After the friendship between China and the United States and the implementation of reform and opening up in the mainland, Shen Bi, as the most far-sighted senior in the history of HSBC, has long seen that it is impossible for Britain to continue to control Xiangjiang after 97, because any permanent member of the Council tolerates the existence of "colonies" around him.

For more than 100 years, HSBC has been acting as the central bank of Hong Kong, and once Hong Kong returns, it has become a very difficult matter whether HSBC can maintain its transcendent position.

As the current HSBC senior, Shen Bi's greatest contribution to his tenure is to lay out two strategic plans for HSBC: supporting controllable Chinese consortia and internationalization.

As early as 76, the mainland government began to contact Chinese business tycoons from all walks of life in Hong Kong, and Chinese businessman Fok Yingdong also ran around for this matter, but HSBC had already offended him a long time ago, so it chose new targets: Li Jiacheng and Bao Yugang.

Bao Yugang himself has a very good relationship with HSBC, HSBC is the majority shareholder of Global International, and Bao Yugang is also the first director in the history of HSBC, which is why after the Wharf battle broke out in 1980, Bao Yugang borrowed 2.1 billion Hong Kong dollars (with collateral) in a phone call.

And Li Jiacheng is also a very important figure of HSBC, in 78 Li Jiacheng gave enough face to HSBC, gave up the acquisition of Wharf, and at the same time in the reconstruction project of the Chinese Bank, Li Jiacheng's performance was very satisfactory to Shen Bi, and in October 78, Li Jiacheng was invited to participate in the 29th anniversary parade, and also served as a director of CITIC Group, in the eyes of the mainland government is already one of the important figures, which is also in line with the requirements of HSBC to cultivate Chinese capital, and more importantly, Li Jiacheng's main business is real estate, and real estate can never be separated from the bank, HSBC can control him very well。

However, Xu Zhi's rise still broke HSBC's plan, and the battle for Huang fell into a climax, the two major Chinese capital openly confronted each other in the stock market, in order to support Li Jiacheng, HSBC also invested a lot of money, and after the war was burned from Hutchison Whampoa to Cheung Kong Industrial, the nature of the war changed completely, once Li Jiacheng lost, HSBC will also suffer heavy losses.

Originally, with the continuous capital injection of the "Central Bank of Hong Kong" behind the scenes, Li Jiacheng could not lose, but Shen Bi never dreamed that Xu Zhi actually acquired SITC Bank in the United States.

SITC Bank is the 6th largest bank in New York State and the largest retail lending bank, and can also rank among the top 100 in the whole United States, but due to the 1974-1975 oil crisis and economic recession, there were non-performing loans, so it fell into trouble, and in 1980, HSBC acquired 51% of the shares of SITC Bank for 262 million US dollars, successfully entered the world's largest market - the United States, and at the same time, this is also the first step of HSBC's internationalization.

Shen Bi said: "How could Xu Sheng think of acquiring the shares of SITC Bank, you must know that the benefits of this company have not been good over the years!"

Xu Zhi said with a smile: "I like to buy bargains the most, SITC Bank has indeed been operating poorly in recent years, the fundamental reason is that the first oil crisis was a business error, resulting in excessive debt, but in recent years, it has actually improved, just because of the current global bank tightening, loan interest is too high, SITC's profits are repaid to the loan, so the profit on the book is very bad, as long as the economy recovers, SITC Bank will recover its previous performance."

And most importantly, SITC Bank is also one of the top 100 banks in the United States, with offices in a large number of cities in North America.

"That's true. Shen Bi smiled, he understood that Xu Zhi's last sentence was deliberately said to him, a few years ago, he was already preparing to internationalize HSBC, in order to obtain the consent of the Hong Kong government, Shen Bi took the initiative to give up HSBC as a "quasi-central bank" Some special treatment, intending to fully commercialize HSBC and completely decouple from politics, the price of which is not ordinary people can make.

HSBC's internationalization is a two-step process, the first is to enter the US market, and then return to Europe after the US market has stabilized.

Buying up U.S. banks is extremely troublesome, and the small regional bank HSBC doesn't look down on it, and it doesn't fit its strategic intentions, and the larger bank HSBC can't afford to buy it, and the U.S. government doesn't necessarily agree.

After spending countless funds on investigation, SITC Bank became the best choice for HSBC to "go out of Hong Kong and into the world". However, because of the price, there has never been a negotiation in place, and not many people know about this matter in Hong Kong, but in the United States, many people in the government and banking circles are very clear.

After thinking for a while, Shen Bi said: "Xu Sheng, everyone is a smart person, you can't run an American bank, the purpose of the acquisition is self-evident, SITC Bank is indeed very important to HSBC, but Li Jiacheng is the same, it is difficult for me to make a decision to choose, but what you said before is very right, this matter should be over!"

Xu Zhidao: "Then what do you want to do?"

Shen Bi said: "First of all, the shares of SITC in your hand must be sold to HSBC!"

Xu Zhi smiled: "Yes, as long as the price is right, no problem!"

Shen Bi asked, "What price did Xu Sheng come up with?"

Xu Zhi smiled: "300 million US dollars." ”

Shen Bi said: "Impossible, this price is too high." ”

Xu Zhi smiled: "Then there's no need to talk about it, but I spent about the same amount of money on the acquisition, Mr. Shen Bi can't let me lose money, right?"

Shen Bi thought for a while and said: "That's it, Xu Sheng, I can promise to buy the shares of SITC Bank in your hands for 280 million US dollars, and in addition, I will lend you a loan of 1 billion Hong Kong dollars for 5 years at a low interest rate with an interest rate of 6%, how about it?"

Xu Zhi pondered for a while and said: "The interest is okay, but I ask for a different way, I ask for a one-time return of this money with interest after 5 years!"

Shen Bi frowned for a while, but nodded and agreed: "Yes!"

"Then congratulations to HSBC on its successful acquisition of Bank of America, as long as the matter with Hutchison is over, we can trade immediately!" Xu Zhi immediately said with a smile, because of the global economic downturn, the mortgage interest rate in Xiangjiang is basically around 12%, and even the interest rate on deposits is almost 6%, and the low-interest loan of 1 billion Hong Kong dollars is very valuable.

The reason why it was changed to a one-time return after 5 years, in addition to the fact that he could make good use of the funds in the past few years, he could also save a lot of money when the Hong Kong dollar depreciated in 83.

Shen Bi smiled and said: "Regarding the current situation of Xiangjiang, there is no point in fighting any longer, Xu Sheng, I can persuade Li Jiacheng to give up the shares of Hutchison and let you get a controlling stake, but you also have to promise that you will not buy the shares of Changjiang Industrial again." ”

Xu Zhi nodded and said: "No problem, I currently hold 28% of the Yangtze River stocks, as long as Li Jiacheng does not maliciously dilute the stocks in my hands in the future, I will not forcibly buy more Changjiang stocks!"

Even if the loss of Hutchison Whampoa, Li Ka Shing's Cheung Kong is still a very worthy investment company, many people think that there is no Hutchison would not have the achievements of Li Ka Seng in later generations, this is not entirely true, before the acquisition of Hutchison by Cheung Kong in later generations, Cheung Kong's land reserve has been the first in Xiangjiang, and in 1981, the land price of Cheung Kong soared, and Cheung Kong's net profit was as high as 1.09 billion Hong Kong dollars, ranking fifth in terms of market value in Hong Kong and second in real estate companies.

With Hutchison, Li Jiacheng soared into the sky, but in this life, even if he loses Hutchison and has the support of HSBC, Li Jiacheng may not become the richest man in China as he will in the future, but his achievements will still not be too low.

Shen Bi continued: "Regarding the Hutchison stocks in the hands of the two of you, how to trade, how much to trade, it is up to the two of you to discuss, so let's do it, I will meet Li Jiacheng once, and then the three of us will meet again, and solve this matter face-to-face, you two are the future leaders of Xiangjiang, and there may be more cooperation in the future." ”

"Okay, thank you Mr. Shen Bi!" Xu Zhi nodded and agreed, in the Xiangjiang business community, there are no eternal enemies, nor permanent friends, and after Bao Yugang acquired Wharf, he cooperated with Hongkong Land again a few months later, and the reason is the same.