The Industrial Giant Reborn

"Simon Keswick? He seems to still want to keep Yihe?" Chen Zhiwen said with a smile. Although this person's name is not well-known among mainlanders in later generations, it is relatively famous in the entire history of Yihe. Successful, especially under the previous control of the Keswick family, Jardine Matheson Group has been implementing the strategy of making money in Hong Kong and investing overseas. A large amount of profits earned from Hong Kong are invested around the world, but the predecessors of Simon Keswick They are all a bunch of waste. The entire Jardine Group looks very large, but it has no industrial competitiveness.

Simon Keswick had the same attitude. In 1987, he even prepared to sell land. However, his various overseas investments were very successful, allowing Jardine to gain a firm foothold in many countries.

But that is for the future. Now, he is just a British aristocrat who has barely fallen into decline.

"Yes, that's what Simon Keswick meant. He forced Newbijian to resign before, which was actually the purpose. He was also worried that Jardine Land would be destroyed by Newbikin." Zhou Jiayang said.

"If they unite as one, I think it will take some effort to acquire Land. It's a pity." Chen Zhiwen said: "I'm gone and there's nothing to talk about. After Yihe is in our hands, we will naturally make decisions based on our own situation." To decide which investments can be kept and which investments can be sold. If the Keswick family wants to return these properties, they can negotiate and purchase them at that time. As long as the money is in place, it doesn't matter if we sell the properties we don't need to them. "

The Keswick family wanted to make money in Hong Kong but did not want to take any risks, so they adopted a multi-layered business model of small and large control to control the huge assets in Hong Kong. Before Yizhi Mutual Control, in short, Keswick The family controls Jardine Matheson with 10% of the shares, and Jardine Matheson also controls Land with about 10%, and Land also controls Wharf and many other companies with about 10-20%.

Jardine Matheson's market capitalization was only HK$5 to 6 billion at its previous peak, and Land's was more than HK$15 billion. If Wharf had not been acquired, it would have been around HK$5 billion, not to mention various other subsidiaries. , that is to say, without Chen Zhiwen, the Keswick family would have controlled more than HK$30 billion in assets with about HK$500 million, and then used various legal and formal means to legally drain blood from the entire group to strengthen their family. wealth.

But this model is a lamb to be slaughtered in front of Chinese giants. If it were not for its large scale, it would have been taken down long ago. After being acquired, the so-called Keswick family was just a family with a market value of 4 billion. He is just a medium-sized shareholder of a Hong Kong dollar company, worth about 400 million Hong Kong dollars. In addition to some of his family's businesses in other fields, he is estimated to be worth more than a billion Hong Kong dollars. At this level, there is nothing that can attract him. He is too lazy to see things like this.

"Okay, then I'll just send him away." Zhou Jiayang nodded and said, "Sheng Chen, here are all the assets and debts of Real Estate. Please take a look."

After saying that, Zhou Jiayang handed over another document. The first thing he wanted to do when he came here was this, but the boss had been guiding the direction just now, so he could only wait for a short while, and it wouldn't be possible anyway. How long will it take.

"Let me take a look." Chen Zhiwen took the document. The first page was a list, which contained the names of some of Land's current properties. From top to bottom, the dozen at the top were naturally the entire properties in Central, Hong Kong Island. , behind it are various property buildings on the Kowloon Peninsula.

These are just the first page. There are also some of slightly smaller value on the second page and later, such as some land parcels in slightly worse locations but larger areas, and then some non-detached properties in core commercial locations such as Central and Land. The assets are not just large properties, many single-story floors are also very valuable.

The most valuable among them is naturally the former land king, Exchange Square. Although it has not yet been completed, the total area in the future will be 2 million square feet. This can be said to be the largest single building in Central, Hong Kong, and its location is extremely excellent. .

Only in the future, when land prices in Hong Kong increase tenfold, various consortiums will desperately build taller and larger buildings in order to gain profits, such as the Hong Kong International Commerce Center and the Hong Kong International Financial Center in later generations, etc., will these single buildings It exceeds the Landmark in terms of area, but the location is not as good as it is now. However, the commercial center will also be transferred with investment. In the future, it may be about the same.

The second natural building is the Connaught Building next to Exchange Square. This building was also the land king of Hong Kong in 1971, with a total area of ​​more than 900,000 square feet.

After that are Hong Kong's Prince's Building, Standard Chartered Building, Wheelock Building, Golden Gate Building, Duke of Windsor Building, Gloucester Building, Prince's Building, Alexander Building, Cultural Oriental Hotel, a total of 17 high-rise buildings, with a total area of It also exceeds 6.5 million square feet.

This data is due to the fact that these very large buildings are relatively old. Although they were one of the tallest buildings at the time of their early construction, they were no longer enough in the 1980s. If even part of them could be demolished and rebuilt into high-rise buildings, then this The number can easily triple again. With the rate of increase in land prices in Hong Kong in the next few years, it is completely worth it. Even the rent alone is enough to cover all demolition and construction costs.

In its original history, Jardine Matheson Group adopted a conservative business strategy. It made money from these properties in Hong Kong and immediately transferred them out, missing out on the best real estate bull market. Now, in its own hands, it will naturally look for opportunities. Slowly rebuild, especially some very old buildings. There is no need to spend money on maintenance. Just demolish them when they need to be demolished. If you are more decisive, you will make more money.

The remaining various small properties are actually very valuable together, but there are too many. Chen Zhiwen only looked at the total area of ​​about 5.5 million square feet. The average value of the existing locations in Central is not lower than that of some floors in Prince's Building. , there are also some ordinary places located in Kowloon.

In addition to properties that can directly collect rent, Land also has a large number of properties under development, but they are in a semi-stop state due to the break in the capital chain, such as the group of more than 100 single-family villas in the south of Hong Kong Island and the renovation of the former Miramar Hotel site. , the Baibishan development plan and the development of some residential areas, etc. If these are developed, part of them will be sold according to demand, but they will also be able to obtain at least almost 1.5 million square feet of self-owned properties and a large amount of cash.

Putting it all together, if all of Land's projects are successfully developed, the rent-collecting properties under its control will exceed tens of millions of square feet, which may be second only to Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings in terms of area, but the location must be high-quality. More, which also results in a higher value.

"Except for these residential properties that must be sold under a contract with the Hong Kong government, if we can keep them all ourselves, how much investment will be needed for subsequent development?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

"The properties in the community can be sold to recover the capital, but at least we have to wait until the real estate market rebounds. If we reinvest all of it ourselves, it will cost about HK$6-8 billion." Zhou Jiayang thought for a while and said.

"If you add privatization funds, it will basically require more than 15 billion Hong Kong dollars." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

"Yes, and Real Estate's current liabilities are more than HK$21 billion. It is estimated that no bank in Hong Kong dares to lend again, unless you take out other high-value collateral here." Zhou Jiayang said.

"As for the bank, just maintain the current status for now. Midea can indeed help further, but if too much money is involved, some financial data will need to be disclosed. This is currently unnecessary." Chen Zhiwen shook his head and said.

Midea Group, after releasing Mario last year, has further gained more market share. This is not just market share, but the total market has become larger with the launch of high-quality games. No matter how you speculate, when Midea has not released its financial information, other large electronics companies can only rely on guessing. Once these data are really exposed, it will really make all electronics groups crazy, and they will definitely do it regardless of the cost. Entering the game market, many investment funds will also increase investment in new game companies.

Although Chen Zhiwen is very confident in his game, no one knows whether someone will launch a game that does not exist in the original history and can rival or even surpass Mario. If the company controls it, then Midea’s goal of monopolizing the home game console hardware market may not be achieved.

The probability may indeed be low, but there is no need to gamble. Once your own game console monopolizes the arcade market through Mario and several future games, you can then control various game companies through third-party platforms, and each game company will also Reversely influence the venture capital behind them, and everything will be settled.

This time may take about three years. Before that, it is better for Midea to keep a low profile. As for the success of this matter, it will be the time for Midea to show its skills. After all, the scale is too large and it will definitely need to introduce a large number of people. strategic resource partners, otherwise, an antitrust law in Europe and the United States can kill any foreign-funded company.

"How about transferring Hisense Bank's funds out?" Huo Jianning said: "According to the banking law, Hisense cannot help Land, but Hisense made so much money during the Hong Kong dollar exchange rate crisis. Now according to the banking law, Land's loans cannot be helped." It will be sold to Standard Chartered and Citigroup. We already have too much money on hand. How about returning the profits to Chen Sheng, and then privatizing or operating real estate? This will also avoid the need for us to withdraw funds from overseas and return to Hong Kong. "

"That's okay. In the short term, Hisense's loan business is indeed unlikely to increase on a large scale." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, according to history, it will take nearly a year for Huaying to reach an agreement. Hong Kong's real estate market and economy will still not improve during the year, and Hisense Bank's business will certainly not be much better either.

And I still have many investment projects overseas, especially the Japanese market. This market is very large, even surpassing the gold market back then. No matter how much money I invest, it will not be enough. At this time, it is indeed necessary to bring back a large amount of funds. It's a bit of a loss. It's the most cost-effective to mobilize funds in Hong Kong.

PS: Please give me a monthly ticket