"Breaking news, Hutchison Indonesia Port has been taken back by the government. Hundreds of millions of investments have been lost. Come and take a look?" In a newsstand not far away from Hutchison Building, the owner of the newsstand saw someone heading in the direction of Hutchison Building. He walked over and immediately waved his horn and shouted.
"What?" Several people not far away stopped in their tracks when they heard the voice from the loudspeaker. They looked at the newsstand next to them in disbelief, and then immediately ran over.
Several people arrived almost at the same time, and one person asked: "Boss, which newspaper?"
"Here is the news paper." The newsstand owner is also a smart man. After seeing the contents of the news paper last night, he immediately knew that it would definitely become a headline, so he came over early in the morning and placed the news paper in the most conspicuous position.
"Let me take a look." Several people couldn't help but pick it up and look through it.
"Hey, it's 50 cents a piece. If you all read this, how can I still do business?" The newsstand owner quickly pressed down the newspaper.
The few people present were considered middle-class, and they were not reluctant to buy a newspaper, so they each took out the money from their pockets and wallets. After paying, they immediately walked nearby to make room for the buyers behind them. .
"This newspaper reported that the Ganbaru Port in Indonesia was an important project presumed by the Indonesian government in 1972. The bidder was the Hong Kong-based Hutchison Group. However, due to the global oil crisis, Hutchison applied for an extension to the Ganbaru Port project last year, and the Indonesian government agreed. It was postponed for half a year. However, one year and two months later, the port project has still not started, causing demonstrations by related workers and lawsuits by suppliers demanding payment. The Indonesian government has also discussed with Hutchison many times, but no substantial progress has been made. Due to It is noted that the port project has not been started for a long time, and the Indonesian government is about to take back the entire project."
The newspaper said it very euphemistically, but professionals would know at a glance that a huge contradiction must have formed. Otherwise, the Indonesian government would not forcefully take back the port. For a government, if there is insufficient reason to confiscate the investment, assets, which is tantamount to eliminating all overseas investments.
After a while, several people who had just finished reading the newspaper walked to the newsstand and said, "Boss, please use the phone."
"One yuan a minute?" the boss said with a smile while squinting his eyes.
"What? Why is it so expensive? Didn't it cost 50 cents in the past?" the visitor asked immediately.
"Then you go to the phone booth and call, it's fifty cents over there," the boss said.
"Hurry up, if you don't want to hit me, I will." The person behind urged.
"Okay, okay, I'll call." The person who came didn't waste any more nonsense. He dialed the phone directly and said immediately: "Lao Zhang, I, Xiao Wu, will sell Hutchison shares immediately after the market opens. Don't worry about the previous purchase price. Hurry up and sell it, listen to me, Hutchison has lost hundreds of millions on a port project in Indonesia, the news has been revealed, hurry up."
After saying that, he hung up the phone, paid 2 yuan, looked at his watch, turned around and trotted towards Hutchison Building.
Several people in the queue at the back also couldn't wait to get through the phone call, and what they said was almost the same. After hanging up the phone, they immediately went to Hutchison Building.
The newsstand owner looked at the group of people in front of him with a smile. Hutchison Building is not only the headquarters of Hutchison Group, but also the seat of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Hutchison Group has had such a big incident overseas, which is the most affected or the most important. In fact, it was not Hutchison employees who were responsible for the incident, but the countless shareholders.
This is true for Hutchison Group shareholders and other shareholders. Many of the people who called back here asked their friends or colleagues to sell the market stocks immediately. They were also afraid that if a big problem happened to Hutchison, it would definitely cause a chain of events. Affect the entire market.
Just when many newsstand owners were happy that they had made a small sum of money today, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange opened normally and immediately ushered in an unprecedented sell-off. Hundreds of thousands of Hutchison shares were listed for sale, and the stock price also fell within 15 minutes. Within a period of time, the price dropped by 3 feet continuously, from the peak of 5.1 yuan to 4.4 yuan.
Some traders were already well prepared, but they were still busy with their work. All kinds of phones kept ringing, and the entire stock exchange was as lively as a vegetable market.
The stock exchange is on the bottom five floors of the Hutchison Building, and the top of the Hutchison Building is the office building of the Hutchison Group.
"We have just received the notice from the Indonesian branch. Why did the media find out so quickly?" Qi Dezun, the senior manager of Hutchison Group, yelled angrily.
He took the initiative to promote the Indonesian project three years ago. At that time, Hutchison was at its peak. It had acquired hundreds of companies in Hong Kong, owned two berths and a large number of real estate properties, but the competition was limited to one basket. There were too many opponents. Qi Dezun decided to go overseas to make money like Yihe, so after some selection, he chose this terminal in Indonesia.
Although Indonesia is not an industrial country, its annual agricultural exports are very large, and its demand for imports is also huge. At the same time, after the 1970s, Indonesia focused on developing mining and forestry, and the previous terminals could no longer keep up with the demand.
It took half of the time for the two parties to reach an agreement. Qi Dezun was also high-spirited and prepared to take Hutchison to the top. However, he did not expect that a severe real estate crisis broke out in his hometown in Hong Kong, and the subsequent global oil crisis put the entire Hutchison into a serious crisis. .
There is actually no problem with the Ganbaru Port project in Indonesia, but Hutchison's capital chain is broken and banks are unwilling to lend money. Naturally, it cannot continue without money. Originally, it wanted to wait for the economic recovery in Hong Kong, but the bank's decision on Hutchison Once confidence is restored, the Indonesian port project will naturally resume normally, but the Indonesian government cannot wait. After several communications, Qi Dezun also knew that there was no way to continue, so he began to prepare to sell the Indonesian port project. However, he did not expect that the cooperation would not work. The Indonesian government immediately turned its back and wanted to take back the port. Hutchison's top management was also in a hurry. Before they could think of how to deal with it, the Hong Kong side was actually exposed by the media.
In the conference room, a group of ghosts looked at each other, and no one knew what to say. After a while, Hutchison Vice President Richard said: "Chairman, it is useless to ask these questions now. The newspaper has already exposed it. Our The stock has fallen by 15% and may fall further in the afternoon. HSBC and Standard Chartered have already called to inquire about the situation. The rest of the banks are expected to be the same. Our first thing now is to stabilize these banks, otherwise ,The consequences could be disastrous."
"Yes, what do you think?" Facing this powerful and loyal deputy, Qi Dezun was still very considerate and sat down quietly.
(End of chapter)
