"Aren't you willing directly? Are you unwilling to negotiate the price?" Chen Zhiwen asked.
"Yes, the team in Hong Kong couldn't make a decision on this matter. They reported it to Hilton's US headquarters. The headquarters sent a person over and told my people directly that they would not sell out the contract. They also said They are very optimistic about the future of Hong Kong and require us not to interfere with the daily affairs of the Hilton Hotel in accordance with the contract," Li Haonan said.
"This American guy is more optimistic about the future of Hong Kong than the British guy, which is really interesting." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile. He remembered that in history, Li Ka-shing bought out the Hilton Hotel contract in 1985. In other words, no matter how the economy in Hong Kong deteriorates in the past two years or how rumors spread, it will not affect the Hilton Hotel. At most, it will The sound is just a bit off for now.
"Many of the British people in Hong Kong are short-sighted. They believe that if Hong Kong does not follow the British, the economy will collapse. They do not want to think that with so many areas following the British, Hong Kong can develop simply because Hong Kong is It’s just a platform for the mainland’s internationalization.” Li Haonan said with a smile: “On the contrary, the relationship between the mainland and the United States is now good, and there are many economic cooperations. American capital is still very optimistic about Hong Kong, and we just need to wait until this period of time passes!”
"But this period of time has passed, which is not good for us. Once Hong Kong's economy improves, Hilton Hotels will probably be even more unwilling to sell out its joint venture!" Chen Zhiwen said.
"This kind of thing usually doesn't succeed the first time. I'd better arrange to talk to them again." Li Haonan said again, involving a buyout contract worth hundreds of millions, it is indeed unlikely that it can be negotiated quickly. Perhaps the other party's first strong refusal is also a bargaining chip for subsequent price increases.
"Normally, if it were the other way around and someone wanted to ask me to buy such a long-term contract, they would probably get angry. Besides, anyone with a discerning eye can actually see our purpose of buying out the contract." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.
Based on the land prices in Hong Kong, even if the land prices in Central have dropped a bit, their value is still many times what it was before.
When land prices and house prices were low, it was not cost-effective to demolish and build a new building. At that time, it was better to find a piece of land nearby, but the house prices were high, so the cost of demolition was not worth mentioning. Let’s talk about the land king next door. At its peak, the price was HK$7.3 billion, which is the construction cost of how many Hilton hotels could be purchased!
As for why we can guess that Chen Zhiwen will demolish it after the acquisition, the first is because his properties need a larger headquarters, and the second is that the Hilton Hotel has a history of more than 20 years, and the original decoration is old and outdated. , the business during this period is not bad, but it is not good either. It is far inferior to the Cultural Oriental or the Grand Hotel. Thirdly, the land is such a good one. It would be a pity to use it for a hotel. It would be more profitable to build an office building. This As for this business, the media has already figured it out for Chen Zhiwen.
The people at the Hilton Hotel are not fools. After a little investigation, they will naturally know Chen Zhiwen's purpose.
"No matter what, we have to fight quickly. It has been delayed for too long. If Hong Kong's future is determined, the economy will recover!" Li Haonan said.
"It's not that fast. The economic crisis won't end in a year or two." Chen Zhiwen said: "But it does need to be faster. As long as the price they ask is not too outrageous, it can be negotiated, but if they really want money randomly, Then I won’t be polite to them. In Hong Kong, we are the local snakes and we have plenty of ways to deal with them.”
Hilton Hotel, if it were a few years ago, would have been a large company for Chen Zhiwen, and there was no need to take the initiative to provoke it, but now, the status is reversed.
Although this kind of hotel chain group seems to be very large, with hundreds or thousands of hotels around the world, these are asset-light management models, that is, local capital builds hotels and then hands them over to Hilton for management. Other InterContinental and Marriott also have They are all similar, but their market value and scale are actually not large.
This is very different from Asian hotel groups. Most of Asia's hotel capital comes from real estate, and they prefer to own their own properties. For example, the Mandarin Oriental Hotel has developed into the 21st century. There are only dozens of hotels in Asia, but its own Its assets are no less than those of Hilton and InterContinental.
"I understand. It's not difficult to deal with them. If I hadn't considered that it might affect our group's reputation, I would have taken action long ago!" Li Haonan said with a smile.
"Okay, try to complete this matter within one or two months. It is estimated that it may take three or four years to close the business, demolish the building, register, and build a new building. The sooner it is built, the better," Chen Zhiwen said. Just a skyscraper, no matter how fast it is built, will take two or three years to build, and the demolition and demolition in front also takes time. This is why Chen Zhiwen asked Lei Shengli to send people to find Bei Jinming first. This kind of building, Just getting involved takes a long time.
"Okay, if there is any further news, I will report it as soon as possible." Li Haonan said.
"Okay, that's it!" Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.
Hong Kong's super-building construction boom is about to come. Before the 1980s, although Hong Kong's land prices were high and low, in general, they were still far behind other developed cities in the world. After all, the average salary in Hong Kong was too high before. Low.
However, after the development of the past ten years, Hong Kong's per capita income has increased rapidly, and Hong Kong's housing prices have increased nearly tenfold from 1985 to 1997, which has caused major changes in the most basic model of real estate.
When real estate prices are not high, construction costs have a greater impact on housing prices. The higher the floor of a building, the higher the cost per unit area.
Therefore, before the 1980s, buildings in Hong Kong were generally around 20 floors. Even the prime location of the Diwang Building only had 40 or 50 floors. This was actually due to the location of these floors, which were more expensive, and it was already cost-effective to build high-rise buildings.
Since 1985, land prices in Hong Kong have increased exponentially, which will lead to the fact that in the future, new properties in Hong Kong will all be super buildings, and the record for the highest building in Hong Kong will be broken within a year or two.
However, if the area is too small, there is nothing that can be done. And the Hilton Hotel's land area is large enough, so he will naturally have to build a super building that will be the tallest at present and even in the next few years.
…
Half a month later, the time quickly arrived before the New Year.
Henry Morgan also returned from the interior.
"How is the situation in the mainland?" Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
"It's not bad, but the hotel in the mainland is a bit worse. My stay was not very comfortable!" Henry Morgan said.
"There are several five-star hotels under construction in Yanjing in the past two years. I think it will be much better if you go there next year!" Chen Zhiwen said.
"I know this, and we have also obtained some data on the entry of business people from the mainland. Not only every year, but every month, the number of people is constantly increasing. The mainland's export trade is also developing very well. From this point of view, the mainland The future economy may not be so bad, and it shouldn’t be difficult to reach the economic level of some medium-sized Asian countries!” Henry Morgan said with a smile.
"So Morgan's bank is planning to invest in China?" Chen Zhiwen asked curiously.
"What are you thinking?" Henry Morgan said with a smile: "We who are in financial investment, the most taboo thing is to end up personally. This time I came here, I just made a plan for some large-scale trade between China and the United States. It’s just an investigation in advance, our Morgan bank is just participating in the financing!”
"That's true. Your investment method is very safe, but you may not be able to get the highest profit!" Chen Zhiwen nodded and said. Many investment banks and hedge funds on Wall Street follow this routine, even if they are not short of money and are right. You are very confident in a certain investment project, but basically you use other people's money to invest, and then share the profits.
"This is the lesson of hundreds of years of blood and tears." Henry said with a smile: "Those who don't abide by this rule will immediately invest their own money in a certain project when they see that it has great benefits. Maybe most of them can make money, but as long as If you lose once, you will go bankrupt!"
"Profits and risks coexist!" Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
"We don't have your confidence, so we won't take risks. Even with the junk bonds you mentioned last time, or the South American sovereign bonds, we won't buy them ourselves, but will introduce them to our various clients. If they make profits, Let’s just enjoy the dividends.” Henry Morgan said.
"It's up to you. Anyway, I just want the land." Chen Zhiwen said with a shrug.
"When I was in the mainland, I was in contact with the United States every day, so I came here today to tell you two good news." Henry Morgan said.
"What's the good news?" Chen Zhiwen asked.
"The first thing is naturally the large amount of farm land you want. Over in the United States, the people I entrusted found a dozen large-scale farms in Texas. These farmers have suffered serious losses in the past two years and are thinking of getting out. In terms of price, the discount should be very large, and in South America, Argentina has the worst government debt, and they have also agreed to transfer a large number of state-owned farms, so you can also take the opportunity to acquire part of it!" Henry Morgan said with a smile.
"It's easy to talk about it in the United States, but in Argentina, the old rules are still there. You have to hold 1% of the shares. With an American background, I can feel more at ease." Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and said.
"That's no problem. I just want to participate. But Eric, if you really succeed in all the acquisitions this time, you may spend more than 500 million US dollars!" Henry said.
"No problem. Anyway, I only need to provide 10% or 20%, and the rest will be a loan. Morgan's bank should be very happy that I will do this." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.
"That's true. As long as farm prices don't plummet, there's no risk." Henry nodded and said, "Another thing is that the NBA team you want to acquire has a target."
(End of chapter)
