In the first five months of this year (1993), the performance of the Hong Kong stock market was very bright, and the good results of rising by more than 30% also made most shareholders make a lot of money, from less than 5,500 points at the beginning of the year to 7,200 points in mid-May.

Lin Zuhui's personal investment company, Hengjin Investment, also made a big profit of nearly 1 billion because it started to do futures contracts at the beginning of the year.

In terms of real estate, since the beginning of the year, luxury property prices have risen steadily, and in April and May, the transaction was even stronger, and the selling price rose by 2% in two months. Driven by luxury residential buildings, the prices of small and medium-sized residential units have soared again, with the average price approaching the $5,000 psf mark.

Driven by residential buildings, the rents and selling prices of office buildings in Hong Kong have risen sharply, and the Grade A office buildings in Central and Wan Chai have risen by about 2% in less than half a year, and are expected to rise to more than 3% for the whole year, and the Central District may even reach 4% increase.

As the thriving business districts spread from the core to the periphery, Hong Kong's shopping malls and shop roads also performed well, especially Wan Chai, Causeway Bay, North Point and Tsim Sha Tsui on Hong Kong Island. In the Causeway Bay area, since the opening of the Sogo department store and the completion of Times Square, the surge in foot traffic in the area has attracted many large chain groups to open branches nearby, which has led to a sharp rise in rents in the area. At this time, Hong Kong's shop rents topped the list among the world's 12 major cities. Among them, the monthly rent of a shop in Causeway Bay was HK$3,429 per square foot, and a buyer bid 190,000 per square foot to buy it, which was later shelved due to the reluctance to sell the business.

Lou Li is rolling in, and major real estate developers, agents, and speculators are smiling; Foreign capital has begun to enter the securities and real estate of Xiangjiang one after another, intending to get a piece of the pie.

Saturday, May 22.

In the morning, Lin Zuhui held a small meeting with the core senior management of real estate in the office of New Era Group.

"In mid-May, the Hong Kong government announced its annual 'official land auction' plan, and the stock market skyrocketed," he said. From this point of view, the property market will continue to be strong for several years. Therefore, we must take land in 1993~1995, these three years, not lagging behind Sun Hung Kai and Henderson, so as not to cause a lack of stamina in the future. ”

In the past year or so, New Era Group has not been as aggressive in land purchase as before, but it has also maintained the forefront of Hong Kong real estate developers; The root cause is that there is not enough money.

Chen Bin nodded and said: "Due to the prosperity of real estate, our company's profits continue to generate, and we can indeed strengthen land purchase." However, now that major real estate developers are bold in chasing high, it is not so easy to get land in official land auctions. ”

This is true, the better the market, the more people chase high purchases; The worse the market, the more timid and cautious everyone is.

In any case, New Era Group will strengthen its land reserve as much as possible in these three years; As for ninety-six ~ ninety-seven, naturally it will not chase high, and the year and a half in itself is the last madness, on the contrary, it has to be shipped while it is high.

Therefore, in the recent official land auction, if there is a good land or luxury land, New Era Group will try to take a little more, after all, there is a lot of cash flow.

Heung Kong's real estate still occupies the absolute source of profit of the group, and although New Era Group has successfully diversified, its overseas and mainland investments have not yet generated much return.

For example, the property rent in Manhattan does have a net rent profit of more than one billion yuan per year, but the interest on that investment needs to be paid nearly 40%, and the current annual rate of return of the eight skyscrapers is 7.5%. This is still a case of buying at a low price, otherwise it is estimated that there will only be a return of 4~6%.

In the previous life, a large number of Chinese companies in the mainland bought Manhattan office buildings on a large scale after 2010, when the price was high, and the result was that there were no bottoms left. There are also enterprises that come to Xiangjiang to buy properties and land, and those who barely make money have become leeks for Hong Kong real estate developers.

The level is so poor!

The deep-seated reason is that it has not been many decades since the reform, and everyone's international business vision has not yet been cultivated.

I talked to everyone about the general direction of the company's real estate, and everyone left the office with confidence and devoted themselves to work.

........

Ho Tung Hotel, Happy Valley.

In the karaoke box on the 15th floor, a group of friends such as Yang Shoucheng, Cheng Long, and Huang Yulang were drinking and singing, and they were partying.

During the period, everyone discussed the design of the 'doll' (comic picture) of the T-shirt, and Huang Yulang gushed endlessly, with the posture of the first person in Xiangjiang comics.

Huang Yulang ended his sentence in Stanley in the second half of last year, sentenced to four years, and actually served two years. At that time, he was released from prison, and there were reporters waiting in front of Stanley Prison, as well as his old department and apprentices. Huang is still arrogant in the past, he clenched his fists and said: "I, Huang Yulang is still in the market!" ”

However, the reality is cruel, at this time, the comic industry in Xiangjiang has undergone great changes, that is, the new genre - the Japanese comic style occupies the mainstream position, followed by Ma Rongcheng and Shangguan Xiaobao's high-quality local comics. The inferior comics in the market, which are full of violence and pornography, have been gradually abandoned by the market, and have even been suppressed by the Hong Kong government.

Huang Yulang can indeed live a quite comfortable life with the bald pen in his hand, but if he wants to reproduce the glory, it is undoubtedly a fool's dream.

Yang Shoucheng is also the owner of a media company, and he is quite familiar with the situation of the Xiangjiang comics industry, so he said: "Now the T-shirts outside are printed with Pikachu, Wonderful Frog Seeds, Little Fire Dragon, and Jenny Turtle..... There are also printed with Conan, Sakuragi Hanamichi, etc. In the entire Xiangjiang comic industry, the Japanese comic style occupies an absolute dominant position again. ”

Huang Yulang said unconvinced: "That's succumbing to the power of money, and I have recently called on some well-known Hong Kong cartoonists to discuss the development of local comics again." I believe that Hong Kong people still like local comics. ”

Yang Shoucheng said with a smile: "With your skills, naturally you don't have to worry about having no food." But do you know how many people are raised by Wanhui Comics Club, Lin Zuhui and I are friends, as far as I know, others plan to make the comics industry a pillar industry in Xiangjiang. As far as I know, Wanhui Comics Agency's profit this year may exceed 800 million Hong Kong dollars. ”

Huang Yulang was taken aback and couldn't help but say, "Impossible! Even if they have some overseas markets, how can they have such a high profit. ”

At its peak, the annual profit of Yulang institutions was only more than 100 million, which was still the reason for a lot of overseas issuance; It's only been a few years, and Wanhui Comics Club can actually make an annual profit of more than 800 million.

Don't say that Huang Yulang doesn't believe it, I believe that many people won't believe it.

Yang Shoucheng patted Huang Yulang on the shoulder and said: "I still have a rough estimate that others have made a profit of 550 million Hong Kong dollars last year, just in the comics industry." Wanhui Comics Club is not only doing comics, but also doing comics industry chain, comics, animation, and comics. Their toy factory was built in the mainland and contributed a lot of profits, and if you think about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles back then, you will know how much profit there was. ”

Huang Yulang was immediately deflated, he had watched "Pokémon" and found that there were many kinds of Pokémon in this comic, and they were very popular among comic fans, especially the yellow big ear 'Pikachu', which is famous throughout Asia.

"A Hong Kong person, why do you want to bring Xiangjiang comics to the Japanese comic style, I don't understand!" Huang Yulang complained.

Cheng Long said: "This is very understandable, in line with the world, in line with Asia, and the same is true for us when we make movies, and we will take into account the market of Hollywood." At this point, we have to convince others, Lin Zuhui's status in Xiangjiang is far from those real estate developers can be compared, he opened up a 'cultural port', for Xiangjiang to bring a large industrial chain, increase thousands of jobs. ”

The crowd agreed, and on this point, no one can lie.

Although everyone is Huang Yulang's friend, everyone must remind Huang Yulang - Hong Kong comics are no longer your world.

........

Nearly two years after its birth, "Manke Show" has been ranked No.1 in sales in Hong Kong, with 270,000 local sales in Hong Kong, and 350,000 copies per issue with the very normal sales of overseas and mainland China.

Of course, with the profit of "Manke Show" alone, even the salaries of the chief writers, screenwriters and others of the Japanese comic department of Wanhui Comics cannot be paid. Coupled with the single book of comics and the overseas copyright income of animation, it may be possible to earn back the cost and make a slight profit.

The real profitable income comes from all the comic goods, and it is from the three head works of "Slam Dunk", "Detective Conan", and "Pokémon" - dolls, figures, theatrical versions, live-action versions and other peripherals.

The important thing is that the largest source of profit is Japan, a big manga country.

Therefore, Wanhui Comics Society has attracted the attention and vigilance of the Japanese comic industry, and even some Japanese comic companies do not hesitate to take risks to imitate and plagiarize similar themes, so it has also caused a lawyer's letter from Wanhui Comics Society.

It's okay to plagiarize "Detective Kelan", after all, this copyright is difficult to define, and "Detective Kelan" still borrows from "Sherlock Holmes".

However, "Pokemon", a manga that integrates pet cultivation and combat, is almost a promise if it is plagiarized.

Although, the work of Wanhui Publishing House has also been criticized by the Japanese manga industry - the overall quality (artwork) is not as good as that of Japanese manga works, and it was originally a good material with the same reputation as excellent Japanese works such as "Dragon Ball", but the quality has declined because of "copycat Japanese manga".

This is probably the last self-esteem of the Japanese!

In fact, there is some truth in the criticism of the Japanese manga industry, but it does not affect the best-selling of "Slam Dunk", "Detective Conan", and "Pokémon" overseas and in the mainland.

After all, the subtlety is of slightly inferior quality and is difficult for manga fans to notice; In fact, Wanhui Comics Agency's Japanese comic chief writers, their salaries are too high, so each work can hire two excellent Japanese comic writers, which is already the highest budget; As for the main writer of local comics in Hong Kong, he will do the work of auxiliary comic chief writers.

As for the manga artists who have been trained, they can only draw some other works on "Manke Show", and there are no works that can become overseas bestsellers.