"Dis Avita? What is the profitable general manager doing with me?" Chen Zhiwen said a little strangely.
Assistant An Qi replied: "Maybe it's because Jardine Matheson wants to acquire Wheelock, and HSBC can't sit still and wants us to intervene."
"You know quite a lot, right?" Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
"You can always learn a lot by following the boss." An Qi said with a smile.
"Okay, let him come over tomorrow." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said. Regarding Wheelock, he knew that HSBC would never sit back and watch Jardine Matheson annex Wheelock. In the original history, when Jardine Matheson was preparing to acquire Wheelock, HSBC arranged for Hutchison Bank to be acquired by him. The group intervened, but now that Hutchison Whampoa belongs to Chen Zhiwen, HSBC lacks a sharp sword in its hands.
And if you can still find yourself, that's your opportunity. But if you want Hutchison to try to acquire Wheelock like later generations, HSBC will definitely not agree. We can only wait and see after meeting.
The next day, Dis came to Hutchison Building in a low-key manner.
Chen Zhiwen is still very considerate to the person in charge of making many profits. He may need to cooperate with him in the future. After all, there are still many high-quality assets in Hong Kong, especially some British-funded companies that have been around for hundreds of years. It's said to be fat and oily.
"Hello, Mr. Chen." Dis said to Chen Zhiwen in very good Cantonese. Basically, none of the British ghosts who have been around in Hong Kong for a long time can't speak Cantonese. This can be said to be a basic condition, even for making money. If you can't learn the language, then you don't deserve to make this money.
"Hello, Mr. Dis, please sit down." Chen Zhiwen greeted with a smile.
"Mr. Dis, what are you drinking?" asked An Qi on the side.
"Just tea, thank you." Dis said politely.
"Me too." Chen Zhiwen said.
An Qi then left, and Dis said: "Sheng Chen, Mr. Shen Bi asked me to bring you a message. He should have come to meet with you in person to discuss this matter, but because the market is now in a special period, it is not convenient for him to do so in person. Come out and meet you.”
"Understood, HSBC is also a director of Jardine Matheson. It is indeed inconvenient." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said. Large companies in Hong Kong have the habit of asking each other to be their directors. For example, HSBC Jardine is a shareholder of each other, and the former Hemason The same is true for China Power and Swire. Even more than ten years later, Chinese consortiums will have this habit when they control Hong Kong.
The most fundamental purpose of this is actually to enable better cooperation to a large extent, or to avoid unnecessary vicious competition.
"Yes, Huduoli has just assisted Hutchison Whampoa to acquire Yingni. It's normal for me to appear in Hutchison Building. Even if people at Jardine are suspicious, they have nothing to say." Dis said with a smile.
"I don't know, what does HSBC want me to do?" Chen Zhiwen asked.
"It's nothing. I heard that Chen Sheng's Parknshop Supermarket has a certain conflict with Wellcome Supermarket, a subsidiary of China Land, so this time, on behalf of HSBC, I can provide Chen Sheng with a certain amount of preferential interest rate loans." Dis said with a smile.
"No problem, as long as the interest rate is in place, I am happy to have a good time with Land." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
After the oil crisis, serious inflation occurred in countries around the world. In order to suppress inflation and prevent an economic crisis like 1929, the U.S. Federal Reserve continued to raise interest rates. Today, the benchmark interest rate has reached as high as 7 points, which means, If the money is deposited in a U.S. bank, the annual interest rate is 7%.
Raising interest rates is a way for the United States to harvest other countries, and the same will be true in 2022. When interest rates in the United States are high, funds from all countries will flow to the United States. If the control is not good, ordinary countries, and even smaller developed countries, will Foreign exchange may be exhausted. In order to prevent this situation, countries must also raise interest rates accordingly.
The same is true for Hong Kong. If the Hong Kong dollar does not raise interest rates, a large amount of Hong Kong dollars will definitely be converted into U.S. dollars and left to enjoy high interest rates in the United States.
When deposit interest rates are high, loan interest rates are naturally higher. In recent years, in addition to higher-profit real estate, other real industries and even service industries have struggled, and financing costs have been too high.
If you can get a preferential interest rate, that is a very high advantage.
"We can provide 7.2% interest. I wonder how much money Chen Sheng needs?" Dis asked.
"How about 1 billion Hong Kong dollars?" Chen Zhiwen said calmly.
"One billion?" Dis was stunned for a moment and said, "Sheng Chen, does the expansion of Parknshop Supermarket require so much capital? Even if it is all self-owned properties, it doesn't require so much capital, right?"
"Parknshop naturally does not need so much capital, but this alone will not have much effect on Landmark. If we really want to achieve HSBC's goal and make Jardine Matheson give up the acquisition of Wheelock, we need to deal with Wheelock Take action." Chen Zhiwen said.
"Does Chen Sheng also want to acquire Wheelock?" Dis asked, staring into Chen Zhiwen's eyes.
Wheelock wants to sell itself. Although it initially chose Jardine, now that the news has been released, it must be ready to find a horse. If Chen Zhiwen really wants to acquire Wheelock, HSBC will definitely not support it, but behind Chen Zhiwen's back With strong overseas relationships, if Wheelock could be acquired without the help of HSBC, then HSBC would have nothing to do about it.
Coming here today is actually a test. If Chen Zhiwen is not interested in Wheelock, then he is the best partner for HSBC. If Chen Zhiwen wants to acquire Wheelock, then HSBC can also sit back and watch Jardine and Chen Zhiwen confront each other. As for What to do next, you need to take it one step at a time.
"No interest, but HSBC and I both have the same purpose. HSBC wants to stop Jardine Matheson from acquiring Wheelock. This is difficult. Unless you can give Wheelock a better buyer, how can you target Jardine Matheson?" It will not affect the acquisition of Wheelock." Chen Zhiwen shook his head and said.
"It is estimated that there is no consortium in Hong Kong that can acquire Wheelock. Mr. Shen Bi has sent information to some overseas consortiums, but it is difficult to say whether they can be found." Dis thought for a while and replied.
"So, if we want to delay this matter, we must start with Wheelock." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
Disat suddenly became interested and asked, "Does Mr. Chen have any good ideas?"
Chen Zhiwen said: "Mr. Diss, you should know that Wheelock has a lot of business competition with Jardine Matheson?"
"I know." Dis seemed to understand a little and said, "Sheng Chen, are you trying to persuade Wheelock not to hand over his core financial information?"
"Yes, for Wheelock, once this information is handed over, it will invalidate three points of martial arts. John Horseman is not a fool, he will definitely be entangled." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
The negotiated acquisition between the two companies is completely different from Chen Zhiwen's forced acquisition of Hutchison Group. The latter relies entirely on its own preliminary research data. If Heji really conceals huge debts or certain aspects of operating problems and the compulsory acquirer fails to find out, it will be his own fault. The negotiated acquisition and the acquired party are A large amount of real information needs to be provided, including core information such as financial status, business operations, liabilities, etc.
Although listed companies will also publish their financial information in each quarter's financial report, those are very superficial information and only inform investors of the company's operating conditions. The core operating conditions are confidential, and in acquisitions time, these need to be informed to the other party.
If the acquirer has no conflict of interest with you, then you will be informed. But if you are a competitor in many fields, once you give this information, you will be taking off your pants. If the other party suddenly stops acquiring, That would be a significant loss for the acquired party.
Jardine Matheson, Wheelock and even other large foreign banks have been operating in this small place of Hong Kong for hundreds of years, and there are as many as fifty industries in conflict.
"This is a way. Wheelock also intends to ask me to be a consultant, so I can tell John the horse about this." Disa paused and said.
"This is quite efficient." Chen Zhiwen smiled. This is also one of the benefits of earning more profits for HSBC. Through this subsidiary, which is very famous in the investment community in Hong Kong, HSBC can indirectly influence the performance of most large companies in Hong Kong. Mergers and acquisitions, investments, etc.
As for public utensils for private use? Isn't this normal?
"If John is hesitant, it may really ruin this merger, but what does this have to do with Mr. Chen's need for HK$1 billion?" Diess then asked.
Chen Zhiwen replied: "I will not acquire Wheelock, but I am somewhat interested in some of Wheelock's assets."
"Wheelock's assets? What does Chen Sheng like?" Dis asked.
Chen Zhiwen turned his head slightly, looked out the floor-to-ceiling window not far away, pointed and said: "There."
"Federal Building?" Dis suddenly understood and said.
"No, there is also the International Building next to it." Chen Zhiwen said calmly.
Hong Kong's Central is the first place to develop after the founding of Hong Kong. Therefore, it has always been the center of Hong Kong's economy. And because of its early development, the properties in Central, Hong Kong are controlled by these centuries-old companies.
Although Hutchison Group was also known as one of the four major foreign banks in Hong Kong a few years ago, in fact, Hutchison Group has a relatively short history and is a rising star among the British-owned foreign banks. Therefore, Hutchison Group, which is a big company, has a relatively short history. There is only one building in Central, Hutchison Building.
Wheelock is different. Its history can be traced back a hundred years. It also has several properties in Central, Hong Kong. Among them, the most famous are the two buildings near Victoria Harbor: the Federal Building and the International Building.
"These two properties can be said to be one of Wheelock's most valuable assets. Is Mr. Chen confident that he can acquire them?" Dis asked.
"You have to give it a try." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile: "If I can acquire these two buildings, then Jardine's interest in Wheelock may be reduced a lot, right?"
In fact, what few people know is that since the northern government began to cooperate with the West, many capitals in Hong Kong began to prepare to leave, and Wheelock's John Stool was one of them.
In the original history, after Jardine Matheson's acquisition of Wheelock was indirectly sabotaged by HSBC, Wheelock began to vigorously develop the real estate industry, but it was very conservative. All of them cooperated with other real estate companies based on their own land development model. Without investing a penny of its own money, Wheelock has been making pretty good profits after 1977 by taking advantage of the rising real estate market.
After making enough money in the real estate market, John Ma Stool invested all these funds in the shipping industry, because in his view, sea ships are assets that can walk. Even if something goes wrong, these assets will still float in the ocean.
The outcome can be imagined. When the shipping crisis broke out in the 1980s, Wheelock almost lost it until it was acquired by Pao Yugang.
During the real estate development in the late 1970s, John Horseman also sold the Federal and International buildings. This at least shows that in the eyes of John Horseman now, these two buildings can also be sold, as long as the price is right.
"I need to report to Mr. Shen Bi before I can reply to Chen Sheng." Dis thought for a while and said.
Shen Bi only authorized him to provide funds for Chen Zhiwen's Parknshop supermarket to expand, which may only cost 200 to 300 million Hong Kong dollars. Now Chen Zhiwen wants to use this opportunity to obtain funds to acquire the two federal and international buildings. The funds involved are It has increased several times.
And this also involves Wheelock, and it is even more necessary to report to Shen Bi.
"Okay, then I will wait for the good news from Mr. Diss." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, "If possible, I would like to entrust Duoli to complete this acquisition for me."
HSBC Headquarters:
"Chen Zhiwen is indeed an old fox." After listening to Diss' report, Shen Bi sighed: "I originally speculated that with Chen Zhiwen's large-scale sales of various businesses at Hutchison Whampoa, he would not want to acquire the company. Defeng’s, I didn’t expect that he would actually have his mind set on the Federal Building and the International Building.”
"He is really good at seizing the opportunity, but if we don't agree, he seems to have nothing to do? He can't refuse us to support his PARKnSHOP supermarket," Diess said.
"No, you are wrong." Shen Bi shook his head and said, "Chen Zhiwen must have known that our HSBC would not let Jardine Matheson acquire Wheelock, so he informed you of the weaknesses of this acquisition. As long as we tell John Ma Stool It is best not to submit the detailed information of Wheelock. Then Jardine will definitely not dare to make a move casually. In this way, if Wheelock is not in the hands of Jardine, then Chen Zhiwen will hope to acquire these two buildings, and he does not want Jardine to acquire them. With the acquisition of Wheelock, Chen Zhiwen’s purpose is to use our hands to cut off Wheelock’s self-sales.”
"Although I know this is Chen Zhiwen's purpose, it is indeed a good method. If Wheelock does not provide important information and give Jardine ten courages, they will not dare to acquire it." Dis said.
Hutchison Group has learned from the past that it owed billions in debt. No one knows whether there will be another company in Hong Kong, especially the external debt problem. External debt does not appear within Hong Kong banks. How much external debt a company owes does not matter. People know that even listed companies have many legal ways to hide their debt problems. Otherwise, if everything was transparent, there would not be so many banks or large companies in the history of human business that suddenly defaulted on their debts. B.
In fact, many big names in Hong Kong know that even Jardine Matheson has a heavy foreign debt. Wheelock is also one of the four major foreign banks. Who knows how many problems there are? Especially now that it is suddenly self-sold. At this time, even if Wheelock provides complete financial information, the acquirer will have to confirm it from multiple parties.
Instead of providing information? Only a ghost dares to acquire it? One pitfall may detonate the acquirer.
"Then you find a way to meet John Mazhi and tell him this suggestion. As long as he is smart enough, he should not provide the company's core confidential information. In this way, this acquisition will be suspended." Shen Bi said: "And I have already contacted a Southeast Asian consortium. This is a backup option. In fact, I don't really want Southeast Asian capital to enter Hong Kong excessively."
"Okay, I'll make an appointment with John Stool tomorrow, but Chen Zhiwen also wants to entrust us to purchase the Federal and International Building for him. What should we do?" Dis asked.
"If we don't accept this business, he will find someone else." Shen Bi thought for a while and said.
PS: Please give me a monthly ticket
(End of chapter)
