman have?"

"Currently, most banks throughout Hong Kong have begun to use magnetic stripe cards, and the Hong Kong Telephone Company has also launched cards that can be used for public telephones. So, do you think you can also use magnetic stripe cards when taking buses? In this case, as long as people form Once we get used to it, we can completely save a labor force on each vehicle." Xu Zhi said with a smile.

He Guoyuan nodded and said: "Technically speaking, this is not a problem, but it may not be easy to promote. Everyone needs banking services, and many people use the phone cards issued by Xiangjiang Telephone.

Although most people in Xiangjiang take buses, not many people may be willing to apply for such a card. Only those who rely on buses to commute to get off work may be willing to apply for such a card if there is a discount. "

"Of course it's not possible to rely on buses alone." Xu Zhi said with a smile: "But we can add our own other companies, such as Watsons, Parknshop Supermarket, and the shopping malls of our affiliated companies. If these cards can be used universally, plus some What do you think the effect of the discounts and promotions will be?”

He Guoyuan said: "It is okay to do this, but from the perspective of income, the return may not be high. The chairman should have some options, right?"

"Yes, my idea is that this kind of card can connect public utilities throughout Hong Kong, such as all supermarkets, subways, telephones, buses and other industries." Xu Zhi said: "If successful, it will be equivalent to the entire Hong Kong Most people will become customers of our Bank of East Asia, and they will also become customers of our entire business system."

Wang Liming frowned and said: "Chairman, your idea is indeed very creative, but if this project wants to achieve the effect you mentioned, it must cooperate with the Hong Kong government, and this kind of project involves people's livelihood. I'm afraid that if the Hong Kong government finds out, If we leave it alone or leave it to other British capital, we will suffer a big loss."

"I have also considered the possibility you mentioned." Xu Zhi nodded and said: "Once this project is successful, it will be equivalent to adding a grand master above most of the public utilities and retail industries in Hong Kong, and it will inevitably be affected by Hong Kong. Coveted by some people in the British government.

And even if the Hong Kong government is really fair, the MTR Corporation and other institutions may not listen to us. If I were them, after knowing this idea, they would definitely not cooperate but build this system. This is also normal. Behavior. "

Wang Liming asked: "Then what should we do? If we want to spread the whole situation, the MTR Corporation and the Hong Kong government cannot get around it."

"Let's do it step by step. Let's start with some of our own industries first, so as not to attract other people's attention." Xu Zhi smiled and said: "Tianfan, where did you buy the Bank of East Asia card? How much does one cost?"

"For a company in Japan, the cost of a bank card is about two yuan." Yuan Tianfan replied.

"Two dollars." Xu Zhi nodded. This was an acceptable range, so he said, "You and this company will discuss it again. We are going to buy in large quantities and see if we can get a better discount."

Yuan Tianfan nodded and asked: "Chairman, do you know if the card we are launching this time requires a password?"

"No need, what's wrong?" Xu Zhi replied.

Yuan Tianfan smiled and said: "If the card does not require a password, the cost will be much lower."

"That's okay, but I don't want that kind of city shopping card. The card we issue must be bound to the person's identity information." Xu Zhi reminded that although we have not yet entered the Internet era, we are still far from big data analysis. It’s very far away, but with this kind of information and supercomputing, people’s consumption preferences can still be analyzed.

Especially in the supermarket sector, the rise of Wal-Mart Supermarket is actually based on the use of data analysis results to make all-round adjustments. At Wal-Mart's headquarters, it has the second-ranked computer analysis system in the United States, second only to the Pentagon in the United States.

Yuan Tianfan nodded and said: "No problem, but I wonder what the name of our card is?"

Xu Zhi smiled and said, "Let's call it Octopus!"