"Has Land followed up? Bought five properties in Central at once?" Chen Zhiwen looked at the information sent and said in surprise.
"Yes, judging from the situation, it seems that Land is determined to fight us to the end." Zhou Jiayang said.
"It's interesting. I originally thought Landmark would give in, but I didn't expect them to follow suit." Chen Zhiwen was a little surprised. You know, in the original history of 1978, Li Jiacheng raided Wharf, and the huge Jardine Group did not They were willing to go head-to-head with Cheung Kong Holdings, which had a market value of only HK$500 million, but instead found Shen Bi of HSBC to mediate.
If Li Jiacheng dared to play like this five years ago, his backhand would have been beaten to death by Yihe.
This is enough to show the difference in the financial situation of Jardine at that time. Although it is still a year and a half away from 1978, Chen Zhiwen estimates that Jardine should also be in trouble now. After all, the land price in Hong Kong in 1978 was It is far more than what it is now. With Land's huge real estate allocation in Hong Kong, this increase in house prices alone is a huge credit figure.
"In this case, we can only spend money together." Zhou Jiayang paused and said. Controlling the retail market in Hong Kong was one of the core businesses that Chen Zhiwen set for Hutchison Whampoa. After controlling the retail market in Hong Kong, he can Leverage this platform, experience and the cheap and high-quality supply chain brought by the US retail market to enter other Southeast Asian markets. The importance of Parknshop Supermarket can be imagined.
"Then just spend money. I want to see how much money Yihe is willing to pay for this Wellcome Supermarket?" Chen Zhiwen nodded and said. Although the current funds are very important, they will not be used for the time being in the next two years. Invest the funds in actual real estate projects first. When funds are really needed in the future, these properties that have appreciated in value with the rise of the real estate market can also be used. Used to secure loans and even lend out more funds.
The only disadvantage is that competing with Jardine for shops now will definitely increase the acquisition cost, but no matter how much it increases, it cannot compare with the doubling growth of the real estate market. It is relatively cost-effective, not to mention that it can control Hong Kong's The retail market.
"If the Jardines Department consumes too much money in the retail market, then when we forcibly acquire Wharf in the future, the pressure may be much less." Zhou Jiayang said suddenly.
"I also have this idea, but I want to play bigger." Chen Zhiwen continued: "I want to acquire Land shares on the stock market."
"Acquisition of real estate?" Zhou Jiayang almost shouted in surprise.
"It's not about acquiring Land, it's about acquiring Land's shares." Chen Zhiwen shook his head and said: "With the current scale of Land and our financial resources, it is impossible for the acquisition to be successful, but acquiring some shares is not a problem at all."
Chen Zhiwen's history is different, but under his long-term layout in the early years, it is not difficult to acquire Wharf. The difference is that he may have to go head-to-head with Jardine and spend more money.
Relatively speaking, Chen Zhiwen felt that if Yihe also approached Shen Bi of HSBC to deal with it, and he would not give him face, he might also be at odds with HSBC.
Before, Chen Zhiwen had never thought of spending funds on Land, because at that time his main targets were Hutchison and Wharf, especially Hutchison, which was still heavily in debt.
However, with the current cooperation process between Hutchison Whampoa and Chinese real estate companies, they have begun to get rid of the problem of capital chain collapse, coupled with the success of large-scale weight loss and the rise of the Hong Kong real estate market. Although Hutchison Whampoa's scale is smaller, it is still maintaining its foundation. Under such circumstances, the debt problem has been successfully solved. Once the first phase of Huangpu Garden is pre-sold, the entire Hutchison Whampoa's funds will completely improve, except for PARKnSHOP, which needs to spend money with Jardine to grab the market.
Several other overseas businesses are also developing smoothly, especially Midea's arcade machines, which will continue to bring a large amount of funds to Hong Kong. Magic Cubes is now popular in the United States, and a large number of orders have been placed in Hong Kong factories. Although Snake The United States is beginning to be squeezed, but there is demand in Europe, Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia and even South America. Maybe these countries are small or poor, but the advantage is that they are large in quantity. The combined orders are no worse than those in the United States.
At the same time, I also have a good history of cooperation with Citibank. It is not difficult to obtain certain funds. Thirdly, you can get loans from Morgan Bank, although there may be certain pitfalls in it.
At present, Chen Zhiwen is really not short of money. He has some funds and credit lines. In this case, he naturally needs to invest. The real estate market in Hong Kong is a good choice. Before 1981, he could basically cash out at any time, but other than that In addition, Land's stock is actually proportional to the Hong Kong market. After all, Land's main assets are the dozen or so buildings on Hong Kong Island, and now it also has a large amount of land owned by the dairy company. As for other things, even the current retail , it’s just a drop in the bucket. It really allows Wellcome Supermarket to monopolize Hong Kong’s retail sales, and maybe it can also account for a few percentage points in the land scale.
"Then we acquire Land shares just for investment?" Zhou Jiayang asked.
"Investment is part of it, and the other is putting pressure on the Jardine Group." Chen Zhiwen smiled and said, "Do you know how many Land shares Jardine holds?"
"I heard it is around 20%. Jardine does not hold it directly, but indirectly controls it through many methods. No one knows the specific amount," Zhou Jiayang replied.
"In fact, there is no 20% at all. Although Land did not spend a penny to acquire Milk, it also issued a large number of new shares. This has diluted Jardine's holding of Land, and not to mention Jardine, the entire British stock market in Hong Kong Capital and control over the equity of its own companies are not high, which is the traditional habit of Western companies." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
For a company that has been developed for hundreds of years and spans several generations, it is difficult to maintain a high shareholding ratio of the controlling family for a long time, even among Chinese-owned enterprises. Not to mention other things, if only a few children share the inheritance, the equity will inevitably be diluted. , after three generations, it is very rare for one person to hold 10%.
Only the current Chinese-owned companies in Hong Kong are in the process of being started by the first generation of founders. Their respective ownership ratios are very high. In addition, the geniuses who can be involved in entrepreneurship are all business experts. With the help of historical development opportunities, naturally Able to surpass British capital in reverse.
The Jardines Group used to belong to the Keswick family. This family has a long history and has fairly good control over the major companies in the Jardines Group. However, when Land purchased Dairy Milk, it had no choice but to dilute its share capital on a large scale because it did not want to spend money. .
Originally this was not a problem, as long as we could find a way to repurchase the shares later when the stock price was low. However, the Hong Kong real estate crisis in 1973 and the global oil crisis severely hit Jardine Matheson's investment in Hong Kong and internationally. The result is that for a long time, Jardine's self-owned equity has reached a very dangerous level.
Especially Wharf, in order to increase capital and obtain funds to build Wharf, it released several times its secondary market shares within a few years. This is why Chen Zhiwen was able to steadily acquire Wharf stocks without being discovered. Land is not much better. Jardine's equity in Land has been around 10% since the merger of Milk. Maybe Hutchison's acquisition will alert them, but with little money, it is difficult to change no matter how much you want to change. After all, For example, to increase investment in real estate, it requires almost 1 billion Hong Kong dollars in capital.
"That is to say, if we also acquire 10% of the stock, the entire Jardine Group will have to be on high alert, and all their funds will be in trouble, because they have to prevent us from actually making an acquisition. Zhou Jiayang nodded and said.
"Yes, this is a good investment in itself. In addition, it may have a greater effect when acquiring Wharf." Chen Zhiwen said: "But you don't have so much funds here, so you can make appropriate acquisitions. Over there, the main force, I transferred money back from overseas."
"Okay, I understand. As long as the funds are in place, I will arrange to start absorbing Land's shares." Zhou Jiayang continued: "One more thing, Chen Sheng, Duoli has already contacted several people from Yingni The shareholders contacted us and acquired about 18% of the shares. In addition to the shares we purchased in the secondary market, we already have about 25% of the shares of Qingzhou Yingni, which has exceeded the share of the Qingzhou Yingni holding family. , the meaning of profit is that if we are not in a hurry, we will continue to acquire slowly, but it will also be easily discovered by the board of directors of Qingzhou Yingni. If we are in a hurry, we will directly announce the acquisition plan, spend more funds, and directly Public acquisition, so that the purpose can be achieved in the shortest possible time.”
(End of chapter)
