The MTR Corporation was obviously very interested in the proposal of the joint consortium of Hengyi and Galaxy to provide money upfront and share interests in future real estate. On the seventh day after the bidding, a senior MTR executive contacted Chen Tianfu by phone. Chen Tianfu naturally devoted himself to it and negotiated various details with the MTR Corporation.
As far as Chen Zhiwen knows, Li Ka-shing has also adopted a similar plan to cooperate with the MTR Corporation. As a result, the competition now is who can give more benefits to the MTR Corporation, and the MTR Corporation will obviously not negotiate with the Chen family. , riding a donkey to find a horse, riding a few boats, are obviously normal business operations.
The time soon came to April 1, and the MTR Corporation officially announced that Hengyi Real Estate Group had obtained the development rights for two subway entrance properties in Central and Admiralty.
When the news came out, Hong Kong public opinion was shocked. They thought it was news deliberately spread on April Fool's Day. But when the MTR Corporation formally signed a cooperation agreement with Hengyi Group, everyone shut up because everyone thought that Land It must be the company that succeeds in the end, and Hengyi was less famous before. Everyone knew that it was Chen Zhiwen's father's company.
This MTR tender can be considered as the first time that Chen Zhiwen competed with other British companies after acquiring Hutchison, and then won a resounding victory.
At the headquarters of Cheung Kong Holdings, Li Jiacheng looked at the news, took a deep breath, put down the newspaper, and said: "Chen Zhiwen was more generous than me. He actually gave 55% of the profits to the MTR Corporation, while they only wanted 45% of the profits."
"It's really cruel. We gave away 51% of the profit. I thought we would win." Zhao Yeguang, vice president of real estate business of Yangtze River Industry, said across the street.
Bidding in Hong Kong usually involves paying a certain amount of money at one time and then leaving the house. This time the MTR Corporation opened the bidding, but it changed the style of other auctions in the past, requiring each company or consortium to submit the bidding price. conduct.
Zhao Yeguang and Li Jiacheng immediately saw the reason behind this. It must be that the MTR Corporation was optimistic about the future of the real estate market and did not want to buy out the property with only a lump sum of money.
Therefore, after negotiation, Cheung Kong's plan was to first give a sum of money to the MTR Corporation for its main business. After all, the MTR Corporation's bid for the land was to raise money, and then Cheung Kong would be responsible for developing the land and selling it in the future. , and then recalculate the profits with the MTR Corporation, and the profits will be divided 55%.
This was a huge profit for the MTR Corporation. After handing over the cooperation method, the MTR Corporation also contacted Cheung Kong Holdings and talked for a while. To be on the safe side, Li Ka-shing changed the share to 51:49. But unexpectedly, Hengyi Real Estate was even more ruthless and changed it directly to 55:45.
"Forget it, if you lose, you lose. The Hong Kong market is so big, and we also have many other opportunities." Li Jiacheng seemed to recover quickly and said: "Reach a cooperation agreement with Hong Kong Electric, Wheelock, and Guang Sang Bank as soon as possible. The land in their hands is very valuable, and many other Chinese real estate companies are coveting it.”
"Okay, I will reach an agreement with them as soon as possible." Zhao Yeguang nodded and said.
On the other side, after seeing the cooperation agreement between Hengyi Real Estate and the MTR Corporation mentioned in the news, Bao Fuda directly threw the newspaper to the corner of the table and said: "Crazy, gave most of the profits to the MTR Corporation, and gave the hard work to others." Make a wedding dress.”
Newbijian frowned and said, "These Chinese people always come up with weird ideas."
"Let Chen Zhiwen do the hard work. I want to see if he can still make money this time?" Bao Fuda said disdainfully.
"Ignore him, let's discuss the problem of Harbor City? We are short of funds again." Newbijian said with a frown.
"Since the funds prepared to acquire the subway entrance properties have not been used, then give it to Wharf. If Harbor City is not completed in one day, we will be dragged down by this project." Bao Fuda thought for a while and said: "And the land holdings Some Wharf stocks hold less than 10%, which makes me a little worried. This capital injection can just increase the shares a little bit."
"Do you think someone will acquire Wharf? Chen Zhiwen?" Newbijian asked.
"I don't know, but I think it's better to be more conservative." Bao Fuda nodded and said, "But maybe I'm overly concerned. The Hong Kong market is generally not optimistic about the Harbor City project, and Chen Zhiwen may not pay attention to it."
"What you said makes sense. Let's increase the shareholding a little. The market values of Jardine Matheson and Land are very high, so basically there won't be any big problems. Wharf's share price is indeed a bit low." Newbrick agreed.
Among the three major companies of the Jardine Matheson family, Land has the highest market value, exceeding HK$4 billion. In Hong Kong, it is second only to HSBC. Jardine is slightly worse, less than 3 billion, and Wharf, the original market value is not much lower. , but after entering the 1970s, the Harbor City project seriously dragged down the entire company's profits and stock price. Coupled with several share increases and financing, the total market value has shrunk to less than one billion.
However, he also believes that the risk of Wharf being targeted is relatively small, because the Harbor City project is indeed not favored by other people in Hong Kong. Even banks are unwilling to use this business as collateral.
The original purpose of Harbor City was that Henry Keswick saw the shopping environment in Central, Hong Kong, and needed to move from one building to another. When it was hot or rainy, the flow of people and interactions dropped significantly. , so he wanted to build a super-large commercial plaza where everyone could shop, eat, watch movies, have fun, etc. safely inside.
Naturally, you can’t find such land in Central, but there is it across the harbor, so Harbor City began to be built. However, all classes in Hong Kong are not optimistic about the land project. Few people think that a shopping mall in Kowloon will It can absorb the flow of people in Central.
After Newbigan took over Jardine, Harbor City was already halfway through construction. Regardless of whether it was promising or not, he had no choice but to bite the bullet and continue building. Because he didn't build it, Wharf immediately went bankrupt, but because he had no money, he had no choice but to build it. Equity financing, plus the company's daily profits, will drive the construction process.
The loss of a Harbor City, a Central District redevelopment plan and several large-scale overseas investment projects have been sucking blood from the Jardine Group. If it were not for its solid foundation, I am afraid it would have gone bankrupt long ago.
"Okay, next time, I will let Wharf increase its shares in the opposite direction. In this case, the control of Wharf will be increased to about 20%." Bao Fuda nodded.
"Land is planning to increase capital in Wharf?" After receiving the news, Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and said, "It seems that the money originally used for MTR properties is empty."
"It is possible that based on the scale of Land's capital increase this time, Land will own about 20.5% of the shares, and our shares will be reduced from 23% to 19.4%. Jardine's control over Wharf has increased a lot. " said Xu Jinhong, general manager of Galaxy Group.
"Then we can only let them go. We can just keep the normal acquisition model. Harbor City is a bottomless pit, and Wharf will still raise funds in the stock market sooner or later." Zhou Jiayang nodded and said.
Jardine Matheson has the management rights of Wharf, and can raise funds at will. If it wants to raise funds, it can raise funds in the stock market, but this will reduce its controlling stake. If it wants to increase its controlling stake, it can invest its own capital and then increase its capital separately.
This is also the reason why acquisitions are so difficult to succeed, especially if the acquiree finds a white warrior, the difficulty will skyrocket. Once it has enough funds, it can increase its shareholding in a targeted manner and increase its own controlling stake.
At this time, the acquirer has no way to stop it. Unless the stock acquisition is close to 50%, there is only a slight possibility. However, it is basically impossible to directly acquire this amount.
Therefore, if you want to acquire the target party, you must take advantage of the other party's financial difficulties. For example, when Bao Yugang was resisting Jardine, Jardine was short of funds. Otherwise, a capital increase could hold down Bao Yugang.
Now the Jardine Department still has some funds in hand, so Chen Zhiwen has not forced it. As time goes by, Jardine's situation will get worse and worse.
"Recently, according to Chen Sheng's request, I have sold the industrial land and properties in my hands on the market and cashed them out quickly. These funds are enough to cover the gradual acquisition of Wharf stocks." Xu Jinhong added.
"Okay, continue to sell, sell them all. The acquisition of Wharf is relatively slow. With more funds, we will prepare to develop the land previously acquired by Wheelock, or cooperate with Hengyi to develop new land." Chen Zhiwen said.
From 1974 to 1975, Galaxy Real Estate used the highest level of leverage and invested hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars to acquire industrial office properties worth at least 300 million at the time. Today, the prices of these properties have basically doubled. According to market prices It is estimated that after cashing out, it will be able to make at least HK$250 million in net profit. Including the previous principal, Galaxy Real Estate will also have up to HK$350 million in funds.
The sale of these properties is not because the price of industrial office buildings will drop in the future, but because Chen Zhiwen knows that in the following years, the growth rate of purely industrial office buildings will no longer keep up with commercial real estate properties, because industrial real estate is affected by industrial profits, and the upper limit is limited. , when it rises too fast, industrial profits cannot be sustained, and it will inevitably have a negative impact on the price of industrial land.
As for residential and commercial properties, their benchmark is the economy of the entire society, or the carrying capacity of the entire society. They will collapse only when housing prices are so high that social operations cannot bear it. In this real estate rising cycle, it will not happen until 1981. Problems arose and by 1982 it completely collapsed.
"Old Xu, you are also from Cheung Kong Holdings. You understand many of Li Jiacheng's tricks. Next, I am basically more optimistic about the real estate market in Hong Kong, so your task is very simple. Work hard to obtain land. , or just cooperate with those British companies." Chen Zhiwen continued.
Although Chen Zhiwen gave a lot of resources to his father to develop his Hengyi, his own real estate company also needs to develop. Hong Kong is so big that there will be no competition, even with the real estate five tigers and some British capital. There is no conflict, because there are still many ownerless cakes, and major capitals are selectively expanding. Only in more than ten years when the assets of Chinese real estate can be ranked at the level of the Asian rich list, will Basically monopolizes all interests in Hong Kong.
As for Galaxy Real Estate, Chen Zhiwen is targeting Benchmark Land for its future. If possible, owning dozens of buildings to collect rent would be very profitable.
However, it is still a bit far away from the goal. Naturally, it must develop normally like other Chinese-owned companies. The real estate market is too big. Today’s Chinese-owned companies are just grabbing a small part here and there. From real estate companies such as Cheung Kong Holdings, Henderson Land Development Bank, and Sun Hung Kai We are poaching teams everywhere just to catch up with the dividends of this rising land price cycle in the past few years.
"Okay, I understand." Xu Jinhong nodded and said.
"Okay, you can just report to me once a month in the future. Just discuss what projects to do within your team. I will only look at one point. Comparing you with Li Jiacheng, 70-80% benefit is enough." Chen Zhiwen smiled lightly. said.
Since 1974, Chen Zhiwen has invested a lot of energy in the real estate industry. That is because he wants to use his golden finger ability to seize many opportunities when the real estate market is at a trough or just starting to rise. Now the real estate market has begun to take off. , prepare everything you can, but it will be of little use. It will be better to let professionals do professional things.
Both Galaxy Real Estate and Hutchison Whampoa's real estate business have begun to operate on their own. Chen Zhiwen only needs to intervene at special times. For example, about a year before local prices are going to fall, they will start to withdraw on a large scale.
April 10, Admiralty, Galaxy Tower headquarters:
"Eric, your building is very beautiful. I like it very much." Henry Morgan said with a smile after the helicopter took a tour of the Galaxy Building.
"This is the design of the Chinese-American architect Pei Jinming. You should know the library in Los Angeles, right? It was also his handiwork." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
"I've heard of him. He's very famous in the construction industry in the United States." Henry Morgan nodded.
"Get off." Chen Zhiwen said to the driver.
There is a large helipad on the roof of the Galaxy Building, which Chen Zhiwen specially prepared for himself. Although he is already one of the most powerful businessmen in Hong Kong and drives a Mercedes-Benz bulletproof car worth millions, when he is stuck in traffic , all living beings are equal.
Most of the time, this is a waste of time, so after asking Bei Jinming to build a helipad on the top floor of the building, he personally went to Germany and placed an order for a helicopter. The one with the best quality and highest safety, the best price. Yes, it is naturally more expensive, but as long as it can save Chen Zhiwen's time, it is still very cost-effective.
After getting off the plane, Chen Zhiwen took Henry Morgan to his office, and his assistant also prepared coffee.
"Good coffee, is it from South America?" Henry Morgan asked with a smile.
"Good eyesight." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile. This is actually cat poop coffee from Brazil. It is very expensive, but Chen Zhiwen does not have such a hobby. He bought this to entertain some Western guests.
"Speaking of South America, I recently bought a 50,000-acre farm in Brazil for only 4 million US dollars. There are many wild animals in it. Eric, if you are interested, we can go hunting. Flying a helicopter and an AK47 in the sky to shoot wild boar herds, the bullets are still fluorescent and you can see the trajectory of the bullets, it’s such a great feeling." Henry Morgan said with a laugh.
"Well, it's a bit." Chen Zhiwen put himself in, and seemed to be a bit too bullying of animals. However, wild boars are an agricultural scourge in many countries, and many countries encourage farmers or people with nothing to do to eliminate them. As for wild boars, Australia even encourages people to exterminate kangaroos and wild cats.
"Then take a look for yourself and tell me if you have time. I will accompany you at any time." Henry Morgan said with a smile.
"Are you so free?" Chen Zhiwen asked curiously.
"I've always been so free." Henry Morgan shrugged and said: "Many of Morgan's industries are managed by professional managers. I used to participate a little bit. Now, the development of our arcade is the most important, Ari. Gram, the Magic Cube is really incredible. It has been on sale for almost a year, and it is still so popular in many places. Although the orders I have are only slightly down, they are much better than Snake."
"The playability is different. It's natural and long-lasting, but I guess it's about the same." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.
Last summer, Midea began shipping Magic Cube arcade machines to the United States. When Snake was a little weak, Magic Cube immediately aroused new popularity and became the new favorite of American bars.
Now that channels have been opened, Hong Kong's production capacity has reached a very high level, especially after entering the Midea Industrial Park.
In just over half a year, the sales volume of Magic Cubes in the United States has exceeded 80,000 units. Most bars have participated in the purchase, and some large bars have purchased several units, because one or two units are often not enough for everyone to play.
The market outside the United States developed later than the United States. The initial focus was Snake. At the beginning of this year, when orders in the U.S. market were declining, Magic Cubes also began to be sold.
Midea Industrial Park has more than 2,000 workers producing arcade machines, and it has also provided Chen Zhiwen with the highest profit since he started his business. From June last year to April this year, the two arcade machines brought Midea a net profit of up to 170 million U.S. dollars, which was better than the "Space Invaders" that made 100 million U.S. dollars a year in history.
Of course, these are two games, but they are already terrifying. The European and American arcade markets have completely exploded.
"But Eric, the lifespan of the Magic Cube seems to be almost over. Should we prepare for the next game?" Henry Morgan said with expectant eyes.
(End of chapter)
