"Hutchison International Group?" Zhou Jiayang was shocked. He recalled Hutchison's recent situation and asked incredulously: "Sheng Chen, do you want to acquire Hutchison Group?"
"We have this plan." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said: "Hutchison has now become a penny stock, and its market value has dropped by nearly 95%. It is the best time for us to make a move."
"This risk is too great, Chen Sheng, I suggest you consider it." Zhou Jiayang suggested.
Hutchison's stock is not worth much, but the company is currently in its worst period, with various liabilities and management in disarray. It can be said that it is impossible to save it. It is currently struggling to survive. The market even predicts that Hutchison will not be able to survive. Six months.
"No need, just do what I do. Hutchison's market value is only over 400 million now, and it doesn't cost much to acquire some stocks." Chen Zhiwen said: "As for what to do after the acquisition, I have my own ideas, and so It is still very difficult to acquire large companies.”
Seeing that the boss had made up his mind, Zhou Jiayang could only ask: "Is it still the same as Wharf to acquire it slowly?"
Chen Zhiwen shook his head and said: "No, Hutchison's situation will not give us a long time, but no one wants Hutchison's stock now. Even if we acquire it faster, it will not be easy for the market to discover it. I hope you can get it within half a year." Acquire 30% of the shares within time.”
"30%?" Zhou Jiayang thought for a moment and said, "Okay, Chen Sheng, I will go all out."
Chen Zhiwen added: "The funding for this matter is the same as that of Wharf. Use my overseas funds and don't let anyone know about it, at least in the early stages."
I made a lot of money during the oil crisis by speculating on oil derivatives. Part of it was acquired by Fedmart and invested in Costco, part of it was invested in Wal-Mart, part of it was used on Red Bull and Midea, and the rest was mainly used in Kowloon. On top of the warehouse acquisition, there is really not much left. Except for the funds invested in Wal-Mart and re-loaned through Citibank, the rest are all real investments. If he hadn't used leverage to the extreme in real estate investment in Hong Kong, his funds would have dried up long ago. Now the last sum is basically spent on Hutchison Whampoa stocks.
Fortunately, Red Bull's sales are growing very fast and its profit margins are also high. Although Wal-Mart's stock has been mortgaged, because of Wal-Mart's performance, the stock price has risen very sharply, and its mortgage amount has also increased significantly. Anyone can become a source of additional funds, coupled with great confidence in arcade machines and the recovery of the real estate market in the future, these four things are the capital for him to prepare to arm-wrestle with Hong Kong bosses.
After all, the previous acquisition of the Hilton hotel property in Central was just a small test, and the name Chen Zhiwen was only familiar to Hong Kong big guys. But when Chen Zhiwen really takes action on Hutchison Group, no matter what the result is, whether it is a real acquisition or not Success, just becoming the majority shareholder of Hutchison is enough to become famous in Hong Kong.
"No problem." Zhou Jiayang nodded and said: "It's just, Chen Sheng, Hutchison's current situation, as long as we have enough funds, we can acquire it, but it itself is a super bomb. You must have this on your side." preparations. '
"Don't worry, I have my own plan." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.
After discussing some industrial real estate investments, Zhou Jiayang also left the office.
Chen Zhiwen glanced at the Hutchison Building in the distance and was filled with emotion. He had stayed in Hong Kong for two and a half years and prepared for two and a half years, and now he was ready to attack British capital.
Of course, you have to pick the soft persimmon. Although Hutchison and Jardine are both one of the four major foreign banks in Hong Kong, the gap between them is huge.
The two core assets of the Jardine Matheson Group are Land and Wharf. One controls more than a dozen skyscrapers in Central, and the other controls a large amount of undeveloped land in prime locations in Hong Kong. Although there are certain liabilities, rent collection in Central is really difficult. It was so fragrant that it was basically invincible forever. Only two years later, several large-scale projects invested by Jardine overseas suffered terrible losses, and Land's profits in Hong Kong for many years were consumed, and the profits began to disappear.
As for Hutchison Group, it started to go bankrupt last year. During the previous cycle of good real estate and stock market development, Hutchison's senior manager Qi Dezun made a large number of investment acquisitions in order to expand Hutchison's scale. In just a few years, Hutchison Group's It controls more than 360 companies and more than 26 listed companies, which has also brought huge liabilities to Hutchison.
When the economy is good, the bigger the scale, the higher the stock price, and then use the stock price as collateral to obtain funds to acquire investment, then increase the stock price, mortgage again, endless nesting of dolls, Qi Dezun uses this very common trick, and Chen Songqing will do it a few years later. It will be the same.
However, once this kind of operation encounters an economic crisis and the stock price plummets, the collateral in the bank will be insufficient, and the bank will require additional collateral or repay the loan for risk control.
However, given the strength of Hutchison Group, although the stock price fell, the loan was still repaid normally, so the bank still did not press for payment, and everything was as normal.
But as everyone knows, Qi Dezun has been overdrafting Hutchison's profits to repay the loan. In order to maintain the stock price, he even sold some real estate, included it in the net profit of the listed company, and then distributed dividends to shareholders. This kind of operation of drinking poison to quench thirst made Hutchison in early 1973 After the economic crisis, we persisted for more than a year.
Qi Dezun's logic is very simple. He knows that the entire company is suffering serious losses, so he insists on waiting for the economic crisis to pass. As long as the economic crisis passes and the stock price rises, the value of his collateral will increase and all problems will be solved. This logic is still the same as that of a few years ago. Same as Chen Songqing later.
It's just a pity that after waiting for a year and a half, the stock market has not recovered and has hit the bottom. Hutchison Group had previously received a loan from the Bank of Sweden, and the currency was the Swedish franc. However, the value of the Swedish franc suddenly rose sharply. Hutchison Group suffered from foreign exchange fluctuations. The loss exceeded 150 million. .
This incident became the straw that broke the camel's back. Hutchison's stock price fell to the bottom. From a market value of nearly HK$7 billion in early 1973, it fell to HK$400 million in December 1974. I don’t know how many investors didn’t die last year, but died on Hutchison’s stocks this year.
In the next year, that is, 1975, Hutchison relied on its too-big-to-fail characteristics to hold on, and the banks did not dare to be too intimidating, otherwise the bank would be ruined if it failed. However, after persisting for more than half a year, Qi Dezun was still unable to turn around, and was eventually forcibly taken over by HSBC. After that, it was a story familiar to countless people in later generations. Li Jiacheng took over Hutchison Whampoa from HSBC in 1979.
In this life, although Chen Zhiwen had already planned to acquire Wharf, the first one to actually take action must be Hutchison Group. Of course, he has to pick the weak ones. Moreover, the most troublesome thing in this matter is not the stock market, but the debt problem. It is actually not difficult to acquire Hutchison's shares. Even if it is exposed, it can be solved by spending a little more money. However, the debt problem is very troublesome. Hutchison's debt is as high as 1.5 billion Hong Kong dollars, and the debt owed by its listed companies is not included.
But this is also a problem after the acquisition. If you get the acquisition first, as long as you can prove your ability to manage Hutchison, the major banks can only acquiesce in this matter. This is why Chen Zhiwen has been trying to build a good relationship with HSBC.
In Hong Kong, doing business is really inseparable from the support of HSBC, except of course for industries with huge profits.
(End of chapter)
