The acquisition of two buildings in Wheelock, as well as the potential for a large amount of land, was carried out by Galaxy Properties, which means that the low-interest loan of HSBC was transferred to Galaxy Properties.

Galaxy Properties' previous acquisition of the Sai Sai Sai Lake site in North Point, Hong Kong Island, which was acquired from Swire Group, began to build a large residential area North Point Garden as early as the end of last year, although it is much smaller than Hutchison's Whampoa Garden, but the total value of 600,000 square feet is still very high on Hong Kong Island.

North Point Gardens began pre-sale in September this year, and in the case of the real estate market has risen a lot and the original acquisition cost is very low, a one-foot house can earn almost 60 Hong Kong dollars, and the entire community has made a net profit of 100 million Hong Kong dollars after deducting the cost of loans, construction, taxes, labor and other costs.

Although the house has not yet been built, the project has been completed at the profit level, and the rest is that the construction company will complete the construction of the house, and then the community will be delivered, which are responsible for professional companies in Hong Kong, and Galaxy Real Estate will only focus on a little more in the future to ensure the quality and service in place.

At this time, it is just right to accept these assets from Wheelock, the two buildings can be used to collect rent, to repay HSBC's loans, and the land in Kwun Tong and Sha Tin can be used to develop the community.

As for Hutchison, now there is a large-scale project of Whampoa Garden, plus 800,000 square feet of land in Yingni, Jingzhou, which is enough, and there is no need for more real estate projects, and if a few super-large ones are developed, it will not be lower than the income of Cheung Kong Industrial to develop dozens of small real estate.

After receiving the order, Xu Jinhong, the general manager of Galaxy Real Estate, immediately began to communicate with Wheelock, and both parties were eager to close the deal as soon as possible, and after half a month of deliberations, the two sides finally reached an agreement.

Galaxy Properties acquired Wheelock's two federal and international buildings for HK$670 million, plus three warehouses of Wheelock in Kowloon and seven sites in Kwun Tong, Kwai Chung and Sha Tin towns, with a total area of about 1 million square feet.

As soon as the news came out, public opinion in Hong Kong was once again detonated. Because this is the first time since the outbreak of the real estate crisis in the Hong Kong real estate market that there has been a transaction of the Central Building, and it is two buildings at a time, especially this transaction, and after the failure of the merger plan between Jardine Matheson and Wheelock, it is difficult not to imagine that these two things are so close, could it really be a coincidence?

Connaught Building:

Niu Bijian looked at an English newspaper in his hand, detailing Chen Zhiwen's acquisition of several properties in Wheelock this time, his brows furrowed, and Bao Fuda on the side was similar.

"What do you think about this?" Niu Bijian asked.

Bao Fuda said: "Chen Zhiwen's funds should come from HSBC, otherwise, he would not have suddenly had so much money to acquire so many properties in Wheelock." ”

"How so? Chen Zhiwen's several businesses are very profitable overseas. Niu Bijian put down the newspaper and asked.

"If he really has so much money and is so optimistic about the real estate market, then Hutchison does not need to cooperate with Chinese-funded real estate for so many projects, and don't you find that Hutchison's Parknshop supermarket suddenly began to acquire properties on a large scale after Wheelock sought to sell itself, and also began to directly fight a price war with us, although we have predicted this step, but the time is not right, and it suddenly became so aggressive, it must be because of sufficient funds." Bao Fuda analyzed.

"Shen Bi is a-stirring stick, Hui Defeng refuses to hand over the core data, it's his ghost." Niu Bijian said with some resentment.

The acquisition of Wheelock is definitely one of the most dazzling achievements in the history of Jardine Matheson's business, which is enough to make Jardine the most behemoth in Hong Kong, but the premise is that Wheelock's business is normal, in this case, even if Jardine's current financial situation is not very good, but Wheelock is also a normal company, no additional capital injection, itself has profitability, especially after the merger of some businesses with Jardine Matheson, it can also reduce expenses, or supplement Jardine's shortcomings in many aspects, such as the shipping field.

But after HSBC intervened through Dolly, John Horse Bench refused to hand over the financial data, in this case, how dare Niu Bijian start, even if Willock is fine, but with the shrewdness of HSBC or Dolly, it is easy to leave a hole in it, if there is a debt of hundreds of millions or more for no reason, Jardine can be pitted to death.

Mergers and acquisitions in the history of world business, this situation is rare, but it is not impossible, the acquired company concealed a large amount of data, and when the acquirer found out, it thundered and killed itself.

"Shen Bi, the old fox, not only blocked our acquisition of Wheelock, but also let Chen Zhiwen stand opposite us, now he is focused on expanding PARKnSHOP supermarket, if we don't invest hundreds of millions of dollars into it, we can't stop him at all, but once it is invested, not to mention that it will affect Jardine Matheson or Land's other businesses, I'm afraid that in the future, we will always be with Chen Zhiwen's company, endlessly." Bao Fuda said with a frown.

Once Jardine Matheson also desperately enters the supermarket field like Hutchison, the money burning will inevitably be on both sides, and Chen Zhiwen's funds will also be burned a lot, which will naturally cause certain contradictions, and at the same time, both sides have opened a large number of supermarkets, many of which are still very close, and the price war will inevitably break out, because if it does not break out, both may die.

"Forget it, let's give up." After pondering for a moment, Niu Bijian said: "Chen Zhiwen opened up the trade in the retail field overseas very early, and also cultivated a perfect supply chain through orders from overseas supermarkets, we have no advantage in this regard, even if the procurement cost is only 1 percentage point apart, after a long time, we can't fight the PARKnSHOP supermarket, this is an absolute gap, even if we spend a lot of money, we can't change it, besides, we can also spend a lot of money like Huang." ”

Competing for capital, although Jardine Matheson is strong, but there are too many businesses involved, Chen Zhiwen's company is only focusing on a few directions, and it seems that every business is developing well, I have never heard of losses, in this case, there is no point in competing for capital, it will only be a lose-lose situation, but may miss a lot of other opportunities.

"It's a pity, we have invested more than hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars in Wellcome, and we will lose at least half of them if we give up like this." Bao Fuda said with some pity.

The supermarket business is not a real estate investment, once you give up, all the things you did before, all the money you spent, will be all wasted, and only those properties that are acquired to open a supermarket can be able to keep the return on your capital.

"In this way, you can discuss it with Chen Zhiwen again, we can transfer the Wellcome supermarket to him, the price is just a discount, and don't expect to recover the full cost, everyone just accepts it, doing this can be regarded as a goodwill, we don't need to continue to fight with him." Niu Bijian thought for a moment and said. It is also the norm to sell if the business in Hong Kong is not working.

"Well, that's all there is to it, it's good to be able to recycle a little." Bao Fuda nodded and said.

Mandarin Oriental:

As the most luxurious hotel in the Jardine Matheson family, it is the first choice for Jardine Matheson to entertain VIPs.

"Chen Sheng, what do you think of this Mandarin Oriental Hotel?" Bao Fuda took Chen Zhiwen and asked with a smile after taking a turn around several more luxurious places in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

"It's not bad, if Hongkong Land is interested in selling, I can take over." Chen Zhiwen said jokingly.

"Chen Sheng said with a smile, you just acquired the two federal and international buildings, are you still not satisfied?" Bao Fuda said lightly.

"Compared with Hongkong Land, these buildings in my hands are still too far behind." Chen Zhiwen said with a chuckle.

For the positioning of Galaxy Real Estate, it is really a reference to Hongkong Land, and in the future, Galaxy Real Estate will also focus on holding large-scale properties to collect rent.

Lying down to collect money, this feeling is too cool, and as long as the property is purchased early, after more than ten years, its own value can increase more than ten times, and the rent at that time can increase more than ten times.

However, if you want to do this, you need a lot of money, so you also need to learn from Chinese-funded real estate companies, develop a large number of properties for sale, and quickly return funds to grow yourself.

Later, in the 90s, Chinese-funded real estate companies also came to this step, and the four major Chinese families in Hong Kong are all like this, relatively speaking, Li Jiacheng is more inclined to internationalization.

"Chen Sheng's ambition is really not small." Bao Fuda said with a dry smile. He doesn't think that Chen Zhiwen can achieve the level of Hongkong Land, because it is almost impossible, Hongkong Land has controlled a large number of properties in Central, Admiralty, Tsim Sha Tsui, is the result of Hongkong Land's efforts for nearly a hundred years, and others, what about dreams?

However, the two federal and international buildings are also the properties that Baofuda covets, who would dislike the office buildings in Central?

"Bao Fuda, you asked me to come here not because you want to show off this hotel in front of me." Chen Zhiwen said again.

"Of course not." Bao Fuda personally poured a cup of tea for Chen Zhiwen and said: "Chen Sheng, in recent months, Hongkong Land's Wellcome Supermarket and Hutchison's Parknshop Supermarket have launched some unpleasant competition in many places, and our board of directors has discussed it, and I feel that it is not a way to go on like this, the whole Hong Kong, now there are too many opportunities to make money, and we are not good for both sides, so I now suggest that it is better for us to merge Wellcome and Parknshop, and we will divide it into 55 to manage the new company together, and you and I will join forces. I believe that we will soon be able to monopolize the entire Hong Kong market. ”

"Merger? Fifty-fifty, Mr. Bofford, are you kidding? Chen Zhiwen said lightly.

"We can negotiate the proportion of shares, and the same is true for investment funds." Bofforda continued. Although I came here to prepare to sell Wellcome, I must not say it directly at this time, and as soon as I said it, I was immediately at a disadvantage.

It is better to open your mouth first and talk about the merger, if the other party agrees, it is blood to earn, although the possibility is almost 0, if you do not agree, then you are discussing the acquisition in the homeopathic trend, so that the two sides have a reciprocal platform.

"Merge that's impossible." Chen Zhiwen shook his head and said.

Bao Fuda continued to smile lightly and said: "Chen Sheng, in Hong Kong, it is normal to run joint ventures, for example, we have a lot of cooperation projects with Swire and HK Electric. ”

"Ordinary projects are naturally fine, but retail, is one of the most important businesses under Huang and I, and we do not accept other capital investments for the time being, if you want to merge, then forget it, like I said if I want to take a stake in Connaught Building, will you agree?." Chen Zhiwen took a sip of tea and said with a smile.

"Kangle Building is naturally not good, but this does not affect anything, but if our two supermarkets continue to compete like this, we need to keep burning money, and in the end, we both lose, even if we win, it will not be good for you and me." Bao Fuda said.

"I don't care." Chen Zhiwen shrugged and said, in fact, the price war is not without harm, the price war between the two giants is enough to wash other peers, which is a phenomenon that will occur in any industry, besides, even if there is no Wellcome, PARKnSHOP wants to truly unify the Hong Kong retail supermarket industry, and must also defeat the supermarkets established by other parties with low prices.

Hong Kong's retail, in the future, will inevitably be a medium-sized retail supermarket plus a variety of mom-and-pop stores composed of a comprehensive model, the former is the main, providing cheap goods, the latter is supplemented, to solve the problem of convenience in daily life, and the impact of the two is not very large, what PARKnSHOP wants to do is to form a monopoly in medium-sized retail supermarkets.

"Then in this case, Chen Sheng, why don't you buy my Wellcome supermarket?" Bao Fuda finally said it, although he was very reluctant in his heart, but Niu Bijian was right, the current Jardine Matheson, itself is very difficult in all aspects, and then spend hundreds of millions of dollars to confront the momentum of Chen Zhiwen in the supermarket market, it is completely abandoned, these hundreds of millions of dollars to buy land or develop their own properties, with the current real estate market, it can be doubled.

Of course, you can only comfort yourself in this way, in the long run, of course, it is more cost-effective to get a super-large supermarket chain, this is a huge industry, a company that drives thousands of jobs and has a huge capital chain, as long as the operation is good, part of the supermarket's funds are used to invest, and the benefits will be higher, but you can't comfort yourself, the capital level Jardine Matheson may not be able to fight Chen Zhiwen, and the retail cost control is even worse, in the past month, PARKnSHOP has launched a price war, many Wellcome branches, It has been losing money since it first opened, and in the long run, Hongkong Land can't stand it.

"Okay, but I don't want to be in the same place as my PARKnSHOP supermarket." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, he had already guessed that today would be the purpose, otherwise, Bao Fuda would have no reason to ask himself out.

"Yes, in terms of price, we will talk about it after we have determined it." Bao Fuda thought about it, but agreed.

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(End of chapter)