"It's true!" Said Said, in addition to investing in Standard Chartered, Xu Zhi's other layout in the financial field is to start a medium-sized Chinese-funded bank, and Saides didn't know where to get the news, and he also took the initiative to help.

Xu Zhi asked, "Why did the Li family withdraw from the banking industry?"

"The Bank of East Asia was established in 1918, and it is one of the oldest banks in Hong Kong, but it almost went bankrupt in the run crisis in the 60s, when in order to cope with the run, the Li family was forced to sell half of the bank's equity to an Australian consortium.

After the death of the previous generation of the head of the Li family, the descendants of the Li family are no longer willing to continue to toss with the Australian side, but the Australian consortium seems to see this, but instead took the opportunity to suppress the purchase price, so the descendants of the Li family are unwilling to sell the equity to the Australian side, hoping to find a capable Chinese family in Xiangjiang to take over the shares in their hands. Edus explained with a smile.

"It turned out to be what was going on. Xu Zhi nodded, and then asked, "Then what price is the Li family willing to sell?"

"HK$250 million, 51% of the shares. ”

"It's too expensive. Xu Zhi shook his head and vetoed it, a bank with total assets of only 4 billion Hong Kong dollars is not worth 500 million Hong Kong dollars.

BEA has 21 branches in Hong Kong with total deposits of about HK$4 billion, a scale that Xu Zhi has long known as a medium-sized bank in Hong Kong.

Said said with a smile: "The price is not negotiable, there is no hurry, just negotiate slowly, and Mr. Xu, some of the branches of the Bank of East Asia are self-owned properties, and the combined value of these is tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars." ”

"Then how sure are you that you will be able to convince Australian capital to withdraw?" Xu Zhi asked.

Said said with a smile: "The efficiency of this Australian consortium has not been very good in recent years, and it has been seeking to borrow profits from the Bank of East Asia to return to the mainland, which is also one of the fundamental reasons for the conflict between the Li family and it. ”

"Okay, when I return to Xiangjiang, I will arrange a professional lawyer to negotiate with me, no matter what, thank you Mr. Sides for your help." Xu Zhi said with a smile.

Said Said: "Haha, as long as Mr. Xu takes care of our Standard Chartered Bank more in the future!"

"No problem, hopefully we can have more cooperation in the future. Xu Zhi said with a smile.

Ordinary investors need funds to seek banks, but companies like Xu Zhi's are extremely profitable, in this case, he basically chooses the bank.

In order to obtain a huge follow-up loan order, the Standard Chartered Bank branch in Xiangjiang was naturally willing to help, including finding a suitable Chinese-funded bank for Xu Zhi and acquiring it.

Why is Standard Chartered willing to help?

First, because even if Standard Chartered does not help, Xu Zhi has the ability to find appropriate targets by himself, and in this process, other large banks may also intervene, which will make Xu Zhi owe favors to other banks, which is too much for Standard Chartered Bank.

The second reason is the most important, because according to the banking law of Hong Kong, any bank cannot lend to other properties under the controlling shareholder, which is to prevent some people from opening a bank is fake, and it is true to take the opportunity to accumulate wealth, especially in the real estate industry, if there is no restriction, I don't know how many real estate giants will open their own banks, so as to use depositors' funds to develop real estate.

In the 60s, when the financial regulations of Xiangjiang were not perfect, some Chinese commercial banks found that it was too slow to make money only by relying on the interest rate difference between deposits and loans, so they boldly ventured forward, on the one hand, raising bank deposit interest rates to attract more funds, and on the other hand, using depositors' funds to buy property and even develop real estate.

When the business is going well, this kind of operation method is almost a million profits, and the high amount of deposits has led to the difficulties of other banks, so a group of other Chinese-funded banks have jumped into it in order to compete and began to desperately develop the real estate industry.

In 1965, a medium-sized bank in Xiangjiang was exposed by the media because a check was not redeemed in time, which caused ordinary people to panic and come to withdraw money, and eventually a run occurred.

Most of the banks in Hong Kong have a tradition of mutual cooperation, and this turmoil soon spread to other Chinese-funded banks in Hong Kong, at that time, the famous Chinese-funded banks Hang Seng, Hang Lung, Guang'an, and Dao Heng all attracted a run, and Hang Seng Bank sold most of its shares to HSBC in order to survive, and many of them collapsed at that time.

Therefore, at the end of the 60s, the Hong Kong government issued a series of regulations on the supervision of the banking industry, the most important of which is that bank shareholders are not allowed to borrow money from banks at will, and must report to the Hong Kong government for approval.

However, once this article is applied, it means that the flow of funds for their own projects will be thoroughly monitored by the Hong Kong government, and no consortium will agree to this requirement, and over time, some large consortia will either lose interest in investment banks, or some banks will not apply for the use of their own bank funds through the Hong Kong government, which is actually one of the main reasons why the four major families who monopolized Hong Kong in later generations did not get involved in the banking industry.

In other words, even if Xu Zhi acquired a Xiangjiang bank, he would not be able to use internal funds to develop large-scale projects that he needed to invest in. In the future, whether it is infrastructure investment in the mainland, the construction of buildings in Hong Kong or even overseas mergers and acquisitions, they will not be able to go through their own banks, which will leave a huge opportunity for Standard Chartered.

Of course, there are not no loopholes, for example, Xu Zhi can arrange all his employees to open an account in his own bank, and he can also take out loans to his own employees, and in the future, most companies and suppliers will also go to their own companies, and banks can lend and finance suppliers or partners.

……

A bank with a total deposit of HK$4 billion, although it is nothing in the eyes of Xiangjiang's top capital, but it involves the safety of the net worth and property of tens of thousands of ordinary residents, and the Hong Kong government is also extremely cautious about bank mergers and acquisitions.

After nearly a month of hard work by Standard Chartered Bank, Xu Zhi successfully acquired a 100% controlling stake in BEA for HK$430 million.

"Xu Sheng, congratulations, I hope we are just partners in the future, not competitors. After the deal was signed, Sides smiled and shook hands.

"Xiangjiang itself has a huge financial market, and I don't think one more bank will affect the interests of Standard Chartered Bank, and now Xiangjiang, we can't compare to the other two banks, right?" Xu Zhi said with a smile.

Two banks in Hong Kong have supreme power to issue notes, one is HSBC and the other is Standard Chartered.

It is not surprising that HSBC, as the quasi-central bank of Hong Kong, is the largest, but the second-largest bank in Hong Kong is not Standard Chartered, but Hang Seng Bank, which is controlled by HSBC, which is undoubtedly a shame for Standard Chartered, which has the right to issue notes.

"That's right, the road should be taken step by step. Said with an awkward smile.

"If you want to surpass HSBC, it is impossible to only be in the Hong Kong market, and the only opportunity is to develop internationally, and Standard Chartered Bank is actually at the forefront of HSBC in this regard. Xu Zhi said with a smile.

"Yes, but I'm only the manager of the Xiangjiang branch, and I can't do anything about the headquarters. Said with a sigh that the headquarters of Standard Chartered Bank failed to invest in the international market repeatedly, and suffered serious losses, and even his Xiangjiang branch was affected and was forced to transfer profits back to the headquarters, which was extremely unfavorable to the development of the Xiangjiang branch.

Xu Zhi smiled and did not speak, according to the development history of HSBC in later generations, it is basically impossible for Standard Chartered to surpass it. And it is impossible for the bank he bought to achieve this goal, because HSBC was able to be so successful in later generations, in addition to relying on the huge profits that were almost monopolized in Hong Kong, and more importantly, it was the large number of talents and resource channels that it gradually cultivated in the course of hundreds of years of development.

The only possibility to compete with HSBC is that Standard Chartered will cooperate with him, which may not necessarily be successful, but at least it can create an international bank.

From the beginning of the business to the present, Xu Zhi currently has two main business directions, one is the electronics industry, and the other is real estate infrastructure.

Relying on the prophetic advantage of later generations, in the field of electronics, if you only look at the company's profits, Midea Electronics is no less than Sony, Panasonic and other top companies, but the real heritage is still far from it.

In fact, in the past two years, Midea has invested a lot in research and development, but the strength of a company can never rely on itself alone, and the supporting of surrounding industries is also the top priority, and the strength of Sony and Panasonic and other companies also has a great relationship with hundreds of small suppliers around them.

Midea Electronics' suppliers need funds to build factories and purchase production lines, and financing is often needed in this process, so it will be very convenient to have a bank of its own.

In terms of real estate infrastructure, although according to the law, it is difficult for its own banks to participate in Evergrande's investment in infrastructure construction in the mainland, but how many projects can Evergrande participate in, no matter how powerful it is? Many projects in the mainland are built by its own sole proprietorship and will not be shared with foreign investors, but in terms of financing, they will be open to foreign banks, and with their own banks, as long as the scale is large enough, they will be able to obtain great benefits in this regard, and at the same time, as a creditor, they will also increase their influence very strongly.

Not to mention, a consortium must have its own bank, such as the Mitsui Consortium, the strongest of Japan's six major consortia, which has large manufacturing companies such as Sony, Toyota, and Nippon Steel, but these are only industries on the surface, and Mitsui's core assets are actually financial investments all over the world.

For example, iron ore, large-scale grain trade, super-large farms, and the supply of various minerals, energy, raw materials, etc., more or less have the shadow of the Mitsui consortium.

In addition to investing in shares, the Mitsui consortium is so influential because it has several of Japan's top banks, which absorb domestic capital and control the lifeblood of many industries around the world through financial lending.

It is difficult to develop into an existence comparable to that of the Mitsui Foundation, but the development model of the Nippon Foundation has great reference value.

The acquisition of a small bank in Hong Kong now is just the first step in the financial sector.