"Sheng Chen, good news. Jardine Matheson has stopped its acquisition plan for Wheelock, and John Marsh has also prepared for the sale of the Federal and International buildings." On the phone, Diss said this The news was told to Chen Zhiwen.
"Okay, thank you Mr. Diss." Chen Zhiwen was quite happy after hearing this. As happened in history, Wheelock never provided its detailed financial and operating information, which caused Jardine to have to stop. In addition to this, HSBC must have used a lot of resources to prevent this from happening.
Regarding this matter, Chen Zhiwen actually does not want to see Jardine really acquire Wheelock. Although Jardine will have a little financial difficulty in the initial stage after acquiring Wheelock, Wheelock's land assets are also very rich. As land prices in Hong Kong rise, Jardine's overall strength will become stronger, so when HSBC found him, he was still happy to help, and he could also gain certain benefits from it.
Of course, there is not much that I can do. The most I can do is cause some trouble for Jardine. In the past two months, Parknshop began to crazily squeeze the Wellcome supermarket, deliberately opening the supermarket next to Wellcome, and then immediately sacrificed it. A price war started, and at the same time, a large number of property acquisitions were also carried out simultaneously.
Seeing this trend, Jardine didn't have much time to react and had no choice but to invest money to enter. Otherwise, Wellcome would be completely swept out of the market in less than half a year.
Naturally, Chen Zhiwen is not very happy about burning money, but the low-interest loan provided by HSBC and the fact that there is no need to pay rent after purchasing the property is an advantage in itself. In addition, the cheap supply of goods brought by Galaxy Trading Company just remains unprofitable. The situation is enough to cause Wellcome Supermarket to fall into huge losses.
No matter how much capital Ren Land has, if one of its businesses loses several million Hong Kong dollars a month, and it needs to invest tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars every month, and there is no hope for the future, it will be enough for Newbijian and Bao Fuda to have a headache.
In fact, this still gave him the advantage of being a prophet. Chen Zhiwen knew that Jardine Matheson would not acquire Wheelock, but people at HSBC did not know that. Moreover, it is normal for such a large-scale enterprise acquisition to take a year and a half to negotiate. Therefore, HSBC hopes to have Chen Zhiwen, whose strength had impacted Jardine, came to attack Jardine in other areas, interfered with Jardine's acquisition plan, and therefore agreed to a huge low-interest loan plan.
Unexpectedly, when Wheelock and Jardine saw some conflicts, they immediately stopped talking, leaving HSBC with a lot of trouble. However, for HSBC, it was also a victory, because they blocked the two largest companies in Hong Kong. British companies merged.
As for how HSBC interfered with Chinese capital or Southeast Asian capital's acquisition of Wheelock, Chen Zhiwen didn't know, and there was no need to know.
On the other end of the phone, Dis continued: "But Mr. Chen, because Huoduoli has a cooperative relationship with both of you, it is not convenient for us to get involved in the acquisition of two buildings this time. However, I can provide the corresponding market price for you." Consider both sides.”
"Oh, okay, what do you think the market price is?" Chen Zhiwen asked.
Dis said: "Based on the housing prices and land prices around the Federal and International Buildings, the current value of these two buildings should be between HK$500-700 million. The specific value depends on professionals to measure the age of the buildings. , internal equipment condition, tenant status of the two buildings and financial status in recent years.
I have made an agreement with John Mashile, and he is willing to provide the income status and debt status of the two buildings in the past three years. "
The information previously requested by Jardine Matheson involves all of Wheelock's business, and the acquisition of the building is just a simple rent and liabilities. It doesn't matter if outsiders know it. After all, this kind of information is transparent, and the Central Building The rents for nearby buildings are not much different.
"Okay, let's discuss this matter ourselves." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
December 3, Peninsula Hotel:
"Hello, Mr. Ma Shi, hello, Mr. Zhang." Chen Zhiwen specially booked a presidential suite and met John Ma Shi, the head of Wheelock. However, John Horseman stated that he needed to bring another person over, named Zhang Yuliang, who was one of the directors of Wheelock.
As soon as Chen Zhiwen heard Zhang Yuliang's name, he immediately agreed.
In later years, in 1986, Li Jiacheng surpassed shipping king Bao Yugang and was ranked by Forbes as the richest Chinese in Asia for the first time. The Li family also became the first family in Hong Kong.
However, in a reporter's interview, Li Jiacheng publicly stated that he was only the richest man on the surface, and in Xiangjiang, those whose assets exceeded his could be more than a palm's worth.
Although this number may be a bit exaggerated. But there are still many invisible rich people in Hong Kong, and Zhang Yuliang is one of them. If it hadn’t been for the Wheelock War in 1985, most Hong Kong people would never have imagined that Wheelock, one of the four major British-owned foreign companies, would , its largest shareholder is actually a Chinese family.
The Zhang family has been doing business in Hong Kong since the early 20th century, starting out by selling Western medicine. In the 1950s, they began to get involved in real estate. In 1962, the fourth son of the Zhang family, Zhang Yuliang, used family funds to build two buildings in the Central District, the Federal Building and the International Building. These are the two buildings that Chen Zhiwen is interested in.
In the 1960s, a Chinese family was able to buy two pieces of land in the core area of Central and build two buildings with their own funds. Among them, the Federal Building was the tallest building in Hong Kong at the time. The strength of the family is evident. The shipping king Bao Yugang It is estimated that they did not have this ability that year. It is not an exaggeration to say that they were the number one Chinese family in Hong Kong at that time.
But for such a family and such a large investment, because the investment was not through a listed company, and the Zhang family deliberately spent a little money to control the media, ordinary people at that time did not know their existence at all.
In the late 1960s, Wheelock intended to get involved in the two federal and international buildings as well as several high-quality land owned by the Zhang family in Hong Kong. However, it had no money, so it conducted equity transactions, and the Zhang family became Wheelock's largest shareholder. .
However, the Zhang family has always maintained a low profile and has no interest in controlling Wheelock. Otherwise, Zhang Yuliang would have been the first person to acquire the four major foreign banks in Hong Kong history. However, having said that, it was also because of this that John Horseman made this deal, and the premise must be that the Zhang family did not interfere with Wheelock.
Knowing that Zhang Yuliang was also coming to meet, Chen Zhiwen knew that the acquisition of the Federal and International Building was very likely, because as far as he knew, the Zhang family, like John Stool, was planning to transfer funds out of Hong Kong. , they will definitely sell off the real estate.
"Hello, Mr. Chen." John said.
"Sheng Chen, I have admired you for a long time." Zhang Yuliang on the side also shook hands and said: "In recent years, the most popular person in Hong Kong is Mr. Chen. The acquisition of Hutchison has really increased the prestige of us Chinese people."
"No, if the Zhang family hadn't kept a low profile, I'm afraid the Zhang family would have become a well-known family in Hong Kong." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
"It is also because of my low profile that my Zhang family has the status in Wheelock today." Zhang Yuliang smiled and said: "As a person, I actually know that I have no business ability, so I focus on investment and do not participate in the direct operation of Hong Kong shopping malls. , I don’t have the ability of my father, so I just try my best to maintain the family wealth.”
"This is already a very good result." Chen Zhiwen said: "Investing in capable people is also a kind of ability in itself, and the returns may be higher. It has always been harder to defend a country than to conquer it."
This saying is widely circulated in ancient China. In fact, the fundamental reason is that the second and third generations simply do not have the ability of the first generation. Once such huge wealth comes into their hands, lack of management ability will ruin the family property.
If you are just a waste of food, drink and fun, and then leave the family wealth to professionals to take care of it, as long as you choose loyal and capable people, it will not decline no matter what.
They are not afraid of the second generation being desolate and ruining the family, but they are afraid of the second generation working hard. This is the truth of most wealthy families. Only a few who cultivate their children like Li Jiacheng are able to pass on the family with peace of mind.
"I can only comfort myself like this." Zhang Yuliang nodded and said.
"Now that we are all here, let's have a formal discussion." Chen Zhiwen said: "Since you two are here, you also intend to sell the two federal and international buildings. My people have already viewed these two buildings. The building’s financial data and debt data, this is my quote.”
After Chen Zhiwen finished speaking, Lin Yanming, who had been standing at the back, handed the two envelopes to John and Zhang Yuliang respectively.
John Ma Shi and Zhang Yuliang took the envelope and opened it. They both frowned immediately. John Ma Shi said: "Sheng Chen, the Federal and International Buildings are both located in Central and close to Victoria Harbor. They only cost 520 million." The Hong Kong dollar is too little?"
"I don't think that these two buildings are indeed in a good location, but the floors are not high and the utilization efficiency is too low. Moreover, they have been built for more than ten years, and the internal decoration has also aged. If you want to continue to accept high-quality tenants, at least It will cost an estimated 100 million yuan to decorate." Chen Zhiwen shook his head and said.
This valuation is estimated by a professional agency based on nearby housing prices. Taking into account large-scale transactions, there will definitely be a certain discount. The calculated results show that in the original history, in 1980, Wheelock sold these two buildings The building was sold to a consortium headed by Cheung Kong Holdings for HK$1.1 billion. It was still more than three years ago, and the price was HK$520 million, which is about the same. In the past three years, the Hong Kong real estate market has more than doubled on average, but the base price of housing prices in Central Relatively high, the increase is not as high as the average, almost double.
"Even if there is no decoration, this location can still be rented at a very good price." Zhang Yuliang said with a smile.
"It was possible in the past, but Land's Central District redevelopment plan will be completed in a few years. By then, Land will have all kinds of high-quality properties with fine decoration. How can we compete?" Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
Since we are in the long-term leasing business, everyone will pay attention to the rental price. Only those like Chen Zhiwen, who know that house prices will rise in the future, will not care.
But John Ma Shi and Zhang Yuliang don't know this. In their understanding, how much money can be rented out has a great impact on the price of office buildings. This is also everyone's understanding, even if it is to buy land, sell or buy commercial buildings. For office properties, you also need to refer to the rental price of the property.
"This price is still too low." Zhang Yuliang said with a frown.
"Then I have another proposal." Chen Zhiwen added: "I can win all of Wheelock's land, as well as some land in Kwun Tong, Shatin, and the amount of money. I can also increase the amount."
"Is Mr. Chen really so optimistic about Hong Kong's real estate industry?" Zhang Yuliang asked.
"Everyone has their own opinions. I am optimistic about Hong Kong's real estate industry, and you two are optimistic about the global shipping industry. In our transaction, I will get the real estate, and you will get a lot of funds, each of us can get what we need." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile. .
There is another party that has not been revealed, that is, HSBC, which facilitated this transaction. Chen Zhiwen mainly needed loans from HSBC to purchase the two buildings. Although the interest rate is low, it is impossible for HSBC not to make money, and Wheelock, which obtained the funds, , will definitely invest in the shipping market again. Shipbuilding itself is an industry with higher capital requirements than real estate, and HSBC can make a lot of money.
If this deal is concluded, all three parties will be satisfied, at least for now. If there is no avalanche in the shipping market in a few years, it may become a more successful deal in Hong Kong history.
"Okay, but Wheelock owns a lot of land in Sha Tin and Kwun Tong. Which ones does Mr. Chen want?" John Magdalene suddenly became interested again. He himself did not understand real estate operations, even during the last round of rising real estate market. He also relies on selling land or cooperating with Chinese companies to make profits. Now that he has decided to develop in the shipping market, he is naturally short of funds. At this time, it would be good to sell the land that Wheelock cannot make a profit. Choice, anyway, Wheelock owns a lot of land.
"Wheelock has a lot of land. Let's do this. I will send my Galaxy Real Estate to visit Wheelock Real Estate Company. After they have mutually negotiated which ones can be traded, we will discuss the price. How about? The two buildings, Federal and International, How about we calculate the price together then?" Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
He is not worried at all that the other party will regret it, because currently in Hong Kong, only a handful of companies have such financial resources, and such companies have their own development plans and will not randomly mobilize large amounts of funds to suddenly do other things, even if they also cooperate with Like Chen Zhiwen, he is more confident about the future real estate market.
The current shipping market is all about picking up gold in the sea. A ship can pay back its capital in more than a year, and another ship can be profitable in three years. Second-hand ships have been sold at sky-high prices, and are even more expensive than new ships. , because of the construction cycle of new ships, second-hand ships may earn back the cost of the ship.
Because it is so popular, a lot of capital is eager to rush in. Wheelock, as a large group whose main business is shipping, naturally wants to rush in, but this requires a lot of capital.
Everyone was drunk, but Bao Yugang woke up alone. He saw too much capital entering the shipping industry. After further calculation, the number of orders from major shipyards around the world, once it reaches the early 1980s, there will be 100 million tons of cargo ships exceeding market demand. If put in, this will inevitably lead to the collapse of the entire market, and the subsequent story of Pao Yugang's broken arm and acquisition of Wharf will follow.
Other shipping kings in Hong Kong did not have this vision. Wheelock was also acquired by Pao Yugang in 1985. The fundamental reason was also due to huge losses in the shipping industry.
"Okay, let's talk about it next time." Zhang Yuliang nodded and said.
(End of chapter)
