The Industrial Giant Reborn

Hong Kong, Connaught Building, Land Group headquarters.

With a smile on his face, Dong Youwei walked into Chairman Chen Zhiwen's office and said: "Sheng Chen, there is news from the stock exchange that the Malay tycoon Qiu Teck Puat has stopped acquiring Wheelock shares in the Hong Kong stock market. Regarding the policy, I contacted an assistant of Qiu Deba through Mr. Kuok Henian. He said that Qiu Deba had given up the acquisition.

It is probably because it was too high-profile before, but now it has suddenly stopped and it has not been announced to the public, otherwise it may lose face. "

Robert Kuok is also a super rich man in Malaysia, but his main business is quite different from that of Khoo Teck Puat, but the two of them still know each other. Over the years, Robert Kuok has also mobilized capital to invest in Hong Kong many times, and his relationship with Land and Hutchison Whampoa is also All are good. This time Dong Youwei conducted the conversation through Robert Kuok as the intermediary.

Although our group is not afraid of the richest people in Southeast Asia, in most businesses, if there is no absolute conflict of interest, everyone should try their best to make peace the most important thing. Otherwise, even if we are stronger, conflicts will still happen. There is a loss. Besides, the current real estate debt is still relatively heavy, so there is no need to fight with others.

"It's quite smart and knows how to give up." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile: "Let's leave some face to him, and don't hold any press conferences or make announcements during this period. By the way, the shares in his hands, Interested in selling?"

"I also asked. What Qiu Deba means is that he wants to use Defeng's stocks as a long-term investment. This may be the reason why he saw that you have already invested in it." Dong Youwei said.

Over the years, Chen Zhiwen has acquired many companies in the Hong Kong market, some large and some small. Some of them were privatized as sole proprietors, but some still retained their status as listed companies. And these listed companies, without exception, have been replaced by Chen Zhiwen. After the acquisition, the stock price soared several times within a few years.

The most conspicuous among them is Taohua Datong Company, which was originally a Hong Kong company that made kitchen seasoning products and sold them to Southeast Asian countries. After being acquired by Chen Zhiwen, it not only sold a large amount of sauces to Europe and the United States through Galaxy Trading, but also sold a large amount of sauces to Europe and the United States. They began to use this platform to produce cheese sauce, tomato sauce, etc., which are in high demand in Europe and the United States. At the same time, the most conspicuous thing is the several hot sauces they developed, which are very popular in Europe, America and Asian countries, and the demand is very high.

The original factory of Taohua Datong only had two to three hundred people. With the expansion of business, the factory has been continuously expanded dozens of times, and the number of employees has exceeded 4,000. It has become one of the largest factories in Hong Kong. The total market value of the stock price was also acquired by Chen Zhiwen. The previous price of about HK$100 million has increased to nearly HK$2.5 billion. Those who originally held the stock have made huge profits. This growth rate is much stronger than the real estate bull market of previous years.

The data of other companies may not be so exaggerated, but they are basically not inferior to the real estate market. In addition, the real estate crisis occurred in the past three years, and the Hang Seng Index was not good, but this cannot affect these companies.

Therefore, many people are unwilling to sell Chen Zhiwen's companies that are still listed, and many people are squeezing in. For this reason, the stock price is higher.

"If he holds it, he can hold it. Whatever he does, our agreement with Pao Yugang is to acquire half of the property. After that, all the management rights will belong to them. We will not interfere with Wheelock." Chen Zhiwen said .

Qiu Teck Puat probably also believes that he will definitely focus on experiencing Wheelock, just like Land and Whampoa. If this is the case, then it will definitely be cost-effective for him to hold it for a long time now.

Unfortunately, Chen Zhiwen in the shipping industry will not participate. He only needs to get some of Wheelock's properties. In this process, Land will pay a separate sum of money to Wheelock Company, which is equivalent to purchasing it, and Watsons will also contribute. The money bought Lane Crawford, and after that, Wheelock had nothing to do with him.

As for whether Pao Yugang wants to privatize or maintain the status quo, that is also his business, but there is a high probability that he will remain listed. This is the original history. Moreover, for most companies, going public is better than not going public, as financing is convenient. Many interest groups are bound up, and Chen Zhiwen, because of his prophetic ability, is not in a hurry to list the company. However, if it really develops to a large scale, he will still consider listing it.

"Zhang Yuliang holds 33% of Wheelock's shares, and is only 2 points away from activating the acquisition offer. Bao Yugang can quickly and completely control Wheelock." Dong Youwei said: "I have sent people to investigate. Let’s take a look at all the properties in Wheelock. This is the list. We are ready to discuss this matter with the Bao family. I wonder if Mr. Chen has any properties that he must acquire?"

"Are there any large properties in prime commercial areas like Central or Tsim Sha Tsui?" Chen Zhiwen looked at them and asked. They were not very famous and he didn't know very well.

"There are properties in places like Central and Tsim Sha Tsui, but they are all small properties. At most they are the first floor of an office building, or some shops along the street. But outside of these prime places, there are some larger-sized plots of land that used to be warehouses. , the property is also commercial, if acquired, office buildings or residences can be built." Dong Youwei said.

"Forget about residential buildings. Give the land or properties suitable for residential buildings to Baojia. We don't want them." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, "Well, look at the location. If it's okay and suitable for building office buildings, then we can If we fight for it, we will take it. For busy commercial areas, we need street-facing shops, office buildings with one floor or a small area. If you can take it, take it. If you can't take it, forget it, and give it to the Bao family."

Since Wheelock's properties in Hong Kong are shared equally with the Bao family, it is naturally impossible to give everything that is good to yourself and give the unnecessary to others. There is a problem of trade-offs.

The residential area itself is an area that Chen Zhiwen does not want to touch too much. At this time, he can regard it as a favor and give it to the Bao family. He can just acquire the land and properties suitable for building office buildings. Once completed in the future, it will also be convenient for land management. Just collect rent.

As for commercial areas, whether they are street-facing shops or office buildings above, they are all high-quality assets. However, when choosing one of the two, Chen Zhiwen chose street-facing shops because the number of shops is far less than that of office buildings. After all, the latter can be built with high-rise buildings. The former is mainly on the first floor, especially in some high-quality locations. Moreover, when it comes to office buildings, there are too many under the Hongkong Land Group, so more or less will not have much impact.

Of course, this is still my ideal state. The Bao family may also want these things, and then it will depend on how to negotiate and distribute them. However, I have set my priorities, which makes it easier for my men to operate.

"Okay, Chen Sheng." Dong Youwei agreed.

"Shaun from KFC, how was the conversation with you before?" Chen Zhiwen suddenly asked.

Less than half a month ago, KFC CEO Sean came to Hong Kong and had a heart-to-heart talk with Chen Zhiwen, verbally deciding on many future development plans. Among them, the first one to be implemented is the expansion in Hong Kong. At the same time, after the expansion, It was based in Hong Kong and then spread to half of Asia.

Under normal circumstances, it would be difficult to expand in Hong Kong, even for McDonald's, which has stronger capital. Just choosing a location would be a headache. The rent in Hong Kong is also very high. Whoever comes here will have to live in each room. construction.

However, this is Hong Kong. Land is the largest "land king" in Hong Kong and the land king in Hong Kong's most prime business district. Since they are both owned by the same boss, Chen Zhiwen naturally arranged for Land to cooperate with Sean.

Just a few days ago, under the instruction of Chen Zhiwen, Morgan Stanley and Red Bull signed an agreement with Huberline to acquire KFC in the United States, which can be regarded as officially bringing this matter to an end, but this is also the case for KFC The beginning of expansion.

As the first place where KFC intends to break through, Hong Kong has naturally attracted much attention.

"Sheng Chen, we had a very smooth conversation with Mr. Sean. We also took him to many shopping malls or shop properties owned by Land. As long as he likes it, we can give it to him, but some of them may still be under lease with other people." We still need to wait." Dong Youwei replied.

"How many suitable locations have you found?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

"Before Sean left, he had found almost 60 locations. It only took a week. Plus those commercial locations that are not owned by our Land, I estimate that it would not be a problem for him to find 300 locations." Dong Youwei said .

Although Land is the largest land king in Hong Kong, compared to all the real estate in Hong Kong, it is only a small part of it. No one can control more than a few percent of the properties in a city, even if the funds are sufficient, it is impossible. Because this way of playing will only severely tie oneself to the city, and any capitalist will not play this way out of risk considerations.

"There are not many 300 restaurants. Hong Kong's economy deserves so many Western-style fast food restaurants in the future." Chen Zhiwen said.

There are almost 300 McDonald's stores in Hong Kong in later generations. This is after taking into account the sky-high housing prices in Hong Kong. Nowadays, Hong Kong Land controls a lot of real estate in Hong Kong. Although it does not mean that we don't want rent, at least we can ask for whatever we want. Wherever he goes, otherwise, no matter how rich McDonald's is, he can't do whatever he wants in terms of location.

"That's true. There are 40 shopping malls under the direct or indirect control of Landmark alone, plus many stores, including Wharf and Hutchison Whampoa. I'm afraid even we can assemble 300 units of shops for KFC internally." Dong Youwei nodded and said.

"Well, just try to cooperate with them. In the future, KFC will not only have many branches in Hong Kong, but also its Asian headquarters. Since Hong Kong is our headquarters, KFC must be the only one. It cannot be in KFC's territory. Well, McDonald’s should be the only one,” Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

"Of course, not to mention that KFC is not much worse than McDonald's. It is just an ordinary brand. As long as we have internal help, McDonald's will never be allowed to continue to dominate." Dong Youwei nodded.

Nowadays, Land Land is highly valued by its bosses. Whatever good things happen in Hong Kong are left to themselves, such as the previous cooperation with Disney and the transfer of part of Wheelock's real estate this time. In the past, these were all owned by Hutchison Whampoa, but now Hutchison Whampoa The positioning is mainly for overseas business.

However, both Hutchison Whampoa and Land may be very large in scale and even surpass Midea, but in terms of importance, they are still incomparable. After all, for real estate companies, it is easiest to charge less rent. It makes less money, but for industrial companies, if the cost is lower, they can get more customers. If they are old customers who can repeat transactions, the benefits will be higher.

"Yeah." Chen Zhiwen nodded. Then asked: "How are the negotiations at Disneyland going?"

"We haven't negotiated it yet. In terms of area, the Hong Kong government still wants to invest less. We just want to get more at once." Dong Youwei said: "In addition, we have bought land near the park where we are planning to invest and are planning to build Community, so that when demolition starts in the future, we can directly arrange to change houses.”

"Well, okay, let's continue talking. In addition, we also need to negotiate licensing fees for various cooperation projects with Disney as soon as possible. These also need to be determined as soon as possible." Chen Zhiwen said.

"Okay, no problem." Dong Youwei nodded, then chatted for a while, and then exited the room after a final greeting.

Relatively speaking, carving up Wheelock is just a small matter. Although it was one of the four major foreign banks, after all, its main business is shipping, and it ranks fourth. For ordinary companies, the inventory in the real estate sector is , may still be very important, but it is far behind compared to Land.

A few days later, what Chen Zhiwen didn't expect was that Bao Yugang made an appointment with him again to meet at a hotel.

I originally thought it might be because of the separation of the Wheelock family, but when Chen Zhiwen arrived, he discovered that there was another person accompanying Pao Yugang, and he realized that today's meeting had nothing to do with Wheelock.

"Sheng Chen, this is Mr. Cao Guangbiao, the plush king of Hong Kong. Mr. Cao, this is Chen Zhiwen Chen." Bao Yugang stood up with a smile and introduced, and at the same time started pouring tea for the two of them.

"Hello, Mr. Cao." Chen Zhiwen shook hands and smiled. Cao Guangbiao, the plush king, was still very famous when he first traveled to Hong Kong. Later, starting in 1975, the real estate market bull market exploded exponentially, leading to the collapse of Hong Kong. The real estate tycoons have completely suppressed all the industrial tycoons, and the various "industrial kings" in the past have slowly declined.

"Hello, Chen Sheng." Cao Guangbiao said with a smile: "Sheng Bao, stuff like the King of Plushs happened ten years ago. It's meaningless to talk about it now."

"That's right, your future goal, the plush king, is not worthy of you." Bao Yugang laughed and said: "Chen Sheng, I asked you out today because Cao Sheng wants to see you. Cao Sheng wants to meet you." Sir, it’s up to you to talk about this matter yourself.”

"Okay." Cao Guangbiao nodded and said, "Sheng Chen, I am going to lead some wealthy Chinese people to establish an airline company called Dragonair. I wonder if you are interested in joining?" (End of Chapter)