The Industrial Giant Reborn

The main thing when coming to the United States this time is to take advantage of the period of instability that the oil crisis has brought to the entire United States to attack Citigroup and Chrysler. For other things, I have no such plans.

First, he doesn’t know which companies will be seriously affected. Although he can roughly estimate it, the range is wide and there is no absolute certainty. There is no need for him to bother so much. The second is to compare the future of the mainland and the upcoming In the Internet era, this return is actually not high. The reason for investing in these two companies is mainly to rely on their future influence in the financial and real industries. The former Citigroup will become one of the top ten commercial banks in the world in the future, and the latter Although it has not been doing well, it allows Chen Zhiwen to take advantage of the merger with Daimler to become the major shareholder of the Mercedes-Benz brand. The pure economic return may not be high, but there are many other aspects of feedback, and even the name alone The head is attractive enough.

However, although both companies are eager to get money, when it involves hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars in financing, it cannot be said that they can be negotiated in a few days. Chen Zhiwen has also arranged relevant personnel to be responsible for these two tasks. incident and returned to Hong Kong.

It's almost the end of the year, and his third child is about to be born.

In a blink of an eye, it was the end of December 1990. On the 31st, while sleeping at night, Liu Xiaoli suddenly felt something strange in her body. She immediately informed the nurse guarding the door. After that, the doctors on the half floor were busy. stand up.

As early as a week ago, the due date was almost here, and Liu Xiaoli was admitted to the hospital. Chen Zhiwen was also accompanying her. However, she still had to do her own work every day during the day.

At 0:12 in the morning, Chen Zhiwen's second daughter was born. The timing was very good, and it became 1991.

Everyone from the Chen family and the Liu family also rushed here. Everyone gathered around and watched the little baby girl sleeping. Her brother and sister were also constantly testing the baby girl's fingers with their fingers, but they did not dare to touch them. Touch too much.

However, Liu Xiaoli and her daughter obviously needed more rest, and after being properly accompanied by their family members, they all left.

The winter in Hong Kong is not very cold. Chen Zhiwen also came to the balcony of the hospital, accompanied by his old man Chen Tianfu.

"Awen, Xiaoli has given birth too. From now on, you will continue to spend more time on your family." Chen Tianfu said with a smile.

"Of course, I am measured. In the past few years, except for some large investments, I have basically not participated in it." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

"Well, Shimin and the others have reached the age where they can receive education. You can only be responsible for this. There is no standard model for how to train the next generation. It can only rely on you, the person in charge of the family." Chen Tianfu said.

"Yes, it is true, but having said that, no matter how good the education is, it cannot be compared to the talents cultivated by hundreds of millions of people competing in the market. If we want to continue to pass on the wealth of our Chen family, we absolutely cannot expect everyone to The Chen family of the first generation must have a professional management model and hire professional managers. Now all the families in Europe and the United States that have been inherited for hundreds of years are like this. Unless we only collect rent with peace of mind in the future, this requirement for managers is not enough. High." Chen Zhiwen said.

He naturally hopes that his children will become talented and be able to take control of the business empire he has built. Perhaps, with his efforts, it will be possible. Not to mention being able to expand everywhere like him, it should not be difficult to maintain the success. But the third generation and the third generation What about the fourth generation? No one knows what the future will bring. The ancient dynasty, hereditary system, and imperial power have reached their peak, but they will not be able to survive for more than a dozen generations at most, let alone a modern company.

Of course, it cannot be said that there is absolutely no such thing. With a large base, there are still some families that rely on family management for many generations, but most of them are simple rent collection models, such as the Jardine Group. In their original history, they It is still possible to continue to run the entire family business, but it is actually successful because the large amount of real estate left by the ancestors can be consumed by future generations. In the original history, if Simon Keswick in the 1980s was not very capable and Hong Kong British The government also does not like British capital being acquired by Chinese capital. Even without Chen Zhiwen, Jardine Matheson Group may have been annexed by Chinese capital such as Li Jiacheng.

At present, the Chen family's industries include many rent collectors. This is the basic base, while others involve retail, electronics, beverage products, trade and other industries. Even Chen Zhiwen, the founder, cannot control these by himself. You can only rely on various professional managers.

"Having said that, if you want to control professional managers well, you also need a certain ability. Otherwise, if you entrust someone to someone else, it will also cause heavy losses." Chen Tianfu also agreed with his son's point of view.

"Yes, I will also pay attention to this aspect. It is best to develop a complete management model to allow the entire company to operate on its own, with checks and balances between various departments. Otherwise, it will be me who is responsible for it many times. They can't control too many things." Chen Zhiwen said again.

He finally understood why ancient emperors liked to play the art of full balance, because if you don't play it, it will only make one person or a faction dominate. There must be a balance so that those in power can control everything. Even two factions are not enough. At least three or five are considered stable.

"I don't care about this matter, and I can't control it." Chen Tianfu smiled and said: "But there is another thing. Three children are not enough. You have to work harder and have more, especially boys. , It’s not that I favor boys over girls. My grandchildren are all the same to me. I love them all. You must be the same. But to inherit the Chen family’s property, you have to be a man. Let’s talk about the Bao family. Now The scenery is beautiful, but if Bao Yugang leaves, the entire family will soon bear his surname."

"Okay, but it's not so urgent." Chen Zhiwen said with a helpless smile. In fact, this is also correct. Even now, because of his butterfly effect, Pao Yugang has discovered the disease in his body early. After early treatment, Bao Yugang's body seems to have recovered. Maybe he can live to be 90 like Li Jiacheng. above.

But even so, what cannot be changed is that as long as he dies, the entire Bao family's wealth will really become other people's. For example, in the original history, the Wharf and Wheelock acquired by Bao Yugang became The surname is Wu. In the 21st century, when it comes to the top ten families in Hong Kong, the Wu family is among them. What about the Bao family? It has become a passing cloud in Hong Kong’s history.

Not to mention the Chinese cultural circle, the same is true in Europe, America, Japan and South Korea. South Korea is very similar to China in that they both have a son inheritance system, such as the Samsung Lee family. Japan is a bit special. A son-in-law can also take over, but the son-in-law needs to change his surname. In fact, this The method was not bad, but it was a pity that Bao Yugang refused to do it.

As for Europe and the United States, it sounds fair, but in fact, even normal women have to change their surnames when they get married, which is even more exaggerated than in China.

Besides, Chen Zhiwen also plans to have more children. Anyway, the in vitro fertilization technology has matured. If he wants to have children, it will not be a problem even if he is older.

From the next time until the Spring Festival, the core of the Chen family is naturally their newborn daughter, who takes care of and entertains her every day, and she enjoys it.

After the Spring Festival, the whole of Hong Kong once again returned to the state of desperate real estate speculation.

It is incredible to say that from 1985 to 1990, house prices almost tripled. This is a huge increase. If the yen itself is not considered to be appreciating, then the growth rate of Hong Kong's real estate market is not lower than that of Japan.

Since the end of last year, Japan's real estate market has been on a downward trend, with a large amount of capital withdrawing and the bursting of the bubble becoming irresistible. But Hong Kong has not been affected at all. Horses are running and dancing, and everyone still firmly believes that Hong Kong's housing prices are far from over.

Among them, the biggest help may be the mainland government next door. It has been 12 years since the reform in 1978. The economy of the entire mainland has obviously improved by several levels, and foreign exchanges have also increased many times. In terms of talents, Without keeping up with development, Hong Kong has become the best bridge between the East and the West. In the first ten years, a large number of overseas companies came to Hong Kong to establish branches. In the next ten years, a large number of mainland companies also came to Hong Kong to buy property after growing in size. .

This has greatly stimulated the local real estate market. In addition, a large number of tourism and business visits have also greatly stimulated the tourism, hotel and restaurant industries. Various business cooperation has also stimulated the legal industry. Hong Kong’s The overall economy, except for industry, is basically growing at a high speed.

For Chen Zhiwen, these are naturally good things. The most direct benefit is that the value of Land, Wharf, and Hutchison Whampoa's many properties in Hong Kong has also doubled, the rental income has also doubled, and the liabilities are getting bigger and bigger. It is estimated that if Land and Hutchison Land and Hutchison were listed, their market value could easily increase five or six times.

In addition, Hong Kong's largest Disneyland has also benefited from the boom in Hong Kong's economy. In addition, low cost was considered when it was first built. After depreciation is included, it made a profit of HK$8 million in the first year. Although it does not seem like much, But for a park that invests heavily, it’s already pretty good, and the real big deal is the various indirect benefits.

The success of Hong Kong Disneyland is also a major factor in the ongoing negotiations with European countries for site selection. Several major European countries have seen booming business in even Hong Kong, and many major cities are determined to acquire Disneyland.

Although Hong Kong’s housing prices have strangled many other aspects of Hong Kong’s economy, judging from the book data alone, the rise of real estate has also brought a huge amount of wealth to Hong Kong in the shortest time. In other words, everyone who owns a house has Isn't it worth a huge increase? Even if house prices fall after 1998, real large sums of cash can still be cashed out.

For Chen Zhiwen, he has actually benefited a lot. A large number of his assets in Hong Kong have increased even more, especially the office buildings or commercial properties in Central, Admiralty or Tsim Sha Tsui owned by Land, which have increased even more than ordinary residential properties. .

One day in March 1991, Chen Zhiwen was in his office in Kang Le Building, reading the latest Hong Kong newspaper. This was considered his leisure time. Before the Internet existed, newspapers were the best channel to obtain external news. Even more accurate than the Internet, because in the Internet era, anyone can release information, which makes it difficult for ordinary people to distinguish between true and false. In newspapers, although it cannot be said that everything is true, the cost of fraud is at least much higher. The bigger the newspaper, the stricter the control, and the more popular it is with business people.

In fact, Chen Zhiwen did not deliberately control the newspaper industry in Hong Kong. However, when the scale of his company is large enough, even without his boss's direct order, the entire consortium will develop like a snowball, and controlling the newspaper industry will also It was beneficial to the development of the group. In the end, through various direct and indirect means, Hutchison Whampoa still controlled many newspapers and media in Hong Kong.

"Dong dong dong" There was a knock on the door. After Chen Zhiwen's permission, the assistant came in with Dong Youwei from Land Group and Zhou Jiayang from Hutchison Whampoa.

"Sit down and serve coffee." Chen Zhiwen said to the three of them.

"Thank you." Dong Youwei and Zhou Jiayang sat down, while the assistant went to prepare coffee nearby.

"I have also read the company's financial results recently. They are very good. Even if it is investment in the mainland, it should be faster. Talk with the local government about the expressway between second-tier cities. They do not need to pay. Hisense Bank can bear their expenses." For the loan, we can build the expressway first, and then pay back the loan later." Chen Zhiwen picked up a few bottles of mineral water and gave them to the two of them.

"We have always meant the same thing. At most, it is the amount of the loan. The problem is that many local governments may not dare to take on too much debt and are very cautious. In addition, although this kind of cooperation is mainly local, it is also Those that require approval from the central government, especially those involving foreign exchange debts,” Zhou Jiayang explained.

"Are they worried that after the expressway is built, they will not be able to recover the cost? Then the government will become in debt?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

"Absolutely. Although the current domestic major highways have high profits, they are mainly in first-tier cities, and almost a few top second-tier cities. These places are the core of the domestic economy, and other places are not so confident." Zhou Jiayang replied.

"Well, that's true. They still don't dare to spend too much ahead of schedule!" Chen Zhiwen nodded and said. In fact, they were more cautious before the 1990s. Big cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou were conservative on many things. , and inland cities are bound to be more cautious and conservative, which is normal.

"Everyone knows that if you want to get rich, you must first build roads, but the cost of highways is indeed too high. In addition, many places in the country are now troubled by debt problems, and they dare not take on more debt!" Zhou Jiayang said.

"Debt? You mean triangular debt?" Chen Zhiwen asked.

"Yes, this is why Dong Sheng and I came to see you, Chen Sheng. We have some ideas about the domestic triangular debt problem." Zhou Jiayang said. (End of chapter)