London.

This year, Canary Wharf will usher in the opening of the 'Wharf Light Railway Extension', 'Canary Wharf Station' and 'Metro Extension', which will solve the only problem that plagues Canary Wharf Group - transportation.

Canary Wharf now has 12 million square feet of commercial properties, as well as 4 million square feet of commercial businesses under construction, and the value of these properties will skyrocket.

New Era Group has spent about $3 billion on this project, and after more than six years of construction, it has finally ushered in a payback period. At present, the valuation of Canary Wharf Group has reached more than 6 billion US dollars, after all, it holds the entire Canary Wharf property and has the advantage of developing the surrounding lots.

On this day, Canary Wharf's underground station was officially opened, and Lin Zuhui and London Mayor Peter Levin attended the event, as well as Riccheman, CEO of Canary Wharf Group, and others.

On the rostrum of the ceremony, Peter Levin delivered a speech, Canary Wharf has been clearly designated as London's new financial CBD, as early as more than five years ago, the London government in order to prevent the project from falling out of the way to affect London's investment climate, has developed various strategies, from transportation to publicity, carried out all aspects of work.

When the Canary Wharf Group in London gave a speech, it was naturally Richman who took the stage, and Lin Zuhui only attended as a guest.

Richman's speech was very contagious, he first said that there are Morgan, Credit Suisse, Clifford Chance, three large groups have leased three buildings, a total of 1.8 million square feet of property, Canary Wharf is expected to reach a 99% lease rate by the end of the year; Subsequently, Richman said that Canary Wharf Group would complete the remaining 4 million square feet of properties in 2002. Finally, he also said that Canary Wharf Group will fully participate in the construction of the surrounding areas of Canary Wharf.

Richman's speech immediately painted a very good picture of the prospect of Canary Wharf and its surroundings, which is naturally what the London government wants to see. To put it bluntly, Canary Wharf was originally an abandoned wharf, and if it weren't for foreign capital, it would still be a mess.

Sitting in the guest seat, Lin Zuhui was also thinking in his heart.

Canary Wharf Group is the flagship real estate group of New Era Group in Europe, and he intends to list it in the first half of 2007 and sell part of its properties, so that Canary Wharf Group will have a large amount of cash to buy the bottom after the outbreak of Lehman Brothers, and completely promote it to the largest real estate company in Europe.

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Almost all of Lam's investments in the UK are real estate and related:

The two shopping malls invested by Amazon Mall are the 'Amazon Mall' in Canary Wharf and the 'Amazon Mall' in London's White City (the site of the 1908 Franco-British Exhibition).

There are also The Langham Hotel and The Ritz-Carlton, which have several five-star luxury hotels in the UK.

There are also terminal projects, a total of two terminals, namely the UK's largest container group port - Port Phyllis and the Port of Thames.

As for the telecommunications industry, it will be sold this year, so I don't think about it.

There is also a department store, but it is under the Leit Group.

Some of the remaining fractional investments are not counted.

In summary, the UK can continue to invest more for two reasons:

First, the natural relationship between Hong Kong and the United Kingdom, as well as the relationship that Lam has established in the United Kingdom for a long time;

Second, the UK is an important country in Europe, and it is a strategy to use the UK as a bridgehead and reinvest in the whole of Europe.

After the ceremony, Lin Zuhui came to Richman's office, the two were not really subordinates, Richman was more like his partner.

Lin Zuhui attaches great importance to Richman's important position in the Canary Wharf Group, because others have been planning this project since 1986, and their ability and connections cannot be replaced by someone by the way.

"Mr. Lin, what are your plans for the listing of Canary Wharf Group?" Richman asked with concern.

Lin Zuhui promised that when the first phase of Canary Wharf reached 99% of the lease rate, he would give Richman 2% of the shares, which is also a wealth of hundreds of millions of dollars, and Richman is naturally very concerned. Of course, he also has an annual salary of 3 million US dollars plus various subsidies every year, which can be regarded as a lot of income.

"It's still early to go public, but if you need to cash out, feel free to tell me." Lin Zuhui said with a smile.

Richmond tentatively asked, "How far does Mr. Lin plan to develop the Canary Wharf Group?" ”

"Canary Wharf Phase 2 has not yet been completed and leased, and there is still a lot of land around Canary for development, so the company's prospects are limitless. ”

Richman said: "Indeed! However, with the strength of your group, you can not even consider going public, right? ”

Lin Zuhui spread his hands and said: "Maybe so, in short, the future is unpredictable, but I will not treat you, the founder of Canary Wharf, badly." ”

Richman's power in the Canary Wharf Group was so great that New Era Business Management only sent financial audit and supervision, and handed over the rest to him.

"I'm getting old, and to be honest, I'm going to actually retire, so I want to not only cash out, but I also want to resign as CEO of Canary Wharf," Richman said at this time. ”

Lin Zuhui was stunned for a moment, and then looked at Richman, everyone else seemed to be in their early 70s.

After thinking about it for a while, Lin Zuhui said: "Okay, if you want to cash out, when the lease rate reaches 99%, we are willing to pay you $120 million to redeem the 2% equity you should have got; As for the resignation of CEO, I would like you to give me a certain amount of time to find a replacement. ”

Richman said happily: "Of course it's no problem! If it weren't for Mr. Lin helping me back then, my life would not be so rich. ”

At that time, Lin Zuhui also redeemed 10% of the shares for Richman, and although he later returned to Lin Zuhui, he received at least about $150 million in income. Coupled with the high salary over the years, and the last dividend of $120 million, it is much better than other bankrupt rich people in their old age.

"Haha, we are a win-win cooperation! Finally, I still hope that you will continue to be a consultant for Canary Wharf Group, and I am willing to give you a consulting fee of $1 million per year, which does not require too much of your energy. ”

"Why not!"

The two soon reached a verbal agreement, and a conversation and laughter sparked.

Richman also agrees and recognizes some of Lin Zuhui's ideas and plans; Lin Zuhui also wants to continue to use Richman's ability and connections in the UK for his own use, so he gives $1 million a year in consulting fees.

........

The next day, Lin Zuhui, accompanied by Steven, president of the 'Amazon Mall', inspected the White City in London.

The so-called White City of London is the site of the 1908 Franco-British Exhibition, because many of the buildings here were painted white, and later it was called the "White City".

Lin Zuhui held the design draft in his hand, compared it on a large land, and exchanged views with Steven and other high-level officials, which was very professional.

"If the first phase of the project can build a 1.8 million square foot shopping mall, we will have to reserve land for future expansion." Lin Zuhui said.

"Well, this land is big enough to be a problem at all."

Shopping malls in Europe and the United States are relatively short, because there is no shortage of land anyway.

Lin then said: "As we move into large shopping malls and self-built shopping malls, we need to pay attention to one issue. Generally speaking, all commercial real estate is built with the focus on the retailer and the mall itself. But I hope that we will always be customer-oriented, and we should consider more about what convenience they need when they come to our shopping center, such as reasonable layout so that they do not feel like they are walking into a maze, such as a place to rest, children play, toilets and a series of other issues, all of which should be customer-centric. ”

Steven and other executives nodded, although the management of Amazon Mall is in their hands, they understand a truth, the soul of Amazon Mall is this boss.

Amazon Mall has an advantage, compared with Westfield Mall, it is much better in terms of advertising and marketing, because there is also an Amazon website, which is an emerging technology company with a market value of 50 billion; And Westfield Shopping Center has to spend a lot of money to strengthen the brand's reputation, which is far less loud than Amazon Shopping Center.

"Okay, I remembered the boss's words!" Steve said very seriously. This boss is not only very professional, but also very good at layout, which he admires from the bottom of his heart.

After communicating with everyone about the 'Amazon of London's White City', everyone went back to the office building for a meeting.

Amazon Mall has been preparing to enter Europe more than two years ago, and currently has two projects: Amazon in Canary Wharf and Amazon in London's White City.

Among them, the Amazon in Canary Wharf is still under renovation and will only open this Christmas; And this Amazon in the White City of London, even the drawing plan is still in the planning, and it is expected to be around 2004.

Naturally, two projects will not satisfy Amazon Mall, and a good opportunity has recently emerged.

Amazon's European headquarters office building.

In the conference room, everyone sat together for a meeting.

Recently, the Broadmarsh Centre in Nottinghamshire, England, was put out in public tender, attracting competition from a number of commercial real estate companies, including six contenders, including Amazon Mall and Westfield Mall.

The Broadmarsh Centre, part of the UK Post Employee Pension Fund.

Lin Zuhui finished reading the information in his hand and said directly: "This project, we have to cheer up, it has two places that are worth our full effort:

First, snipe Westfield Shopping Center to enter the United Kingdom and even Europe. As we all know, Westfield set up a branch in the United Kingdom, but there has never been a suitable opportunity, and France had an opportunity that year, but it also failed in the end. So as long as we win, it is equivalent to sniping our biggest opponent development.

Second, if you can gain the trust of the British Post Group, it means that there will be a next cooperation. As far as I know, there are also a number of shopping malls in the hands of the British mepc plc property investment and property development company, and the two companies that hold this company are the British Post Superannuation Fund and the British Telecom Superannuation Fund. Therefore, winning the 'Broadmarsh Center' is equivalent to continuing to cooperate. ”

When everyone heard this, they nodded in agreement, and also admired Lin Zuhui's long-term vision.

Steven said: "In this competition of six consortia, although our Amazon shopping center is famous, it is a little lacking; However, we have more than 80 successful examples in the United States, and I believe that we are also very competitive. There will be explosive growth in Nottingham's business district, which is an attractive transport hub with a population base of 1.1 million and is expected to grow by 8% per year over the next decade, outpacing the national level. ”

Lin Zuhui didn't care about the details, and said directly: "Specifically, you formulate a bidding plan, sincerity and decisiveness are very important, I hope you can succeed!" In the next ten years, commercial real estate in Europe and the United States will still be in a golden age, so Amazon will not stop expanding, and the group can spend more than $2 billion a year on investment. ”

At present, the asset value of Amazon Mall has been about 12 billion US dollars, with an annual profit of more than 700 million US dollars, and a profit rate of 6%, which is a very good performance. 6% is not the rate of return, after all, the assets are more than 12 billion US dollars, but the New Era Group has not invested so much money, so the appreciation of assets should also be counted into the rate of return, Lin Zuhui predicts a rate of return of more than 15%, which is very high.

Steven nodded, and suddenly felt confident.

Two days on weekends.

Lin Zuhui is on vacation in a luxury manor in London, so he naturally accompanies his family.

With the increase of age (34 years old), Lin Zuhui is delegating more and more power to his subordinates, he did not sign billions of contracts before, and now he does not sign contracts below 20 billion. Even some large-scale investments, he has very little participation, and probably thinks that there is profit, and he will not object.

After all, with his current net worth, even if he produces ten losers, he can't be defeated.