"Yes, I also hope to cooperate with you Phil as soon as possible. This will be a perfect cooperation for both you and me." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
This sentence is absolutely sincere. Nike is now only a local company in the United States, with annual sales of only tens of millions of dollars. Adidas, which was founded in the 1920s, has long since become a global shoe giant. The United States 1/ 3 major football matches have been sponsored by Adidas, and the entire American sports shoe market has become the back garden of Adidas, a German brand.
In the United States, there are also some well-developed local brands that have been trying to seize their own market from European brands, but the difficulty is too high. In many cases, Japanese brands even seize their own market, including Nike. In the early days of development, it was through the distribution of Japanese sports shoe brands that it gained its first pot of gold.
Only Chen Zhiwen knows that this small company can achieve unimaginable achievements in the future. In the next ten years, Nike will become the largest footwear brand in the United States. In less than twenty years, it will be able to compete with Adidas. Competing in the global market, this is an incredible development speed for traditional shoe brands. Let Chen Zhiwen, who does not understand anything at all, operate it. Even if he earns a huge amount of money from other channels, he cannot do this.
For Nike, the cooperation with Chen Zhiwen is also beneficial and harmless.
First of all, Chen Zhiwen has strong capital strength and sufficient financial resources. This is an intangible asset for any small company. For example, if you are an ordinary mainland company in the future, your shareholder list includes Huawei, Tengxun or Alibaba. , then go to the bank for financing, and it is difficult for the bank to refuse.
The second is the bait that Chen Zhiwen initially threw, asking all the stars in Red Bull’s brand advertisements to wear Nike shoes and even Nike clothing in the future. This is a huge profit and risk-free deal for Nike. You must know Red Bull’s The advertisements are all placed on major TV stations in the United States, with tens of millions of users. Mass exposure will definitely bring a lot of publicity, and there is no cost.
The third problem is the production side. When small companies have limited human resources, outsourcing the production side is the simplest way. It’s just that it is very important to have a suitable supplier. If you choose the wrong company, you can directly override it. If you choose the right one, you can feel at ease. The development market can develop explosively.
It can be said that the rapid development of many well-known companies is actually due to the excellence of a large number of suppliers behind them, even in the automotive industry.
From a normal person's perspective, Chen Zhiwen's series of cooperation plans definitely saved Nike from its debt crisis.
"I hope so." Phil Knight nodded. He also quite recognized the plan provided by Chen Zhiwen for Nike, but the equity ratio required was too much. Nike has developed to the present and already has a large number of shareholders. Everything went well before, but this time After the first problem, the internal fighting between them became more serious. Now they are forced to introduce new shareholders. He also hopes to balance each other.
If you cannot achieve absolute control, you need to balance several major shareholders.
Another purpose is to create certain conflicts between the future major shareholder in Hong Kong and other shareholders in the United States, so that they may form a certain balance in the future.
"Phil, since you are in Hong Kong, you might as well take a look at the shoemaking technology in Hong Kong and give some advice. If we cooperate faster, a factory in Hong Kong may be built soon. Before that, I need your professional team to examine the status of the industrial chain and employee capacity issues in Hong Kong. If possible, better, if not, we must start to find ways to solve the problem from now on." Chen Zhiwen continued.
"Okay, this time I brought two people, one for technology and one for quality. They also have the experience to come and see the situation in Hong Kong." Phil Knight said.
"OK, I have arranged for people to contact several shoe factories here in Hong Kong. When the time comes, I will arrange people and cars to take you there." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile. After becoming the head of Hutchison, his status in Hong Kong has changed with that of It was different from the past. If you want to send someone to visit a factory, you can basically tell the other party and agree. With the influence of local chaebols in all aspects, ordinary small bosses will not idle around to find enemies for themselves.
Of course, there is a dedicated person to support Phil Knight and his group. Chen Zhiwen will not waste this time. Besides, he doesn't know anything about shoes, so there is no point in going there.
Although high-end manufacturing makes money, it is only after being able to use the world or a part of the world as a market that you can gain huge wealth and a high ZZ status. Before that, many of them require a lot of investment, research and development, marketing, etc.
For example, Midea's Home Appliances Division needs to invest heavily in research and development of related technologies. How many billions of dollars must be invested in a compressor to achieve very high results.
Although Red Bull does not require technology, it also needs to spend a lot of money to stabilize the market to ensure that other food or beverage giants will not dare to challenge after seeing Red Bull's investment. Even if they come up with similar products, they have to consider whether they can succeed. It really costs as much money as Red Bull, and even if it can, you have to consider whether it can make back the money.
Arcade machines or future games are exceptions. This is a real golden finger for prophets. However, Midea has invested too much in other technical products. It is difficult to become a big trend just relying on game funds. Therefore, real estate and finance, as financial Finger amplifiers naturally need to be reused.
Only by making enough money in real estate finance can you have stronger funds and resources to do technological research and development. The simplest thing is that in the future, if you sell a building in Central, Hong Kong, you can get tens of billions of Hong Kong dollars in cash. This may exceed the annual profits of many Fortune 500 companies. Using it to burn money and compete for the market can cause headaches for large companies like Samsung.
Naturally, when Red Bull, Midea, and Costco were all developing relatively smoothly, Chen Zhiwen's focus was on real estate.
In the Hilton Hotel, Chen Zhiwen's long-term suite, we welcomed several British ghosts, none other than John Swire, the current head of the Swire Group, and his two assistants.
"Hello, Mr. Shi Huaiya." Chen Zhiwen felt quite satisfied when he saw this skinny and skinny fifth-generation head of the Swire family.
"Hello, Chen Sheng. Chen Sheng's reputation has been well known during this period." Shi Huaiya nodded and said loudly.
"Please take a seat." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile. The head of the Taikoo family in front of him was actually John Swire. However, in order to integrate into Hong Kong society, he added the word "Shi" in front of his name to facilitate the recognition of the Chinese society in Hong Kong. assimilate into.
Whether it is sincere or fake, or simply for business, among the four major foreign companies, the Swire Group is relatively friendly to the Chinese. After the reform and opening up in a few years, the Swire Group's attitude towards the mainland will also be considered Not bad.
"I just remembered that this hotel is also owned by Chen Sheng, right?" Shi Huaiya looked around and said suddenly.
"It's just in name only. I can't officially take over after 35 years." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile. Basically, all the big real estate developers in Hong Kong know about the strong lease contract between Hilton Hotel Group and the former property owner of this land, especially Land. This kind of owner likes to build a building in Central. If he had the opportunity, he would have done it long ago. He had to give up because it was not cost-effective. However, no one could have imagined that in a few years, the house prices in Central would increase several times. By then, the so-called "huge liquidated damages" will not be worth mentioning in the face of land prices.
"The business of this hotel is pretty good, just paying dividends is enough." Shi Huaiya said: "When I heard that the Hilton hotel property was acquired a few years ago, I was quite surprised. That was also the first time I heard that Chen Mr. Chen’s name, I didn’t expect that two years later, Mr. Chen actually acquired Hutchison International. It was incredible. I had heard of many young business geniuses, but Mr. Chen was like this. This was the first time. To use an idiom in Chinese, It’s absolutely unprecedented and unprecedented.”
"Excellent. In addition to basic abilities, what's more important is courage." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile. Knowing the future situation, he would naturally have the courage to perform leverage operations. Otherwise, a normal person, even if Even a man like Li Jiacheng, who was very visionary and extremely speculative, might not have dared to acquire Hutchison, which was heavily in debt, in 1975.
"The Swire Group and Hutchison have had a lot of cooperation in the past, and I hope that Hutchison can continue to cooperate with us." Swire nodded.
"No problem, United Dockyard Group is still operating normally, and I won't make any changes." Chen Zhiwen said.
Hong Kong United Dockyard Group was formed in 1972 by the merger of Hong Kong Whampoa Dockyard and Taikoo Dockyard and Machinery Co., Ltd. It is mainly engaged in marine engineering, port salvage, tugboats and related services. It is located in the northwest of Tsing Yi Island, New Territories, with an area of 100,000 square meters. The geographical location is strategic, close to the Kwai Chung Container Terminal. If we wait another twenty years, an international airport will be built nearby.
The original reason for the merger was due to the increasingly severe competition between the two. As a result, neither company made any money. After more than ten years of shopping, Hutchison and Swire One took advantage of the relocation of the Hong Kong Terminal to discuss whether the two could merge. , won’t it be a monopoly in the future?
Chen Zhiwen doesn't care at all about commercial monopolies that are not necessary for society. The more such monopoly businesses, the better.
"That's good. The current Kwai Chung Pier is a gathering place for wealth. Our two families are far inferior to Yihe in terms of financial resources. We should stop all kinds of internal friction and concentrate on gaining the benefits of this area." Shi Huaiya smiled. said.
"Is the Swire Group interested in acquiring the No. 5 berth in Kwai Chung that will be launched next year?" Chen Zhiwen immediately understood what the old man meant.
"Yes, in the previous No. 4 berth, Qi Dezun's Hutchison and Taikoo were at too much internal friction. In the end, although Qi Dezun won, he spent hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars more, and Hutchison became what it became later. This matter is more or less responsible. Some connections, now, Chen Sheng is in charge of Hutchison Whampoa Group, and the construction of berth No. 4 also requires huge funds. I think there is no need for you and me to have a bloody encounter on berth No. 5, right?" Shi Huaiya Said with a slight smile.
"Even if Hutchison does not participate, Yihe will not give up, right?" Chen Zhiwen asked.
"The layout of Jardine Matheson's port business relies on Wharf, but a Harbor City project has made Wharf as debt-ridden as Hutchison. If it hadn't been for Land's help, I'm afraid it would have been the second Hutchison." Schweizer smiled. Said: "And there is some news. It doesn't matter if I tell you. Sooner or later, you will know that Jardine has suffered a lot of losses in its overseas investments, and it is estimated that it is powerless to invest in berth No. 5."
"This is good news." Chen Zhiwen smiled. As time went by, Jardine Group also began to fall into a huge crisis. The original budget of Harbor City, a super shopping mall, was HK$1 billion, which was already more than Wharf at that time. market value.
Harbor City is located on the Kowloon Peninsula. Although it is opposite Central, no one knows whether this large-scale project will succeed. Therefore, banks are also very conservative about this project. If Harbor City itself cannot be used for borrowing, even if the Wharf Even if it is all mortgaged, it will not be enough to cover the construction cost of Harbor City.
Even if Land can help, it can't help too much. To be able to hold so many buildings in Central, Land relies on extreme mortgages to operate. In addition, the acquisition of Milk International has made Land's stock reputation bad.
Therefore, in order to raise funds, Wharf could only slowly build Harbor City, relying on annual profits to gradually invest. The other was to raise shares in the stock market. Galaxy Securities was able to secretly acquire 18.7% of Wharf in the first two years. In addition to the long deployment time, Wharf's own multiple external expansion financing is also one of the main reasons for the stocks not being discovered.
As for overseas investment, in recent decades, Jardine Matheson Group has been adhering to the strategy of making money in Hong Kong and investing overseas. However, starting in 1973, Hong Kong's economy fell into a sharp decline, and the entire Jardine Matheson Group's business capabilities in Hong Kong were also severely damaged. The oil crisis also caused Jardine Matheson's overseas investments to suffer serious losses. However, the three major companies of Jardine Land and Wharf have strong enough foundations to persist for a long time.
But in 1978, the end of the war was reached. In the past, Wharf stocks were attacked by Li Jiacheng, and they could only find HSBC to act as a peacemaker. It was not until 1980 that Hong Kong's land prices recovered, and they were able to confront the charter king head-on. But in the end Still lost.
Now that Yihe is getting weaker and weaker, it is also good news for him. He is also in a relatively "weak period" at present. Wait two or three years for his various industries to become stronger. If Yihe is weaker, it will be his influence on Kowloon. It's time for Cang to take action, maybe he can even take a piece of meat from Land.
"So, Hutchison Whampoa will not participate in the bidding for the No. 5 berth terminal?" Shi Huaiya looked at Chen Zhiwen and said.
"That's not the case. I still have some funds overseas. Berth 5 is still very good. If Hutchison Whampoa can win berth 5 and connect it with berth 4, the cost of operation can be reduced a lot. ." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
How much money he has overseas has always been a question in Hong Kong society. This is actually Chen Zhiwen's intention to keep everything mysterious. This may be to imitate Chen Songqing, a Hong Kong swindler in the next few years.
This Chen Songqing is a real boss. As long as he remains mysterious, he can get unlimited loans from all banks. In the non-Internet era where information cannot be shared, he can demolish one wall to make up for the other. HSBC is also attracted by him. He defrauded 300 million Hong Kong dollars, and Singapore's Yumin Bank was defrauded of hundreds of millions of dollars. At that time, the entire Hong Kong society was played by him and applauded. If the real estate crisis hadn't broken out in 1982, who would have discovered it?
As long as the Hong Kong market cannot see through Chen Zhiwen, there is a lot of room for maneuver. Especially unlike Chen Songqing, Red Bull is a company with real profits. Although the Hong Kong market does not know the advertising and marketing costs of Red Bull, plus A credit certificate of US$100 million from Citibank calmed Shen Bi. HSBC even acquiesced. Who in the outside world could doubt it?
As long as this is maintained, benefits can be maximized in many aspects, and Chen Zhiwen does not need to worry about cheating, because if nothing happens, in a year or two, he will really have amazing overseas financial resources.
"Sheng Chen, let's be honest. What conditions do you need before you are willing to give up this dock?" Shi Huaiya asked directly.
"Then it depends on what kind of sincerity Swire can give?" Chen Zhiwen said with a faint smile.
"I know that Chen Sheng wants my piece of land in Admiralty. I can make the decision and give it to you at a 10% discount. How about it?" Shi Huaiya said.
"A 10% discount is only a few million Hong Kong dollars. This amount of money is far less than a pier." Chen Zhiwen shook his head and said.
With the current situation of Hutchison Whampoa, it is indeed not suitable to spend huge sums of money to bid for berth No. 5. Although his plan for Hutchison Whampoa also includes port layout, and the No. 5 berth terminal is also very good, the most important thing at present is to transfer Hutchison Whampoa's debt. Return to normal, and then use its resources to develop rapidly. As long as it develops well, the small investment now can get several times the number of No. 5 berths in the future, or it will be able to compete for the remaining No. 6,789 berths in the future.
But if you don’t want it, others don’t know it. Since Taikoo wants something from you, he naturally wants to maximize his interests.
"A few million is already a lot, Chen Sheng, you just don't participate in the bidding. There are more than a dozen companies in Hong Kong and overseas that have the ability to bid. I can't give each of them a few million." Shi Huaiya frowned. said.
PS: Full-scale updates will begin on March 1st. Please ask for monthly votes this month and see if you can raise 1,000 monthly votes for the author to draw a prize!
(End of chapter)
