The birth of the Hong Kong Island family

Early August, Kwai Chung Pier.

The International Container Terminals Company held a celebration ceremony for "handling 20 million containers" and specially invited the Hong Kong Governor "Fat Peng" who took office in July.

Because as soon as Fei Peng took office, he showed "people-friendly" behavior and inspected the "sufferings" of Hong Kong people in various ways, so the Hong Kong media gave good comments one after another, and the citizens were also deceived; therefore, Lin Zhichao believed that Fei Peng at this time Peng was accessible and invited him to attend the celebration.

Of course, if Fei Peng comes up with a "political reform plan" in the future, Lin Zhichao will definitely avoid suspicion and will not get too close to Fei Peng to avoid the excitement of the opposite officials.

Although being a businessman is inseparable from politics, don’t take sides!

On Kwai Chung Pier.

Fei Peng said with a smile: "Mr. Lin, I heard that you are also investing in container terminals in the mainland. Aren't you worried about your business being taken away?"

When investing in container terminals on the mainland, International Container Terminals only holds 50% of the shares; and the rise of mainland container terminals will inevitably take away the business of Hong Kong container terminals.

Lin Zhichao said calmly: "Even without my investment, the mainland will inevitably develop container terminals in such a huge market. Therefore, if international containers invest now, they will not worry about their business being robbed. Especially as the container business is gradually increasing, Hong Kong's Kwai Chung Terminal It has been loaded again, so the market in this industry is very promising and there is no need to worry about lack of business.”

Lin Ruihuan also said on the side: "With the support of the mainland's huge market, and Hong Kong's various advantages, even many businesses from the mainland need to be transited in Hong Kong."

Fat Peng laughed 'haha' and said: "No wonder! Mr. Lin is very discerning in business, and Mr. Xiao Lin also makes sense. Hong Kong is a good place!"

When the three of them were talking, reporters pressed their shutters one after another. They saw Lin Zhichao and his son and Fei Peng chatting and laughing happily. I believe they will make headlines again tomorrow!

as expected.

The next day, many media in Hong Kong used photos of Lin Zhichao, his son, and Peng Peng chatting and laughing as headlines. Although the content was a celebration of International Containers handling 20 million containers, there were many subtexts.

Now, at the time when Kwai Chung Container No. 9 is being released, it can be said that many caring people are paying attention to the attitude of the "new government"!

Prior to this, 7 of the 9 members of the Hong Kong Legislative Council were Lin Zhichao's "private aides." Generally speaking, the Governor will not deny the resolutions of the Legislative Council.

So if the Legislative Council decides that Kwai Chung Container Terminal No. 9 will adopt an open bidding method, who in Hong Kong can compete with Cheung Kong, which has tens of billions of cash flows?

Hutchison Whampoa alone can spend tens of billions of dollars in bidding, scaring those consortiums with ideas to death.

In the words of some media, even if there is a global bidding process, no consortium in the world can defeat the Lin Chichao family in Hong Kong!

But now, when many consortiums interested in competing for Pier 9 saw the smiles of Fei Peng and Lin Zhichao and his son when they met, they felt like they were covered in snow on a cold day, thinking that things were going wrong.

Lin Chaoren, who has the right location and right people, now has the perfect opportunity.

Of course, there are also many media criticisms of the Lin Chichao family's monopoly in Kwai Chung Containers (Hong Kong does not have a monopoly law).

Currently, Hutchison Whampoa's International Container controls 12 berths at Kwai Chung Container Terminal 4, 6, 7 and 8. Among them, Kwai Chung Container Terminal 8 was established in 1990 by Modern Containers and International Container jointly with COSCO. The joint venture CHT' jointly won the bid, each receiving two berths.

In other words, among the 20 berths in Kwai Chung (No. 23 has only 1 berth each, No. 678 has 4 berths each, and No. 145 has 2 berths each), international containers account for 11 ( CHT's 50% equity (counting one berth, COSCO counts as one), accounts for exactly 55% of the share; but if commercial facilities such as container buildings and storage yards are included, the share actually exceeds 60%.

at the same time:

Container Terminal 1 belongs to the ‘Global Sea and Land Container’, and the Lin Zhichao family’s Global Group holds a 50% interest, which is equivalent to 1 berth.

Modern Containers, which owns 50% of Containers 2, 3 and 5, and Container 8, has 6 berths; however, the Wharf Group holds 16% of the equity. Maersk and British Rail hold 28% of the shares, China Merchants 20%, Swire 17.5%, HSBC 6.5%, Jebsen \u0026 Co. 5%, and the rest are held by Jardine Matheson and Kadoorie. After calculation, Wharf Group also counts as one berth.

In fact, the Lam family controls 15 berths (CHT, Global Marine and Land, and 1 Modern Container), occupying more than 75% of the container berths in Kwai Chung, Hong Kong, including other commercial parts. That's an 80% share.

so.

The media use the terms "House Estate King" and "Container Terminal King" to describe the dominance of Lin Zhichao's family in these two fields.

But now, Lin Zhichao is still not satisfied and is determined to acquire Container Terminal 9.

International Container is the leader in the industry, with impressive performance and rich experience, and is known as the local snake in Kwai Chung.

‘Kwai Chung Pier 9, whose family will be the winner’

Many media outlets have followed up the reports and conducted comprehensive analysis and reports.

A month later, Lin Zhichao returned to Hong Kong from Panama.

This trip to Panama was at the request of the Panamanian government to invest in an airport and hotel on a tourist island. The two parties had a pleasant conversation. The Panamanian government even wanted to give Lin Zhichao a gambling card, but Lin Zhichao declined.

He would not take advantage of gambling, even if it was business. Even if this gambling card could be resold for a very high price, Lin Zhichao still did not take it. But in any case, his relationship with the Panamanian government has always been extraordinary.

As early as the 1950s, he had ships registered in Panama. He also purchased some assets in Panama over the years, but not many; however, this investment was still relatively large, involving US$200 million, based on Hutchison Whampoa's Invest in name.

Panama is the southernmost country in Central America. The United States intervened in this country in the 1980s and supported a pro-American government to come to power because Panama controls the operation of the Central Panama Canal.

In fact, when Lin Zhichao invested in Panama, he also secured ports at both ends of the Panama Canal. Under normal circumstances, whether you are passing through the Suez Canal or the Panama Canal, you need to queue up. During the waiting time, they need to dock at local ports, so if they win the ports at both ends of the Panama Canal, it will be equivalent to obtaining a stable source of income.

More importantly, Panama, as a tax haven, has a lot of re-export trade business, so the port business naturally has no worries.

Today, Hutchison Whampoa's energy and telecommunications are still in the investment stage and have almost no profits; but the profits from the port business already account for 35% of the group, which is similar to that of retail and real estate.

However, Hutchison Whampoa's real estate profits have no prospects, because the development will be completed soon. It is not a real estate developer, but only uses its own land for development, which is the same as Hong Kong Electric.

In addition to energy, telecommunications, ports, retail, and real estate, Hutchison Whampoa of course also has a large number of other businesses, such as finance, manufacturing, trade, shipping, etc. There are quite a lot of businesses, but other businesses are not major investments.

Cheung Kong Holdings.

Lam Rui Huan Hui reported: "Dad, Peng Peng removed four members of the Legislative Council and replaced them with his people."

Lin Zhichao was not surprised and said: "A gentleman, a courtier - what the ancients said makes sense, so there is no need to be surprised. We have never relied on collusion between politics and business."

Although 7 of the previous 9 congressmen are Lin Zhichao's "personal staff", in fact they have no "interests". In the end, many of them joined Lin Zhichao's companies and served as directors. In fact, they were in name only, or they had someone I made a lot of money by investing in 'Real Estate Trust REITs' established by Lin Zhichao. And what Lin Zhichao got from them was nothing more than one thing - fair competition.

For example, in this dispute over Container Terminal 9, Lin Zhichao just hopes to adopt an ‘open bidding’ method. This is very reasonable!

Lin Ruihuan said: "I heard that there is a voice from the Legislative Council members - the bidding method of Pier 9 is no longer open bidding, but negotiated bidding - not based on high price as the only criterion for winning the bid, but based on the bidders' Comprehensive conditions.”

Lin Zhichao said: "The comprehensive conditions are a soft indicator and have great flexibility. However, the comprehensive conditions of the International Container Terminal Company are very good. The design planning, construction and management experience of the container terminal are international benchmarks, and it is also the world's largest The Container Terminal Company (which handles the calculation of container quantities), so we only need to come up with the evil plan (a clever idea), and it is expected that it will be the same as when we tendered for the top of Central Station and Admiralty Station."

In fact, he already had a bad premonition in his heart, but he would not say it out loud.

When soldiers come, they will block the water and use the soil to cover it up. This is his consistent style!

You have a good plan, I have a wall ladder, let's see who has the last laugh.

Lin Ruihuan said overly calmly: "Dad, public opinion outside generally believes that the Hong Kong government really intends to weaken our family's monopoly position in the container terminal. I am afraid that we are also isolated and helpless from the Hong Kong government, so now many other The consortium is ready to make a move and start forming gangs to seize Container Terminal No. 9!"

Starting this year, Ma Shimin has been somewhat neglected, mainly reflected in the fact that Lin Zhichao did not take him to the mainland projects. Secondly, Lin Ruihuan began to participate in Hutchison Whampoa's affairs and served as executive director.

Lin Zhichao said: "It's useless to think too much, let's come up with a good plan!"

Lin Ruihuan nodded and said, "Okay, I'll go find Ma Shimin and Huo Jianning to discuss and come up with the best plan!"

Lin Zhichao has "retired to the second line" and naturally will not participate in the specific plan.

Three days later, something happened that made the ownership of Container Terminal 9 confusing.

Fat Peng invited Lin Zhichao to join the "Governor's Business Council", but Lin Zhichao declined and asked Lin Ruihuan to participate in his place. Fat Peng readily agreed and invited Lin Ruikai, president of the media group, to join the Business Committee.

As the saying goes, the county magistrate is not as good as the current manager. After all, Fei Peng is still Lin Zhichao's 'supervisor', so he has to give him face. In the end, two second-generation members of the Lin family joined the ‘Governor’s Business Council’.

For a time, the whole Hong Kong was in an uproar!

It has also become evidence for the speculators to believe that the relationship between Lin Zhichao and Peng Du is unusual.

No. 79, Deep Water Bay.

Lin Zhichao had a meeting with his five sons in the study.

‘Lam’s Five Tigers’ and ‘Lam’s Twins’ are nicknames given by Hong Kong public opinion to describe Lin Zhichao’s five sons and two daughters each ‘taking over’ a group company. The tiger acted as a central supporter and formed a powerful local tycoon.

In fact, neither of them has reached the stage of taking over, and at most they are vice presidents of Shangri-La Hotel Group and Uniqlo.

"Since Fei Peng came to power, various behaviors indicate that he came here with a political suspicion. Therefore, after the two brothers Ruihuan and Ruikai entered the Business Committee, they should not participate in political-related topics, speak less, and keep a low profile. .”

Lin Ruihuan and Lin Ruikai immediately nodded in agreement!

"good"

"Um"

Lin Ruicheng asked curiously: "Dad, what is this Fat Peng's idea? As soon as he came on stage, he showed off all kinds of people-friendly performances. This was very different from the previous Hong Kong governor, who seemed to be very eager to show off. Logically speaking, the British We will withdraw from Hong Kong in five years, so why bother?”

Lin Zhichao said tactfully: "Hong Kong has no right to choose under the British system - the governor of Hong Kong is appointed by London, officials are appointed, and legislators and district councilors are not elected by one vote. Fei Pengruo was the last one." Do you think it will be a big problem if these rights are released in five years?"

The five brothers were immediately surprised. Lin Ruicheng said: "Of course it's big. Wouldn't it be leaving trouble to the new government in the future?"

Lin Ruihuan said: "I'm afraid there will be many conflicts with the other side, and more seriously, there will be shocks in Hong Kong, which will affect the economy."

Lin Zhichao waved his hands and said: "It's not a big problem. The important thing is that we don't get involved. You should also be careful about your words and actions in this regard. Those who do business should not get involved in this kind of thing. Don't make a single move. Just get involved!"

"Yes, Dad!" the five brothers said in unison.

Even though my father was friends with many political figures, including Thatcher, Reagan, Kennedy, and others, he had a lot of connections. However, he never found that his father was involved in the politics of other countries, nor did he use these connections to make profits. What matters more is mutual benefit - I invest, and you give me fair opportunities and a good environment.

Then, Lin Zhichao said: "After the 1990s, Hong Kong people's admiration for tycoons has gradually decreased, especially with high housing prices. Society will pass on the contradiction to businessmen like us. Of course, you don't need to care about this. We are all doing business legally and doing charity." There is no need to do less, as long as you have a clear conscience.”

The five brothers nodded, and Lin Ruikai said: "We have more than a clear conscience. What my father brought to Hong Kong is huge national wealth, our media group, Yangtze River Industrial Group. In the early days, Universal Group."

Lin Zhichao smiled and said, "You still care a little about those public opinions!"

Lin Ruikai said: "A little bit, after all, what we have brought to Hong Kong is far beyond what other rich people have."

What he means is that the technology, manufacturing, and electronic games of Cheung Kong Industries, as well as the media group's "comics" and "Hong Kong culture" are all gifts brought to Hong Kong by the Lam family.

Lin Zhichao said seriously: "We are also profit makers and do not need such ideas. What's more, Hong Kong is the root of our Lin family, and we have an obligation to develop it."

At this age, he no longer cares about too much fame!

Lin Ruikai nodded and said, "Well, I understand!" Lin Zhichao said with satisfaction, "Just understand, don't be attached to certain things."

He actually wanted to say that some Hong Kong people would become more and more dissatisfied with the tycoons and asked everyone to strengthen the safety of their families.

But think about it, there is no need to intervene so early.

The Daquan Gang started kidnapping wealthy people in 1996. Something else happened earlier - Ye Jihuan entered Hong Kong with arms and was seriously injured and arrested.

Therefore, Lin Zhichao only needed to arrange strong security starting in 1995 and arrange for some grandchildren to study abroad in advance, and there would not be a big problem.

In particular, there was a signal that Ye Jihuan was arrested. Of course, it is possible that history will not repeat itself, but the kidnapping must have happened around that time.

Because at this time, Hong Kong citizens are not dissatisfied with the tycoons, and the kidnappers will not realize that there is no way to kidnap rich people to make money by robbing jewelry.

Hong Kong’s ‘King of Thieves’ also has ‘updates’, and will not update the next generation until a certain time comes.

Jardine headquarters.

Jardine Matheson and Sun Hung Kai are currently negotiating for Container Terminal 9.

This time, Jardine Matheson and Sun Hung Kai formed a consortium to take over Container Terminal 9.

Simon Keswick said: "Mr. Guo, the key point of this victory is to directly exclude international containers!"

Guo Bingxiang and other Sun Hung Kai executives suddenly became curious. Guo Bingxiang said: "How can we exclude it?"

International Containers far surpasses their consortium in terms of financial strength and rich experience; the only advantage of their consortium is that it has gathered British and Hong Kong capital.

Simon said: "As far as I know, the Hong Kong government intends to exclude international containers, but it must be worried about many things. Therefore, if public opinion outside supports it, then the Hong Kong government will naturally exclude them. Therefore, we need to build momentum, If you criticize the international container monopoly in newspapers, I believe more people will join in."

Guo Bingxiang was not Guo Desheng, but he was still grateful to Lin Zhichao for his support back then, so he was quickly persuaded by Ximen.

What's more, competition in the business world is unavoidable.

The competition among Hong Kong tycoons is becoming increasingly fierce.

The days that followed.

International Container Terminals has a monopoly on the Hong Kong market and has been criticized by various consortiums that want to seize Pier 9. Their "self-interested" views are very popular among the business community, public opinion circles and the Hong Kong government.

Some congressmen said in the media: Experience and financial resources should not be the first choice, but the seriousness of monopoly should be considered. According to international rules, if a company's market share reaches more than 50%, it can be considered to be in a monopoly position; if it exceeds 70%, it is a high degree of monopoly.

Some economists believe that monopoly is not conducive to the development of the industry, and will also cause government management to lose control. Manufacturers in a monopoly position can monopolize prices, but they do not think about reforming operations and improving technology because they have no competitors or their opponents are too weak.

Some legal experts have suggested that the government implements patent management and controls prices in industries that must be monopolized (water supply, power supply, gas supply, etc.), while allowing and encouraging free competition in other industries. The Hong Kong government does not enact anti-monopoly laws like other countries (the core of which is to curb the development of the party in a monopoly position and support the weaker party). The Hong Kong government pursues a policy of active non-interference in the operation and development of enterprises. But when it exercises its limited rights, "balance" should be one of the factors in its decision-making.

Late September.

The Hong Kong government officially announced that it would grant four berths at Pier 9 to consortiums such as British-owned Jardine Matheson and Chinese-owned Sun Hung Kai for construction and operation.

Public outcry!

Public opinion beforehand is one thing, but actual direct approval is another.

In other words, even if the international container has absolute strength, the Hong Kong government will directly exclude it.

Doing so is actually unfair!

Cheung Kong Group.

Lin Zhichao didn't get angry after hearing the news!

He knows that things can still turn around, because if the Hong Kong government does this, it will not get support from the mainland!

According to the agreement negotiated between China and Britain, major projects require communication. Now that the Hong Kong government does not follow the regulations, the mainland can completely use it - I will not recognize this 'approval' after 1997.

Let me ask, do Jardine Matheson and Sun Hung Kai dare to invest a penny?

the answer is negative.

What Lin Zhichao has to do is not to express his position and not participate in Fei Peng's next political reform, so he is bound to win Container Terminal 9!

"Guo Desheng Family"

He muttered something softly, but nothing more followed.

Of course, Lin Zhichao would not deliberately target the Guo Desheng family. After all, his current social status is much more particular.

This time, although the consortium formed by Sun Hung Kai and Jardine Matheson criticized International Container for being too monopolistic in the media, this was not excessive and was considered business.

If he targets others for this, he will be called a coward.

Moreover, other consortiums have joined in the criticism.

In business, Lin Zhichao would also use such competitive methods.

So if it were Lin Zhichao in the future, he would not show mercy.