The Industrial Giant Reborn

May 13, 1982:

The branches of Hisense Bank in various places in Hong Kong have been blocked by countless people. A large number of depositors would rather not go to work, and they all crowded into the bank, because there may be half their lifetime savings there. As many people who have experienced the bank run crisis in the 1960s, there is nothing more important than withdrawing their deposits in the bank as soon as possible.

"Everyone listen to me, our Hisense Bank has sufficient funds, and the newspapers have no factual basis. If you come to withdraw money at this time, you will only lose all the interest on your deposits." A middle-aged man of about 40 years old , shouting loudly with a horn in hand.

It's just that although his voice is loud, no one listens to him at all. Everyone is squeezing in. The nearby police station has already arranged many policemen to maintain order. Well, they can't do anything, as long as there is no stampede, they don't care. Even some policemen may have deposits in the bank.

In the Hisense Bank building, Huang Changzan looked at the bustling crowd downstairs, his right hand was trembling, and asked, "How much cash do we have in the warehouse?"

"It's less than 50 million Hong Kong dollars, but we still have hundreds of millions in our account. I have communicated with HSBC to mobilize cash, and HSBC promised to help, but even if their cash arrives, we can't last long." Xie Hongbing looked Looking down, he also said in despair.

How can any bank survive a run? Especially some time ago, a large sum of money was specially loaned to Chen Zhiwen, otherwise, it would be able to support it for a longer time now.

The current situation is that depositors no longer trust Hisense's checks, and even if the checks are opened, other banks dare not admit it, because if they admit it, it is tantamount to taking the risk for Hisense, unless they exchange cash immediately, which is different from depositors. Cashing out makes no difference. Although the ICAC has not yet found evidence, since this matter has been investigated, even if the possibility is very low, other banks will avoid the risk. As time goes by, Hisense did not immediately prove its innocence, which increases the risk even more .

"I can last as long as I can. Li Haonan has promised me to tell Chen Zhiwen about this matter. As long as I wait for Chen Zhiwen's help, everything will be fine." Huang Changzan said.

"Will Chen Zhiwen help us? Although some of our operations make it difficult for the ICAC to obtain evidence, investors don't need evidence. As long as there is a slight possibility, there is nothing to talk about." Xie Hongbing said with a frown.

"This is the only hope. Otherwise, what else can you do?" Huang Changzan said helplessly. It is already a desperate situation. Once they publicly admit to concealing bad debts, or they are found out by the ICAC, the run will only be worse than it is now. What's more serious, the entire Hisense Bank will collapse, and these people can prepare to go to Stanley.

"Then we can only introduce Chen Zhiwen's funds at a low price." Xie Hongbing nodded and said.

Suddenly, the phone rang, Xie Hongbing ran over quickly, Huang Changzan also looked in the direction of the phone, any call at this time could be heaven or hell.

Seeing that Xie Hongbing answered the phone, within a short while, his face changed drastically, and then he put down the phone tremblingly. Huang Changzan knew it was not a good thing, and asked quickly: "What's wrong?"

"Ye Yuling was arrested. He was about to flee to Southeast Asia at the airport, but was caught by the airport special police." Xie Hongbing said with a pale face.

"What?" Huang Changzan almost lost his footing, and hurriedly sat down on a nearby sofa, took a few breaths, and said, "Didn't we agree with him that no one would move? Why did he suddenly want to move?" Run away? And why did the airport special police arrest people, what evidence did they have?"

Although once you run away, the fact of the crime is that you will not call yourself, but the current law does not allow people to be arrested without evidence. Without evidence, even if you know that Xie Hongbing is going to run away, you should not be able to detain him. Ah, after all, people can use the excuse of going abroad to discuss business.

"One of Ye Lingling's subordinates also reported him. With the witnesses of two witnesses, the court urgently restricted Ye Lingling from leaving Hong Kong, including us. Yes, it is suggested that we surrender ourselves to the ICAC and explain the matter clearly. In this case, he will try his best to shift the main responsibility to the dead Zhang Mingtian. We are just accomplices. However, it is difficult for us to get rid of the matter of concealing bad debts, but after all, we have only just started Taking over Hisense Bank can also get rid of some responsibilities. In this case, it may only take a year or two to enter, perform well and operate, and may come out after a few months." Xie Hongbing said.

"How many months? It is a disgrace to our family to go in for a day." Huang Changzan was so sad that he almost burst into tears. He is the only college student in the family. The whole family supported him to go to college in the 1950s and entered Hong Kong after graduation. After working in Hisense for 20 years, he became more than 10,000 people, and then took over the entire bank after the founder passed away. As a person who did not start his own business, he is basically the ultimate in life. He can also retire, but he didn't expect to go in when he was old.

"But there are still two more troublesome things." Xie Hongbing said: "Once this matter is made public, the run will be more serious, and Hisense may go bankrupt, or the Hong Kong government may take over. The sentence could be longer."

"You mean, just like Hang Seng back then, find HSBC to take over? But HSBC already has Hang Seng, and the scale of Hang Seng is much larger than Hisense. Shen Bi is now thinking of moving HSBC assets overseas. How can it be possible again? To take over the mess of Hisense, one is not well controlled, and there is no one billion Hong Kong dollars, so this matter cannot be suppressed at all." Huang Changzan also regained his senses and thought carefully.

The penalties for economic crimes have a lot to do with the consequences. The most serious thing they do is conceal bad debts, not direct fraud, which is a misdemeanor. But if their actions cause the collapse of the entire bank, or even Hong Kong's financial The system is under the impact of a run, and the court will definitely impose a heavier sentence at that time.

Although the run on the outside has already begun, Hisense can still last for a few days. It is far from the time of despair. If you sell Hisense to a big bank like HSBC at this time, you can immediately stabilize the run problem and let everyone Depositors can rest assured that in this way, the matter may end early. Of course, this kind of thing is not absolute, after all, if Hisense has a large scale.

But HSBC's current investment policy is obviously not in Hong Kong, so how could it be willing to take over Hisense?

"In Hong Kong, there is one person who is more convincing than HSBC and can stabilize our depositors." Xie Hongbing said.

"You mean Chen Zhiwen?" There is only one such person in Hong Kong, Huang Changzan naturally understood immediately, and said, "But Chen Zhiwen doesn't have a bank, would he be willing to invest in a bank?"

"How do you know if you don't ask? If he has such a large industry, if he has a bank, wouldn't it be even more powerful? Even if he cannot lend to his own company according to the banking law, the number of relevant partners is also a very large number." Xie Hongbing said .

"That's right, anyway, before I was going to let him buy shares at a preferential price to help us solve this problem, but now, in this situation, once Ye Yuling turns himself in, we will no longer be able to manage Hisense, so why don't we give it all to Chen Zhiwen?" .” Huang Changzan thought for a moment, and finally agreed.

All the things they did before were to continue to be in charge of Hisense Bank on their own, including when they decided to suppress this fraud incident, but they lost the bet, and this incident was still exposed, and the Hong Kong government will soon be able to grasp the actual situation. Evidence, the only thing they can do now is to try to avoid subsequent dominoes from causing more serious consequences.

"Is there any problem with the board of directors?" Xie Hongbing asked again.

"It's probably too late to hold a general meeting of shareholders now. I will call them and they should agree. If Chen Zhiwen refuses to help, Hisense may go bankrupt in the future. Maybe their shareholders have to bear joint and several limited liability. If they If you have some brains, you will agree to this matter." At this last moment, Huang Changzan became clear-headed. It was so difficult before because they wanted too much, didn't want to lose too much, and didn't want the ICAC to find evidence, but now Well, I just want my family to spend less time visiting the prison.

"Okay then, I'll talk to Sun Dazhuang again to see what's going on with Ye Yuling." Xie Hongbing said.

"Well, then do your own thing, I will contact Li Haonan again." Huang Changzan nodded and said.

Xie Hongbing added: "There is a second matter, which is the deal between Ye Huanling and us back then. If this matter comes out, then we will be finished."

Ye Yuling's check method is not very high-end, and he can slowly defraud tens of millions of dollars, in fact, it is because of the bank's internal problems.

But at the beginning, it was not high-level staff, but some middle-level staff, and the funds involved were not large. As long as Ye Yuling’s investment did not go wrong, then it would be able to make up for it later. This is actually not abnormal. Many banks in Hong Kong have similar Routine, for example, some banks will lend more than the collateral to the borrower, there must be some gray transactions, even HSBC is the same.

However, Hisense Bank just went too far and continued to conduct transactions beyond the risk range. As a result, Ye Yuling failed to use the bank's money to invest, resulting in huge bad debts, but both parties were already on the same boat, so they could only work together. Advance and retreat, this is the incident of Hisense Bank concealing bad debts. I thought I could hide it for a long time, but I didn't expect to be reported suddenly.

"Ye Yuling threatened us with this before because he was afraid that we would call the police, but this time it was not our intention. If he was smarter and only admitted to the check round fraud, the crime would be much smaller, but if Huilu is involved, he will wait for the prison. Sit down and wear it." Huang Changzan analyzed rather reassuringly.

"That's right, he is the one most responsible for telling this matter." Xie Hongbing nodded and said.

Three days later, a breaking news came out that the chairman of the Dominican Finance Company, which provides immigration financial services to Hong Kong citizens, was arrested at Kai Tak Airport. After interrogation by the Independent Commission Against Corruption, it was confirmed that in the past few years he had been from Hisense Bank defrauded more than 66.8 million U.S. dollars of funds by means of check rounds, and all of them were short-lived. Hisense Bank also knew this, but chose to conceal it by making false accounts.

When the news came out, Hisense Bank’s stock price was cut in half. At its peak, Hisense Bank’s market value was approximately HK$4.5 billion. When news of the investigation came out more than half a month ago, it fell to close to HK$3 billion. Now that it has been confirmed, it will immediately It fell below 1.5 billion.

As for Hisense’s tens of thousands of depositors in Hong Kong, after hearing the news, they desperately ran to the bank to exchange cash. The police station had already made preparations, but soon found that the police force was insufficient, because many policemen were also deposited in Hisense. money.

As the third largest local bank in Hong Kong, there are many depositors all over Hong Kong. Many families will put their funds in several banks due to factors such as risk and interest income. Hisense is also the preferred object.

Now, these people are all in a hurry.

Soon, Hisense Bank's cash was exhausted, and the depositors were all excited when they found out that they had no money. In order to prevent the situation from getting out of control, the Hong Kong government quickly asked HSBC to provide an emergency support of 500 million Hong Kong dollars in cash, but this is not a long-term solution after all. .

This also puts the Hong Kong government in a dilemma. Over the years, Hong Kong has been pursuing the "free market" policy, especially the new Hong Kong Governor Youde, who has just succeeded to the throne. At the same time, the Hong Kong government's fiscal revenue has also shrunk due to the bad real estate market. All of a sudden, a large sum of money was spent to rescue a bank, and internal opposition was also loud. The best strategy is to let the market solve it by itself, that is, buy it by other consortiums, and at the same time have enough financial resources to stabilize the situation.

On May 20, the Governor's Office:

Governor Youde personally hosted a banquet for Chen Zhiwen.

"Mr. Chen, please sit down." Youde said with a smile.

"Thank you, Mr. Governor." Chen Zhiwen also replied politely. This is the second meeting with Youde. The last time was of course when Youde just took office as the governor of Hong Kong, he hosted a banquet for all the rich and powerful people in Hong Kong. At that time, the two of them were no more than Just get to know each other.

"Since the 1940s, I have served as a diplomat representing the British Empire around the world, and I have seen many business geniuses, but this is the first time I have seen someone as outstanding as Mr. Chen, who was planning to succeed Hong Kong Governor. At that time, I checked the development process of Hong Kong in the past few decades, and I have to say that the appearance of Mr. Chen has raised the entire Hong Kong economy to a higher level." Youde praised.

"Thank you for the compliment, I just did what I should do." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile, although most of his industries, the main profits are in accounts in overseas tax havens, but a small part of them stay in Hong Kong. It is also enough to help a city greatly, especially in terms of employment, and even the current real estate development history, although the general trend has not changed, but also because of its capital investment, it is much stronger than the original history.

Of course, the stronger the bubble, the bigger the bubble. It's hard to say whether the future will be good or bad.

"I know you Chinese like to be humble, but we British don't like it. A strong man should have the arrogance and attitude of a strong man." Youde said with a smile: "I'll just say it, the matter of Hisense Bank, I think Chen Sheng, you also know, I wonder if you are interested in taking over Hisense Bank, in terms of policies, I can provide some to guarantee your interests in the future? How about it?"

"What kind of policy?" Chen Zhiwen said with an unchanged expression.

In fact, before, Huang Changzan also told him through Li Haonan that the board of directors of Hisense was willing to sell most of the shares, but the offer was too high, and he actually asked for the current market value minus the loss of 300 million Hong Kong dollars. Chen Zhiwen never thought of such a price I refused immediately after thinking about it, and I didn’t even bother to talk to these people in the future. I just need to wait for things to ferment. The market value of Hisense Bank will definitely fall off a cliff, and it’s not too late to make a move.

It's just unexpected that Youde would come forward to discuss this matter with him, and it would be more convenient if he could get some policy support.