"The Morgan family also cares about the city of Hong Kong?" Chen Zhiwen asked, sensing something in Henry Morgan's words.
"Hong Kong is one of the most famous port cities in the world, and its economic value is very high. However, because it is located in a remote place, we have little ability to influence it. After all, every family and every company has its own sphere of influence. , it cannot be infinite." Henry Morgan continued: "But Hong Kong is also the most special port city, and I think you should know where the special place is."
"Inland?" Chen Zhiwen looked to the north of the window and pondered.
"Yes, this will be a very big market in the future, with a population of 1 billion. Although the current consumption capacity is still very limited, the future is unlimited. Last year, we did an agricultural machinery trade with the mainland, which amounted to tens of millions of dollars. And this is just the tip of the iceberg of mainland demand." Henry Morgan said with a smile.
"So you need an ally in Hong Kong?" Chen Zhiwen naturally understood what the other party meant.
"Yes, although the official transactions are through the Yanjing government to directly contact foreign institutions, we expect that this power will be decentralized soon in the future, and each local government will also have certain autonomy, but there is a high probability that they will To cooperate with foreign parties through Hong Kong, we actually also need people in Hong Kong to cooperate with us. Before coming to Hong Kong, I didn’t care about this matter, but in the past two days, through communication with Eric, I found out With more information, I think, maybe in the future, we can cooperate in more aspects, instead of just being limited to one arcade product." Henry Morgan said with a smile.
"Trading? My subsidiary Hutchison Whampoa has this business, maybe we can try it in the future." Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and said.
The re-opening was in 1978, but the international judgment actually appeared very early. In 1973, the second year of Nixon's visit to China, many international banking institutions came to Hong Kong to set up branches. Countries came here. The number of businessmen has also begun to increase significantly, which is obviously not the charm of Hong Kong.
At the same time, the mainland government has also begun to cooperate with foreign countries in many fields, including the introduction of equipment, the purchase of aircraft, a large number of agricultural and engineering vehicles, power generation equipment, fertilizers and other facilities. The mainland has also relaxed a lot in terms of entry. Everything shows that the real I can come back at any time, but only Chen Zhiwen knows the specific time.
"Trade is only the most direct aspect. In many other aspects, even our family cannot predict what new opportunities there will be, so the best way is to find a suitable partner in Hong Kong. This person needs to be in Hong Kong. has the strongest influence,” said Henry Morgan.
"In this case, it should be no problem. I also have my own development plan in Hong Kong." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said. He already understood what Henry Morgan meant. In the future, a large amount of foreign investment will need to enter the country through Hong Kong, and the Morgan family is expected to do the same.
And because the cultural perception is different from that in China, an intermediate partner is needed. This is also the most common mode of any business cooperation. The development of Red Bull and Midea in Europe and the United States also requires cooperation with local companies or even giving up shares. In the same way, Foreign capital developing in the country also wants to find local partners to ensure smooth investment. However, even large European and American consortiums are not clear about the domestic situation. Cooperation with Hong Kong capital, which is in the middle, is the best way.
As far as he knew, in the 1990s, the American daily chemical giant Procter & Gamble found Li Jiacheng when it was investing in China, and then established a joint venture with Hutchison Whampoa. P&G held 70% of the shares and Hutchison Whampoa held 30%. In fact, it was clearly stated that it was a gift of money. Hutchison Whampoa itself did not have a daily necessities business. However, due to its later joint venture with Procter & Gamble, it also had the opportunity to cultivate its own talents and resources, and finally established its own daily necessities company in Shanghai - —White Cat has also made this small brand the dish soap brand with the largest market share in the country.
There are many similar business investment cases, most of which were concentrated in the 1980s and 1990s. Many companies in Hong Kong benefited from this. After all, not every company can directly form joint ventures with state-owned enterprises like large automobile companies.
This was also the most glorious era of Hong Kong's economic development. It was not until the 2000s that the understanding between foreign capital and the mainland was basically clear, and Hong Kong was no longer needed as a springboard.
Twenty years of golden opportunity is actually enough. If you seize this opportunity, you can also use this opportunity to develop your own domestic resources and kill two birds with one stone.
"Very good, maybe we can have more cooperation in other fields." Henry Morgan said with a smile. He originally came to Hong Kong just for the game Snake. It was originally estimated that he would win the U.S. president of the arcade game for this game. Distribution rights may be able to earn tens of millions of dollars in profits. Although this amount of money is nothing to the entire Morgan family, for individuals, it is already a large sum of money.
But after seeing the Magic Cube and Chen Zhiwen's confidence in the future game industry, he realized that this might not be a quick buck, but a new industry chain that could last for a long time. If he could earn tens of millions of dollars a year, even if The Morgan family will also pay attention to it, and if he masters such an industrial chain, his status in the family will be greatly improved.
A brief understanding of Chen Zhiwen's achievements in Hong Kong gave him the idea of more comprehensive cooperation. Any powerful family relies on cooperation to form alliances. If they can reach a strategic partnership with local giants in Hong Kong, in the mainland in the future, perhaps There will also be a profit market that far exceeds that of arcade machines.
"Speaking of cooperation, I still have some overseas business that I just want to do. Some are in the United States, and some are in Indonesia, Australia, Canada and South Africa. Maybe I can entrust you, Henry, to take charge of this matter." Chen Zhiwen suddenly Said, Henry Morgan wants to cooperate with him in the future, but he can rely on him now.
"Oh, what kind of business?" asked Henry Morgan.
"My company, Hutchison Whampoa, was acquired. You should also know this. Before the acquisition, Hutchison Whampoa had invested in many overseas businesses, including a forestry company in Canada, a port in Indonesia, and a medium-sized port in Australia. There are iron ore mines, a four-star hotel in South Africa, and other smaller businesses, and I want to sell them all," Chen Zhiwen said.
"This is really messy." Henry Morgan couldn't help but frown.
"Yeah, it's a mess, I don't want to keep any of it." Chen Zhiwen said with an awkward smile.
Hutchison in Qi Dezun's era just wanted to invest in anything that could bring some profit, and its business spanned hundreds of categories. Unfortunately, this was the data that many Chinese investors liked to look at. The same was true for the Hong Kong swindler Chen Songqing's Jiani Group in later generations. There is so much business that they probably don’t even know about it.
Although there are many businesses in Hong Kong, most of them are still familiar, while overseas businesses are completely dependent on locals. After taking over Hutchison Whampoa, these businesses have become targets for sale. Hong Kong is more convenient. Both the buyer's understanding and the value of the business are probably under control, but there is no way overseas. In addition, the main focus recently is still on solving Hutchison Whampoa's debt problem through real estate, so I put it aside. .
Now that he has this member of the Morgan family with great hands and eyes, Chen Zhiwen naturally pushes the ball out. Even if the other party makes a fortune, he still has to clean up the overseas businesses of Hutchison Whampoa that are losing money but have no way to control.
"I don't have the ability to sell these businesses for you, but I know a company that specializes in handling this kind of business. You can give me this information and I will show it to them. They should be able to solve it, but they are also a bunch of hungry people. Wolf, even if I can solve your problem, I'm afraid you still have to pay some price." Henry Morgan said.
"No problem, you and I are willing, as long as the price is right." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, even if it is convenient for people with deep connections, even if they cannot solve many problems, they will always know people who have this ability.
After staying in Hong Kong for another day, Henry Morgan took his private jet to Japan. There must be other business, but Chen Zhiwen didn't ask or care.
Lei Shengli walked in with a smile on his face and said, "Sheng Chen, the 500 arcade machines to be transported by air are ready. Vitali also paid half of the funds according to the contract, a total of 625,000 US dollars. , the funds are still in Midea’s overseas account.”
Vitali is the name of Henry Morgan's distribution company in the United States, and Lei Shengli also established a good relationship with Henry Morgan's men in the past two days.
"If there is no shortage of cash in Hong Kong, we can put it overseas. It will be the same in the future. We need US dollars to purchase motherboards and color tubes." Chen Zhiwen said.
The main costs of an arcade machine are the motherboard and the arcade machine. The former comes from an electronics company in the United States, and the latter comes from Wanwan. These two account for 90% of the cost of the arcade machine. The rest is some wiring, sheet metal frames, etc. The U.S. dollars in overseas accounts can be used for payment at any time. Otherwise, you have to continuously exchange currency through banks in Hong Kong, and currency exchange also has handling fees. More importantly, if you have small funds, you can just exchange currency. When the arcade market explodes in the future, such a high turnover will definitely attract attention at HSBC. He doesn't want Shen Bi to know more about him.
Moreover, overseas accounts are also legal tax avoidance. Arcade machines produced in Hong Kong are sold to Midea companies registered in overseas duty-free paradises at very low profits per unit, and then sold to customers at high prices. This is also a common method used by many foreign trade companies. Countries The government generally has nothing to do about it because it is completely reasonable and legal.
"Okay, then should we increase production capacity first, or wait for overseas orders to come in before increasing it?" Lei Shengli then asked.
"Let's improve. With Henry Morgan's resources, we have the ability to expand channels in the United States. Channels are the easiest to expand in the early stage. Our orders must keep up, otherwise it will affect him in turn." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
As early as after obtaining Henry Morgan's identity, he quickly called his lawyer Ron in Los Angeles and arranged for him to investigate Henry Morgan's situation.
Although the Morgan family is low-key, it is not closed-door. It is obviously not difficult for a well-known lawyer to find the most basic information through several layers of relationships. After getting a positive answer and an introduction from Citibank, Chen Zhiwen Only then can I feel confident to cooperate with him. Besides, in the contract, the other party pays first, so there is no fear of huge losses.
"Okay, no problem, the factory's production capacity will be increased soon." Lei Shengli said.
"If the arcade business goes well, it will become Midea's biggest cash cow in the future, and we don't need to worry too much. Now what we need to consider is how to further improve our home appliance business." Chen Zhiwen continued: " How is the negotiation going with that Italian family with many guests?"
"In terms of legal matters, I have hired a local law firm to take charge. Based on their experience, Duomunaike is not a top company in the industry. It only has more than 600 workers. If we acquire it, the government will not interfere too much. As long as we promise not to lay off large-scale layoffs, the rest is a matter of price. We hired a third-party company to estimate the price at US$7.5 million, but the other boss asked for US$10 million, and we haven't reached an agreement yet," Lei Shengli replied.
"This company has no debt or anything?" Chen Zhiwen then asked.
"There are some, about 3 million US dollars. This company has a history of more than 50 years, and its customers are all suppliers of big-name European car companies. There is no big problem in terms of funds. In order to obtain a project from BMW last year, I invested We owe money to the bank for the new production line," Lei Shengli said.
"I remember you didn't say they were BMW's suppliers before, right?" Chen Zhiwen frowned and asked. If you had said it last time, he should have been impressed.
"They are indeed not. This project failed. It is said that it did not meet BMW's requirements. Millions of dollars were invested. Although the production line could be converted to other uses, the losses were still huge. It is also because of this that several of their shareholders were willing to For sale," Lei Shengli said.
"A production line that costs hundreds of dollars? Is it also making compressors?" Chen Zhiwen asked.
"It's not a compressor, it's a car air-conditioning and refrigeration assembly production line. Duomunaike tried to supply directly to the car company, and finally got a chance, but it failed in the end." Lei Shengli said.
"Should this kind of production line be universal, right? It can't be supplied to BMW, nor can it be supplied to Volkswagen?" Chen Zhiwen asked.
"Theoretically it should be possible, but I have also investigated that Volkswagen or other car brands, even if they are not as good as BMW, cannot enter just because they want to." Lei Shengli said.
"Yes, it's a pity." Chen Zhiwen said.
Lei Shengli said: "Actually, it's not a pity. If this big project hadn't failed, the other party wouldn't have thought about selling it."
"What if we move the production line to Hong Kong to supply Japanese cars?" Chen Zhiwen suddenly said.
Asking for monthly ticket
(End of chapter)
