The Industrial Giant Reborn

After a normal marriage, it is natural to go on a honeymoon, but because Liu Xiaoli was already pregnant and had twins, for safety reasons, she did not go elsewhere. Instead, she took her own luxury cruise ship and traveled around Southeast Asia, bumping into each other. If you go to a suitable seaside city, get off the boat and have some fun.

When I returned to Hong Kong, it was already October. Although Liu Xiaoli's belly was only more than three months old, it might have started to grow because she was twins.

The next step is to stay in a super villa that the Chen family just bought on Victoria Peak to raise the baby, and occasionally go to the Hong Kong and Chinese Hospital for check-ups.

After acquiring Land, Chen Zhiwen also discovered that Land owned another villa on Taiping Mountain, which was naturally occupied by Chen Zhiwen.

In fact, with the assets of the Chen family, it is not difficult to buy a Taipingshan villa. However, most of the time, this thing is at a price and there is no market. Even if the Chen family pays a high price for it, they may not be able to buy it. After all, it is possible to buy it here. Those who own houses are all extremely wealthy. Even if there is an economic crisis, they may not sell the assets here.

Originally, Chen Zhiwen wanted to wait until after the Sino-British negotiations, and many British investors were preparing to leave Hong Kong, then there might be a lot of Taipingshan villas or land. This was also the way Li Jiacheng, Lee Shau-kee and others obtained Taipingshan villas in history. Otherwise, there may not be a transaction for many years.

But since we have the land, we don't have to worry about it for the time being. We arrange for people to do a simple renovation and decoration, and the Chen family moves in.

As a real estate giant with a history of nearly a century, and once outperformed Swire, Wheelock and Hutchison Whampoa, the wealth of assets under its ownership made Chen Zhiwen speechless.

There is also a bigger asset, which is the Hong Kong Telephone Company.

In the few days after the honeymoon, Chen Zhiwen was a little lazy and didn't deal with work matters much. Anyway, the company was basically running normally, and only big things required his intervention.

On October 12, Chen Zhiwen came to Hongkong Land's Connaught Building, which is now the headquarters of Land Group.

Connaught Building, also known as Jardine House in later generations. Among the pictures of skyscrapers in Hong Kong in later generations, there is a building that is relatively white and feels a little chubby. This is where Connaught Building is located. The reason for this feeling is Because this is a building from the early 1970s.

In 1971, the Connaught Building had a land area of ​​53,000 square feet. It was finally won by Landmark after many competitions, and a building with a height of 172 meters and 52 floors was built. At that time, the Connaught Building was the tallest building in Hong Kong and also the tallest building in Hong Kong. The first skyscraper was much stronger than the buildings next to it that were all twenty or thirty stories tall.

Unfortunately, as the earliest skyscraper, it is doomed to decline in the future. In the past ten years, the tallest building in Hong Kong has been broken continuously. The Connaught Building is no longer good. In another twenty years, it will become the shorter tallest building in Hong Kong. Building, that is, because of its particularly good location, it can appear in photos of famous buildings in Hong Kong.

The fundamental reason is naturally the ratio of land prices to construction costs. When land prices are not very high, it is cost-effective to build low-rise buildings. On the contrary, it is more cost-effective to build super skyscrapers when land prices are high.

But now the deal is done and cannot be changed, and 52 floors is not too low, and it is not 20 or 30 floors. It is definitely not cost-effective to demolish and rebuild, so this is the only way. Anyway, the greatest value of Hong Kong real estate in the future is the location, and Connaught Building The location is definitely the most central among the Central.

Also coming to Land's headquarters was Lei Shengli from Midea, because today's incident has something to do with Midea.

"Chen Sheng, Lei Sheng, hello." Youwei, the chief executive of Landmark, came to the ground floor of the building early to wait. Although Landmark is one of the largest companies in Hong Kong, its business is simple. After he was arranged to become the chief executive of Landmark, The boss, Chen Zhiwen, has only been here a few times, and the boss was not in Hong Kong for a while. He will prepare for the wedding when he comes back. Of course, the whole Land must pay great attention to coming here today.

This kind of thing actually depends on how often the boss comes. If he comes every day, not to mention the big shift, even ordinary employees will gradually get used to it and it doesn't matter. But if he comes once in a while, he must be cautious.

"Have you been waiting here for a long time?" Chen Zhiwen smiled and said, "When I came here, there was a traffic accident in front, and the traffic jam took a long time."

"It didn't take long." Dong Youwei said with a smile. As a boss, Chen Zhiwen can be said to be the one that professional managers want to follow among all the bosses in Hong Kong. He delegates a lot of power, has a good personality, is polite to everyone, and even A cleaner is like this, which makes the people who follow him feel very comfortable, and they can talk relatively freely on weekdays. As long as they don't seek death, there is usually no problem.

"The problem is that there is not enough wireless communication." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile to Lei Sheng beside him.

"Yes, Hong Kong Telephone Company's previous wireless communication coverage was still not enough." Lei Shengli nodded and said.

"Come on, let's go in and talk." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile. He came to Land this time because of the Hong Kong Telephone Company.

The group took the elevator and arrived at the 52nd floor of the Kangle Building. This was the place where top executives of Jardine, such as Niu Bijian and Bao Fuda, once worked. After the Land was acquired, it naturally became the current high-rise office, just like other subsidiaries. , Land also prepared a huge office for Chen Zhiwen, although Chen Zhiwen may not be able to come there only a few times a year.

"The sea view here is really good." Chen Zhiwen said with emotion when he came to the floor-to-ceiling window of his office and looked at Harbor City, which is also his property, and the various ships in Victoria Harbor opposite.

It has been almost 12 years since he came to Hong Kong. He has already stood at the top of Hong Kong, his family has descendants, and half of his life goals have been achieved.

"The location of the Connaught Building is definitely one of the best in Hong Kong. It is a prime commercial location and is close to the harbor. When the Exchange Square next door is completed, the commercial value here will be even higher," Dong Youwei said.

"When will Exchange Square be completed?" Chen Zhiwen asked. Back then, he tricked the Jardine Matheson Group. At that time, Land bought the Hong Kong Land King in 1981 at a very high price. Later, he also suffered from this huge debt. Chen Zhiwen found the loophole and broke through Yizhi Mutual Control.

But the land owned by Exchange Square is worth the high price. The area is three times that of Connaught Building, and the future Hong Kong Exchange will be placed in this building. This is also the origin of the name of Exchange Square, and the Hong Kong Exchange , it can also attract a lot of high-quality wealthy people, which will greatly increase the value of the building itself.

In the original history, in the early 1990s, after the Exchange Building was completed, it became the most expensive Grade A office building in Hong Kong. At the peak of the real estate bubble, the annual rent per square foot was as high as thousands of Hong Kong dollars, and the entire construction area of ​​the Exchange Building 2 million square feet, even if only 80% of the area can be rented, the gross rental profit that year would be as high as HK$1.6 billion.

To put it bluntly, 10 such buildings, just collecting rents, can completely overwhelm most of the world's Fortune 500 companies. Even when the Internet giants rise, not many can exceed such profits. The latter It also requires a lot of energy to complete the monopoly, argue with various countries, and so on. Of course, influence is not the same, but I can have both. Using such rent to support some industries that require money, I can achieve multiple benefits with one stone.

"Since our acquisition of Land at the beginning of this year, Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC have organized a joint loan of HK$5 billion. Exchange Square is currently building the first phase as quickly as possible and is expected to be completed in the middle of next year. The second phase is It will start after the first phase is completed, and it is estimated to be completed in early 1987." Dong Youwei paused, and then said: "The premise is that there is no problem with our capital chain."

Although there is a big boss, it cannot change the problem of Land's serious debt. The new loans from HSBC and Standard Chartered are only guaranteed by the big boss. The debts still need to be repaid by Land itself, including previous debts. It's just that HK$5 billion is more, which can be used to pay the interest on previous loans. In addition, Land itself also has continuous income. It's not a problem for the time being, but it will definitely not work over time, unless the big boss injects capital.

"Don't worry, the real estate market will not always be like this. There have been several real estate crises in Hong Kong in the past few years. Which one have you seen that has not recovered for more than two years? The longest is just over two years, right?" Chen Zhiwen said calmly. He said with a smile, although there is no hard evidence, the previous real estate crisis in Hong Kong followed this pattern. It may also be because, within two years, the real estate market returned to normal value, everyone calmed down, and then it became a bull market again. .

"That's right." Dong Youwei nodded. He had been in the real estate industry for 20 years before. The Hong Kong real estate market does have a very strange pattern. There is a cycle of 10 years, two of which plummeted, and the other 6-8 years. All are rising.

"Just wait, as long as Land's funds are fine for the time being." Chen Zhiwen said nonchalantly. His appearance will have a great impact on business in Hong Kong and even the mainland, but it should not have a big impact on ZZ. In theory, He said that the future negotiations in Hong Kong should be similar to those in the original history. They should be finalized in December. In terms of time, it should not be much different, and it may even be earlier.

Moreover, Hong Kong's wealthy families also have their own channels for information in this area. It's not that we can find out any specific secrets. These are top secrets and most people don't dare to touch them. But we can probably still know the direction of the negotiations, such as whether it goes well or not. etc.

"Okay, I hope so." Dong Youwei nodded and said. In fact, the best direction is for the Hong Kong real estate market to resume its upward trend. Land's liabilities are as high as 23 billion Hong Kong dollars, and the actual assets, based on the current land and house prices, are worth almost It is about HK$30 billion, and the debt ratio is close to 80%. Because Exchange Square and several other projects require money to build new properties, and because of the economic downturn, rental income is not very good, which has led to economic difficulties.

But if house prices rise, it will be a situation where liabilities remain unchanged and assets rise. For example, if they rise by 20%, then Land will obtain HK$6 billion in assets and related bank credit out of thin air. The most important thing is that once the real estate market rises, banks will not only Instead of collecting debts, they will rush to send money, and then all financial problems will disappear.

"Sit down." Chen Zhiwen led the two of them to a sofa room next to the floor-to-ceiling windows. This is also a lounge. If it is winter, you can still get the sun, but the angle of the sun is not enough now.

"Sheng Chen, we have reached an agreement with the British management team of the Hong Kong Telephone Company. Some of the British team have agreed to leave, and our people will also move in. However, because we don't understand much about the telephone company's business, within a short period of time, We still need to rely on those ghost guys, and it may take some time to replace them." Dong Youwei added that the boss came here today not to know the situation at the Exchange Square, but the Hong Kong Telephone Company.

Although the value of the Exchange Square Building may not be lower than that of the Hong Kong Telephone Company, there are basically no variables and the value has been fixed. However, the Hong Kong Telephone Company is different. When this company was acquired by Land, there was no was controlled, because as early as when Land acquired the Hong Kong Telephone Company, the latter had been operating independently, and even Newbricken could not intervene.

"Learning is necessary. Our people need to know how the entire company operates, but there is no need to replace them. We can also work together. Don't think about driving away all the ghosts." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile. , when Hutchison Whampoa was acquired, Chen Zhiwen arranged for some British ghosts to stay.

In the 1970s, many large Chinese companies in Hong Kong actually began to employ British people, including Li Jiacheng. As long as they had the ambition to go out of Hong Kong, these ghosts would have their value. Hutchison Whampoa's subsequent overseas ports, minerals, Many British people are currently in charge of the financial investment business. These people are more suitable than the Chinese for doing business with Western countries.

"Okay." Dong Youwei agreed.

"Now that the Hong Kong Telephone Company has certain decision-making power, I would like to make a few requirements for the subsequent development." Chen Zhiwen added.

As the mainland's global status improves, the biggest change in Hong Kong is naturally that the Chinese can get involved in basic services such as water, electricity, gas, public transportation, and telephones that were once only controlled by British capital. However, Hong Kong's public companies are Those that cannot be delisted, such as Hong Kong Electric, Kowloon Bus, telephone companies, etc. These companies that have monopolies in public services must remain listed.

"Chen Sheng, please speak." Dong Youwei said.

"First, although Hong Kong's wireline phone business still has room for growth, the upper limit is limited. Therefore, I need you to plan to cover the entire Hong Kong with wireless signals. Wireless calls are the future." Chen Zhiwen paused. After a pause, he added: "However, it does not require immediate full coverage. It is enough to expand step by step according to the normal business model, but it needs to be faster than before."

Previously, as a major shareholder, Chen Zhiwen once asked the Hong Kong Telephone Company to install wireless communication base stations in Hong Kong, but this issue has been debated for a long time. Later, after the installation, the signal was always very poor. In fact, it was because he was reluctant to invest, which was not a problem. Blame them, even in Europe and the United States, people today probably can’t imagine that in another ten years, various mobile phones will grow explosively, and civilian phones will be eliminated in an instant.

"Okay, no problem." Dong Youwei agreed. He had already guessed this matter. Even Lei Shengli's coming here might be related to this matter.

PS: Please vote for me (end of this chapter)