"Sheng Chen, Mr. Bao and Mr. Kadoorie's family have taken a loan of 600 million Hong Kong dollars from Standard Chartered. The mortgage is their 20% stake in China Power." In the Galaxy Building, Bill Winter, the chief executive of Standard Chartered Bank, handed over the loan He handed some documents to Chen Zhiwen and Bao Yugang who were sitting opposite.
"20%? The Kadoorie family only owns 29% of CLP stocks, right?" Bao Yugang said with some joy.
"Yes, but this is data from a few years ago. No one knows how much they have in their hands now, and even if it is from a few years ago, it may not be absolutely accurate." Bill Winter replied with a slight smile.
"It should be about the same. CLP has invested heavily in the past few years. It is very impressive to be able to survive without large-scale financing in the market. I don't believe that the Kadoorie family is still capable of increasing capital. Apart from CLP and big hotels, their family has nothing. There are other big industries." Chen Zhiwen analyzed.
Listed companies have many advantages, especially the ability to use various opportunities to raise funds to cut leeks, etc., but the disadvantage is that many secrets cannot be kept and need to be announced. China Power's large-scale investments in recent years, an ordinary investor You can find it all, even if there is some optimization data in the public information, it won't be too different.
As CLP Power, which monopolizes the Kowloon Peninsula, has a very large investment in infrastructure. The power plant jointly owned by Mobil Group of the United States requires billions of funds. In addition, the Kowloon Peninsula is large and the people live in scattered places. The investment in power transmission infrastructure is also very large. Every year, this A lot of investment has been made.
This is one of the reasons why China Electric Power is not as good as Hong Kong Electric today. Only after a few years, when the transmission lines in Kowloon Peninsula and the New Territories are laid, can we just lay down and make money.
"His loan is illegal because they have actually been mortgaged to HSBC and a bank in the United States. This is also a clue we have." Bao Yugang nodded and said.
The Kadoorie family holds close to 30% of CLP's shares. In addition, although CLP has suffered some losses in recent years, it is not outrageous. Moreover, the reason is also the well-known oil crisis, and the crisis will eventually end, so shareholders It is unlikely that everyone will be disgusted with the management of the Kadoorie family. In this case, it can be said to be extremely difficult to forcefully acquire. Therefore, it was decided a long time ago that a hole must be dug for the Kadoorie family to jump. .
"Yes, but this does not legally cancel the voting rights of the Kadoorie family's shares. At most, it will make them strapped for funds." Bill Winter continued.
"It's enough to make them tight on funds. This is a raid. As long as they can't raise enough funds in a short period of time, there will be a loophole." Bao Yugang nodded and said. Acquisitions are actually a competition of time. Whoever can raise enough funds in the shortest time will win. The loser, even if he has a strong ability to raise funds, can't do it in a short time, then it will be too late until he loses. .
"If Mr. Bao needs funds, our British headquarters of Standard Chartered Bank is also willing to provide you with sufficient funds." Bill Winter said with a smile.
Ordinary loans require going through procedures, but if you are at the level of Chen Zhiwen or Shipping King Pao Yugang, you can easily get several hundred million as long as you let the word go.
"I will contact you if necessary, but even if there is no cooperation this time, I can also cooperate with Standard Chartered Bank when booking ships in Europe in the future." Bao Yugang said with a smile.
"Okay, thank you very much, Mr. Bao. Standard Chartered Bank will be happy to serve you." Bill Winter said happily.
In fact, although the interest rate for this kind of acquisition will be relatively high in theory, after all, it only happens once every few years. It is a rare thing but not something you can ask for. It is good to have it, and it doesn't matter if you don't have it. However, the loan of the ship king's ship order is long-term. A high-quality, high-amount, low-risk type, a large ship costs at least tens of millions of dollars, of which 90% may require a loan. Ship kings of this level also have a large number of ship booking plans every year. If such an order is Once you get it, Standard Chartered's efficiency may be improved by several points or even more.
"Mr. Winter, this is the information on the three shopping mall projects that Wharf is planning to build in Wanwan. As long as the interest rates are similar, these three projects will belong to Standard Chartered." Chen Zhiwen also took out a document and handed it over, saying: "In the future, Wharf will build large shopping malls in some countries, and Standard Chartered Bank will have certain priority cooperation opportunities in these projects."
"Thank you Chen Sheng." Bill Winter smiled even more. He had established a long-term cooperative relationship with this person, and his subsequent development achievements may be even greater than Bao Yugang's.
"We will not treat our partners badly. Standard Chartered will also suffer certain losses in Hong Kong because of this incident. This can be regarded as compensation." Chen Zhiwen then said with a smile.
Hong Kong’s banking law is actually a history of blood and tears for small depositors. In the early days of the development of the banking industry, the Hong Kong government did not care about potential financial crises at all, but promoted an absolute free financial system. This led to many banks doing whatever they wanted, even themselves. Take your own bank deposits and lend them to your own real estate company to purchase real estate, or use your own gold shop to speculate in gold, etc.
With the many thunderstorms in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, Hong Kong's banking laws began to be gradually improved, which greatly reduced the risks of banks. However, risk and profit have always been twins. When the risk is low, the profit will naturally be low. This is very important for Hong Kong. How can it be tolerated by bank capitalists?
Therefore, under the balance between risk and profit, local banks have found a suitable way, that is, turning a blind eye to many secondary mortgages. Anyway, as long as housing prices continue to rise, the amount of secondary mortgages this year may It is against the rules, but next year, if house prices rise by dozens of percent, then the value of the collateral will increase, but it will not be against the rules.
There are naturally some risks in this kind of thing, but there are only a few big banks in Hong Kong. Why don't the remaining small banks operate this way? Which real estate developer is willing to work with you? If you don't grant marginal loans, forget about formal loans. When the real estate market is bullish, banks need to rely on real estate companies to a certain extent.
Currently, Chen Songqing, a rising star in the Hong Kong market, actually takes advantage of this method to the extreme. He is very bold and ambitious, and even has the opportunity to get rid of all risks. However, his ambition is too great and he wants to rely on this method. If you want to become one of Hong Kong's top tycoons, if you have smaller ambitions and cash out earlier, you won't fall short.
The tacit relationship between banks and the real estate market is also a kind of balance. Once Standard Chartered uses this trick to cooperate with Taishan's key acquisitions, it may be excluded by some real estate companies. In this case, Chen Zhiwen will naturally compensate for some other Business cooperation.
"Each bank has fixed customers. If we can cooperate with you for a long time, then Standard Chartered Bank will be very satisfied." Bill Winter said with a smile.
After receiving this invitation, he knew that the purpose of the people in front of him was for China Power. Once Standard Chartered Bank did this, there would definitely be losses, but this loss was also limited. Although Standard Chartered Bank is one of the two largest banks in Hong Kong, It is one of the companies with the right to print money, but it is far behind HSBC in terms of scale. Many large British-funded consortiums or Chinese-funded upstarts in Hong Kong choose HSBC, or Hang Seng Bank, which is controlled by HSBC. Standard Chartered Bank is far behind.
Rather than this, it is better to take this opportunity to make friends with Chen Zhiwen, Pao Yugang and the richest man in Malaysia, Robert Kuok, who is preparing to invest heavily in Hong Kong. With these three together, even if Standard Chartered can obtain a small part of their loan financing, etc. If we cooperate, the benefits will definitely not be lower than the previous benefits in Hong Kong. Besides, time can cleanse everything. Standard Chartered is not planning to dig holes for all second mortgage customers. It will only be done this time. In a few years, there will be few people. Care.
"Okay, in the future we will have some investments in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia. As long as Standard Chartered is interested, you can give it a try." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.
When investing in the United States, he would naturally give priority to large local banks in the United States. However, in Asia, it is actually very casual, especially domestic ones. When he knows that there will be no risks, he does not need to seek help from any bank. However, it would be good to have a stable partner. Standard Chartered has been helpful to him in the past few years, and it can be said to be one of the first choices.
"Don't worry, Mr. Chen, we at Standard Chartered Bank will never let you down." Bill Winter said with a smile.
Bill Winter quickly said goodbye and left, and after a while, Robert Kuok also came over.
"Guo Sheng, everything is already going according to our plan." Chen Zhiwen said.
"Yes, I didn't expect that Standard Chartered, the third largest bank in Hong Kong, would actually cooperate with us. This way, our chances of winning will be much greater." Robert Kuok said with a smile.
"Although Standard Chartered is the third largest bank, its development is not very good. Based on the current development trend of Chinese-owned banks, I am afraid that it will surpass it in a few years. Moreover, Standard Chartered's headquarters has always been a laggard in Hong Kong. It cannot develop. It's weird." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
As a bank with a long history and the right to print money, Standard Chartered Bank, even if it is not as good as the quasi-central bank "HSBC", would not develop into what it is now under normal circumstances, but it is different with the headquarters of a cheating subsidiary. Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong Branch A lot of the annual profits of the department are taken away by the headquarters to maintain banking business in other regions. With too much blood loss, Standard Chartered Bank will naturally not be able to develop in Hong Kong, and it cannot even compare with Hang Seng Bank. In the original history of 1986, the entire Standard Chartered Bank was targeted by a hostile takeover because the headquarters was too useless and the scale was never large.
"Okay, now that the Kadoorie family has taken the bait, I'm going to take action directly." Robert Kuok said.
"Guo Sheng, before you take action, I think we need to make one thing clear internally." Chen Zhiwen paused and said, "Before you, we were just planning to pretend to attack the hotel, so we might not necessarily burn with the Kadoorie family. Money, but since you participated, you are the one burning money now. This means that you are burning money to consume the capital of the Kadoorie family, but we are taking advantage. So after this incident, Bao Sheng and I will also Make it up to you."
"Sheng Chen, you're welcome. What I want is the Peninsula Hotel and many properties under the Grand Hotel Group. Even if you don't plan to acquire China Power, I will still have to spend money with them. To me, there is actually no difference." Kuok Henian He shook his head and said.
"That's the reason, so the compensation I give is not direct cash or transactions, but investment opportunities." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile: "After our acquisition is successful, I can give you some investments in the Hong Kong market. Give me some suggestions, of course, it’s up to you whether you listen or not.”
"Okay, that's no problem." Robert Kuok nodded and said. Although outsiders know that Chen Zhiwen is very good in the electronics market, if you delve into the history of his fortune, his achievements in the Hong Kong real estate market are also amazing, but there are no other The halo has been suppressed, otherwise, he will definitely become a real estate giant in Hong Kong.
"OK, let's officially start tomorrow. We are going to catch the Kadoorie family in a trap." Chen Zhiwen said.
(End of chapter)
