Hong Kong Island Old Events

Renn walked into the box and took a glass of red wine from Qi Yaolin. He did not sit down, but stood with Madden, Sassoon and Charlie.

Among them, HSBC, Standard Chartered, Swire and Wheelock were the four major British banks before the 1970s.

Not only are they deeply rooted in Hong Kong Island, they also influence the colonial economy of the British Commonwealth. Among them, HSBC and Standard Chartered are the most powerful and oldest, followed by Taigu, and Wheelock is even lower. Because Wheelock has no British capital background and is a sole proprietorship founded by British Jews.

In the early years, it was engaged in the shipping and warehousing industry in Shanghai. It developed and expanded with the colonial wave of the late Qing Dynasty and the Beiyang period. It is also an enterprise that started with the blood of the Chinese. Later, it acquired the tug-barge company founded by Canadians in Shanghai.

After the outbreak of the Pacific War, Wheelock gave up its tow barge company and real estate in Shanghai and instead vigorously developed the maritime tanker industry. Because Wheelock no longer had any political backing in the country at this time, he had no choice but to evacuate as quickly as possible when a huge change occurred.

Later, Wheelock came to Hong Kong Island to develop and merge with the "Wharf Group", which was also founded by Jews, and used the shipping tanker industry as a fulcrum to re-develop terminal warehousing and other businesses.

This set of business strategies is a foresight and hits the mark of the times. With the global post-war reconstruction and the recovery of trade, Wheelock is making a lot of money and has begun to enter the real estate, retail and other industries.

Of course, Wheelock also introduced many shareholders during the merger and expansion process, but the founder "George Madden" is still the largest shareholder. Wheelock is essentially a family business, and the current chairman "John Madden" is his son.

"John Madden" had served in the Commonwealth Navy during World War II and had accumulated some connections in the political and military circles. He managed the industry smoothly and followed his father's business strategy to continue to vigorously develop the shipping industry.

In 1956, the Egyptian-Israeli war broke out and the Suez Canal was blocked. The world's shipping industry was booming.

Wheelock ranks among the four major British-owned foreign firms.

In a few years, the "Middle East War" will break out again. Egypt once again announced the blockade of the Suez Canal, resulting in longer shipping routes, greater demand for oil tankers, and soaring freight rates!

Wheelock is about to have some of the most glorious years in its history.

For this reason, "John Madden" made the most wrong decision in his life. He sold his listed steel company, spent money to buy more oil tankers, and bet that the "Middle East War" would continue to ferment. Unexpectedly, in just two years, The oil crisis and the reopening of the Suez Canal followed one after another, and Wheelock's shipping business plummeted.

In the end, the "Wharf Group" fell into the hands of the Chinese shipping king Bao Yugang, and Wheelock also began to be put up for sale. British capital and Chinese capital fought each other for ten years to win Wheelock. In the 1980s, Wheelock still fell into the hands of shipping king Bao Yugang, becoming the second of the four major foreign companies to be taken over by Chinese.

This is also the reason why many people have heard of HSBC and Standard Chartered, but not Wheelock. But now Mr. Madden of Wheelock is in the limelight. In addition to lacking a foundation in the banking industry, his development momentum in other industries is catching up. Taikoo Matheson.

People from Swire, HSBC and Standard Chartered also treat Wheelock respectfully.

Qi Yaolin toasted Renne with a glass of wine and said calmly: "Chinese-owned banks have gained momentum in recent years. Oriental Bank has expanded its presence in Asia. The Hang Seng Index compiled by Hang Seng Bank has been adopted by more and more securities companies. .”

"In addition, Guang'an Bank, Dao Heng Bank, and Wing Lung Bank have taken advantage of the real estate industry, and their savings have exceeded HK$100 million."

"Currently, there are more than eight Chinese banks in Hong Kong with savings of over HK$100 million, which has greatly squeezed the living space of British banks."

Madden nodded: "Wheelock established Tak Fong Bank last year with a registered capital of 10 million Hong Kong dollars, but the market-oriented business did not go smoothly."

“Citizens no longer accept new British-owned banks and are very receptive to Chinese-owned banks.”

Standard Chartered's Chief Executive Charity expressed his approval: "Chinese-funded banks generally follow the lead of Eastern Bank and adopt a free account opening strategy without charging individual user service fees. They will naturally win the favor of the public, and their savings interest rates are higher."

Charging personal account opening service fees is a common practice for foreign banks and is implemented all over the world. It is impossible to change strategies just because of one market in Hong Kong Island. If foreign users knew about it, wouldn't they withdraw their money and run away? What's more, this is a huge profit for foreign companies, which can charge tens of millions in service fees every year.

Several senior managers did not dare to think about this aspect at all.

The Hang Seng Index compiled by Hang Seng Bank is a reference index calculated through data based on 33 representative listed companies in various industries. Securities companies use the Hang Seng Index as a reference. A certain service fee is required, but the index service fee is a small amount.

The securities customers brought by the Hang Seng Index to Hang Seng Bank are the bulk of the securities funds attracted.

This index has been accepted by more and more people and will soon become the representative index of Hong Kong stocks. In ten or twenty years, if it continues to ferment, how many customers will it bring to Hang Seng Bank? It can only be said that He Shanheng has completely brought Hang Seng to the position of a first-tier bank with just one move.

The four major foreign banks could no longer sit still.

The banking industry is the economic lifeline of a city and country. Whoever controls the banking industry controls the city's business!

HSBC, Standard Chartered, Swire, and even US-funded Citigroup have relied on banking and finance to continuously penetrate into various industries, control various companies, and become rentiers behind the economy. This is also the reason why the financial industry has high salaries and rich profits, because it is too common to get rich overnight.

British capital allows Chinese-funded factories to grow bigger and enterprises to become stronger. Anyway, one acquisition and one bargain hunting can harvest the profits of decades of hard work of Chinese capital and take away the decades of sweat of Chinese employees.

If you're in a good mood, I'll leave you some scraps so you can get on with your work.

Being in a bad mood will eat your bones.

Let you go bankrupt, lose everything, and be heavily in debt. The reason why the Governor vigorously develops industry is because of the underlying governance logic of raising pigs on Hong Kong Island. On the contrary, when the Governor developed finance, he always used British banks as a booster.

The Chinese are not stupid. Although they are weak, they are diligent, intelligent, and want to get a share of the banking industry. They have also developed two or three big banks in the past few decades. Let’s not mention Li Guanchun of the Bank of East Asia for the moment. As the first Chinese-owned bank, it was taught a lesson by British capital early on.

Never caught up with the bank's potential.

Newly emerged Dongfang, Hengsheng, Guangan, Daoheng, etc.

Each one has greater potential than the last!

Lane listened silently and roughly judged that the big boss "Wheelock" wanted to enter the banking industry.

Sure enough, Madden asked: "Is it possible for British banks to raise interest rates together to attract citizens to save?"

"If Hong Kong dollars are signed and printed by the Hong Kong government, then as a banknote-issuing bank, we can definitely increase the interest rate, which is nothing more than letting the Hong Kong government release more money." Charlie said with a smile: "But Hong Kong dollars are essentially pounds, and Hong Kong Island's banknote printing Power is really just printing money.”

"It's so dry that there's no water at all."

"In this case, if you want to increase interest rates, you have to find investment projects with higher returns. Although Hong Kong Island's economy has developed well in recent years, the highest returns are nothing but real estate projects. But real estate projects are very risky, and banks must do Good risk control.”

"Currently, the interest rate we offer is the highest within the controllable range. Chinese-owned banks are higher than us. It is not because of how powerful their projects are, but because they are more indifferent to risks."

Qi Yaolin smiled and said: "According to the Chinese, if you want to become fat in one bite, you are not afraid of dying! The more they ignore the risks, the more opportunities they give us. In fact, five years ago, when the real estate industry was just emerging, the three of us Jian Yangxing saw an opportunity."

"However, we have been waiting for the day when Chinese-owned banks are completely exposed. According to our calculations, the savings fund pool of 30% of small Chinese-owned banks has reached a dangerous level, and two-tenths of medium and large Chinese-owned banks have reached a dangerous level. Banks and savings fund pools have also reached the warning level. Coupled with the fact that real estate prices have experienced several years of highs and have begun to correct last year, the assets of Chinese-owned banks that have heavily invested in real estate have dropped sharply, and the cash pool is about to bottom out."

"The level of risk is enough."

Madden, Charlie, and Xuansha all nodded.

Because China Capital also has internal risk control. It is impossible for all banks to be extremely blind, but can they control themselves? They are controlled by ministers from their mother's bank and ancestral family, but no one is in charge of Chinese capital.

Likewise, no one will tell the truth.

Therefore, it is unrealistic to expect that the funds of all Chinese-owned banks will be in danger. Judging from the scale of funds, the current level is already a powder keg. Once a crisis of confidence is triggered, Chinese-funded banks will go bankrupt and close down in a series, becoming another delicious meal for British-funded foreign banks.

Only the public opinion, infamy, and legal liability will be borne entirely by the Chinese banks.

When the Chinese banks collapsed, didn’t the market they gave up give opportunities to the British banks? This is also the reason why Madden stands next to the three top executives of foreign banks. He wants to take this opportunity to become an international foreign bank involved in banking and finance like HSBC, Standard Chartered and Swire.

And it is the only foreign business that can be passed down from family to family!

This ambition is not small, but careerists are the easiest to be exploited.

"The Wharf Group has a large number of cargo owners who have certificates of deposit with Mingde Bank and will use Mingde Bank's checks for transactions. Wharf can first refuse the cargo owners to use Mingde Bank's checks to pay for goods, and then secretly spread the news that Mingde Bank is about to News of bankruptcy.”

"In this way, cargo owners and customers will go to Mingde Bank to withdraw money. Based on our understanding of Mingde Bank, they will never be able to cash a large number of checks. Then the bubble of Chinese banks will be burst." Madden held a wine glass. , said slowly: "Hong Kong Island will set off a wave of runs on Chinese banks. Just hire a few pens and financial experts to write a few articles in business newspapers. There is no need to use knives or guns, just use financial stampedes. Will trample Chinese banks to death!"

"Guang'an, Daoheng, Hengsheng, Dongfang."

"No one can escape."

British capital.

We are launching the first financial war against Chinese capital after World War II!