On April 10, 1958, Leesstone Co., Ltd. was incorporated in Hong Kong, with a registered capital of 50 million, with Li Huawen holding 50% of the shares, Li Hualong holding 30% of the shares, and Li Yisong and Li Huahu holding 10% of the shares each.

Li Huawen sold the property to cash out and injected capital into Li's Stone Industry Co., Ltd., but did not make up 25,000 million in the short term, after all, it will take some time to find a suitable buyer, if it is too urgent, it will definitely not be able to sell at the price, so it is not cost-effective.

Li Hualong offered to lend 10 million yuan to Li Huawen from the accounts of Hualong Real Estate and Huayi Brothers, with a loan term of half a year and no interest on the loan.

Li Hualong used the shares of the Intercontinental Hotel and the Universal Shipping Company as collateral to provide a guarantee for the Li Shi Gong Company, and borrowed 40 million Hong Kong dollars from HSBC, and in addition, the Li Shi Shi Company itself applied for a loan of 10 million Hong Kong dollars from each of the five banks, including HSBC and Hang Seng.

The purchase of Anderson Road Quarry, the largest quarry in Hong Kong, by the Lee Stone Company for HK$135 million from the Hong Kong government, was not only a big news sensation in Hong Kong's stone mining industry, but also attracted the attention and reports of many media in Hong Kong.

Many people think that Li Hualong's family has lost sight of the huge amount of money invested in stone mining, and even doubt that they can afford to repay the bank loan in installments.

Unmoved, the Li family invested a lot of money to buy a lot of quarrying machinery in Japan and shipped it back to Hong Kong through Guò Global Shipping.

With the use of these quarrying machines, the profitability of the mine continues to rise.

Li's Stone Co., Ltd. borrowed a total of 90 million Hong Kong dollars from the bank, which was repaid in eight years, and the signed loan was calculated according to the fixed loan interest, and 1.5 million Hong Kong dollars were repaid every month. In the first three months, the quarry's monthly profits were insufficient to pay the bank loans, and the funds needed to purchase the equipment were added, so the four shareholders injected a total of 7 million yuan into the company.

Later, after three months of painstaking operation, the monthly profit of Li's Stone Company exceeded 2 million yuan, and in addition to paying back the money, there was a surplus every month.

With the continuous increase in the revenue of Li's Stone Company, Li Huawen, the company's major shareholder, was proud for a while and won the title of "Ore King".

……

One morning in mid-July, Mr. Lee and Mr. Lee arrived at the roof of a 12-storey commercial building in Causeway Bay, which had just been topped out and was expected to be completed by the end of this year.

"Aaron, I borrowed 10 million from you before, I won't pay you back directly, deduct it from the project money, no problem."

"No problem, it's all the same." Li Hualong smiled and nodded, "Big brother, have you had plenty of money recently?" ”

"Affluent, no more pressure to repay the loan. Since the quarry is on the right track, we don't need to continue to inject funds into it, and there are dividends every month, and life is better. Last month, I invested in the construction of two industrial buildings in North Point, and I made a lot of money by selling them without keeping them for rent. ”

Li Huawen paused and asked, "What is the construction area of the industrial building under Hualong Real Estate Company?" ”

"I don't know exactly how much area it is, so I didn't go out of my way to remember it. It is expected that the rental income of the industrial building will reach 3.5 million this year. ”

"I found out that you are a bit of a stone into gold, some projects that I was not very optimistic about at the beginning, actually let you make money, I have to admire you!"

"Vision and luck are indispensable!" Li Hualong smiled, "Big brother, don't envy me. In recent years, your assets have grown fast enough. Of course, you're a little worse than me. ”

"I don't envy you, I admire you. I am grateful in my heart for your help over the years. Hehe, we're brothers, you're welcome. Li Huawen smiled and changed the subject, "How do you plan to name this building?" ”

"Carrefour!" Li Hualong replied without hesitation, he had already decided to take this name.

Li Huawen was slightly stunned, feeling that "Carrefour" was a little familiar, and asked, "What is the name of the supermarket you said?" ”

"It's also called Carrefour. I am going to spin off this building from the real estate company and set up an independent company, called Carrefour Limited, which is mainly engaged in supermarkets. At the same time, it will also invest in real estate, and in the future, this company will have a lot of properties under its umbrella. ”

When Li Hualong designed the Carrefour Building, he thought far ahead, thinking that in another 20 years, the building would be renovated into a department store, and now it is a commercial building with a complex office building and a supermarket.

After chatting for a few words, Li Hualong said, "Big brother, I want to ask you to borrow someone." ”

"Borrow whom?"

"Baoyun Mountain."

"What are you borrowing him for? How long to borrow? ”

"I think running a supermarket is definitely profitable, but without someone who is both competent and trustworthy to help me manage it, even if it is a good business, it will be yellow. Brother Bao Yunshan is capable and more trustworthy. Li Hualong smiled, "As for how long it will last, you have to ask his opinion." ”

"You are so generous to the staff, if you lend him to you, it must be Liu Bei who borrowed Jingzhou - there is no repayment of the loan." Li Huawen quipped, "Bao Yunshan is quite capable, since you need him, I will lend him to you." However, you need to talk to him yourself. ”

"Thank you. I'll call him tonight. Having said that, Brother Bao Yunshan was my employee at the beginning, and if it weren't for your company to get on the right track quickly, he wouldn't have let him work in your company. ”

"I didn't forget it. What are you doing with old accounts, I didn't say I wouldn't let people go. ”

Bao Yunshan is the eldest son of Bao Quanfu, the same age as Li Huawu, three years older than Li Hualong, he and the four brothers of the Li family have played since childhood, just like brothers.

Bao Quanfu was the one who was responsible for helping Li Hualong deliver supplies to the mainland, and he met Ye Shuai in Yangcheng.

Bao Quanfu and Li Yisong are fellow villagers, or are they small.

In 1949, Bao Yunshan and his family came to Hong Kong, before coming to Hong Kong, he worked for Li Yisong, after coming to Hong Kong, he just started to work in Hualong Real Estate Company, and later Jiu'an Company was established, he was transferred to Jiu'an Company to work.

Li Hualong did what he said, and that night, he made a phone call to Bao Yunshan's home.

Although Bao Yunshan promised to join the soon-to-be-established Carrefour company to work, he did not leave Jiu'an Company immediately, he still had some work at hand that was not done, and he was directly handed over to others, he was a little uneasy, and needed some time to hand over the work. Li Hualong didn't mind Bao Yunshan continuing to work for Jiu'an Company for a while, but he immediately handed over the decoration work of the shopping plaza and the procurement of goods to Bao Yunshan.

For a time, Bao Yunshan worked for Jiu'an and Carrefour, but Carrefour had not yet been established and could not pay him a salary for the time being.

Later, Li Huawen and Li Hualong talked about this matter, Li Huawen joked and asked Li Hualong to compensate Jiu'an Company for its losses, after all, Jiu'an Company gave Bao Yunshan a salary, and Li Hualong knew that his eldest brother was joking, so he naturally didn't take it seriously.

Li Hualong remembered the names of many well-known retail enterprises in later generations, these names turned around in his mind, he felt that the name Carrefour was good, and planned to borrow it, but he didn't remember the English name of the company, even if he remembered, he would not adopt it, he was afraid that Carrefour supermarkets had appeared abroad, as long as the supermarket did not enter the Chinese market, the name "Carrefour" would naturally not appear.

Li Hualong thought about it briefly and came up with an English name that matched Carrefour - homemart.

The Carrefour Building covers an area of more than 1,200 square meters, and the first Carrefour supermarket is located on the second to fifth floors.

For Hong Kong people in this era, the supermarket with an area of more than 3,000 square meters can be described as veritable.