The birth of the Hong Kong Island family

The box office of "Warlord" has been rising all the way, and it has received continuous praise. In just half a month, it has grossed 1.5 million Hong Kong dollars, and broke the previous highest box office record for "Hong Kong local movies" - "The One-Armed Sword King" 1.4 million Hong Kong dollars.

Records are still being set. After all, the box office in the previous life was as high as 3.5 million Hong Kong dollars. Although this movie was released two years in advance, Hong Kong's economy is actually better than the same period in the previous life, and the people's spending power is also better than the same period in the previous life.

The other side.

Shao Laoliu couldn't sit still anymore. He didn't expect "The Warlord" to be so powerful. If the situation continues, the box office may reach 3 million; after all, there are still five or six days before the Spring Festival and 30~ until it is released. There is still fully half of the 40-day date.

He went to his nephew Shao Weiying and said: "Weiying, Shaw Brothers' theaters screen movies from other studios, or play Western movies. I don't interfere with this. But you know very well about the current Jiahe movies, Zou Wenhuai, Li Hanxiang They are all traitors to Shaw Brothers movies, why are you still cooperating with them?"

Shao Weiying is a worthy uncle. Strictly speaking, his sixth uncle came to Hong Kong to seize power and his father lost his production business. Of course, he doesn't blame Uncle Six for this, but it's inappropriate to interfere with the 'Shao Brothers' now.

"Uncle Six, I also saw the movie "The Great Warlord" which was very good, so I was willing to give it a try. When we open theaters, to put it bluntly, we strive for attendance. Now that "The Great Warlord" is released in our theaters, it will drive the audience This is a win-win situation for our theater attendance. I know what you mean, but I cannot abide by your rules. Of course, Shaw Brothers are still willing to mainly screen Shaw Brothers movies, but now they have no money to make. , I can’t do it. It’s time for us to abandon the stereotypes of family clans and work together for a win-win situation.”

Shao Laoliu didn't expect that when he came to 'question his nephew', he would be lectured by his nephew with a firm attitude.

However, it was impossible for him to fall out with his nephew because of this matter. Shaw Brothers' theater chain is still the largest theater chain in Hong Kong. The theater chain of Shaw Brothers Movies was established after he came to Hong Kong, but it was not as many as the theaters of Shaw Brothers and Sons. It was much worse.

"So, you will continue to cooperate with them in the future?"

Shao Weiying said seriously: "Yes! Judging from the situation of "Warlords" this time, Jiahe Films is not as bad as the outside world said. On the contrary, it has been planning for great development. Li Hanxiang and Bruce Lee are their trump cards. Of course, Shao If our movie has a good movie, we will give it priority. But Uncle Six, business is business, and I can’t leave it without making money. Right?"

Shao Laoliu could only say: "Well, as long as you have your own mind, it seems that the second brother is right to ask you to take over."

Shao Weiying immediately said: "Thank you, Uncle Six, for your understanding!"

He initially planned to give it a try, but once he saw how popular Golden Harvest Films was, he decided to cooperate on a long-term basis.

In fact, Golden Harvest's theater chain is almost enough. Even without Shaw Brothers' theater chain, I am afraid it can break through 2.5 million; but if Shaw Brothers and Sons are willing to release it, then it can break through 3 million, reaching a level similar to its previous life.

Lin Zhichao flipped through the financial statements of Cheung Kong Industrial Group with a smile on his face. Commercial real estate contributed 60 million in profits throughout the year, and real estate development contributed 46 million Hong Kong dollars in profits. Including comprehensive industries, the total profit was 122 million Hong Kong dollars. profit.

Surprisingly, Anderson Daya Quarry began to make a profit and created a profit of 4 million in 1969. This is a very good thing. According to this situation, the profit this year (1970) will reach more than 10 million Hong Kong dollars.

At the same time, only 200,000 square feet of the original 4.6 million square feet of land reserves of Cheung Kong Holdings have been used, leaving a full 4.4 million square feet of land reserves. Of course, a large part of this land reserve consists of "Land Exchange Rights" and "New Territories Land". The land in Hong Kong and Kowloon is less than 2 million square feet.

But in any case, the land reserve strength of Cheung Kong Holdings is probably the sum of the land purchased by the "Six Real Estate Tigers" plus the land purchased in recent years.

To give a simple example, the land bank of Sun Hung Kai in its previous life before going public was less than 500,000 square feet. These land reserves were basically used to buy land after making money. After the listing, by using comprehensive means such as listing funds, loans, and issuing new shares to raise funds, it was only able to collect 400 million Hong Kong dollars, adding less than 500,000 square feet of land, and bringing the land area to 1 million.

In this life, Cheung Kong Holdings already owned 4.6 million square feet of land in 1968.

After this happened, the consequence was that the real estate industry began to slowly concentrate. Real estate developers and people who owned land and properties without vision suffered heavy losses from 1967 to 1968.

But the discerning Guo Desheng, Li Shauji, Zheng Yutong, Wang Dehui, Chen Zengxi, Hu Yingxiang, etc. can still get the money and copy it to the end.

Generally speaking, there are still a lot of big real estate developers in Hong Kong, and they are far more than the ones Lin Zhichao was familiar with in his previous life. We must know that in the previous life, there were about 50 or 60 real estate companies listed in 1972, and there were almost 20 companies that exceeded the capital raising scale of Cheung Kong Holdings. The so-called ‘Five Tigers of Real Estate’ were all ranked at the back and fell far behind. It is conceivable that in his previous life, Li Jiacheng was able to surpass the previous 20 real estate developers, and his ability was indeed very high.

Lin Zhichao would not buy residential land from 1969 to 1973 (the money would be spent on commercial projects), so everyone still has a chance, but the price is high.

"Boss, it's said that Swire Pacific intends to sell Blue Chimney. They have already released the news!" Hu Zhaoxu came to Lin Zhichao's office to report the good news.

Lin Zhichao suppressed his heartbeat and said: "It is just an industrial land. If you develop a commercial project, you have to spend money to change the nature of the land. Moreover, that area is subject to the regulations of Kai Tak Airport. Buildings cannot be built. The 200,000 square feet The land cannot be used to build a large-scale building. Forget it, I’m not interested!”

In fact, I am interested. You must know that in the previous life, Taikoo Matheson only asked for 137 million yuan, which totaled less than 600 Hong Kong dollars per square foot (200,000 square feet of land). Of course, this does not mean that industrial land now costs more than 600 Hong Kong dollars per square foot. It is not that expensive at all. Rather, the cost of changing the nature of the land is generally much lower than the price difference between industrial, residential, and commercial land. What's more, this land is close to the sea and is at the tip of Tsim Sha Tsui, so its value cannot be calculated as industrial land.

After Zheng Yutong won the land, he continued to cater to Hong Kong government officials and asked what kind of buildings the Hong Kong government wanted to build. The Hong Kong government quickly fell into the trap and expressed its hope to build Hong Kong landmark buildings and increase the credibility of Victoria Harbor. Ornamental. At this time, Zheng Yutong took advantage of the situation and raised his own difficulty - the land is still too small, and I am powerless! The Hong Kong government was honest and directly sold the adjacent land of over 200,000 square feet to Zheng Yutong at a low price.

It was such a bargain, so Zheng Yutong always talked about "such a good thing" in his hometown!

Hu Zhaoxu nodded and said: "This land is indeed very restricted. It is very different from the land in our Raffles City and Yangtze River Plaza."

Lin Zhichao said: "Our strategy is to focus on development in Central first. According to the Hong Kong government's habits, there may be an auction of the 'King of Land' in Central this year, and we must prepare for it with all our strength. So, I don't have any money!"

Hu Zhaoxu said: "It's really possible! Last year, the auction of the land king in Kowloon ended, and Hong Kong real estate immediately surged; and this year, another land king land in Central will be auctioned, and I believe real estate will be even hotter."

In Hong Kong today, real estate is very hot: high-end residences cost 110 to 130 Hong Kong dollars per square foot, and mid- to low-end residences cost 80 to 100 Hong Kong dollars per square foot.

The reason why high-end residential properties have increased so much is because the rental and sales rates are strong. A large number of foreigners come to Hong Kong to work and live, so the rental market for high-end residential properties is booming. Cheung Kong Group also has many luxury homes and high-end residential properties for sale.

Lin Chi-chao is determined to win this year's Central Land King - the future Jardine House headquarters.

He calculated: the profits of Changjiang Industrial Group from 1969 to 1971 were more than 400 million. In the early stage, Yangtze Industrial Group supported 100 million Hong Kong dollars and invested 30 million in the stock market, which has the chance to turn into more than 300 million. These funds are already more than 800 million.

In recent years, the investment in Far East Financial Tower AB, Burj Al Arab, and Raffles City (Sing Tao) has been over 600 million.

Therefore, if you still have the remaining funds, it is almost enough to buy the Land King in Central.

As for the construction fee, it doesn't hurt to take out a small loan.

These commercial projects are all unlisted assets of Lin Zhichao (except Raffles City in Singapore), so if you can avoid debt, try to have as little debt as possible.

On the eve of the Spring Festival, Lin Zhichao came to the media group, and Zou Wenhuai also came to report to him.

"Boss, "Warlords" has been in theaters for 20 days and has already achieved a box office of 2 million. It seems that 3 million is no problem. After all, the Spring Festival is coming soon."

Lin Zhichao said with satisfaction: "Okay, Jiahe Films has been established for one year, and I am finally proud. By the way, when will Bruce Lee's movie start shooting?"

Zou Wenhuai said: "I will go to Thailand in March to shoot "Brother Tangshan". It will be released during the summer vacation, so I will have a summer break!"

He drew inferences from one example and felt that the boss's marketing techniques this time were really admirable.

Lin Zhichao nodded. He didn't make any suggestions about Bruce Lee's movies, but the result was still the same. In fact, there is nothing complicated about these plots. What the audience likes is Bruce Lee's fighting scenes.

Because of this, I wonder if Bruce Lee will make two more movies in this life and whether he will continue to be at his peak. After all, Bruce Lee's style will make people aesthetically tired.

In fact, compared to Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, even if Bruce Lee didn't die, he probably wouldn't be able to defeat Jackie Chan in the later period, because the acting style is too fixed.

"By the way, it turns out that you should also treat the directors and actors of D\u0026M well and don't engage in cliques."

Zou Wenhuai was stunned and then said: "No, the company is more supportive of their filmmaking. Chu Yuan's first Mandarin film this year will also be released in March. Jiahe Film has the financial support of the group, treats everyone equally and supports good scripts , profitable movie shooting”

Lin Zhichao nodded and said: "The number of people in Jiahe Films is very small. Compared with Shaw Brothers films, there is still some way to go. Actor training classes are more important. Director Chu Yuan is also very talented."

He didn't know so much, but it sounded familiar, so he immediately expressed it.

"Well, our film production this year will at least more than double."

Lin Zhichao thought about it and said, "You can invest in even 20 movies. You can figure it out!"

"OK"

This suddenly more than doubled the output of Jiahe Films, and Zou Wenhuai was naturally very happy.

After chatting for a while, Zou Wenhuai went to do his own business.

Li Ziduo, vice president of the group, and Luo Wenhui, president of Oriental Daily, then came to his office hand in hand.

"What's going on with Asia Daily?" Lin Zhi asked.

Lin Zhichao was more dismissive of people like the Ma brothers. However, Lin Zhishan was wary of the "Asia Daily" they founded, that is, he should not let this "popular newspaper" have too much influence and threaten the "Oriental Daily".

So, that should be nipped in the bud.

Because the two newspapers may have the same positioning (the Ma brothers aggressively recruited reporters and inferred the direction of development), Lin Zhichao planned to strike first.

He is right about the situation but not the person!

Luo Wenhui said: "We recruited a lot of reporters last year, but most of them were just intern reporters. The newspaper's style has tended to imitate ours. It seems that it has clearly positioned itself as a 'popular newspaper' and has to do a lot of time-sensitive news reports."

Lin Zhichao nodded and said: "Then start the plan and don't let Asia Daily gain momentum. They imitate too fast, which will affect Oriental Daily. Suppose it is delayed for a few more years, our Oriental Daily will There’s no need to be so proactive, but it’s best to respond now.”

The so-called plan is a 'loss-making marketing' method, and of course it must be operated in a concealed manner. The specific plan is to unite publishers and newsstands, and "Oriental Daily" will give up its share of profits to them, and let them mainly promote "Oriental Daily".

In other words, "Oriental Daily" is not making money now, and will even lose money by doing this event; and publishers and newsstand owners will naturally try their best to get higher profits than other newspapers. Promote Oriental Daily News.

The price of "Oriental Daily" in the market remains unchanged, and the public does not get a discount. But they don't need to save that little money, and they won't feel anything. But with the push from publishers and newsstand owners, most of them will not choose to miss it.

Of course, this activity is only planned to last for one month, after all, the effect should be great.

"Okay, boss!" Li Ziduo and Luo Wenhui replied at the same time.

During the Spring Festival, Lin Zhichao’s family and Tang Zhongyuan’s family gathered together.

Tang Chung-yuan was appointed a Justice of the Peace by the Hong Kong government in 1963, and his public positions include director of the Hong Kong Polytechnic and member of the Industrial and Commercial Advisory Committee. When Li Fook-shu resigned as an unofficial member of the Legislative Council in 1968, Tai Linche wanted to replace him, but Tang Chung-yuan declined. ——I was too busy with work, and finally I fell in love with Tang Bingyuan.

In other words, since the early to mid-1960s, Tang Zhongyuan has surpassed the influence of his cousin Tang Bingyuan.

At this time, Tang Zhongyuan employed nearly 10,000 garment workers in Hong Kong and was the largest garment factory in Hong Kong. Hong Kong's garments also surpassed textiles and became the largest industrial output value in Hong Kong, employing 125,000 (registered) workers, accounting for 18% of the manufacturing industry. «out.

Tang Zhongyuan's textile factory has completely shifted its focus to West Africa - Nigeria and Ghana are both Commonwealth countries. Hong Kong's textile industry has less than 2,000 employees left.

Tang Zhongyuan's real estate business includes about two industrial buildings, one commercial building in Tsim Sha Tsui, as well as a dozen sites that have not yet started construction, and some land exchange rights documents. In terms of scale, it is almost at the same level as Wang Dehui's Chinachem Real Estate; however, since Tang Zhongyuan has just entered the real estate industry, development is relatively conservative and slow, so it will lag behind.

Tang Zhongyuan also has many properties in the United States and Canada, and his net worth is also very high.

"The 'Far East Club' was recently established. Zhichao, what do you think?" Tang Zhongyuan said during the conversation.

Lin Zhichao said generously: "This is a very good thing and is very beneficial to the Chinese. In the future, our Chinese companies can easily go public, raise funds and invest them in industries such as industry, shipping, real estate, etc., and quickly catch up with British foreign companies." .”

Tang Zhongyuan instantly understood the key to this. In fact, the public opinions outside were all disapproving at the beginning.

But as long as the end of this year, the direction of all public opinion will change.

"That said, when it actually matures, I will consider listing the company!" Tang Zhongyuan said.

His cousin Tang Bingyuan listed the company as early as 1964 to raise funds to develop the textile industry. In fact, both textiles and garments are industries that require a lot of ‘reinvestment’ – updating equipment quickly, building new factories and branches, expanding scale, etc.

Lin Zhichao said: "Father-in-law, don't worry. When the stock market is at its hottest, it's a good time to go public because you can raise more funds."

Tang Zhongyuan nodded and said: "Well, I understand this. But now I am thinking about how to arrange the assets more reasonably. Most of Oriental Textile's assets are overseas, so there is definitely no need to list them in Hong Kong. I would rather list some in Africa in the future. enterprise."

Lin Zhichao said: "It should be like this. Integrating into the local economy is still more important."

Although coups often occur in Nigeria and Ghana, no matter who takes office, they are all members of the Commonwealth and are relatively friendly to Chinese capital because they also need to develop their economies; more importantly, Tang Zhongyuan has laid a deep foundation in these countries over the years. Personal connections.

At present, with the help of Lin Zhichao's eldest brother-in-law Tang Xianqian, Tang Zhongyuan is already very relaxed in Dongfang Textile's business.

Tang Zhongyuan said: "If the textile industry is divided, then the assets of the garment industry and real estate can be listed together."

Lin Zhichao smiled and said: "That's already awesome!"

The valuation of the garment industry is not high. Don't look at Tang Zhongyuan's nearly 10,000 garment workers. However, if only Dongfang Garment was independently listed, the capital raised by 1972 was only 10 to 20 million, making it a medium-sized enterprise.

On the contrary, in real estate, as long as you have ten sites and rent-collecting properties, you can raise almost 30 million Hong Kong dollars.

"In the spring of this year, Oriental Real Estate plans to start construction on the first site. After this site is sold off-plan, I will consider building a second project. After all, I am a monk halfway, so it is best to work steadily."

Lin Zhichao said: "My father-in-law has always been like this, and my son-in-law admires him."

Tang Zhongyuan sighed: "Looking at you along the way, I think real estate is really risky. Many real estate developers have fallen behind in the past, so it won't go wrong to be more cautious."

Lin Zhichao said: "My father-in-law is stable and brave!"

Tang Zhongyuan immediately smiled and said, "You, there's no need to flatter me, I'm not as good as you, I'm far from it." The conversation changed and he finally said one thing: "What do you think of Xian Qian and You Qian?"

"Very good, I can help you, father-in-law!"

Tang Zhongyuan continued: "What I want to say is, should the two brothers separate or get together in the future? I see that you have been working on this, and you seem to have a good plan."

It turns out that Tang Zhongyuan is 66 years old this year and is already thinking about the future, although he is still working hard for his career.

Lin Zhichao said: "Father-in-law, your family's situation is of course on good terms! We work in a group and the brothers are united. Xianqian is responsible for textiles and garments, and Youqian and you are studying real estate."

He can only take care of his father-in-law's life, but who can say for sure in the future!

Tang Zhongyuan nodded and said, "What you said suits me so well!"

Lin Zhichao thought to himself that this arrangement is certainly reasonable. The eldest son is responsible for textiles and garments, which has the largest assets. This is the right of the eldest son, and the second son is responsible for emerging real estate. But later on, it became clear that real estate assets were getting heavier and heavier, and things changed between the brothers.

Of course, his two wives and brothers are very united. They may be like the two sons of Lee Shau Kee in his previous life, keeping a low profile and not causing trouble. (End of chapter)