As the future financial capital, Hong Kong Island is one of the four tigers. Back in the 50s, there was a bit of a prototype, and in the early days it was full of private banks and securities companies. The banking business can be described as very extensive, in addition to the four major banks of HSBC, Standard Chartered, East Asia, and Citigroup, there are also countless private banks.

However, more than 20 years have passed, and now the remaining banks on Hong Kong Island have long since disappeared, and they have either been dismantled and acquired by the four major banks, or they have been suppressed and crushed. Most of the private banks that have survived so far have more or less close ties and cooperation with the big four banks.

From this point, we can see the status and influence of the four major banks in Hong Kong's financial field.

Among the big four banks, the most powerful are HSBC and Standard Chartered, both of which have obtained the right to issue Hong Kong dollars. To put it simply, it is to be able to close the door and print money by yourself.

This alone is not comparable to the other two East Asia and Citigroup.

If you only talk about the right to issue banknotes, HSBC and Standard Chartered are similar, after all, the headquarters of the two banks are in the United Kingdom, and the right to issue banknotes is naturally the plan of the headquarters behind it.

But as early as 1965, HSBC acquired the largest Chinese bank at that time, "Hang Seng Bank". This has led to HSBC's strength in Hong Kong has always been far greater than that of Standard Chartered Bank, and in the early 70s, HSBC's newly appointed senior Shen Bi has always preferred to win over Chinese businessmen, and at this time British capital gradually declined, which caused HSBC to be stronger than Standard Chartered in Hong Kong.

According to the data released by HSBC not long ago, HSBC's Hong Kong dollar banknotes currently account for more than 53% of the banknotes in circulation in Hong Kong. This alone shows that Standard Chartered is no longer qualified to compete with HSBC in Hong Kong as it did a decade ago.

Fok Yaowen wants to take a stake in HSBC and become a member of the board of directors, not because he is greedy for HSBC's business, mainly because as he has more and more personal assets, he urgently needs a bank as a backing.

It's like the charter king can borrow more than one billion Hong Kong dollars from HSBC without a sound, if the charter king does not have the identity of HSBC director, it is unlikely that he can borrow more than one billion so easily.

Everyone knows how good it is to invest in a bank or a bank that can issue banknotes. Whether it is a low-interest loan from a bank due to a company's lack of funds, or an expansion of the company's business through the bank's channels, these are all benefits that can become invisible to the bank's shareholders.

The biggest advantage is that banks almost hold the lifeblood of most wealthy businessmen. Don't look at the many billionaires in Hong Kong, all of them are billionaires, but many of their assets are fixed assets, and the funds that can be taken out are actually very small.

As the most profitable industry in the 50s and 70s, and the charter ship king is the world's first ship king, he needs more than one billion Hong Kong dollars like bank loans, not to mention most of the rich people in Hong Kong who do real estate.

When they have insufficient funds, they can only borrow from banks, after all, not everyone can have abundant overseas cash flow like Huo Yaowen.

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"You want to take a stake in HSBC?!" The charter boat king's face was full of shock, he didn't expect Huo Yaowen to actually think about becoming a director of HSBC.

"Hmm. Huo Yaowen nodded slightly, and said bluntly: "As long as Mr. Bao can help me smoothly invest in HSBC, 1,200 shares of Wharf shares, I am willing to sell it to Mr. Bao at a low price." ”

Hearing this, the charter boat king frowned, did not directly refuse Huo Yaowen, and after thinking for a while, he said: "Huo Sheng, your desire to invest in HSBC is too sudden, I need to think about it." ”

"Of course. Huo Yaowen thought for a while, and said: "Regardless of whether this matter can be done or not, I will only sell the 12 million shares of Wharf shares in my hand to Mr. Bao and you." ”

The implication of this statement is that the stock can sell you, but the price may not be compromised. After all, Huo Yaowen is not a little plum, he won Hutchison Whampoa a few years ago, and in the past two years, he has privately repurchased Hutchison Whampoa's retail shares many times, and has now increased his holdings to more than 40%, and there is no need to use Wharf shares as chips in exchange for Hutchison Whampoa shares in the hands of HSBC.

In the afternoon of the same day, after Huo Yaowen left the global shipping, the charter king immediately summoned his two sons-in-law to come over to discuss the cooperation method proposed by Huo Yaowen.

After the charter king told him about this, he looked at his two sons-in-law and wanted to hear their opinions.

"What! Huo Yaowen wants to take a stake in HSBC?" Wu Guangzheng showed a strange expression, looked at his father-in-law and then at his brother-in-law, and said in disbelief: "Huo Yaowen doesn't know how difficult it is to invest in HSBC?"

HSBC, as a note-issuing bank in Hong Kong, has naturally attracted the attention of many wealthy businessmen, and no one has ever thought of investing in HSBC, but no one has succeeded in so many years.

As for the fact that Chartership King can become the only Chinese director, it is because of the good cooperative relationship between the two parties for more than ten years, and secondly, when Global Shipping was established, HSBC also joined a share, which contributed to the charter King's 70 years to settle in HSBC and become a member of the board of directors.

"It's hard, but it's not too difficult to become a member of the board of directors. "After 20 years of cooperation with HSBC and 10 years as a director of HSBC, I naturally know that HSBC is not as difficult to enter as the outside world thinks.

Otherwise, decades later, it would be absolutely impossible for an insurance company to take control of HSBC.

Su Haiwen, another son-in-law of the charter boat king, frowned and pondered for a while, and then slowly opened his mouth and said: "Father-in-law, does this Huo Yaowen want your father-in-law to help him become a director of HSBC, or does he want you to help him?"

"I guess it's just helping. "The charter king thinks that he doesn't have the ability to directly help Huo Yaowen become a director of HSBC. If he was really so powerful, he wouldn't have planned a year or two ago in advance in order to acquire a Wharf.

"If it's just to help, I think my father-in-law can agree. ”

"Promise?" The charter king squinted slightly, he actually wanted to agree in his heart, because in this way, Huo Yaowen promised to sell him Wharf shares at a low price, which was enough for him to save a minimum of 100 million Hong Kong dollars.

In this way, the remaining money can be better prepared for the subsequent layout of the acquisition of Wharf.

It's just that the charter boat king always feels a little uneasy, this uneasiness is afraid that he won't be able to help Huo Yaowen at that time, and he will take such a big advantage in vain, and the outside world will only think that he is the charter boat king's own person.

"Yes, promise Huo Yaowen. ”

Su Haiwen sorted out his thoughts and said: "Since Huo Yaowen proposed to invest in HSBC, he must have his own reasons and must be prepared. Otherwise, he would not have lost hundreds of millions to your father-in-law in vain. ”

"Regardless of whether Huo Yaowen succeeds in the end or not, as long as his father-in-law helps him, Huo Yaowen will not complain about his father-in-law because of this matter. Investing in this kind of thing is inherently risky. ”

Hearing Su Haiwen say this, the charter boat king thought about it for a long time, but he still didn't make up his mind, and just said: "I'll think about it again, don't reveal this matter to the public." ”

"It's my father-in-law. ”

Wu Guangzheng and Su Haiwen naturally understood that if this matter spread out, it would inevitably cause Huo Yaowen's anger, and now was the critical moment for the acquisition of Wharf, and they didn't want to make trouble.

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