The birth of the Hong Kong Island family

After the oil crisis, all walks of life in Hong Kong were in trouble, and the toy industry and plastics industry were the hardest hit. Profits were not high to begin with, but now raw materials have skyrocketed, and there are even shortages, so some factories are on the verge of bankruptcy for a while.

In this difficult time, Cheung Kong Industries Group has given full play to its role as an industry leader and announced the supply of various plastic raw materials at "affordable prices" to its Hong Kong counterparts, so as to tide over the difficulties together.

For a time, factory owners in the entire toy, plastic flower, and plastic industries were struggling to survive. These industries in Hong Kong also "developed against the market trend" and continued to consolidate their position as the world's leader.

Lin Zhichao himself has naturally received a lot of praise, and he is a well-deserved leader of the Chinese community in Hong Kong.

Yangtze River Industrial Group.

Lin Zhichao is listening to the work reports of Wang Liang, deputy general manager of the group, and Lu Bensheng, general manager of Changjiang Trading.

"If we fully supply Hong Kong factory owners with cheap raw materials, how long can we last?"

Lu Bensheng immediately said: "We must first consider reserving raw materials for the Yangtze River Industrial Group for one year. If we fully supply local plastic raw materials, we can probably last 3 to 6 months."

Lin Zhichao said: "Reserve eight months of our own supply, and supply the rest to peers at low prices. The oil crisis is expected to last only half a year, but prices are unlikely to fall again, and materials will rise again. However, the added value of our products is higher , have a better life than my peers.”

His wealth is already very high, and he needs more influence to lead Hong Kong's toy and plastic industries to continue to increase their influence in the world.

This is a social responsibility!

Lu Bensheng said immediately: "I understand what the boss means!"

Wang Liang also said: "This time we have prepared plastic raw materials worth hundreds of millions of dollars in the warehouse. If we sell them at market prices, we can make tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars. The boss, standing as an industry leader, makes the decision to supply at an affordable price. It will make Hong Kong's related industries more influential in the world, and these business owners have recently expressed their gratitude to you."

Lin Zhichao said calmly: "I predicted last year that the Middle East would not be peaceful, so I just did it casually. If the bet is right, the industry will be prevented from suffering a major blow and a period of relief will be given to everyone; if the bet is wrong, we will have no losses, and we will use the materials Use it up.”

Indeed, he had no loss at all.

With his status, he no longer needed to make money by speculating on raw materials, which he had done before.

Wang Liang nodded, and then he said: "By the way, boss. Henry Stark, President of the Canadian Imperial Bank, will come to Hong Kong next week, and I will arrange a meeting with you then."

Lin Zhichao nodded and said: "Be more solemn, this matter is very important to me!"

Wang Liang said seriously: "No problem! We have cooperated with the Canadian Imperial Bank for many years and have a good relationship."

In the early years, Yangtze River Industrial Group introduced plastic flowers to North America through a North American daily necessities wholesaler; and the cooperative bank of this largest daily necessities wholesaler in North America was the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

After years of getting along, everyone has a pretty good relationship.

This time, at the invitation of Lin Zhichao, Canadian Imperial Bank President Henry Stark came to Hong Kong to inspect Cheung Kong Holdings and prepare for its listing in Toronto. The so-called listing means to issue some new shares on the Toronto stock market, raise funds, and obtain third-listing status.

If Cheung Kong Group wants to develop, it must raise more funds to purchase assets. Therefore, Lin Zhichao will try various methods such as issuing new shares to raise funds and loans.

A week later.

Victoria Harbor Centre.

"Welcome President Henry to Hong Kong!"

"Mr. Lin, nice to see you again!"

Lin Zhichao and Henry Stark of the Canadian Imperial Bank met again in a friendly manner, and the two were considered familiar.

In recent years, after Canada has tasted the benefits of Hong Kong immigration, Canadian provinces have opened offices in Hong Kong to handle immigration matters, taking away many Hong Kong assets.

At the same time, Hong Kong has become an international metropolis, and companies from various countries have come to Hong Kong to develop branches. This is a general trend.

"Such a beautiful skyscraper must be a property owned by Mr. Lin!" Henry exclaimed while standing in the square of the building.

"President Henry is right. This is indeed a skyscraper that I invested nearly 100 million US dollars in. It is also the tallest skyscraper in Hong Kong and even Asia." Lin Zhichao said proudly.

This is a symbol of strength.

Henry smiled and said: "I am looking forward to further cooperation between Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Mr. Lin's industries, because you are a symbol of strength."

"Haha, I'm looking forward to it too, please come here!"

To enter Canada, we have to rely on the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, and this move was already planned by Lin Zhichao when he was cooperating with the largest daily necessities wholesaler in North America in the early years.

Then, Lin Zhichao led Henry and his party to inspect the office buildings of the Cheung Kong Industrial Group and introduced the situation of the Cheung Kong Group in detail.

In the evening, he accompanied everyone to a banquet at the Miramar Hotel. Lin Zhichao also invited Feng Jingxi and Li Gaofu to accompany him. Both of them have lived in Canada for a while, and they are now rich men in Hong Kong. As the president of the Canadian Imperial Bank, he also needs to establish good relations with Hong Kong's wealthy people, or provide help with immigration investment, or he needs the help of Hong Kong's wealthy people to help the Canadian Imperial Bank gain a foothold in Hong Kong.

"Mr. Lin, there is absolutely no problem for the Yangtze River Industrial Group to be listed in Toronto. However, now is the oil crisis and the world economy is in trouble. Do you still choose to go public at this time?" Henry asked seriously.

During today's preliminary inspection, he was deeply impressed by the strength of Cheung Kong Holdings. This company already has huge businesses in Hong Kong and Singapore, and its business is not limited to real estate. It is a rare high-quality company.

Cheung Kong Holdings' current market value is HK$4.5 billion, which has dropped 65% from its peak.

Lin Zhichao said: "It doesn't matter. While the capital market is cheap, the assets in the market are also cheap. This does not affect the operation of the company itself at all."

From a corporate perspective, as long as you turn on the machine to print stocks, you can exchange for high-quality assets on the market. This is simply a waste of money.

From the perspective of business owners, it is undoubtedly stock dilution and dilution. However, Lin Zhichao still holds 72% of Cheung Kong Holdings, and its market value is still HK$4.5 billion, so Lin Zhichao wants to take advantage of the recent opportunity to raise HK$100 million from the Toronto stock market.

Feng Jingxi smiled and said: "Lin Sheng's calculation must be very shrewd. President Henry doesn't have to worry, haha!"

Henry said with a smile: "I heard that Cheung Kong Holdings was listed in London, and it was Mr. Feng who made the connection."

Feng Jingxi replied: "I am Mr. Lin's adviser. If he needs anything, I will be happy to help."

Everyone laughed.

Lin Zhichao and Feng Jingxi also have a good relationship. He is one of Lin Zhichao's stock brokers. In addition, he helped the Changshi Group to be listed in London, so everyone cooperated more.

Feng Jingxi also has to thank Lin Zhichao. When Lin Zhichao cashed out his stock position, Feng Jingxi also cashed out part of his stock out of worry, resulting in a loss of at least 100 million Hong Kong dollars. Of course, even so, he lost two to three hundred million Hong Kong dollars in the stock market.

However, although two to three hundred million was too much, it was not fatal. Feng Jingxi quickly started other businesses to restore blood.

Generally speaking, Feng Jingxi's life has been full of disasters, he has great abilities, but he has bad luck. Later generations only left more than one billion in wealth to future generations, which was far less wealthy than the families of the other two giants of Sun Hung Kai.

The next day, Lin Zhichao continued to accompany Henry and his party.

"Mr. Lin, our Imperial Bank of Commerce also wants to develop in Hong Kong. Do you have any good suggestions?" Henry asked sincerely.

The request for advice was only superficial. What he really wanted to do was to hook up with Lin Zhichao, a local snake.

This is an exchange of interests!

Lin Zhichao immediately said: "The Hong Kong economy is currently affected by the oil crisis and has declined to a certain extent, but this is related to the international situation, so it is not impossible. The Hong Kong government does not allow foreign banks to open branches in Hong Kong, so if the Imperial Bank of Commerce wants to come to Hong Kong For development, you can first establish a financial company. If you are interested, you can consider cooperating with Changjiang Industrial Group to establish a financial company to specialize in real estate investment, housing loans and other businesses."

At present, Hong Kong's financial market is still not directly open to external development, and foreign banks are not allowed to open branches, which means they cannot absorb deposits. Therefore, when foreign banks come to Hong Kong to develop, they can only develop in the form of financial companies.

In fact, financial companies can also absorb deposits and loans, but foreign financial companies certainly cannot.

Henry was overjoyed and immediately said: "Mr. Lin is so cool. After we complete the listing of Cheung Kong Group in Toronto, how about we cooperate in Hong Kong?"

Lin Zhichao nodded and said, "No problem! It's just win-win cooperation!"

"win-win!"

After the Spring Festival.

Cheung Kong Holdings announced a 12-year Admiralty construction plan.

The first phase of the project is the construction of 'Raffles City', a shopping mall with a total of five floors of 200,000 square feet, including three floors above ground and two floors underground. It is expected to be completed in 1977;

The second phase of the project is to build the "Yangtze River Plaza". The 300,000-square-foot site of the former Naval Dockyard Victoria Barracks will be built into a first-class commercial complex, including a shopping mall with an area of ​​more than 700,000 square feet, and two A skyscraper of hotels and hotel serviced apartments, and two Grade A office buildings; the floor area of ​​the entire Yangtze River Plaza will reach 5 million square feet and is expected to be completed in 1986.

As soon as the news came out, it shocked the entire real estate market.

As if agreed upon, Land has officially announced that it will spend NT$600 million to launch a 10-year Central District redevelopment plan.

The first phase of the project is to rebuild Alexandria Building. The new Alexandria Building will be completed in 1976, with a height of 36 floors and a total building area of ​​357,000 square feet, which is 119,000 square feet more than the old Alexandria Building.

The second phase of the project is the demolition and reconstruction of Gloucester Building and Royal Bank. In order to integrate the properties into one, so as to build a first-class high-rise commercial building and a shopping mall with a broad platform, the land is located across Pedder Street from Jardine House and Wheelock Company. In exchange for the Lane Crawford Building, the Gloucester Building and the connected Landmark will be built on the original site in 1979.

The third phase of the project was to demolish the adjacent Duke's Building and Princess' Building and build the Duke's Building, which has a similar appearance to the Gloucester Building. The entire huge project was completed in 1982.

Although the two pieces of news excited the market, the impact of the oil crisis and the stock market crash was huge and did not cause much waves. On the contrary, many people compare the two companies. Who is the largest real estate company in Hong Kong?

At its peak, the market value of Cheung Kong Holdings was over HK$11 billion, while that of Land was only HK$7 billion. But in fact, the market value of Cheung Kong Holdings Group is very high due to its small number of liquid stocks and its new listing.

Of course, the overall assets should be much higher than those of Cheung Kong Group.

Cheung Kong Holdings.

"Boss, Chinese Real Estate intends to sell the Chinese Bank Building!" Hu Zhaoxu came to Lin Zhichao's office and reported.

Lin Zhichao suddenly became energetic. Chinatown Building is a high-quality property located at No. 28 Queen's Road Central, which is the heart of Central.

This building also has a long history: in the early days of Hong Kong’s opening as a port, the ‘Chinese and Western Partition’ was implemented, and Victoria City Central was the territory of foreigners. During the British colonial era in Hong Kong, in Central, the heart of Hong Kong controlled by foreign companies, Chinese companies at that time felt proud to be able to rent space for offices here.

In 1922, the old site of the Hong Kong General Post Office and the Hong Kong Courthouse was auctioned. The Chinese in British Hong Kong seized this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and bought the land at a price of HK$50 per square foot. In 1924, the first Chinese-invested building in Central was built on this land.

However, the foreigners thought they were superior to others and disdained the Chinese people gathering in the same building, so the building only had Chinese tenants, hence the name "Chinese Row". In the following more than half a century, countless Chinese made their fortunes in the Chinese Bank, and the first exchange founded by a Chinese, the Far East Exchange, was also born here.

"With the stock market plummeting and the oil crisis, there aren't many buyers who can buy this building, right?"

"Indeed, even Land Land's cash is drying up, and Chinese real estate has no suitable buyers. Only our Cheung Kong Group is strong."

Hu Zhaoxu said confidently.

Cheung Kong Holdings has a cash flow of just over 200 million and is about to raise 100 million from the Toronto stock market. The boss has also contacted a number of banks and can lend more than 300 million Hong Kong dollars at any time.

Therefore, the Yangtze River Industrial Group has strong strength.

Lin Zhichao said: "Then I will arrange for Li Yeguang and you to discuss with Chinese Real Estate to see what price is more suitable!"

Hu Zhaoxu nodded and said, "Okay."

It is normal to arrange for lawyers to participate in negotiations.

The Chinese Bank is undoubtedly worth hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars, and it is just an old building that needs to be rebuilt.

Lin Zhichao asked curiously: "Behind the Chinese real estate purchasers are the 'Li Peicai Value (Li Fuzhao, Li Fushu)' and the Feng Pingshan family (Feng Bingfen). Unexpectedly, they have also been reduced to selling their ancestral property!"

Hu Zhaoxu said: "The business world is like this today. New consortiums are rising and old families are falling. Only your company, boss, has been standing in the Hong Kong business world for more than 20 years and is getting bigger and bigger!"

Lin Zhichao smiled and said: "Then let me test you, why does this happen?"

Hu Zhaoxu said: "With a large number of real estate companies listed on the Hong Kong stock market and expanding the company's asset scale and business through public offerings of new shares, rights issues, acquisitions, and mergers, the relationship between the Hong Kong real estate industry and the stock market is becoming increasingly close, and they have a great influence on each other. Growth has gradually formed a special phenomenon in Hong Kong's economy - the pulling of stocks and real estate. When the economy is good, the real estate market is booming, land prices and building prices are rising, and the asset market value of most listed companies also rises, driving When the stock price rises, listed companies will use the sale of new shares or mortgage their shares to raise funds to develop real estate business, resulting in a situation where real estate and the stock market drive each other up. Once the economy is in recession, the real estate market turns sluggish, and land and building prices fall, listings The market value of the company's assets has declined, dragging down the stock price. It has become difficult for listed companies to raise funds, and some funds are not working properly. The company is forced to sell real estate properties for cash, exacerbating the decline in land and building prices, and forming a vicious cycle in which real estate and the stock market drive each other downward.

The formation of the "stock-land pull" undoubtedly provides a broad space for development for some real estate developers who have a deep understanding of Hong Kong's economic and real estate cycles. When the market is high, the stock market is also pushed up. This is a good opportunity for real estate companies to go public or issue new shares. If you seize the opportunity correctly, you can raise a large amount of funds for development during the high tide of the stock market, and buy large amounts when the real estate market is low. In just a few rounds of land and property, your strength and assets can expand several times. "

Lin Zhichao nodded and said: "According to your statement, many established real estate developers cannot see the situation clearly and will be eliminated this time. Which real estate companies do you think have the most prospects?"

After thinking for a while, Hu Zhaoxu said seriously: "Sun Hung Kai Properties and New World Properties should be able to grow during this crisis. In other respects, Hopewell Properties has suffered a catastrophe, and it may take several years to get back up; Hang Lung Properties Misreading the situation and spending huge sums of money to buy Shaw Properties, the cash flow will inevitably dry up; Dachang Real Estate has no courage to independently develop projects and is stalling; Fuhe Real Estate is quite satisfactory, with enough defense and insufficient offense. In the final analysis, our Cheung Kong Industrial Group has left them too far behind. In fact, we have always only had Land in our eyes, but we have already surpassed Land."

At the end, Hu Zhaoxu said confidently.

Lin Zhichao said with a smile: "Your analysis makes sense! However, we will have to seriously discuss the future development of Changshi Group later. The first is comprehensive development and global development; the second is the professional development of the board of directors."

Hu Zhaoxu was surprised. He could understand the first one, but he didn't understand the second one.

Does the professional development of the board of directors mean that the boss intends to turn the board of directors into ‘professional managers’?

Although Cheung Kong Group is currently listed, the board of directors is the board of directors of the Lin family. The management is considered professional, but the board of directors is family-based.

"Don't rush these, just take it step by step. It's important to walk steadily!"

"The boss is right!"

In fact, Lin Zhichao plans to cultivate the second generation of management. The professionalization of the board of directors also requires a process. Of course, the professionalization of the board of directors does not mean that the Lin family has "relinquished power", it just means adding new blood, and it is no longer all senior executives and directors trained by the company.