Since March 1973, when the Hong Kong stock market retreated from the historic high of 17,796 points in the Hang Seng Index, the stock market boom began to cool.

Hutchison International did not stop its expansion, and continued to borrow heavily for investment activities, especially the large number of Swiss francs, which laid the fuse for future crises.

By 1974, the share prices of the listed companies of the Hutchison Group had depreciated significantly, but instead of reflecting this situation in its accounts, the group used the proceeds from the sale of land and the funds raised by the listing of Metropole Real Estate to maintain net profits and pay dividends.

Unfortunately, the stock market fell further, and by December 10, 1974, the Hang Seng Index had fallen to a low of 150 points.

Hutchison International was hit by the double blow of the sharp depreciation of the share prices of the listed companies in the department and the sharp appreciation of the Swiss franc, and the financial difficulties quickly surfaced.

Hutchison International's overseas investments, including those in the United Kingdom, Australia and Southeast Asia, have not performed well, especially in Indonesia, where the global oil crisis has generated bad debts of about HK$100 million.

During the 1973 Hong Kong stock market crash, the decline in stocks was staggering. Not only did the stock price of many small companies fall into penny stocks (less than 1 yuan), but also blue chips and industry leading companies have also fallen to slag.

Seeing a large number of stocks with the potential for appreciation, Li Hualong was ready to move, and wanted to sell the shares of listed companies in the United States and acquire Hong Kong listed companies instead.

The share price of Hutchison International continued to fall, especially after the news of the collapse of Hutchison International, Li Hualong made up his mind to buy the company, and in his eyes, Hutchison International has many assets with potential for appreciation. He bought Hutchison International at a very low price, and after the restructuring, the company's share price will definitely rise.

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In early November, a number of Hong Kong media outlets reported that Hang Seng Bank's market capitalization had surpassed HSBC's. When some media analyzed the reason for this, they all mentioned that Li Hualong, the controlling shareholder, had provided a great boost to the development and growth of Hang Seng Bank.

When Hang Seng Bank was first listed, it had a total market value of HK$2.4 billion, and in March 1973, the bank's market value reached HK$9 billion. At that time, HSBC's market capitalization was as high as HK$14.8 billion.

The bull market went and the bear market came, and the stock prices of Hang Seng Bank and HSBC both fell, but Hang Seng Bank never fell below the issue price (HK$4 per share), and by the beginning of November 1974, HSBC's market value fell to HK$2.6 billion, while the market value of Hang Seng Bank was more than HK$3 billion.

Although Hang Seng Bank has a market capitalization that surpasses HSBC, the company is not the most valuable of any listed company in Hong Kong, and Gemdale Group, another listed company controlled by Li Hualong, is the most valuable in early November. Gemdale Group's share price is not less than HK$33 shares, and the company's market capitalization has also fallen below HK$3.3 billion.

Li Hualong predicted that HSBC's annual profit in 1974 would not be less than 2.7 billion, and even if the price-to-earnings ratio was calculated at 10 times, the bank's market value could reach 2.7 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Seeing that HSBC's stock price was greatly undervalued, Li Hualong began to buy a large number of HSBC shares, and in addition, he also suggested that his father Li Yisong's eldest brother Li Huawen and fourth brother Li Huawu both buy HSBC shares.

At this time, HSBC was only a regional bank with a main business in Hong Kong, and was not yet a global bank.

Because of the emergence of Li Hualong, in the past 20 years, the development of Chinese-funded enterprises in Hong Kong has been very fast. There are faint signs of overtaking British-owned enterprises.

With the support of Li Hualong, Hang Seng Bank survived the run on the bank in 1965. Grow and grow rapidly.

With the development and growth of Li Hualong's enterprises, as well as Chinese-funded enterprises such as Evergrande Group and Jiuan Group, Hang Seng Bank, which has established good relations with these Chinese-funded enterprises, has become stronger and stronger.

The market capitalization of Hang Seng Bank's shares exceeds that of HSBC, which proves that in the eyes of many Hong Kong investors, Hang Seng Bank is stronger than HSBC.

Li Hualong knew that the British government in Hong Kong strongly supported the development of HSBC and Standard Chartered, two note-issuing banks, and that Hang Seng Bank would not increase the development of overseas business. It's not easy to leave these two main competitors far behind.

Li Hualong has two purposes for investing in HSBC stocks, one is that he feels that it is very cost-effective to buy at a low price now, whether to sell and cash out after the stock price rises in the future, or to hold it for a long time and get dividends every year; Second, he had a long-term plan in mind, he remembered that during the Sino-British negotiations, the Hong Kong stock market was in a downturn, and many British-funded enterprises such as Hong Kong Real Estate were almost bankrupt.

If Li Hualong and his family can enter the board of directors of HSBC as directors, and when the Hong Kong stock market and property market are in a downturn, and Hong Kong Land and other British-funded enterprises are having a hard time and cannot repay HSBC in time, then Li Hualong, as a member of the board of directors of HSBC, can ask British-funded enterprises to repay in time and force British-funded enterprises to sell their properties and cash out when the market is down, so that he and Chinese-funded businessmen can make a profit.

"Third brother, if we buy a large number of HSBC shares, it will definitely push up the stock price, what price do you think HSBC shares are not more than worth buying?" Li Huahu asked.

"The average price does not exceed 15 Hong Kong dollars, how much you want, how much you buy." Li Hualong replied.

"What is the stock price now?" Li Huahu asked again, "Also, what is the total share capital?" ”

"200 million shares." Li Hualong replied, and added, "The stock price has fallen to a minimum of HK$12 per share!" ”

"I don't know how to buy stocks, you can buy them for me." Li Huahu said, "Within a month, I will be able to come up with 100 million." ”

"I can invest up to 200 million." Li Huawen said.

"I'll invest 30 million." Li Yisong said.

"Abba, you just sold the shares of Times Real Estate Company and have a lot of cash in hand, so buy more." Li Hualong suggested.

"Okay, listen to you!"

HSBC's shareholders are very scattered, and in the following months, Li Yisong, Li Huawen, Li Hualong and Li Huahu continued to buy HSBC shares at an average price of HK$15 per share, and purchased a total of 38 million shares, holding as much as 19% of the shares, Li Hualong invested HK$2.4 billion to buy 16 million shares, Li Huawen invested HK$1.8 billion to buy 12 million shares, Li Huahu invested HK$90 million to buy 6 million shares, and Li Yisong invested HK$60 million to buy 4 million shares.

Mr. and Mrs. Li continued to buy shares in HSBC, pushing up the stock price, and when the bank's market capitalization exceeded HK$5 billion, they stopped buying shares in the bank.

With a 19 percent stake, Mr. Li and his family could have claimed a seat on HSBC's board of directors, but they did not do so, nor did they make a public announcement, and they held shares in their investment companies in the name of their own companies.

At the same time as buying HSBC, Li Hualong also began to buy Cheung Kong shares.

When the company's share price fell to HK$3, Li Hualong began to buy a large number of shares, spending HK$16.8 million to buy 4.2 million shares at an average price of HK$4 per share, and obtained 10% of the shares.

Li Hualong is very optimistic about Li Ka-shing's ability, he feels that even if he acquires Hutchison International in the future, Li Ka-shing will lose the opportunity to "swallow" Hutchison Whampoa (before Li Ka-shing acquired Hutchison Whampoa, Hutchison International changed its name to Hutchison Whampoa), and he also believes that under Li Ka-shing's leadership, Cheung Kong will also become a top real estate company in Hong Kong.

In addition to buying shares in Cheung Kong Property, Li Hualong also bought a 10 percent stake in another real estate company, Sun Hung Kai Properties, knowing that the land owned by this company has great potential for appreciation, and he is very optimistic about the ability of Kwok Tak-sheng, the helmsman of Sun Hung Kai Properties, and he believes that buying shares in this company now will definitely make huge profits in the future.

Although Li Hualong bought the dairy company early, and Hongkong Land, known as the "king of the land in Central", lost almost all of the acquisition of the dairy company, but in 1972 and early 1973, the company's share price skyrocketed, reaching a maximum of HK$57 shares, with a total share capital of 2.1 billion shares at the time.

As the Hong Kong stock market plummeted, Hongkong Land's share price also fell sharply.

Li Hualong bought Times Land at a premium, and Hongkong Land's share price rose for a time, up more than 10 percent, but in November, Hongkong Land's share price fell again.

In late November, Hongkong Land's share price fell below HK$35 shares.

Over the past year or so, Hongkong Land's share price has been split and new shares have been issued, bringing the total share capital to 6.4 billion shares, giving the company a market capitalization of HK$22.4 billion at a price of HK$35 per share.

Li Hualong is very greedy for the properties and land owned by Hongkong Land, if he can buy all the shares of Hongkong Property Company at a price of HK$5 per share, he will not hesitate to sign the acquisition contract, but he knows that the majority shareholder of Hongkong Land will not accept this purchase price, and he does not want to pay a higher price, so he chooses to buy Hongkong Land's shares first for long-term investment.

Li Hualong felt that the best time for him to buy Hongkong Land was during the Sino-British talks.

Previously, Li Hualong said to his family that successful investors must endure "loneliness", so that it is easier to seize opportunities, and he has always done this.

It took Li Hualong more than a month to spend HK$45.6 billion to buy 1.2 billion shares of Hongkong Land at an average price of HK$38 shares, and obtained 1,875% of the shares, which were not held by him alone, but by him and his family. (To be continued.) )