The Industrial Giant Reborn

"Not directly? Are you not even willing to talk about the price?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

"Yes, the team in Hong Kong couldn't make a decision on this matter. They reported it to Hilton's US headquarters. Someone from the headquarters sent over and told my people directly that they would not sell out the contract. They also said They are very optimistic about the future of Hong Kong and asked us not to interfere with the daily affairs of the Hilton Hotel according to the contract." Li Haonan said.

"This Yankee is more optimistic about the future of Hong Kong than the British ghost, which is really interesting." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile. He remembered that in the original history, Li Ka-shing bought out the contract of the Hilton Hotel after 85 years. That is to say, no matter how bad the economy is in Hong Kong in the past two years or how many rumors spread, it will not affect the Hilton Hotel. It's just a little bit louder for now.

"Many of these British people in Hong Kong are short-sighted, thinking that if Hong Kong does not follow the UK, the economy will inevitably collapse, and they don't think that so many regions follow the UK, so Hong Kong can develop only because Hong Kong is It’s just a platform for the internationalization of the mainland.” Li Haonan said with a smile: “On the contrary, the relationship between the mainland and the United States is good now, and there are many kinds of economic cooperation. American capital is still very optimistic about Hong Kong, just wait until this time passes!”

"But after this period of time, it's not good for us. Once Hong Kong's economy improves, Hilton Hotels may be even more reluctant to sell off its joint venture!" Chen Zhiwen said.

"This kind of thing usually won't succeed the first time. I'd better arrange to talk to them again." Li Haonan said again, it is indeed unlikely that a buyout contract involving hundreds of millions will be settled soon. Perhaps the other party's first strong refusal is also a bargaining chip for subsequent price increases.

"Naturally, if it's the other way around, if someone wants to ask me to buy this kind of long-term contract, they may be too loud. Besides, anyone with a discerning eye can see our purpose of buying out the contract." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

With the land price of Hong Kong people, even if the land price in Central has dropped a bit, its value is still many times that of before.

When the land price is not high, it is not cost-effective to demolish and build a new building. At that time, it is better to find a piece of land next to it, but the housing price is high, so the cost of demolition is not worth mentioning. At its peak, the price was 7.3 billion Hong Kong dollars, which is the construction cost of how many Hilton hotels can be bought!

As for why Chen Zhiwen can guess that it will be demolished after the acquisition, the first is because his property needs a larger headquarters, and the second is that the Hilton Hotel has a history of more than 20 years, and the original decoration is old and outdated. , the business during this time is not bad, but it’s not good either. It’s far inferior to the Cultural Oriental or Grand Hotel. The third is such a good land. This kind of business has already been calculated for Chen Zhiwen by the media.

The people at the Hilton Hotel were not fools either. After a little investigation, they would naturally know Chen Zhiwen's purpose.

"No matter what, we have to make a quick decision. It has been delayed for too long. If Hong Kong's future is determined, the economy will recover!" Li Haonan said.

"It's not that fast. The economic crisis can't be over in a year or two." Chen Zhiwen said, "But we really need to hurry up. As long as the price they ask is not too outrageous, they can negotiate, but if they really ask for money, Then I will not be polite to them, in Hong Kong, we are the local snakes, and there are plenty of ways to deal with them."

Hilton Hotel, if it was a few years ago, it was considered a large company for Chen Zhiwen, so there was no need to take the initiative to provoke it, but now, the status is reversed.

Although this kind of hotel chain group seems to be very large in scale and often owns hundreds or even thousands of hotels around the world, these are all asset-light management models, that is, hotels are built with local capital and then handed over to Hilton for management. They are all similar, and their market value and scale are actually not large.

This is very different from Asian hotel groups. Most of the hotel capital in Asia comes from real estate, and they prefer to own their own properties, such as the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. In the 21st century, there are only dozens of hotels in Asia, but their own His assets are not lower than those of Hilton and InterContinental.

"Understood, it's not difficult if I really want to deal with them. If I didn't consider that it might affect the reputation of our group, I would have done it long ago!" Li Haonan said with a smile.

"Okay, try to complete this matter within one or two months. It may take three or four years to close the business, demolish the building for recordation, and build a new building. The sooner the building is built, the better," Chen Zhiwen said. Just a skyscraper, no matter how fast it is, it will take two or three years to build it, and the blasting and demolition in front of it will also take time, which is why Chen Zhiwen asked Lei Shengli to send someone to find Bei Jinming first. This kind of building, It takes a long time just to get involved.

"Okay, if there is any further news, I will report it as soon as possible." Li Haonan said.

"Okay, that's it!" Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

Hong Kong’s super building construction boom is coming. Before the 1980s, although Hong Kong’s land prices were high and low, in general, it was still far behind other developed cities in the world. After all, the average salary in Hong Kong was too high before. low.

However, after the development of the past ten years, the per capita income of Hong Kong has increased rapidly, and the house price in Hong Kong has increased by nearly ten times from 1985 to 1997. This has brought about major changes in the most basic model of real estate.

When the real estate price is not high, the construction cost has a greater impact on the housing price, and the construction cost of the building is that the higher the floor, the higher the cost per area.

Therefore, before the 1980s, buildings in Hong Kong generally had around 20 floors. Even Diwang Building, which is in a prime location, had only 40 or 50 floors.

Since 1985, Hong Kong's land prices have increased exponentially, which has led to the fact that in the future new properties in Hong Kong will all be super buildings, and the record for the highest level in Hong Kong will be broken within a year or two.

However, if the area itself is too small, there is no way, and the Hilton Hotel's land area is large enough, so he will naturally have to do it all at once to build a super building that will be the tallest at present and in the next few years.

...

Half a month later, the time will soon be before the Chinese New Year.

Henry Morgan also returned from the Mainland.

"How is the situation in the Mainland?" Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

"It's not bad, but the hotel in the mainland is a little bit worse, and my stay is not very comfortable!" Henry Morgan said.

"There are several five-star hotels under construction in Yanjing in the past two years. I think it will be much better if you go there next year!" Chen Zhiwen said.

"I know this, and we have also obtained data on the entry of some mainland business people. The number of people is increasing every month, not every year. The export trade of the mainland is also developing very well. From this point of view, the mainland The economy in the future may not be too bad, and it should not be difficult to reach the economic level of some medium-sized Asian countries!" Henry Morgan said with a smile.

"So Morgan's bank is going to invest in China?" Chen Zhiwen asked curiously.

"What are you thinking?" Henry Morgan said with a smile: "The most taboo thing for us to do financial investment is to end by ourselves. It’s all about investigating in advance, our Morgan bank is just participating in the financing!”

"That's true. Your investment method is very safe, but you may not be able to get the highest profit!" Chen Zhiwen nodded and said. Many investment banks and hedge funds on Wall Street follow this routine, even if they are not short of money. A certain investment project is very confident, but basically it uses other people's money to invest, and then divides it from the profits.

"This is the lesson of hundreds of years of blood and tears." Henry said with a smile: "Those who don't abide by this rule, when they see that a certain project has great benefits, immediately put their own worth into it. Maybe most of them can make money, but as long as If you lose once, you will go bankrupt!"

"Profit and risk coexist!" Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

"We don't have your confidence, so naturally we won't take risks. Even the junk bonds you mentioned last time, or South American sovereign bonds, we won't end them in person, but introduce them to our various clients. If they make a profit Yes, we can enjoy the dividends." Henry Morgan said.

"It's up to you, anyway, all I need is the land." Chen Zhiwen shrugged and said.

"When I was in the mainland, I was in contact with the United States every day, so I came here today, but I have two good news to tell you." Henry Morgan said.

"What good news?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

"The first thing is naturally the large amount of farm land you want. In the United States, the people I entrusted found more than a dozen large-scale farms in Texas. These farmers suffered serious losses in the past two years and wanted to get out. In terms of price, the discount rate should be very large, and in South America, the Argentine government has the most serious debt, and they have also agreed to transfer a large number of state-owned farms, and you can also take the opportunity to buy some of them!" Henry Morgan said with a smile.

"It's easy to say in the United States, but in Argentina, it's still the old rule. You have to hold 1% of the shares. With the background in the United States, I can feel more at ease." Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and said.

"It's no problem, I just need to participate in the idea, but Eric, if you really succeed in all the acquisitions this time, the cost may exceed 500 million US dollars!" Henry said.

"No problem, anyway, I only need to pay 10 to 20%, and the rest can be taken as a loan. Morgan's bank should be very happy that I will do this." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

"That's true, as long as the farm price does not plummet, there is no risk." Henry nodded, and said: "The other thing is that the NBA team you want to buy has a goal."