The next day, Chen Zhiwen convened several top executives of Hutchison, Wharf and Galaxy to sit together, these can be said to be his real estate, infrastructure and all kinds of heavy investment companies, in addition to Galaxy, Hutchison and Wharf are all acquired, in many businesses actually have a lot of duplication, Chen Zhiwen has long had the idea of re-planning these three companies, but the main energy was still in the United States gold futures, now, it is better to rearrange it.

"Mr. Chen, we have acquired 30% of KMB's shares, and we have also passed the shareholders' meeting to obtain the management rights of Kowloon Motor Bus, but we have not moved the management." Zhao Lilin, general manager of Wharf Group, reported.

"Okay, find a suitable time in the future, increase the stake to 34.9%, and then operate normally." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

A small company like Kowloon Bus is not even ranked in the top 100 listed companies in Hong Kong, and Chen Zhiwen has little interest in how to acquire it, so he can just let his subordinates figure it out by themselves.

Therefore, in the past few months, Wharf has entrusted Dolly to find the existing shareholders of Kowloon Motor Bus, and one by one, and finally directly acquired enough shares, and it is natural for Wharf to become the owner.

This is also a benefit of Hong Kong's capitalist society, even if Chen Zhiwen swept away HSBC's face when he bought Wharf and HK Electric, as long as there is money to be made, Dolly, as the most important investment company under HSBC, does not care who it serves.

"There is another small thing, many of the Kowloon Bus buses are very old, many of them are sick and employed, in addition, many of the buses do not even have air conditioning, many guests complain deeply, the previous KMB has been unable to change because of financial problems, after we became the owner of KMB, some small media are also calling on us to update some of the buses." Zhao Lilin said.

"It should be replaced, it is very important for us to make money, but the safety of employees or customers is more important, air conditioning, it will become the standard, in addition, the Star Ferry is now very old, you can also consider replacing it, and the air conditioning must also be there, otherwise it will be hot in summer." Chen Zhiwen said.

"The previous Star Ferry, are open, all around, not closed, if you want to buy fully enclosed, the cost will increase a lot, the most important thing is that the carrying capacity may also be affected, the Hong Kong government for the Star Ferry pricing also has restrictions, we are afraid we will not be able to recover the cost." Zhao Lilin thought for a while and said.

"Then let's order a few high-end ones first, which can be regarded as VIP, the Hong Kong government also has restrictions on the pricing of ordinary Star Ferry, but I will increase the service and charge a high price, similar to the first class of an airplane, it should be no problem, right?" There are millions of people in Hong Kong, and many people want to take a ship, and not everyone is only looking for cheapness, right? Chen Zhiwen thought for a while and said.

The Hong Kong government's pricing of the Star Ferry was still in the 60s, when the per capita wealth in Hong Kong was very different from now, especially in the last five years, I don't know how many people have become rich people who have never dreamed of relying on the appreciation of their houses, but rich people can buy cars, but they can't buy boats? Although there is the Hung Hom Cross Harbour Tunnel, Hong Kong is not small, you can't always drive around a big circle, and Hong Kong has more islands than Hong Kong Island.

"That should be fine, I'll consult the legal department later." Zhao Lilin nodded and said.

"In fact, whether it is the Star Ferry or the Kowloon Bus, it is just a small business in the Wharf, we don't need to rely on these two companies to make any big money, as long as they don't lose money, public service companies, have a great impact on the public, if a large number of people can increase their goodwill towards us by adding air conditioning, it is also worth it, just say KMB, if there is no air conditioning, in the summer, many people may be lazy at home and do not come out, if there is, they may go to Harbour City after they come out, we earn more." Chen Zhiwen said.

Not all businesses are to make every penny, this kind of public service company, if it can do a good job of service, can also get a better reputation, besides, the same public service company, HK Electric is obviously used to make a lot of money, but even so, in the service of this area also needs to be improved, to make the people's money, then naturally to serve well.

"Okay, I'm ready to increase the frequency of flights to Harbour City and Huangpu Square from various places, and the same will be true for the Star Ferry." Zhao Lilin said.

"Not only that, but stipulate a consumption figure, as long as the consumption is to a certain extent, you can be exempted from the bus or small ferry fee on the same day, similar to a parking space." Chen Zhiwen said again.

In later generations, many shopping malls or supermarkets have fixed free shuttles, although they have been losing money, but they can bring people to the place to consume, even if there are prostitutes, as long as they earn more, and now they control the bus, it is more convenient.

"Okay, I see." Zhao Lilin nodded and said, Wharf Group, the current main business is Harbour City and its real estate development, other businesses, many of which are not small, but the profit is far behind, whether the bus or the Star Ferry makes money or not, the impact on Wharf is not big, if it can make the business of Harbour City better, it is still more profitable overall.

"What's the recent traffic in Harbour City?" Chen Zhiwen asked again, half of the purpose of the acquisition of Wharf was for this harbour city, and this is also a representative of lying down to collect rent.

"It's always been very good, whether it's gold and silver, clothing or catering, business is very good, many people originally like to shop in Central, and they have also come to Harbour City, especially when it rains, and when it gets hot in the summer, it is estimated that it will be the same." Zhao Lilin said with a smile.

"Okay, but you can't just be satisfied with this, Harbour City wants to go further, you need to attract a large number of overseas tourists, their group of people have stronger spending power than Hong Kong locals, we need to talk to some travel agencies, give them a little benefit, let them send people to Harbour City, and Hong Kong Arrival Airport, you can send people to distribute flyers, advertisements, or buy advertising space directly from Cathay Pacific Airways for the rear seats of the plane, in short, to attract people." Chen Zhiwen continued.

I have to say that the Jardine Department is still very capable, they built the Harbour City project, the design is very good, many people like it after coming here, Hong Kong locals are like this, but the number of Hong Kong locals is always limited, many people just come to play without consumption or very little consumption, and overseas tourists are different, it is rare to come to Hong Kong once, you have to buy something, right? At least a good meal, right?

"Understood." Zhao Lilin said.

"In addition, Wharf also has a port business, and this piece also has to cooperate with Hutchison, but now Wharf, the focus is no longer the port, you negotiate internally, or Hutchison will come up with a suitable price, and the port of Wharf will be acquired, and Hutchison will concentrate on the port business in the future." Chen Zhiwen said again.

Wharf, once the business was the port terminal, after the terminal began to containerize, Wharf also obtained the No. 1 berth of Kwai Chung Terminal, but in the original history of the charter ship king family, the investment in the terminal is not large, and then it was surpassed by Hutchison, and in the 21st century, it is basically not famous.

Now his two companies have this business, although it will not conflict, but the separate operation will only consume more resources, at least at the moment in terms of financial advantages, Hutchison is much stronger, and the port business is also one of the main businesses defined by Chen Zhiwen to Hutchison.

"Chen Sheng, the port is also one of the main businesses of Wharf, even if it is sold to Hutchison at a normal price, I am afraid it will cause some gossip, why don't we privatize Wharf and then trade it internally, how about it?" Zhou Jiayang on the side suggested.

"It's okay, then privatize it first, so that the expansion of many businesses will be much easier in the future." Chen Zhiwen thought for a moment and then agreed.

For Wharf, he has always wanted to privatize, when he first acquired, he did not privatize Wharf, because the stock price was speculated too high during the acquisition war, and it was too much to privatize at that price, and now, the stock price is lower than before, and considering that it is just a Harbour City, the future income is very high, spending more than a billion privatization, I am afraid that the rent will be able to be earned back in the next few years.

Zhao Lilin nodded and said: "That's okay, the Hong Kong government's previous takeover offer forced me to slowly sell my shares, which caused the stock price of Wharf to fall, so it is okay, if we fully privatize, the cost will be lower." ”

"It's also an unexpected benefit." Chen Zhiwen smiled and said.

The 35% takeover trigger offer set by the Hong Kong government in order to protect British capital is aimed at all companies under normal conditions, after all, the Hong Kong government can only amend the stock market law in the name of thinking about shareholders.

The new regulations require that when any person or legal entity holds more than 35% of the company's shares, it needs to launch a general takeover offer, including the former major shareholder, which is naturally good for British capital, because even if it is a British-owned family business in Hong Kong, it basically does not hold more than 30% of the shares, and the only Swire Group, which is headquartered in the United Kingdom and is not listed in Hong Kong, cannot be controlled by Hong Kong regulations.

As a result, many Chinese-owned companies have to sell their shares, but the new law also stipulates that controlling shareholders can increase their stake to 40% after holding the company's shares for more than two years, which is the highest percentage of listed companies in Hong Kong today.

Chen Zhiwen's previous shareholding in the Wharf has been as high as 49.9%, but because of the new law, it had to be changed, at that time there were rumors in the market that Chen Zhiwen may privatize the Wharf, but it led to another sharp rise in the stock price, and the main funds at that time were still in the United States, Chen Zhiwen was too lazy to care, according to the law to slowly reduce his shares.

"Chen Sheng, should Taohua Datong also be privatized? Their hot sauce is selling well in the United States, and they have recently started to launch new ketchup and cheese sauce, which should be a large market in the United States. Xu Jinhong of Galaxy Group asked.

"No, you don't need to privatize everything." Chen Zhiwen shook his head and said that only those with very high returns and no need to share them with others will be privatized, and the others will be listed when they should be listed.

"The future development direction of Wharf is to specialize in the development of shopping malls, for example, can projects like Harbour City be built elsewhere? For example, Wanwan, Japan and even the future mainland, or build some smaller shopping malls, this is actually the same as retail supermarkets, Costco is suitable for super first-tier cities, and Wal-Mart is suitable for ordinary supermarkets, how to develop it, you decide internally. Chen Zhiwen said: "When we only have one Harbour City, the advantage of negotiating with the merchants stationed in the city is not very large, but if we have dozens or hundreds of such shopping malls of different sizes, the bargaining power is another thing entirely, and when the density is high to a certain extent, the better the advertising effect." ”

"Japan's housing prices are relatively high, and the culture is more exclusive, if you want to build a new shopping mall, Wanwan is indeed more suitable, except for Taipei, other places are smaller, but the financial pressure will be very large." Zhao Lilin thought for a while and said.

Chen Zhiwen said: "The pressure of funds, I will give you a little more money after privatization, but always relying on my side is not a long-term solution, in addition to loans, there is also a way to use the rising local housing prices to develop yourself."

You can refer to Hutchison's Huangpu Plaza, when it was first built, Hutchison actually didn't have much money, but because the area was large enough, there were residential and office buildings next to it, and in the next few years, Hong Kong's housing prices rose sharply, and after the residential and office buildings were sold, it not only offset the investment in the original construction of Huangpu Plaza, but also made an extra profit.

Of course, the land of Huangpu Garden and Huangpu Square are their own, a little different, but the idea is the same, as long as the local housing prices have been rising, then you can buy a larger area of land, and then build residences, office buildings, hotels, apartments, commercial squares, we only need to stay in the commercial plaza, the rest can be sold, in this way, as long as the house price rises fast enough, maybe you can get a square for nothing. ”

"So how much can the housing prices in Wanwan and Japan rise?" Zhao Lilin asked, and several other people were also curious, this theory can definitely be realized in the case of rising housing prices, but once housing prices do not rise, it will be stuck in the funds, but the loss will not be lost.

"Of course, Wanwan is different from Hong Kong, Hong Kong, this wave of housing prices bull market is coming to an end, so I ask all your real estate projects to pursue the strategy of rapid development and early return on investment, Wanwan is different from there, there is manufacturing over there, especially now that globalization has just begun, many ordinary industries in Europe and the United States need to be transferred, as long as Wanwan eats a small part, it is not difficult for the economy to develop continuously for more than ten years, so this is our opportunity, besides, in addition to the mainland in the future, I'm also going to invest in some manufacturing over there. Chen Zhiwen said: "In addition, PARKnSHOP and RT-Mart also need to expand rapidly in Wanwan, and our procurement costs are the lowest, as long as we can maintain a long-term low-cost advantage, then Wanwan's local retail industry is not our opponent." ”

Although in his previous life, he did not study much of the real estate market in Wanwan, but he also did not hear of the real estate crisis in Wanwan, according to the most basic law of economic development, when the electronics industry and export industry in Wanwan developed rapidly, the real estate market will inevitably break out on a large scale, and after the rise of the manufacturing industry in the mainland, a large number of factories will be transferred to the mainland, and when the manufacturing industry in Wanwan begins to decline, the real estate market will be flattened.

In the 80s, it was the most rapid economic development of Wanwan, and housing prices will inevitably follow the rapid development, Chen Zhiwen does not need to take a large amount of money to speculate on houses, but he can take this opportunity to develop shopping malls, retail and other industries.

"That's no problem, in the past few years, we have also cultivated a lot of retail teams on the Wanwan side, and new stores have been built, and there is no one to worry about." Zhou Jiayang nodded and said.

One of Hutchison's main businesses is retail, namely Watsons cosmetics retail, PARKnSHOP medium-sized supermarket and large supermarket RT-Mart, the former is mainly operating in Europe and the United States, the latter two are daily retail, the first step is to target Southeast Asia, which has been a joint venture with Malaysia's Kerry Group to operate the Malaysian market, and Wanwan, in fact, is earlier, but the number of new stores is not much, has been in a state of cultivating talents and learning experience, and now the time is almost the same, and Hutchison itself has more funds, Naturally, it can enter a state of rapid expansion.

"Okay, then we will conquer the Wanwan market first, and then enter Japan or other Southeast Asian markets after a few years of success." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

The advantage of Wharf is that it has a large amount of land in Hong Kong, which is of high value, but it is still far inferior to Hutchison in terms of talents, and Hutchison has entered the state of its own management very early, and has been making plans for future expansion with talent reserves, and more funds, so Chen Zhiwen still decided to hand over complex businesses such as port business and supermarket retail to Hutchison.

Under normal circumstances, as long as you are optimistic about the location and invest in building it, you can basically lie down and collect money, which is also Chen Zhiwen's positioning for the future of Wharf in its own group system, of course, not only shopping malls, the original historical Wharf also likes to build ultra-high-rise office buildings in China, and the rent collection is also very cool.

"No problem." Zhou Jiayang and Zhao Lilin replied almost at the same time.

(End of chapter)