The Industrial Giant Reborn

Central, Connaught Building:

"What, all 7 properties were intercepted by He Huang? What are you doing?" Bao Fuda almost jumped up in rage.

On weekdays, this group of people will generally appear very kind, but in essence, they are superior to others. If only one or two properties are intercepted, it doesn't matter. , that is the gap of 14 companies.

"Sorry, Mr. Bao Fuda, as far as I know, Hutchison has offered a price that is 10% higher than ours, which is also much higher than the market average price. Among these seven properties, two more were directly acquired by Hutchison It’s over.” The person who came was also an Englishman, and he was reporting in fluent English at the moment.

"Two bought properties, and the other five leased at high prices." Bao Fuda said with a frown, "This is really a ruthless game with Huang. If you really want to play like this, then you have to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in the retail market."

"Okay, you go down first." Niu Bijian, who had been silent on the side, said to Bao Fuda's subordinates.

"Thank you, Mr. Newbikin." The little British guy quickly thanked him, and then immediately withdrew.

"This is our financial problem, no one can blame it." Niu Bijian said to Bao Fuda.

"I lost my temper." Bao Fuda nodded and said, but this was just talking to his leader, Niu Bijian, even if he really lost his temper, he would not say it to his subordinates.

Niu Bijian continued: "It seems that Chen Zhiwen is determined to enter the retail market, and now this makes us very embarrassed. If we quit, the previous tens of millions will be spent in vain. Maybe we will wait for the future and Huang to enter the retail market." If Chen Zhiwen initiates another price war, our Wellcome will continue to lose money, but if we don’t withdraw, let’s not talk about winning and Huang, even if we maintain the current situation, we will have to invest several hundred million in it. .

You also know the current situation of Jardine. At this time, several hundred million yuan is not a small sum of money even if it is used on credit. "

"I know this, but if we withdraw, we will give up completely. The plan to control the Hong Kong retail market that was prepared from Henry Keswick will be completely abolished." Bao Fuda said with some confusion.

Before the acquisition of Dairy Milk in 1972, Henry Keswick, who was still the boss of the Jardine Mathematics Department at that time, conducted a comprehensive analysis of Dairy Milk International Company together with Niubijian, Bao Fuda and others. The milk business, ice factory, and retail under the company are all high-quality assets.

With the development of overseas chain supermarkets to a large scale, Jardine Group is also planning to complete the control of Hong Kong’s retail industry with the help of Milk’s Wellcome Supermarket. However, after the acquisition of Milk, the real estate crisis and the oil crisis broke out, affecting the Jardine department. A series of plans for the expansion of retail supermarkets have also been temporarily shelved.

However, in the Hong Kong market after 1973, there are basically no large-scale supermarket chains, and the local supermarkets are mainly independent, while foreign capital is not acclimatized. attitude.

Until recently, Jardine suddenly discovered that Hutchison, which was acquired by Chinese capital, began to enter the retail supermarket market on a large scale, which aroused their vigilance, but it was obviously too late. Even though Hutchison was heavily in debt, it was still willing to invest huge sums Entering the market, this disrupted Jardine's plan.

"In the past year, the growth rate of the real estate market has risen a lot. Is there any property under Hongkong Land, and the credit line has not been exhausted?" Niu Bijian asked again.

Hongkong Land has a large scale. It has about 20 buildings in prime locations such as Central, Admiralty, and Tsim Sha Tsui. The annual rent of these buildings is two to three billion Hong Kong dollars, but this does not mean that the money is pure profit, because Hongkong Land has developed to Now, it has always been relying on the business model of renting and supporting loans. Although the rental income is high, it is basically used to support loans.

Even Hong Kong Land’s debt is still higher than that of Hutchison Wong. The difference is that Hutchison Wong has insufficient collateral, while Hongkong Land’s core real estate business is not very sensitive to the decline in the real estate market, so it has never been insolvent.

Now that the real estate market has recovered a bit, and the market prices of various buildings have increased, the amount of loans that can be borrowed has naturally increased accordingly.

"Yes, there is, but these funds are going to be used for the reconstruction of the Central District. At this time, it seems a bit uneconomical to allocate funds just for retail sales. Moreover, Wharf is currently short of funds. I want Jardine to allocate some more. What about the funds?" Bao Fuda frowned.

The central area reconstruction plan is actually a big pit. This is also the plan proposed by Henry Keswick when he was in power. The main reason is that many buildings in Central Land have a long history and the interior and exterior decorations are relatively old. Therefore, they decided to spend one billion Hong Kong dollars, to renovate Hong Kong's various buildings in Hong Kong, and then use pedestrian bridges to link the various buildings to increase the flow of people and ensure that customers will not lose their willingness to shop due to weather.

This idea is good, but one billion Hong Kong dollars is too much money, and the real estate crisis and the oil crisis have consumed a lot of cash reserves of Hongkong Land. However, this project, like Harbor City, cannot be stopped at all. Many buildings have to be renovated. The tenants were moved out at a price, and the interior was being renovated. It was impossible to stop the renovation halfway through, and it would not be possible to rent it out, nor would it be possible to let the tenants go out for renovation after a few years of suspension.

"Don't think about it, Jardine's sugar cane farm in the Philippines has already lost tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars. South Africa and Australia are also losing money. Overseas are still desperately pressing me for money." Niu Bijian shook his head and said.

In fact, one of the fundamental reasons why Newbikin and others were able to defeat the Keswick family and take control of the Jardine family was that the Jardine family was brought into the ditch by Henry Keswick and the previous Keswick family. Investment losses had to draw blood from Hong Kong, and Hong Kong also missed many opportunities. However, the Jardine Department has a strong foundation after all. Even if there are problems in long-term operation, it will take a long time to break out.

After the global oil crisis broke out, the overseas investment of the Jardine Group began to experience an avalanche of crisis. It happened that the management of Jardine was changed. Therefore, under the circumstances, Niu Bijian and others got the management rights of the Jardine Department.

Of course, when it comes to ability, Niu Bijian and others also have it, that is, Jardine's losses before were too serious, and many problems are still bleeding Jardine, and it is difficult to stop.

"Then what should we do? Do we really want to give up?" Bao Fuda frowned and said: "The biggest advantage of the retail industry is that there is a lot of liquidity that can be settled. As long as we win this field, our financial problems will be much better. But it's a lucrative book."

"Yes, you are right. The most attractive thing about the retail industry is the amount of funds." Niu Bijian thought for a while and said, "Well, I'll go find Shen Bi and ask him to provide some more funds. We must not give up on supermarkets, even if we can’t beat ParknShop, we still have to control a certain market share.”

"The relationship between Shen Bi and Chen Zhiwen is also very good. Will he help us?" Bao Fuda asked. Over the years, Jardine Matheson and HSBC have been competing for the position of the No. Not good.

"It is because Shen Bi has a good relationship with Chen Zhiwen that he is more willing to lend us money. As a bank, they hope that their customers can be controlled more easily." Niu Bijian said.

"That's true. HSBC is really sitting on the sidelines. We know that it is beneficial to HSBC, but there is nothing we can do." Bao Fuda said a little unhappy.

"No way, who makes people the central bank." Niu Bijian shook his head and said, if HSBC hadn't been acquiesced by the Hong Kong government as a "central bank" and provided a lot of financial assistance and legal protection, Jardine Matheson would have surpassed HSBC in terms of scale. .

"In that case, I'm going to take down the market on the Hong Kong Island side first. As long as we take down the Hong Kong Island, we will basically be sitting on the Diaoyutai." Bao Fuda thought for a while and said.

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