On March 16, the Wharf Shareholders Meeting was held at the Miramar Hotel on Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon.
The reason why I chose this hotel is because it is located on the Kowloon Peninsula and has a long history. When it was built, the land was cheap, so the area is large enough. There is a large conference hall that can accommodate a large number of people, which is just right for the Wharf. Minority shareholders.
The staff of Wharf are carefully checking the identities of shareholders and the voting rights they hold at the door of the conference hall. Today's voting will determine the future ownership of Wharf. If something goes wrong, they, the small staff, will definitely be the first to do so. Bad luck.
In addition to various shareholders, some important company employees and media reporters can also enter. At this moment, almost all the media in Xiangjiang rushed over. Shareholders' meetings are not uncommon in Hong Kong. Even if it is held by Jardine Matheson Group, it is impossible to attract so many media. The reason for this is naturally the battle for management rights today.
The Hong Kong Government, the Jockey Club, Jardine Matheson, and HSBC are known as the four major forces that control Hong Kong. Although Jardine Matheson seems to be in a bit of trouble at the moment, it is still one of the most influential financial groups in Hong Kong. This shareholders meeting is The Chinese capital challenged the largest British-owned company and wanted to acquire the most powerful British-owned company, which naturally attracted the attention of almost all media.
After more than an hour of stock verification, hundreds of shareholders entered the venue. It does not mean that these are the only eligible Wharf shareholders. There are many people who may not come at all, either because they don’t care about such things, or Just watch this from other places.
This is also where the management of Western companies is strong. Even in a shareholders' meeting, it is difficult to recruit all shareholders. Unless a big business mistake is made, it is also difficult to gather enough shareholders to threaten them. Management, even Qi Dezun in the original history, ruined Hutchison to the point of almost bankruptcy, but if HSBC had not come forward to gather shareholders, it would not have been possible to drive it away.
The general meeting of shareholders officially begins:
The first person to come forward was the current chief executive of Wharf, a British ghost named Mooney. This man is known as the third person in Jardine, but he basically does not appear in the media. Even Chen Zhiwen has only heard about it. I've passed him, but I haven't seen him.
Mooney read the information he had prepared in front of the microphone. Last year, Wharf made a total profit of HK$16 million. In January and February of this year, it completed two projects and the total profit attributable to the parent company was HK$3.1 million. .
When Mooney announced all the data, the shareholders below immediately began to chat among themselves. Many of the people who came here were acquaintances, so it was normal for them to communicate with each other.
"Everyone, if you can, could you please let me say a few words." Chen Zhiwen also very politely gave the person below him two minutes, and waited until the voice below became quieter before he spoke again.
The people below naturally knew who had just spoken, and immediately fell silent after hearing Chen Zhiwen's request.
Chen Zhiwen pointed at the microphone in front of him and said: "Mr. Mooney, Wharf is a company that can be ranked among the top ten large enterprises in Hong Kong. Why is its annual profit only HK$16 million? As far as I know, many large companies now have Even smaller Chinese-funded companies can achieve a net profit of HK$70-80 million a year."
"That's because the Harbor City project has dragged down the company's capital chain. However, according to the construction plan, by 1980, the Harbor City project will be completed, and then the company can obtain a large amount of rent in reverse." Mooney explained, In fact, everyone knows this question, but he also knows that Chen Zhiwen definitely has good intentions when asking this question.
"It has taken nearly ten years to build a harbor city, right?" Chen Zhiwen said with a smile: "Why is the efficiency so low? The Land Group's Connaught Building is 52 stories high and it only took 16 months. Why are you both building the same building in Yihe?" Is there such a big difference in efficiency among the group’s disciples?”
"This is not because of low efficiency, but because of funding issues." Mooney said reluctantly: "Although the height of Harbor City is not as high as the Leisure Building, it is much more difficult to build and requires more funds."
"No matter how much more funds are needed, it is not an excuse for the construction not being completed in ten years. In ten years, the Hong Kong market has changed a lot. The entire Wharf has also missed its greatest development time. Before December last year, The market value of the entire Wharf is barely one billion Hong Kong dollars. Not to mention those big British-owned companies, even those Chinese-owned companies are almost reaching this level." Chen Zhiwen said coldly: "In ten years, Wharf will The stock price has barely changed. I think everyone here, holding Wharf stocks, can be regarded as a very failed investment, right?"
"Yeah, you've suffered a huge loss, should you step down quickly?"
"The able ones will live here. You ghost guys should go back to England as soon as possible."
"."
In the auditorium below, many shareholders took the opportunity to shout. Among the hundreds of people, there will always be a small number of people who are persuaded by Zhou Jiayang and become the leaders against British capital. Under their leadership, the people around them also Start communicating loudly.
"Sheng Chen, what you said is wrong. The investment in Harbor City is almost 2 billion Hong Kong dollars. With such a large amount of money, even the land will have the same ending. But now it is about to be completed, and Wharf will add a super Large-scale commercial rent-collecting properties can earn one or two billion a year even if they rely on rent collection in the future. Coupled with the increase in property prices, this is truly high investment and high return. Chen Sheng may be too young in this regard. I’m not very experienced yet,” Niubijian said with a smile.
"But we still missed the golden decade of development. Galaxy Real Estate started investing in properties in 1974, with an initial capital of about HK$100 million. By investing in various industrial properties and subsequent property development, our total assets are now The scale is close to one billion Hong Kong dollars, and the cash in hand is 300 million, which is almost ten times, right? If Wharf is like this, then its current scale must have surpassed Land, right?" Chen Zhiwen said with a smile, The past investment projects of Galaxy Real Estate are not a secret. A reporter can actually find them with a little effort.
"How can the calculation method be the same if the scale is different?" Newbijian sneered.
"It's different, but Wharf should have had HK$100 million in hand in 1974, right? Why didn't it become HK$1 billion?" Chen Zhiwen asked rhetorically.
"Chen Sheng has made so much money because of the rise in land prices. Wharf owns a large amount of high-quality land. Over the years, its valuation has increased several times, but it has not been cashed out?" New York Bi Jian said.
"It is because of your strategy of not developing that Wharf is in the predicament it is in today." After Chen Zhiwen got the words he wanted, he immediately stood up with a microphone in hand and said: "Everyone, Hong Kong's shopping malls today. There have been earth-shaking changes from ten years ago or even five years ago. The most obvious one is that the once weak Chinese capital has become stronger.
Not to mention seniors like Bao Yugang, Li Jiacheng, Hu Yingxiang, Zheng Yutong and others also used their own vision, courage and opportunities to develop successfully in less than ten years. Among them, Li Jiacheng's Yangtze River Industry is the leader. , although the attempt to acquire Wharf failed, it is still worthy of being included in the annals of our Hong Kong history.
The rise of Chinese-owned real estate depends on real estate, but what is strange is that Chinese-owned real estate companies did not have any land in the early days. Li Jiacheng was in the plastics industry before establishing a real estate company, Zheng Yutong was in the gold business before, and Hu Yingxiang also started from They returned to the United States to start their own business. They had no land, but after more than ten years of hard work, they became a real estate giant in Hong Kong. The market value of the company in their hands was close to one billion.
However, companies like Wharf have a long history and a lot of high-quality land in their hands, which makes countless Chinese real estate companies jealous. However, these companies, after decades of development, will only stand still and have no growth at all. ability.
This is also the reason why the stocks in your hands have not risen in ten years. Some people blame Wharf’s mistakes on the construction of Harbor City, but they don’t know that the scale of the Blue Chimney Wharf project bought by Mr. Zheng Yutong in 1970 was not at all It is lower than Harbor City, but this does not affect other businesses.
Therefore, the root cause of all this is just that there is an incompetent management behind Wharf.
So here today, as the largest shareholder of Wharf, I am convening this general meeting of shareholders to remove this incompetent board of directors and elect a better person, one who can make Wharf and Chinese real estate companies the same in a few years. If it increases ten times, each share of the stock in your hands will be worth more than 100 Hong Kong dollars. Wouldn’t it be better? "
"Okay." Below the conference hall, several people's voices rang out, followed by the sound of applause. After a while, many people below started applauding.
Niubijian's face was livid with anger. Chen Zhiwen almost grabbed him by the collar and called him a loser, but he couldn't refute it because the example he gave was also correct.
However, this is not just about Wharf. How many British-owned real estate companies in Hong Kong are not doing so? It may be better than Swire Group, but it can only say that it develops its own assets in the most conservative way. Wharf is actually the same, but it has been betting on the future at the expense of current growth.
Below the conference hall, in addition to ordinary shareholders, there are also many big-shot people, including Shen Bi, Li Jiacheng, Zheng Yutong, etc. After all, it was Chen Zhiwen who snapped up the Wharf. This kind of event is rare in Hong Kong in ten years, and nothing else is better. This is not important.
"If you keep using me as an example, I will become a thorn in the side of the British capital." Zheng Yutong said with a helpless smile.
"Why should we care about them? If Chen Zhiwen succeeds this time, we Chinese will stand up, and we can openly confront British capital in the future. And what Chen Zhiwen said is right, there are not many British capital in Hong Kong who will develop real estate. , you have to beg us in the end." A person next to him said with a smile. If Chen Zhiwen were in front of him, he would definitely recognize him as Lee Shau Kee, the chairman of Henderson Industries.
"You are so confident." Zheng Yutong smiled.
"It's not me, it's Chen Zhiwen. It's been like this today. Don't you have confidence that he will play like this?" Lee Shau Kee laughed.
"Yes, we have almost 40% of the shares. As long as a small part of the group agrees, the matter will basically be done." Zheng Yutong shook his head and said: "When Chen Zhiwen acquired Hutchison, I was very envious. There are so many Land, but now it has acquired Wharf, I am numb.”
"Yes, although the quantity of Wharf's land is not as good as that of Hutchison, the quality is much higher. There are several pieces of land on Hong Kong Island." Lee Shau Kee said: "Maybe we will have a chance."
"What do you mean? You want to cooperate with Chen Zhiwen to develop these lands after he acquires Wharf?" Zheng Yutong asked.
"Don't you want to?" Li Zhaoji asked.
"I think about it, but it's a bit difficult. Look at that guy, how calm and calm is he?" Zheng Yutong pointed in the direction. The middle-aged man with black-rimmed glasses behind him was Li Jiacheng.
Zheng Yutong added: "About 10% of Chen Zhiwen's hands were acquired from Li Jiacheng. If Chen Zhiwen succeeds in acquiring some land in Wharf, who do you think he will choose to cooperate with him?"
"Yes, Li Jiacheng followed and ate a lot." Li Shauji shook his head and said.
"That's also a bit of a skill. Otherwise, you were the first to attack Wharf, and now these benefits would be yours." Zheng Yutong said with a smile.
Li Shauji shook his head and said: "Forget it, I don't have the courage. I think it's normal for Chen Zhiwen to attack British capital, but I didn't expect that Li Jiacheng actually dared. Although he failed, he was the first among us, and now He sold his shares to Chen Zhiwen, which was a great move, and there will probably be some benefits in the future."
"That's what I earned through my own hard work." Zheng Yutong smiled, looked at the front desk again, and said, "Come on, the voting is about to begin."
"I guess the Wharf is going to change." Lee Shau Kee said with a faint smile.
During this time, Niubijian of Jardine has been talking about Jardine's development plan for Wharf and the development achievements of Wharf in the past. But if you think about it carefully, although there are indeed some achievements, compared with the development of Wharf in the past ten years, The efficiency of Chinese real estate companies is much different.
This comparison makes many people feel that British capital is indeed inferior to Chinese capital.
After Niubijian finished speaking, there were still boos and boos below. Apparently many people were dissatisfied with Niubijian's statement.
"Let's vote. It's useless to say all this." Chen Zhiwen said lightly. The purpose of convening the shareholders' meeting was to solve this problem through voting.
"Okay." Newbijian nodded and said. Although he was very worried about the result of this vote, because the other party controlled 40% of the stocks, the probability of his side's failure was very low, but he could not stop it.
For this type of shareholders' meeting, where fair voting is involved, the stock exchange will send a special team to be responsible. Because everyone at the scene has different voting rights, a lot of calculations are required after receiving the votes. There can be no mistakes here. Generally, it is done by The two teams calculate separately. If the subsequent data is different, it needs to be rechecked. If it is the same, it will be passed.
"How many people here have you contacted?" Shen Bi asked Dis in the first batch below.
"I can only say part of it. Many of Wharf's stocks have gone. That is, it was Chen Zhiwen's acquisition this time that caused many small shareholders to come out." Dis said helplessly.
"That means there are probably many people here who will still support Chen Zhiwen?" Shen Bi said.
"It is possible." Dis nodded and said, "There are rumors that if Chen Zhiwen succeeds in acquiring Wharf this time, it is very likely that Wharf will be privatized."
"100% of it is fake news released by Chen Zhiwen. Hutchison's previous model of delisting first and then privatizing has been deemed illegal by the Hong Kong Takeovers Committee. Since then, if you want to privatize, you have to really carry out a full acquisition. Before Wharf, The highest stock price is HK$61. Once the acquisition invitation is triggered, Chen Zhiwen will need HK$3 billion to privatize Wharf. How is this possible?" Shen Bi shook his head and said.
"It's unlikely, but this news is spreading everywhere now, and many people are also buying more Wharf stocks. People here today, I guess many people have been brainwashed, thinking that Chen Zhiwen will definitely do what he did when he bought Hutchison Then privatize Wharf." Diess shook his head and said. As long as you do the math, you will understand that no one in Hong Kong has the financial resources to privatize Wharf at this time. Even if you really want to, you will have to wait half a year before privatization is guaranteed. It is possible that the stock price is not high within half a year.
"These stock traders are all willing to take a gamble. It looks like they are being used by Chen Zhiwen again." Shen Bi shook his head and said.
(End of chapter)
