"Acquisition of a stake in Standard Chartered Bank?" Zhou Jiayang suddenly understood in his heart, or secretly acquired, the purpose was obvious, but there were also some questions, so he asked: "Chen Sheng, your purpose is to finally acquire Standard Chartered Bank?" ”

"Yes." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said: "Hisense Bank, although the scale in Hong Kong is still not comparable to HSBC, but it is a quasi-central bank, with a long history, and it is impossible to be replaced in the hearts of Hong Kong people, basically, even if Hisense can go further in Hong Kong, but the upper limit is almost there, and the more to the end, the cost spent is not proportional to the benefits obtained, only by going out, can we achieve further success."

On the mainland side, although Hisense Bank can engage in loan business, it is almost impossible to become bigger due to legal reasons, and only overseas markets have opportunities, and Standard Chartered is the first bank I fancie. ”

In the future, in China, there are actually opportunities for their own banking industry, but at most they are limited to loans for export enterprises and large-scale infrastructure investment, and in the case of not being able to engage in deposit-taking business, the upper limit of development is very low, because the money lent out also needs to come from deposits, and Hong Kong's current deposits are still sufficient for the mainland, but as long as it is not possible in a few years, anywhere, if you want to engage in commercial banks for a long time, you must be able to accept deposits locally, and this is impossible in China.

However, you can participate in this part of investment, for example, you can first invest in some private banks, such as Minsheng Bank, Ping An Insurance, etc., and if several large state-owned banks are ready to go public, you can also participate in a share, which is also very valuable in profits, but after all, it is not the banking business itself.

If you invest abroad, you definitely need to acquire an overseas bank, and develop slowly purely on your own, so you may not be able to develop much when your hair is gray, because if you want to enter the banking industry in many countries, it will take decades or even longer to operate slowly to have resources, such as HSBC, Shen Bi and other shrewd people, want to make HSBC international, how many years of planning, are also thinking about acquiring overseas banks, the United States SITC Bank is actually just one, HSBC has also acquired some local banks on other continents.

Standard Chartered Bank, founded more than 100 years ago, has branches in dozens of countries, although the business in these countries is difficult to make a profit or even a loss, but at least it has entered the territory of these countries, and there are opportunities to improve, even if you really don't look at the market in some poor countries, you can also sell it, which is very in line with the initial expansion needs of Hisense Bank.

"Standard Chartered Bank is indeed a good target, its main business, on the contrary, in many non-developed countries, these places, European and American banks are relatively few, and the development will be much smoother." Zhou Jiayang nodded and said.

"That's the reason, and this is one of the reasons why I think about it, the banking industry in Europe and the United States is indeed more profitable, but we, the Chinese capital, it doesn't matter if we are small, what will happen if we become bigger, it's really hard to say." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

He generally does not participate in some high-tech sensitive fields in Europe and the United States, at most buy some shares of these companies as an investment, the first is because the high-tech field is difficult, although the Midea Group is now a world-class electronics company, but the focus is still in the field of home games, the technical reserves are far less than the giants of the same level, and the second is that there is no backer behind it, even if it is really developed, the right to speak may not be in their own hands.

Therefore, Chen Zhiwen prefers to invest in the high-tech field, which cannot be seen now, but will inevitably have high-yield projects in the future, such as some automotive technology, battery technology, software technology, etc., too direct cutting-edge chips, high-end industrial equipment, he will not intervene, and he has no ability, just let others do his investment, such as TSMC's Zhang Zhongmou.

In addition to the high-tech field, the financial field is also a place that any big country attaches great importance to, which will also affect national security.

"Many shareholders of Standard Chartered Bank are also many funds under the UK, if you want to acquire, then you have to do it through a goodwill acquisition, it is difficult for us to have an acquisition model similar to Hong Kong in the UK, and the relationship between Standard Chartered and us is not bad." Zhou Jiayang said.

"Willing to buy these people in good faith, let's organize funds to buy in the stock market first, just buy slowly, and wait until the right time, we will decide after looking at the situation." Chen Zhiwen said.

In the original history, in two years, the British local banking giant Rice Bank will launch a hostile merger of Standard Chartered, and the management of Standard Chartered Bank is unable to do so, so they found Hong Kong's Bao Yugang and Asian billionaire Qiu Teck Put, and the two joined forces to defeat Rice Bank and become the majority shareholder of Standard Chartered Bank.

This made Bao Yugang very excited at that time, because before he came to Hong Kong, he was a bank when he was in Shanghai, and after Hong Kong became the world's ship king, Bao Yugang still dreamed of being a banker again, and after becoming the major shareholder of Standard Chartered Bank, he originally thought that he would have this opportunity, not to mention the entire Standard Chartered, but Hong Kong should be no problem!

It's a pity that Standard Chartered Bank was very polite when it needed foreign aid, but the foreign enemy repelled it, and immediately didn't care, and tried every means to refuse Bao Yugang, which eventually led to Bao Yugang leaving two years later.

Now, if such a thing happens again, with his relationship with Standard Chartered, he will inevitably intervene, and he will take the initiative to participate if he is not invited.

As for the current acquisition, it is also to be able to reduce the acquisition cost and improve the success rate at that time. After all, before the outbreak of the acquisition station, the price must be much cheaper than after.

"Okay, I also arranged to acquire the shares of Standard Chartered, Standard Chartered Bank has been listed for a hundred years, and there are still a lot of shares in circulation, we are cautious, and the acquisition of 20% may not be noticed." Zhou Jiayang said that as long as the acquisition spans long enough, the daily transaction volume involved is very low, and it will generally not be discovered, but the premise is that there are still a lot of outstanding shares, otherwise the acquisition will affect the circulation of shares to a certain extent, and it will inevitably be discovered, which has nothing to do with the speed of acquisition.

"Is the dollar in Hutchison's hand enough?" Chen Zhiwen asked again.

Hutchison is very rich, but most of the funds have to be invested in Japanese real estate and financial markets, and at the same time spend a lot of money in the mainland and Hong Kong.

"We don't really have a lot of dollars in our hands, but the acquisition of these two companies is also a long-term process, and Hutchison still has a lot of profitability now, and there is no problem for the time being." Zhou Jiayang said.

"Okay, the account must be controlled, if it is not enough, the United States can transfer some over." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

Each of its companies has a large-scale and all-round audit every year to ensure that there are no financial problems, and Hutchison is either a problem in terms of profitability, or it spends too much money, especially in the Japanese market, which is simply a pool of gold absorption, which is why Chen Zhiwen is reluctant to invest in the Christmas Creek iron mine.

Of course, Midea's current capital has also begun to invest in Japan, but the main funds are not mobilized from Hong Kong, but the United States and some tax havens, but in any case, its profitability is still far greater than that of Hutchison, and there is no need for large-scale infrastructure investment, so the funds on the account are naturally the most.

"Thank you Chen Sheng, I will bring it up when I need it." Zhou Jiayang said: "One more thing, the Beijing-Tianjin-Tangzhou Expressway on the mainland side will be completed in a few months, and the debt pressure of this project will be much reduced by then." ”

Although most of the Beijing-Tianjin-Tangzhou Expressway in the mainland is a loan, but because of this, the cost of repaying the loan is very high, after all, the interest rate in the United States at that time was very high, and the global interest rate was high. Therefore, the interest in the past few years has been repaid by Chen Zhiwen and the domestic party.

However, as long as the expressway can be fully opened, then large-scale tolls can be used to repay debts, and Hutchison's economic pressure will be much less, and even if the profit is high, he can use this data to go to the bank for loans.

"Okay, the first large-scale infrastructure construction in China is finally about to be completed, and we will wait to see the charges next year." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

This is related to the small half of North China, linking the two megacities and the port of the expressway, it is impossible to have a bad business, perhaps compared to the number of cars may not be as good as the future of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen Expressway, but the significance of this highway is still to be able to Yanjing Tianjin and even nearby 100 kilometers of industrial products, agricultural products are transported to the port, and then either exported, or transported to the south by sea, because the cost of sea transportation is lower than that of inland transportation, not to mention that the domestic traffic is not good now, even in 40 years.

Once the fee profit of this high-speed next year can exceed the loan interest + principal repayment of the entire project, it means that the entire project is completely successful, and even if the profit is much higher, then it can also become a collateral for the loan, so as to obtain more funds. At the same time, if this project is successful, then it will be more confident to invest in other high-speed or similar projects, although Chen Zhiwen knows everything, but his subordinates still have to have actual evidence to reassure them.

"It shouldn't be a problem." Zhou Jiayang smiled and said: "Chen Sheng, there is one more thing, Wu Weibing of Watsons found me last night and told me one thing, they want to expand the supermarket business in Europe. ”

"Europe? Cosmetics business or retail? Chen Zhiwen's heart moved and asked.

At present, Watsons focuses on retail, and has two businesses, one is retail, mainly ParknSHOP and RT-Mart, the main market is in Hong Kong and some countries in Southeast Asia, and the other is Watsons, the main market is in Hong Kong and the United States, which has not yet involved Europe.

The main reason is that Chen Zhiwen's main influence is in Asia and the United States, and it is more appropriate to operate a local retail business in these places.

But Chen Zhiwen also remembers that in the original history, Li Jiacheng's Watsons focused on Europe in the cosmetics business, although this is the result of years of operation, it also shows that the European market is very large.

(End of chapter)