The 180-metre-high, 46-storey 46-storey tower at 1 Queen's Road Central, designed by renowned architect Norman Foster, stands in the heart of Central's busiest district, with a total cost of US$1 billion.

HSBC's head office building is not the tallest building in Hong Kong, but its architectural style is unique! It does not adopt the traditional layer-by-floor pouring method of a building, but adopts a prefabricated structure. If needed, HSBC can disassemble the entire building in a short period of time and transport it to another location to be reassembled into a skyscraper!

In the words of a previous Hong Kong newspaper satirizing HSBC, people who deal with money really know how to be careful. When HSBC wants to abandon Hong Kong in the future, it doesn't even need to leave a single brick and tile, which can be called the highest level of "capitalization"!

Under the influence of public opinion, the head office building, which is supposed to show HSBC's strong financial strength, has become the most powerful evidence that HSBC has no intention of taking root in Hong Kong. How can a bank that is not willing to stay continue to win the lasting trust of local users in Hong Kong?

Originally, HSBC could also rely on its unquestionable hard power in Hong Kong's financial sector to restore the shaky confidence of local customers. But with the rapid rise of Jiahua Bank, HSBC's position as the dominant one in Hong Kong has also begun to falter!

Sitting in his spacious and bright Taipan office, with an unobstructed view of Victoria Harbour in the distance outside the glass curtain wall, he was frowning at the moment, and he had no time to enjoy the scenery outside the window!

Not long ago, there was another explosive news in the Hong Kong stock market, Jiahua Bank and Hong Kong Standard Chartered Bank officially began merger negotiations!

As everyone knows, the controlling shareholders of Jiahua and Hong Kong Standard Chartered are the world's richest "God of Wealth Li". The two banks have long formed a close alliance, and they are so good that they wear the same pants, which puts a lot of pressure on HSBC!

However, after all, they are two independent listed companies, and the interests of their respective minority shareholders cannot be completely identical, which also makes it impossible for the two banks to form the greatest synergy! Now, the two banks are finally ready to merge!

The new bank after the merger will surpass HSBC in terms of total deposits and loans, as well as its total own assets, and become the new leader of Hong Kong's banking industry.

The fact that HSBC has been gradually shifting its development focus away from Hong Kong in recent years has been gradually shifting its focus from Hong Kong in accordance with the established steps!

For example, after HSBC took a stake in SITC in 1980, it further annexed it into a wholly-owned subsidiary in 1987. Even after the failed acquisition of the Royal Bank of Scotland in 1981, HSBC's interest in acquiring a major British bank never waned, and in 1987 it took a stake in Mittland Bank.

According to the latest resolution passed by the HSBC Board of Directors, HSBC will establish a new holding company on the basis of the Group. In the case that the group's headquarters is not moved, the newly established holding company will be directly allowed to return to the UK for registration.

Then the HSBC Group will be placed under the name of a new holding company, and then through the issuance of new shares, overseas listing and other operational means, in a more moderate way, the entire HSBC Group will be transferred to the assets. According to the original plan, this complete set of restructuring plans will be officially announced and implemented next month!

The idea of the HSBC board of directors was to use this method of boiling frogs in warm water to carry out a step-by-step retreat without causing a huge shock to the outside world. But now that the merger of Jiahua and Hong Kong's Standard Chartered is in front of us, if HSBC acts according to the original plan, it is easy for Hong Kong public opinion to compare the two things together.

This is bound to completely detonate the negative public opinion of Hong Kong society towards HSBC, thus dealing an incalculable and serious blow to the group's subsequent development in Hong Kong! As far as Pu Weishi is concerned, he has reservations about the resolution of the group's board of directors, and Hong Kong is the most important source of profit for the entire HSBC group, despite the fact that Hong Kong is just a small place.

Not only is HSBC not ready to further stabilize its fundamentals, but it has continued to withdraw from Hong Kong and use Hong Kong's profits to transfuse the group's global layout. This is also one of the important reasons why competitors such as Jiahua can quickly catch up with HSBC.

It's a pity that although Pvis is the chairman of HSBC, he can't turn around the majority of the company's shareholder, Deutsch. In their view, as long as the huge political risks brought about by Hong Kong's "return to the motherland" of '97 can be avoided, even if it is worth paying some short-term economic losses!

It's a pity that what HSBC has lost now is simply a part of its short-term benefits. It is losing out on a huge opportunity to succeed in the future!

Puweis' predecessor, Shen Bi, is widely regarded as one of the best managers of HSBC in more than 100 years. The reason why Shen Bi can get such a high evaluation is that through his strong support for Hong Kong's emerging Chinese entrepreneurs represented by Bao Yugang and Li Jiacheng, he has successfully reaped huge economic dividends in Hong Kong's post-war rise, thus leading HSBC Group to a new peak of development!

But by the time Pvis sat in HSBC's executive chair, Hong Kong's economic fundamentals had changed dramatically again. The rapid rise of Hong Kong's electronics industry, represented by the Oriental Group, has become a new funding and engine for Hong Kong's economy!

However, HSBC has been marginalized in the short-lived but profound industrial transformation of Hong Kong. As a result, HSBC could only watch as Jiahua Bank transformed from an inconspicuous small Chinese-funded bank into its strongest competitor in less than ten years!

It is not unclear that Puvis would let HSBC also take a share of Hong Kong's thriving electronics industry. For this reason, he stabbed Jardine Matheson Group in the back in Li Xuan's acquisition of Hongkong Land Company. At the time, HSBC was Hongkong Land's largest creditor bank and maintained a close relationship with the entire Jardine Matheson Group.

However, when Li Xuan forcibly acquired Hongkong Land, HSBC chose to be a neutral sidewitness and was unwilling to provide financial support for Jardine Matheson's anti-takeover. This also directly led to the fact that Jardine Matheson almost did not resist, and Li Xuan took control of the geological company, the best real estate company in Hong Kong.

It was by sacrificing the interests of the Jardine Matheson Group that Puvis got a promise from Li Xuan. Oriental Group will not deliberately create obstacles to HSBC's entry into Hong Kong's electronics industry.

Although Li Xuan has kept his promise in recent years, HSBC's influence in Hong Kong's electronics industry has not only not caught up with Jiahua Bank, but has a tendency to be further widened!