Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, it is January 1984.

Shortly after the New Year's Day, the veteran real estate company Carnival Real Estate announced the suspension and liquidation of trading, which immediately confirmed the unrest of the Hong Kong business community in the past two years.

Peng Guozhen, the founder of Carnival Real Estate, can be described as a veteran real estate strongman, and in the 50s, he also invested in commercial buildings with Xu Aizhou, Lin Zhichao and others. Throughout the fifties and sixties, Peng Guozhen was regarded as a real estate strongman, and when he went public in 1972, he raised 45 million Hong Kong dollars, which is considered a medium-sized real estate developer.

The decline of Carnival Real Estate was due to the stock market crash in 1973, and it went to Kuala Lumpur city center in Malaysia to invest in a 660,000 square meter commercial plot for the construction of a huge commercial complex 'Subang City', but unfortunately the oil crisis broke out, which made the project unsatisfactory and slow to develop.

The investment strategy was wrong, resulting in a profit of only HK$4.4 million in 1977; Other real estate companies have already taken advantage of the oil crisis to buy Hong Kong's land. By the time Carnival Real Estate moved to Hong Kong, it was already the late 70s, when a real estate project was already hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars, or even billions of Hong Kong dollars, which was no longer something that Carnival Real Estate could afford, and could only develop small and medium-sized sites.

In 1981, Jiannian Real Estate once again missaw the situation and followed the footsteps of Hongkong Land and Jianing Group, which eventually caused a huge strategic misstep, and other real estate developers had clearly discovered that something was wrong.

In the end, its founder, Peng Guozhen, died of illness last year, leaving a mess that soon went out of business and liquidated.

Although the collapse of Carnival Real Estate is not as big as the impact of the liquidation of Jianing Group in September last year, it is still wary of many home buyers - the future of Hong Kong is uncertain, and the real estate situation is still at a low ebb.

Therefore, Hong Kong businessmen are either thinking about immigration at this time, or they are standing still!

There are only a handful of strong-willed businessmen who are taking advantage of the low level to stock up on 'strategic goods'.

Monday, January 9.

At 7 p.m., many offices in Central were empty, and the crowds and traffic on the streets had long since dispersed.

In Hongkong Land's office, Simon Keswick was anxiously waiting, and he had already sent someone to the Harbour Centre to invite Lam Chi-chiu, chairman of the Cheung Kong Group and Hutchison Whampoa, to discuss the transfer of the Hongkong Electric Lights.

He has been very anxious recently, on the one hand, the bank led by HSBC is collecting debts, and on the other hand, Cheung Kong is pressing step by step. Of course, he understands that the Hong Kong Electric Company can't keep it, but Cheung Kong still wants 'Exchange Square'.

If Hongkong Land loses Exchange Square, its position in Central will be greatly affected. So even if Hongkong Land's debt is frighteningly high, Simon Keswick wants to sell other assets to ease Hongkong Land's situation.

However, it is obvious that Lin Zhichao did not give him this illusion, and Cheung Kong Group secretly purchased land stocks in the market, which made Simon Keswick a little scared.

He was not facing a wolf, but a tiger.

In the end, he decided to talk to Lin Zhichao about the Hong Kong Electric Company first, and then talk about Exchange Square according to the situation!

Representatives of both sides have already negotiated the price of HK Electric, which is HK$2.85 billion, which is a disadvantage for land, after all, the current situation is unfavorable.

After a while, a clerk quickly came to Simon Keswick's office and said, "Simon Taipan, Sir Lin, they are here!" ”

Simon Keswick immediately got up and said, "Okay, go to the conference room!" ”

Anyway, let's get through this first.

After a while, the representatives of the Cheung Kong Department headed by Lin Zhichao and Ma Shimin, and the representatives of the Jardine Department led by Simon Keswick, the two sides exchanged 'friendly' greetings.

"Ximen Taipan, new year, new weather, I also hope that Hongkong Land can have a new atmosphere!" Lin Zhichao said cheerfully.

"I accepted Sir Lin's blessing, Cheung Kong is led by Sir Lin, and he is rising step by step every year, which is very admirable." Simon Keswick also said gracefully.

Today, the two of them, or the two teams, have come together, of course, they want to agree on the deal with HK Electric, so there is no need to talk about anything else.

For example, after Hongkong Land sold HK Electric to Lee Kar-shing in his previous life, only three years later, Lee Kar-shing still led a group of wealthy people to buy Hongkong Land.

Shopping malls are like this, as long as the means are not illegal or moral, they can be regarded as conscientious businessmen. As for the means, everyone depends on who is smart.

Taking advantage of your illness to kill you is the law of the battlefield, and it is also suitable for shopping malls.

Subsequently, Lin Zhichao, Ma Shimin and others looked at the information.

Hongkong Electric is a group enterprise that wholly owns 9 wholly-owned companies including Hongkong Electric Company, Fortress Electric (electrical retail) and Jiayun (engineering), and 5 associate companies including International City (real estate, in which Cheung Kong also has a stake), and its business includes electricity, real estate, engineering, industry, trade, retail, insurance and other aspects.

The profit in 1983 was as high as 718 million Hong Kong dollars, which is the approximate data just counted.

Although Lin Zhichao is looking at the information, in fact, he is already determined to acquire HK Electric Group. It can be said that Exchange Square is not a non-buy item, but HK Electric Group can really be a non-buy item.

Comparatively Exchange Square is just a 'fixed asset' that has no huge potential for development, and is nothing more than rent collection. The HK Electric Group is different, not to mention the land of its two large housing estates, the growth of electricity profits, and the overseas development potential of power projects, etc., which are simply high-quality assets.

Lin Zhichao only spent two hours, and he actually finished reading it, and then he left Ma Shimin and others to work overtime, and he went back to sleep.

On the morning of the next day, Cheung Kong, Hutchison, Hongkong Land and HK Electric were not suspended; Until noon, the four companies took the initiative to ask the securities exchange to suspend trading.

At the press conference in the afternoon, Lin Zhichao, as the chairman of the board of directors of Hutchison Whampoa, officially announced that Hutchison Whampoa has acquired the Hongkong Electric Group in the hands of Hongkong Land for a total price of 2.85 billion Hong Kong dollars.

As soon as the news came out, there was a huge uproar at the whole scene.

A reporter immediately asked: "The Sino-British negotiations have not yet ended, Hong Kong's future is uncertain, and the entire Hong Kong business community has never invested in major projects, and everyone is very worried and vigilant." May I ask Mr. Lin, is this acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa a gambling? ”

A group of reporters have felt that this question is a good question!

At this time in Hong Kong, either thinking about immigration, or maintaining a high degree of vigilance, who dares to invest?

Lin Zhichao smiled: "If I think the same thing as everyone, do you think I have today?" ”

The crowd laughed at first, then fell into deep thought.

Throughout Lin Zhichao's more than 30 years of shopping mall career, the biggest impression is that he is good at grasping the situation.

Many people suddenly realized!

They understand that what Lin Zhichao means is that he relies on this kind of bottom-reading, or grasping the situation, to have today's outstanding achievements. Hong Kong listed Lin Zhichao as the 'head of the four major families', in fact, it promoted the other three. In fact, the combined wealth of the other three is not as much as Lin Zhichao's.

The reporter immediately asked: "In this way, Mr. Lin is very optimistic about the prospects of Hong Kong's economy, so can you tell me your reasons?" ”

Lin Zhichao said: "My reasoning is that instead of worrying about the progress of the negotiations, people should open their hearts. No matter what the outcome is, Hong Kong has its own charm, value and potential, so we must firmly believe that Hong Kong will be better tomorrow! Moreover, the acquisition of HK Electric is not the only major investment in Hong Kong since the 'Sino-British negotiations', as Cheung Kong Group invested in Admiralty's 'Yangtze River Plaza' last year, with a total investment of more than HK$2.5 billion. Moreover, Cheung Kong promised that it would invest no less than 10 billion yuan in projects in Hong Kong in the next year. ”

The Chinese at the scene burst into warm applause!

This is the first time that Lam has stood up and said something to strengthen the confidence of Hong Kong people!

Next, the reporter asked: "Mr. Lin, how long has Cheung Kong been doing research on the acquisition of HK Electric?" ”

Lin Zhichao said with a smile; "Actually, I don't do any research personally, it's all my colleagues who are researching! It's true, and those who know me well know that my companies have a very low debt ratio and plenty of cash flow, and whenever we have a certain amount of cash flow, we are looking for new areas to invest in. In this way, in fact, there are many choices, and HK Electric does not have to buy it. However, everyone may understand that HK Electric is actually the original owner who urgently needs to sell it, of course, HK Electric has this franchise, and it is an indispensable asset such as electricity, so it is actually a very good choice, I didn't study it much, but my colleagues studied it until late at night yesterday. ”

If Simon Keswick was on the scene, he would definitely spit out a mouthful of old phlegm!

Yes, HK Electric will indeed be sold by Hongkong Land, but it will never be decided so quickly.

The scene broke out into laughter again, and in this laughter, there was admiration, and what this 'god of management' is best at is seizing the opportunity. Everyone is tightening their belts to get by, but companies such as Cheung Kong and Wharf have sufficient cash flow.

The next press conference went smoothly.

Ma Shimin, the president of Hutchison, who has just been in office for one year, has also become the object of attention by reporters.

"The entire acquisition process took a total of 16 hours, of which 8 hours were spent on research proposals."

"Sir Lam combines the best of Chinese and European and American business: for example, European and American businessmen, Sir Lam directed us to comprehensively analyze the acquisition target, and then gave him a clear answer. Then a handshake and the deal was finalized, which is the oriental way of doing business, crisp and neat. ”

Ma Shimin's words also confirmed the conjecture of the reporters, that is, Lin Zhichao has a lot of consultants around him, so now he only needs to make a decision.

Following.

The media across Hong Kong have reported on Hutchison Whampoa's acquisition of HK Electric, and even the stock market has risen.

In particular, the newspapers in the mainland even branded Lin Zhichao as a 'national hero' and 'greatly increased the popularity of the Chinese people and destroyed the prestige of the British'.

Compared with Lin Zhichao's infinite scenery, Simon Keswick has no joy and relief, because Hongkong Land's debt problem has not been resolved.

In a previous life, Hongkong Land could have been alleviated by the sale of HK Electric and the provision of a portfolio loan by a syndicate of dozens of banks. However, in this lifetime, Hongkong Land lost the 'Harbour Centre' and 'Starlight Walk' buildings, and its debt increased by nearly HK$2 billion.

So after the sale of HK Electric, Simon Keswick did not let his guard down, because he knew that the competition with Lin Zhichao would continue.

Just a week later, Simon Keswick entered into talks with Cheung Kong again about the sale of Exchange Square. The difference this time is that Simon Keswick has decided to sell to obtain a promise from Cheung Kong Group not to buy shares in Hongkong Land and Jardine Matheson for ten years.

There is nothing wrong with this condition, Hongkong Land has only seven buildings in Central after the sale of Exchange Square; These mansions are all family inheritances created by others for more than 100 years, and there is no need to kill them all.

If there is no British-funded Hong Kong, how can it be regarded as a world metropolis!

So, Lin Zhichao agreed to Simon Keswick's terms, and the two sides negotiated the price of Exchange Square.

The land price of Exchange Square, Hongkong Land purchased is 5.98 billion Hong Kong dollars, and 1 billion Hong Kong dollars of construction costs (including interest) have been invested, with a total cost of 7 billion Hong Kong dollars, and 15~2 billion construction costs will be needed in the future.

Cheung Kong Group is only willing to give 6 billion Hong Kong dollars, and wants to make Hongkong Land lose 1 billion Hong Kong dollars in vain. The reasons are also very sufficient: first, when this land was bought, it was already an inflated billion; Second, the current real estate outlook is still uncertain, and Hongkong Land's loss in this project is inevitable.

Seeing the resolute attitude of Cheung Kong Group, Simon Keswick retreated and added an additional condition: Cheung Kong Group will transfer the shares of Hongkong Land in its hands to Jardine Matheson in batches at the market price within three years.

Cheung Kong Group agreed!

As a result, at the end of January, the Hong Kong business community had not yet digested the news of 'Hutchison's acquisition of HK Electric', and the media published 'Cheung Kong Group won the Exchange Square project in Hongkong Land for a cheque of HK$6 billion'.

For a time, public opinion was shocked!

"Sir Lin is mighty!"

"I said why Cheung Kong Group lost to Hongkong Land at Exchange Square and HK Electric, it turned out that it was just a long line to catch a big fish!"

"Makes sense! At that time, Cheung Kong Group had a large amount of cash in hand, and even if the bidding mistake and the loss of Exchange Square, there was no reason for Hongkong Land to take HK Electric. Now it seems that Lin Sheng had already seen that the situation was not right at that time, and decided to put the ground first. ”

"And now, Hongkong Land has become the king of debts, and its liabilities are much higher than the asset value, and it is almost bankrupt, and it is not a prominent loss!"

Hong Kong citizens all admire Lin Zhichao's clever methods!

On the other hand, Simon Keswick was finally relieved, and said in an interview with the media: "Hongkong Land has been out of the state of life and death!" ”

The sale of two assets for 8.85 billion Hong Kong dollars, although it cannot be said that Hongkong Land is not passive at all, but at least it has also eliminated the biggest threat!

The media analyzed Simon Keswick's words, and many versions appeared at once.

Of course, within a month, Lin Zhichao's investment in Hong Kong has reached 8.85 billion Hong Kong dollars, plus the Yangtze River Plaza invested in last year (1983) reached 2.5 billion yuan (excluding land costs), with a total investment of about 11.5 billion.

In this way, confidence in Hong Kong's economy as a whole has had a very good positive effect. (End of chapter)