The birth of the Hong Kong Island family

Time flies and it’s a new year in a blink of an eye.

Monday, January 2.

In the morning, Lin Zhichao first came to work at Global Shipping Lines.

He has no fixed work schedule and provides more flexible support to the three group companies. But no matter what, Lin Zhichao works about nine hours a day and six days a week, so he is considered a diligent boss.

If you go abroad, you will have to miss 15 days of work at a time; fortunately, Audrey Hepburn can now bring her children to Hong Kong, which saves Lin Zhichao a certain amount of time and can go abroad three or four times a year.

"Boss, this is a six-month contract just signed by six ships!" Feng Yongfa walked in and handed over a stack of contract information.

At present, the boss has entrusted him with many things, such as the lease signing of the freighter. This makes Feng Yongfa very excited, but also very cautious and hardworking, because he knows that the boss is different from ordinary bosses. His boss belongs to the 'professional level'. ', there are many high requirements in all aspects.

Lin Zhichao nodded and quickly browsed the six contracts. These six ships signed five-year contracts in January and February 1951. Now that they have expired, they will naturally have to be renewed.

"Has the lessor raised any dissatisfaction with the half-year contract?"

Feng Yongfa said: "They wanted to continue to sign a lease for more than three years, but we were only willing to sign a half-year lease, but offered them an extremely favorable rent, so we did not raise any dissatisfaction. In any case, compared to those who would rather park the ship, There is nothing wrong with what we do when we go to the port and beat the shipowners for high prices.”

Lin Zhichao nodded and said, "Well, at least they got a real advantage!"

To be honest, now that Bao Yugang has been tricked by Lin Zhichao, there is no longer a "long-term rental boss" in the world, so Lin Zhichao is not worried about the dissatisfaction of Japanese shipping companies. Because almost all shipowners around the world use one-way short-term charter.

For example, in his previous life, Dong Haoyun 'ridiculed' Bao Yugang - 'What kind of ship owner is he? ’ The implication is that Bao Yugang leased the captain to the shipping company and rarely ran fixed routes or one-way short-term charters himself. In this case, wouldn’t it be a ‘fool’s way of running a business’.

Although long-term leasing can make it easier to gain the trust of banks, the technical content is undoubtedly far inferior to that of ship owners who operate their own ships, so Dong Haoyun made this sarcasm.

Today, Lin Zhichao no longer insists on the long-term rental model, but chooses the most advantageous business model. To be honest, even without HSBC, it seems that he could have grown into the 20-million-ton 'world shipping king' in the late 1970s, because he laid a solid foundation and grasped the cycle accurately.

Feng Yongfa said: "Yes, they are completely accustomed to cooperating with us. They know the quality of our fleet thoroughly, and coupled with the cheap price, they will not want to cooperate."

As everyone knows, Lin Zhichao is 'boiling' the high price.

More than 90% of Global Shipping's load capacity will be free in July and August; 100% of the load capacity will be able to enjoy this wave of dividends.

In the morning, Sandus came to visit Global Shipping. Lin Zhichao took him to visit Global Shipping's "Global Technical Conference", which immediately made the foreigner feel noble.

The entire technical meeting lasted about an hour. The captain who had something happened had to report it truthfully, and the headquarters technical staff recorded it in a book, and finally summarized it into bits and pieces of experience.

In the six years since Global Shipping has been operating, no accidents costing millions of dollars have ever occurred (large-scale accidents such as bottoming out and capsizing). At most, major accidents occurred on the ship itself. The reason was due to the aging of the ship itself. The maximum loss was one to twenty dollars. Ten thousand US dollars; other minor accidents - injuries to sailors, mechanical failures, port congestion, etc., are overall much lower than other shipping companies in Hong Kong.

Walking out of the information technology headquarters, Sandus sighed: "Mr. Lin is really skilled and has a good vision in shipping. I think your equipment is almost the most advanced in the world, and you have invested a lot of money in this area. "

Lin Zhichao said with a smile: "Communication equipment means a small investment but a big return; including many auxiliary equipment on cargo ships, we strive to be the most advanced currently to avoid losing big for small."

Sandus nodded, and the two came to Lin Zhichao's office.

"Mr. Lin, the first large oil tanker will be launched in February. How do you plan to operate it? Is it a long-term lease or a short-term lease?"

After all, HSBC has huge investments and it is impossible not to care about its operations.

Lin Zhichao said: "These ships are temporarily leased on a short-term basis. Once they are on track, I will seek long-term leases. It will probably only take a few months until they are all delivered. After all, European and American oil companies are also wary of long-term leases. There’s a certain amount of trust that needs to be built.”

They are all lies. Once Suez is closed in July (ships from non-friendly countries are first prohibited from passing, which naturally includes ships registered by Western countries such as Britain, France and the United States), freight rates will immediately increase several times, and Lin Zhichao’s idea is to seek three Years of long-term rental; because it is only closed for one year, the rent will definitely drop significantly in the next two years. The combination of three-year long-term rental is definitely the most cost-effective.

As for those European and American oil companies, they were begging to rent ships at that time, and they did not dare to bet that Suez would be opened soon. After all, unless Egypt was destroyed and Britain and France occupied Suez again; and even so, it would take a long time to clean up the sunken ship.

Therefore, there is absolutely no problem signing a three-year lease.

Sandus said curiously: "Didn't Global Shipping already have four oil tankers leased to American oil companies, and they also gave them high recognition?"

Lin Zhichao said: "This is a new ship, and it is of large tonnage. I also want to get a good run-in with the team."

Sandus didn't ask any more questions. After all, Lin Zhichao was the professional.

Afterwards, Lin Zhichao took out a gift box from the cabinet and put it on the coffee table in front of Sandas.

"What is this?" Sandus' heart skipped a beat.

Lin Zhichao smiled without saying a word and motioned for him to open it.

Hearing this, Sandas carefully opened it, and it turned out that there was a yellow golden monkey with charming eyes.

"Monkey is one of the twelve Chinese zodiac animals, and the upcoming Chinese Year will be the Year of the Monkey, so I will give you a memorable gift. We have twelve Chinese zodiac animals, and I naturally hope to give them all to you. To commemorate, it gets bigger every year. You see, the size of this monkey is bigger than the golden lion I gave you originally, but the lion is not a zodiac sign. "

Sanders took it for a while, and instantly felt heavy, and couldn't lift it immediately, about 1,500 ounces (70 catties, 42,000 grams).

"Is this too expensive?" Sandas said hesitantly.

Lin Zhichao smiled and said: "Thank you very much for your hard work for Global Shipping in those years, otherwise Global Shipping may not have half of its achievements today. The annual profit is already a hundred times that. And you know me, I'm not looking for risky or illegal deals, so this is just a souvenir."

If he eats meat, how can he not give soup to Sandus? What's more, Bao Yugang has also entered this industry, so he also needs to be on guard; HSBC can support multiple shipowners, but it must focus on supporting him. OK.

Without hesitation, Sandas closed the suitcase and accepted it. After all, it was worth more than 20,000 pounds, which was already several times his annual salary, so he was naturally moved. He also doesn't need to consider risks, because the business between HSBC and Global is a very normal cooperation.

"Okay, I like this gift very much. I know your style of doing things, and I am optimistic about your development in the shipping industry."

"Thanks"

Nonsense, in July this year, the whole company of HSBC Bank has to be optimistic about Lin Zhichao.

Of course, Lin Zhichao will still just win over Sandus, who has the best relationship with him, and Sandus can still aspire to the position of taipan, at least he can escort Lin Zhichao until the mid-1970s.

As for Shen Bi coming to power, no matter whether he takes care of Lin Zhichao or not, HSBC's interests are already tied to him (partnership company), and it is impossible to fall out with Lin Zhichao.

And by that time, Lin Zhichao may already be the "Chinese Governor" of Hong Kong, even if it is under the British rule, he will grab it if he has to.

When Sanders left, Lin Zhichao asked someone to carry the box for him. After all, it was more than 80 catties from the mainland!

He was in the office, thinking.

At the end of February, the first 56,000-ton oil tanker built for him by Germany will be launched, and ministerial-level officials and their wives will be arranged to attend. At the same time, Lin Zhichao, the Asian shipping king, will gradually step onto the world stage.

Especially when the Suez Canal crisis broke out in July, Lin Zhichao was sitting on a new 520,000-ton oil tanker and a 700,000-ton cargo ship, which would make Lin Zhichao the "Onassis" of the East.

Of course, Lin Zhichao definitely didn't like this title. Onassis was nothing. At present, it only had a fleet of more than one million tons of deadweight. Lin Zhichao believed that Onassis would be surpassed in the early 1960s.

I can no longer keep a low profile, it’s time to be high-profile!

Today, although the shipping companies in Greece and Japan are emerging forces in the world, the shipping in these two places will only be a flash in the pan, because artificial wages will become the resistance to their development.

Cheung Kong Holdings.

The Three Musketeers came to Lin Zhichao's office together, and Tang Caiyun happened to be there, so they also listened.

Huang Changhonghui reported: "The project of 'Public Square Street' in Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon, the plot ratio approved by the Hong Kong government is 9.8, and the buildable building area is 1.666 million square feet. The preliminary plan is eight 17-storey residential buildings. More than 230 units”

Lin Zhichao calculated that the price of more than 1,800 residential units can be more than 60 million Hong Kong dollars. If the cost of construction fees, taxes, etc. is 15 million, it is equivalent to a net profit of more than 40 million Hong Kong dollars, because the original land price was only about 4 million.

And the value of this land is now 17 million, so the actual investment is more than 30 million, which is still double the profit.

It’s so profitable!

No wonder in the early 1960s in the previous life, Liao Baoshan announced that her assets exceeded 100 million, which she earned from real estate in the past few years; including the Zhang Yujie family, they also had assets of hundreds of millions in the early 1960s. It was taken down by Lin Zhichao. If there is no prosperous land, the profit will be greatly reduced.

In the previous life, although Huo Yingdong took the lead in selling uncompleted properties, he certainly did not earn as much as Liao Baoshan, Zhang Yujie and others, but his net worth was about 50 million.

It looks very profitable, but such a big project can easily bankrupt the average person.

First of all, the land is expensive, and it will not be reserved in advance like Lin Zhichao;

Secondly, it requires a lot of interest expenses. It is difficult for ordinary people to use tens of millions to buy land, so generally installment payments and loans require millions of interest;

Finally, if it happened during the slump in 1957~1958, then the sales would need to drop by 40% to 50%, and more importantly, it might not be sold, and the other side would have to press the account, then it could only be liquidated.

Shaking off the thoughts in his mind, Lin Zhichao said: "Design the 8 residential buildings as a 'housing concept', open up a public space in the middle, with tennis courts, rest gardens and other facilities. Then sell them in two phases, and sell three in the first half of the year." One building, three will be sold in the second half of the year.”

Huang Changhong nodded and said, "Okay, we will take out the drawings and give them to you for review as soon as possible!"

The design drawing is relatively simple. After all, it is not considered a large-scale housing estate. It is actually a circle of eight residential buildings. However, this land is facing the street on three sides, so there must be shops facing the street downstairs.

With this one project alone, this year's goal is almost complete. Of course, some small properties still need to be developed.

Last year, Cheung Kong completed the sales of four real estate projects, two of which were in cooperation with others, earning about 3.5 million Hong Kong dollars; two of them were their own real estate projects, earning 7 million; Hong Kong dollars, and also earned two floors of shops, two floors of ground floor shops, and two floors of office buildings.

Huge profits!

Fortunately, Lin Zhichao is used to making a lot of money, so he is not shocked anymore!

To the outside world, Lin Zhichao said that one building can only earn more than 1 million, so he cut it in half.

Hong Kong businessmen like to hide their wealth!

Then, Hu Zhaoxu said: "Boss, in the middle of this month, another official land auction was held in Hong Kong. I heard that there is a residential land in Kowloon of nearly 100,000 square feet."

That would cost tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars. Currently, the average price of residential land in urban areas of Hong Kong and Kowloon has exceeded 100 Hong Kong dollars per square foot. If this trend continues, the average residential land price in Hong Kong and Kowloon will reach more than HK$150 per square foot by the end of the year.

Generally speaking, the more frontage to the street, the more valuable the land will be because the plot area is higher. For example, the land on Public Sifang Street faces the street on three sides, and the plot ratio is directly given to 9.8. Of course, the later you get, the smaller the floor area ratio will be because the buildings are too dense.

Zhou Fuzhao immediately said: "The company's funds can only buy smaller properties. After all, a lot of funds have not been collected yet, so we can only scrape together HK$3 million."

The implication is - no money!

After Lin Zhichao thought for a while, he said: "I will embezzle 10 million from Yangtze River Industry and purchase land in the first half of the year!"

Yangtze River Industry earns 45 million a year and keeps half of it for its own development. There is no problem in taking out 10 to 20 million.

Everyone has no doubt that the boss has plenty of money anyway!

After the Three Musketeers left, Tang Caiyun asked a question: "If more than two thousand residential units are sold in a year, how much of the overall supply chain will it account for?"

Lin Zhichao said directly: "About 15%! In fact, Hong Kong should be able to accommodate 20,000 residential units in this wave, but more than 30,000 residential units may be built in the past two years. So I speculate that there will be a new wave of residential units in the second half of next year. Supply exceeds demand!”

Tang Caiyun quickly asked: "How serious are the consequences?"

Lin Zhichao said: "I don't know, but as long as we don't go into debt, there will be no problem."

Tang Caiyun said: "Cheung Kong Industrial has no debts. Many real estate developers outside only need to pay 10% for their land, and they will use it to develop real estate."

It’s crazy. Many owners of land and old buildings allow buyers to pay 10% to 20% of the capital to get the land to you, and you can pay in installments later.

As a result, many real estate developers in Hong Kong have developed properties and made huge profits.

The consequences will be known in the second half of next year.

After all, if you pay 10% of the payment, as long as your sales are frozen, the real estate company will soon be in big trouble; the land is bought at a high price, and the house price will fall again. Important law firms and banks will freeze your funds, and the crisis will be unsolvable in an instant. .

Generally speaking, banks deal with this kind of thing by "ordering" and "auctioning" real estate properties. By then, the real estate company will have to shed its skin even if it is not dead.

In mid-January, Lin Zhichao and Hu Zhaoxu participated in the auction, which immediately attracted attention in the venue.

In the auctions held in the past six months, Changjiang Real Estate was naturally the most handsome, followed by Liao Baoshan. In short, everyone was very enthusiastic.

Soon, Chen Detai walked up to Lin Zhichao and said: "Lin Sheng, Liao Sheng has agreed to eat cakes, it would be great if you can agree. After all, every time the price is high, everyone loses a lot. Mansion."

Many people followed, and everyone was waiting for Lin Zhichao to speak.

Of course, they are not putting pressure, nor do they dare to put pressure.

When Lin Zhichao saw this, he was embarrassed for a moment and then said: "Okay! Since everyone is like this, I will agree to discuss it."

Everyone was delighted, and then sat back down as if nothing had happened.

Lin Zhichao returned to his seat and sneered in his heart. What these people didn't know was that in the first half of the year, Lin Zhichao bought a maximum of 200,000 square feet of land, so he stopped participating because the land was too high.

And because of Lin Zhichao's joining, the land price in this era will definitely be higher than in the previous life, and many people will suffer even worse; then in 1958, Lin Zhichao can take the opportunity to buy some "auctioned" real estate at a low price.

Picking up leaks is the way to go.

Soon, the auction started. The goal of Cheung Kong this time was very simple, that is to auction off a large piece of land; therefore, the other small pieces of land were not bid for a single price, and naturally they would not be "cookies".

What makes Lin Zhichao frown is that these people are so greedy that they even want to eat a piece of 20,000 square feet of land. It could have been auctioned for more than 2 million, but it was sold at 1.6 million.

Needless to say, there was a profit of 500,000 yuan, which was eaten up by several companies.

For a time, the atmosphere has become bad.

If the Hong Kong government discovers this problem, it may have to issue regulations or even threaten to arrest people. Of course, it is just a threat. After all, this is not illegal and there are no regulations to follow.

"The land below is a blessed land with an area of ​​96,000 square feet. It is located in Argyle Street, Yau Ma Tei. The starting price is 5 million. The price increase per lot will not be less than 5,000. Let's start!"

The auctioneer frowned a little, and the people below were always whispering to each other, but they didn't know they were 'cake eaters'.

This piece of land was exactly what Lin Zhichao wanted, and he started bidding.

After ten minutes of bidding, the price had reached 7.8 million, and it was finally taken by Lin Zhichao. But for this piece of land, we still have to compete privately with three companies.

evening.

Lin Zhichao, Feipingtai, Chen Detai, Liao Baoshan, Li Kangjie and others gathered together and started eating cakes.

In one wave, the bids for 9.5 million were made by Feipingtai, Chen Detai, and Li Kangjie, and the five companies shared a profit of 1.3 million. Then, Liao Baoshan and Lin Zhichao bid again, and the result was not announced until 11 million. Naturally, Lin Zhichao won.

In fact, Lin Zhichao only spent 10 million Hong Kong dollars and saved more than 500,000 Hong Kong dollars.

Just as Lin Zhichao was about to leave, Li Kangjie, who had never been in contact with him, said to Lin Zhichao: "Sheng Lin, are you interested in a big alliance? We can form a company together to invest in real estate. You can contribute as much as you want, but the important thing is to participate?"

Lin Zhichao asked with a smile: "Are there those people?"

Li Kangjie was overjoyed and thought that Lin Zhichao was interested, so he said: "There are many people, including He Xian and He Hongsheng from Austria, who also participated!"

At this time, Airship Tai quickly said: "Lin Sheng, I just participated in a small amount of shares!"

The implication is that I am not optimistic about this great alliance.

Lin Zhichao said: "I'm afraid I won't be able to participate! The company has so many things to do, it's enough!"

Li Kangjie's face suddenly changed, and he could only say goodbye unhappily. He just mentioned a bunch of 'big shots', thinking that Lin Zhichao would give him face to participate!

This large alliance is guaranteed by Omen He Xian and has a steady stream of loans from Hang Seng Bank. Many of the partners are "smugglers" from the past few years. Even Li Gaofu is involved. I don't know if the shares are heavy.

Airship Tai stayed until the end and said to Lin Zhichao: "Lin Sheng, you still see clearly and act decisively. You don't know, I was not optimistic about this big alliance from the beginning, and Li Kangjie and I are not familiar with each other, so he came to say I made a lot of money and wanted to play with everyone. I really couldn’t refuse, so I invested a little bit, but I really wasn’t optimistic about it.”

Lin Zhichao said with a smile: "It seems that the heroes have the same view. To be honest, I don't think a person from Shanghai can engage in real estate."

Airship Tai was stunned for a moment, this was too straightforward, and then he echoed: "That's true. When Li Kangjie saw others making money, he recruited a large group of people to participate. When there were more people, they had different opinions. Fortunately, I was able to vote. If there is less, it doesn’t matter if the loss is over.”

Jiang Zephyr Tai reminded him of today, and Lin Zhichao also had the desire to date, so he said, "How about we go have supper together?"

"If Lin Sheng invites you, then you must invite him. I know there is one."

Later, the two made an appointment to have dinner together for the first time. After all, they had been acquaintances at auctions in the past. (End of chapter)