The Industrial Giant Reborn

"It has nothing to do with me!" Chen Zhiwen said while drinking his coffee gracefully.

"Well, I have another proposal. Is Chen Sheng interested in the land in the north corner of Hong Kong Island? My Taikoo has a commercial land with an area of ​​600,000 square feet there." John Shi said after a moment of silence.

"Saixi Lake? 600,000 square feet?" Chen Zhiwen's heart moved. This is a rare piece of high-quality land. Although it is far inferior to the Taikoo City that Swire Group is currently planning to develop, considering the size of the area, it is basically difficult for Hong Kong to reappear. Such an opportunity.

Moreover, he knew that Cheung Kong Industries was preparing to take this piece of land. In the original history, after Li Jiacheng took this piece of land, he quickly developed it. It only took two years to complete the development and made a net profit of more than 100 million Hong Kong dollars. The high profit has also laid a certain foundation for the future expansion of Cheung Kong.

How can such a good land be cheap for Li Jiacheng?

Anyway, through the cooperation with Hutchison Cheung Kong during this period of time, it is estimated that they can make a lot of money in the next one or two years. It will be much more comfortable.

"Sheng Chen should be very excited about this kind of golden location. In addition to the piece of land in Admiralty, I can transfer it to you at the market price. The condition is that He Huang will not participate in the bidding for the No. 5 berth pier. How about it?" Shi Yuehan laughed. said.

"These two pieces of land add up to close to 200 million Hong Kong dollars. Now in Hong Kong, there are not many people who can afford such a large amount of funds. Otherwise, if there is a 10% discount, I will take them all." Although Chen Zhiwen is very interested , but it does not show that the original price of this kind of land is already a blood profit, but the price can still be lowered. No matter what, the British ghost must make a little less money, even if it is the Swire Group that he doesn't hate very much.

Who made this group of British ghosts as cowardly as a mouse and dare not invest in large-scale debt in Hong Kong? But to be honest, Hutchison was the best example of those who dared to invest in debt in Hong Kong. Without this ability, they expanded blindly, and in the end they almost died horribly. This may be one of the reasons for Swire's conservative management.

"Chen Sheng really knows how to do business, so how about a 50% discount and a one-time transaction of funds?" John Shi thought for a while and said.

"Up to 9.2." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile, he is very interested in the real estate market that will inevitably increase in value on a large scale in the future. Moreover, Taikoo's conservative management has been taken advantage of, and if he can kill it with a single knife, it is a single knife.

"It seems that under the leadership of Chen Sheng, Hutchison's financial situation has returned to normal?" Shi Huaiya said with a smile, but there was a little haze in his heart. Although the Swire family controlled more than 50% of the Swire Group's shares, they were not The crisis of acquisitions, but the strong rise of a Chinese-funded company, especially in terms of funds, is impossible to predict, and it has a good relationship with HSBC. This phenomenon is not good news for all British-funded giants.

"This is not a deal with Huang, it's my Galaxy Real Estate." Chen Zhiwen said.

As his own son, Galaxy Real Estate has always been focusing on the purchase of industrial real estate. It is said to be a real estate company, but it is actually a property company. So far, Galaxy Real Estate has not developed a site, whether it is an office building, a community, a shopping mall or even an industrial property. Real estate projects are mainly held and sold in the future.

The real estate market was sluggish before, coupled with his lack of experience, and Chen Zhiwen's main focus on other places, but now basically all aspects of the layout have entered the preparation track, and the Hong Kong real estate market is slowly recovering. Do some business.

"That's fine, I forgot, Hehuang is just a company under Chen Sheng." Shi Huaiya nodded and said: "In this way, I will arrange our lawyers and businessmen to go to Xinghe Real Estate to discuss the details .”

"Okay, I also hope to reach a cooperation as soon as possible." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said. A large piece of land on Hong Kong Island and an office building in Admiralty Commercial Street can be said to be high-quality assets. If it weren't for Swire Group's conservative business strategy , It is very difficult to obtain such a land, which can be regarded as a very good development opportunity for Galaxy Real Estate, and the headquarters land of Admiralty can help Midea and Red Bull build an office building with rigid demand.

"Okay, then it's a happy cooperation." John Shi nodded, and after drinking a cup of coffee, he asked again: "Sheng Chen, I heard that you plan to make Coke?"

"Yes, there is such a plan, the Swire Group won't have any ideas, right?" Chen Zhiwen said lightly.

Red Bull is preparing to make cola, but it can’t hide the news at all. Unlike Red Bull drinks, the demand for cola is very large. Even if the market is severely competitive, in terms of production, it still far exceeds Red Bull. Red Bull is in the United States. The current sales volume has just exceeded one million a day. Regardless of the growth trend, about 400-500 million bottles of Red Bull are consumed a year, and the amount of Coke is hundreds of times this number.

Even if only relying on Costco and some Wal-Mart markets, the output of Very Coke will far exceed that of high-end drinks such as Red Bull. Not to mention, the main market for Very Coke in the future may still be Asia, because at this time, there is no Well-arranged markets in Southeast Asia.

Therefore, Very Cola has a large base in Hong Kong. In order to maximize production capacity, the equipment of the Very Cola factory is purchased directly from Germany. Although the price is expensive, the production efficiency is also very high.

Considering the appreciation ability of land in Hong Kong in the future, Chen Zhiwen did not hesitate to buy a large piece of land in Yuen Long and build a large factory. The first phase has not yet been built, and he also bought the second phase of land by the way.

The reason why such a large land can be obtained is also the result of negotiations between the business team and the Hong Kong government. The current MacLehose government is still very supportive of the industry, but there are no absolute secrets within the government, and leaks are also normal. , especially for Swire Group.

The earliest history of beverage development in Hong Kong belonged to Watsons. At the beginning of the 20th century, Watsons monopolized Hong Kong's water industry with distilled water. Later, Western soda was introduced to Hong Kong. The United Soda Factory under the Li Xiaohe family defeated distilled water with soda, and then monopolized it. up the market.

But not long after, Coca-Cola entered Hong Kong and chose to cooperate with Swire Group, which produces Coca-Cola in Hong Kong. The cooperation between Qianglong and the local snake naturally easily defeated the United Soda Factory. This is why Chen Zhiwen was able to easily acquire the United Soda Factory. one of the reasons.

Swire Group is the absolute king of the beverage market in Hong Kong, and Swire's factory in Hong Kong is also one of the largest production bases of Coca-Cola in Asia.

"Don't dare. Chen Sheng's Red Bull can achieve such a great success in the United States. I naturally admire it. It's just that the Coca-Cola market is easy to enter, but it is too difficult to succeed. The strength of Coca-Cola, combined with all the financial groups in Hong Kong He is not an opponent, so why does Chen Sheng do this business within the scope of other people's strengths?" John Shi said with a smile.

When they knew that Chen Zhiwen was going to enter the cola field, the Swire family was also taken aback. Although they had confidence in Coca-Cola behind them, you couldn't afford the other party's money. As a veteran family in the beverage industry, they could roughly calculate the profit of Red Bull. How terrible it is.

If Chen Zhiwen chooses to spend money on making Coca-Cola in Hong Kong, they don't know who will win or lose in the end, but in a few years, Swire Beverages will definitely have a hard time, and beverages are also one of the main businesses of Swire Group, and they don't have any competitors.

"This is Red Bull's internal matter. Entering the cola market is a plan that was made a long time ago. Besides, Swire is now straddling ports, real estate, and monopolizing Hong Kong Airlines. Does it still care about the profit of cola?" Chen Zhiwen said lightly.

"Coke is indeed far inferior to real estate and aviation, but the victory is stable. Real estate and aviation are different. In the past two years, the price of oil has made life difficult for Cathay Pacific." John Shi shook his head and smiled again: " Since Chen Sheng has already made plans, I won't ask any more questions, but Chen Sheng's cola factory hasn't chosen a sugar supplier yet, so what do you think of Taikoo Sugar?"

"As long as the price is right, it's not a problem." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile. He understood that the old fox had been spared for a long time to find customers for his sugar industry.

Since traveling through time, Chen Zhiwen has also spent a lot of time doing some research on the history of established banks and large companies in Hong Kong. Swire, one of the four major foreign banks, is naturally one of the key points. As early as 1880, Swire Group entered the system. The sugar industry has become one of the largest sugar factories in Asia in just a few years, with an annual production capacity of 100,000 tons of sugar. It is the largest sugar supply base in the Far East for Britain.

In the 1950s, Coca-Cola chose a cooperation target in Hong Kong, and Swire Group also obtained a cooperation relationship by virtue of its position in the sugar industry market.

The previous Red Bull, compared to Coke, did not have a large demand for sugar, and the volume was small, and the sales volume was not too high, so the demand for sugar was not very high, but now it is another matter to make Coke. If Red Bull Its Coke also purchases sugar from Swire Sugar, so the Swire family can take both sides, and it doesn't matter who wins or loses.

"Okay, don't worry, Mr. Chen. In terms of price, Hong Kong doesn't have any higher quality and cheaper than my Taikoo, and our Taikoo is very experienced in the variety of sugar for making cola." John Shi said with a smile.

"Boss, how is the negotiation with John Shi?" Just after leaving the Hilton Building, Zhou Jiayang, An Qi and others approached and asked with a smile.

"It's a success. The land in Admiralty has been settled. John Shi also gave me a piece of land in North Point, 600,000 square feet. It's the most suitable for the development of the community." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

At this time, the driver drove over in a car, and several people got in separately.

"The land in North Point? Is it a piece of land on the side of Saixi Lake? It used to be a large warehouse of the Swire Group." Zhou Jiayang guessed right after hearing the land information. He is currently in charge of the real estate project of Hutchison Whampoa. People, he has spent a lot of energy in recent months to understand the real estate market in Hong Kong.

"Yes, it is a very high-quality asset. This project belongs to Galaxy Real Estate, but they have no experience at all. I want to develop it with Huang. Are you sure?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

Although there is Hutchison Whampoa, it is too chaotic. Before clarifying the internal debt problem, Chen Zhiwen will not give the project he invested to Hutchison Whampoa. On the other hand, the capital of Galaxy Real Estate is not low, but You can’t hold industrial land for a long time without doing anything else. After two years, when the price of industrial land rises to a certain level, you will sell all of them. Before that, you need some other projects. A good choice. After gaining experience and having funds in the future, you will be able to enter a period of rapid development.

"No problem, I have already arranged headhunters to recruit two teams from Cheung Kong and another team from Sun Hung Kai, both of whom have rich experience in real estate development." Zhou Jiayang replied.

As the vice president of Hutchison Huang, he naturally does not need to personally participate in real estate development, as long as he has a suitable team, which was originally lacking in Hutchison Huang, but the result of the previous discussion with the boss Chen Zhiwen was that he directly spent a large amount of money from China. Capital companies poach talents, especially the real estate five tigers. The real estate companies that can be killed in a market like Hong Kong are all very capable companies, and the high-quality teams that have been killed from these companies are not to mention the ability. The whole team digs in, and then slowly adapts and trains others.

"You poached someone from Li Jiacheng, does he have any objections?" Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

"No, everything is as usual. We meet often, and there is nothing unusual. It is just as you predicted, Chen Sheng." Zhou Jiayang said.

"Then keep digging, I want to see how long he can stay silent?" Chen Zhiwen said lightly: "It's a good way to let him train real estate talents for us."

"It's really good." Zhou Jiayang said with a smile.

"The piece of land on Admiralty Park Yundao has also been taken down, and this piece of land is also held by Galaxy Real Estate. After the construction is completed, it will be used as the headquarters." Chen Zhiwen continued.

"Who do we invite to design the Xinghe office building?" Zhou Jiayang continued to ask. In the former Hutchison Group, although Qi Dezun also focused on the development of real estate business, he didn't involve much in office buildings, let alone design. Zhonghuan is a large building owner, and often invites international designers.

"You send someone to the United States to invite an architect named I.M. Pei. He is a top student in architecture from Harvard University and a world-class architect. I want to invite him to design our headquarters." Chen Zhiwenhao Said without hesitation.

In the history of global architecture, Pei Jinming can be said to be the most accomplished Chinese, not one of them.

After President Kennedy was assassinated, the Kennedy family decided to build a library to commemorate this family member. At that time, countless top architects gathered in the Kennedy family to express their opinions. The humble Chinese Bezin won the final victory. Ming, whose vision conquered the entire Kennedy family.

The American people who have always been "confident" quit. They believed that "entrusting such an important building to the design of a Chinese person is not rigorous and responsible enough." But when this building came out, it also caused a global sensation and became one of the most famous landmarks in Boston. At the same time, the East Building of the Washington Museum of Art designed by Bei Jinming was also completed at the same time. One of the most successful great projects. At the opening ceremony of the project, US President Carter called I.M. Pei "a rare and outstanding architect".

The first time that the Chinese community got to know Bei Jinming was that a few years later, the Bank of China planned to build its own headquarters in Central Hong Kong, but the purchased land area was very small and there was not much money in hand. After receiving the official invitation , Bei Jinming personally worked, and finally suppressed the construction cost of this building to the extreme with high-quality design. With US$130 million, an office building with an area of ​​more than one million square feet was built, and it became the most famous landmark in Hong Kong. one.

"Bei Jinming? I've heard of him. His achievements in the United States are not low." Zhou Jiayang said.

"Of course, we should invite him over and tell him that in the future, we can entrust him to design all the large office buildings of our group in the future. In terms of price, it is definitely not a problem." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile, a world-class architect. It is the design cost that will account for one-tenth of the construction cost, but it is definitely cost-effective. With the top-level design, the building can be built at the minimum cost, and the usable area will be maximized. It will be very efficient in terms of aesthetics, environmental protection, energy saving, and post-maintenance.

"Then I'll go to the United States to invite this master architect." Zhou Jiayang thought for a while and said, "We must always show our sincerity."

"Okay, let's complete the transaction with Swire Group as soon as possible. In terms of funds, Shen Bi promised me that HSBC will lend me the land in Admiralty, and I will pay for the land in Saixi Lake alone." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said: "In this case, Galaxy Real Estate That's it for Hutchison this year, there won't be any big investments."

After the acquisition of Hutchison, the privatization of Whampoa and Watsons, and the investment in these two lands, his cash and credit lines are basically the same, and the remaining two to three billion funds are used as insurance funds to prevent Where there is a problem, money is urgently needed.

Next, companies in Hong Kong need to slowly absorb and digest existing assets, gradually develop them, and then return funds to wait for the next round of investment.

By next year, that is, in 1976, the Hong Kong real estate market will see a significant recovery, as will the stock market. Hutchison can more easily cash out its subsidiary assets and businesses, allowing its own funds to enter a new cycle.