The Industrial Giant Reborn

Chapter 218 The Explosion of the Arcade Market
The MTR Corporation was obviously very interested in the proposal of the joint consortium of Hengyi and Xinghe to pay money first and share interests in the real estate in the future. On the seventh day after the auction, a senior executive of the MTR contacted Chen Tianfu by phone. Chen Tianfu also naturally put all his energy into it, negotiating various details with the MTR company.

As far as Chen Zhiwen knows, Li Ka-shing also adopted a similar plan to cooperate with the MTR Corporation. In this way, the competition now is who can give the MTR Corporation more benefits, and the MTR Corporation obviously will not negotiate with the Chen family. , Riding a donkey to find a horse, and stepping on a few boats are obviously normal commercial operations.

Soon, on April 4st, the MTR Corporation officially announced that Hengyi Real Estate Group has obtained the development rights of two subway entrance properties in Central and Admiralty.

When the news came out, public opinion in Hong Kong became a sensation. They thought it was intentionally spread on April Fool’s Day, but when the MTR Corporation formally signed a cooperation agreement with Heng Yee Group, everyone shut up because everyone thought that Landmark It must be the last successful company, and Hengyi had a relatively small reputation before, and everyone knew that it was Chen Zhiwen's father's company.

This MTR tender can be considered as the first time that Chen Zhiwen competed with other British companies after the acquisition of Hutchison, and won a big victory.

In Cheung Kong headquarters, Li Jiacheng looked at the news, took a deep breath, put down the newspaper, and said, "Chen Zhiwen is even more generous than me. He actually gave 55% of the profit to the MTR company, and they only want 45% of the profit."

"It's really ruthless. We gave up 51% of the profit. We thought we were determined to win." Zhao Yeguang, the vice president of the real estate business of Cheung Kong Industrial, said opposite.

Auctions in Hong Kong are generally paid at one time, and the buyer decides to leave the hand. This time, the MTR Corporation’s public auction has changed the style of the previous auctions at other stations, requiring companies or consortiums to submit bidding prices above. conduct.

Zhao Yeguang and Li Jiacheng immediately saw the reason behind this. It must be that the MTR Corporation has taken a fancy to the future of the real estate market, and they don't want to buy it and leave it with only a sum of money.

Therefore, after the negotiation, Cheung Kong’s plan is to give a sum of money to the subway company to use for its main business. After all, the MTR’s bid for the land is to raise money, and then Cheung Kong is responsible for developing the land. , and then recalculate the profits with the MTR Corporation, 55% into it.

For the MTR, this is not a loss. After submitting the cooperation method, the MTR company also contacted Cheung Kong and talked for a while. To be on the safe side, Li Jiacheng changed the share to 51:49.But unexpectedly, Hengyi Real Estate was even more ruthless and directly changed it to 55:45.

"Forget it, if you lose, you lose. The Hong Kong market is so big, we also have other opportunities." Li Jiacheng seemed to recover quickly, and said: "Reach a cooperation agreement with HK Electric, Wheelock, and Kwong Sang Hong as soon as possible. The land in their hands is of high value, and many other Chinese real estate are coveted."

"Okay, I will reach an agreement with them as soon as possible." Zhao Yeguang nodded and said.

On the other hand, after seeing the cooperation agreement between Hengyi Real Estate and MTR mentioned in the news, Bao Fuda threw the newspaper on the corner of the table and said: "Crazy, I gave most of the profits to MTR, and gave others the hard work." Make a wedding dress."

Niu Bijian frowned and said: "These Chinese people always come up with weird ideas."

"Let Chen Zhiwen make trouble, I'd like to see if he can still make money this time?" Bao Fuda said disdainfully.

"Leave him alone, let's discuss the issue of Harbor City, shall we? We're short of funds again." Niu Bijian said with a frown.

"Since the funds to be used to acquire the property at the subway entrance have not been used, let's give it to Wharf. If the Harbor City is not completed in a day, we will always be dragged down by this project." Bao Fuda thought for a while and said: "And the land holding Some Wharf shares have less than 10%, which makes me a little worried, and this capital injection can just increase a little bit of shares.”

"Do you think someone will buy Wharf? Chen Zhiwen?" Niu Bijian asked.

"I don't know, but I think it's better to be conservative." Bao Fuda nodded and said, "But maybe I'm overthinking. Now the Hong Kong market is generally not optimistic about the Harbor City project, and Chen Zhiwen may not necessarily pay attention to it."

"You're right, let's raise the stake a bit. The market value of Jardine Matheson and Landmark is very high, basically there won't be any major problems. The stock price of Wharf is indeed a bit lower." Newbi firmly agreed.

Of the three major companies in the Jardine family, Hongkong Land has the highest market capitalization of more than 40 billion Hong Kong dollars. In Hong Kong, it is second only to HSBC. , but after entering the 30s, the Harbor City project seriously dragged down the profit and stock price of the entire company, plus several additional share financing, the total market value has shrunk to less than one billion.

However, he also believes that the risk of Wharf being targeted is relatively small, because the Harbor City project is indeed not favored by other people in Hong Kong. Even the banks are the same, and they are unwilling to use this business as a mortgage.

The original purpose of Harbor City was that Henry Keswick saw the shopping environment in Central Hong Kong and needed to switch from one building to another. When it was hot or rainy, the flow of people interacted with it. , So, he came up with the idea of ​​building a super-large commercial plaza, allowing everyone to shop, eat, watch movies, have fun and so on inside with peace of mind.

Naturally, such land cannot be found in Central, but there is one opposite the harbour, so the construction of Harbor City began, but all classes in Hong Kong are not optimistic about this project. Few people think that a shopping center in Kowloon, It can absorb the flow of people in Central.

After Niu Bijian took over Jardine, half of the construction of Harbor City has been completed. Regardless of whether it looks good or not, we can only bite the bullet and build it down. Financing by rights issue, plus the company's day-to-day profits to fuel the construction process.

A Harbor City, a Central District reconstruction plan, and the losses of several large overseas investment projects have been sucking blood from the Jardine Department. If it hadn't been for its solid foundation, it might have gone bankrupt long ago.

"Okay, then next time, I'll let Wharf Opposite Land increase its shares. In this case, the control of Wharf will be reduced to about 20%." Bao Fuda nodded and said.

"Hongkong Land is planning to increase the capital of Wharf?" Chen Zhiwen, who got the news, thought for a while and said, "It seems that the money originally used for the MTR property is empty."

"It is possible that according to the scale of Hongkong Land's capital increase this time, Hongkong Land will own about 20.5% of the shares, and our shares will also drop from 23% to 19.4%. Jardine's control over Wharf has increased a lot. " Xu Jinhong, general manager of Xinghe Group, said.

"That's up to them. We'll just keep the previous normal acquisition mode. Harbor City is a bottomless pit, and Wharf will raise funds in the stock market sooner or later." Zhou Jiayang nodded and said.

With the management rights of Wharf, Jardine can raise funds at will. If they want to raise funds, they can raise funds in the stock market, but this will reduce their own controlling rights. If they want to increase their controlling rights, they can contribute their own capital and then increase their capital separately.

This is also the reason why acquisitions are difficult to succeed, especially if the acquired party finds a white warrior, the difficulty will rise in a straight line. Once there is enough funds, they can increase their shares in a targeted manner to increase their own controlling stake.

At this time, the acquirer has no way to stop it, unless the stock acquisition is close to 50%, there is only a slight possibility, but it is basically impossible to directly acquire this amount.

Therefore, if you want to acquire the target party, you must take advantage of the time when the other party's funds are difficult, such as when Bao Yugang is fighting against Jardine, Jardine is short of funds, otherwise, a capital increase can hold Bao Yugang.

Now the Jardine department still has some funds in their hands, so Chen Zhiwen didn't force it. As time goes by, Jardine's situation will get worse and worse.

"Recently, according to Chen Sheng's request, I have sold the industrial land and properties in the market and cashed them out very quickly. These funds are enough to pay for the gradual acquisition of Wharf stocks." Xu Jinhong said again.

"Okay, continue to sell, sell all of them. Wharf's acquisitions are relatively slow. If you have more funds, you will be ready to develop the previous acquisition of Wheelock's land, or cooperate with Hengyi to develop new land." Chen Zhiwen said.

From 74 to 75, Galaxy Real Estate used the highest level of leverage, invested hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars, and obtained industrial office properties worth at least 3 million at that time. Today, the prices of these properties have basically doubled. According to market prices It is estimated that after cashing out, at least a net profit of 2.5 million Hong Kong dollars can be made. In addition to the previous principal, Galaxy Real Estate will also have as much as 3.5 million Hong Kong dollars in funds.

The sale of these properties is not because the prices of industrial office buildings will drop in the future, but Chen Zhiwen knows that in the next few years, the growth rate of purely industrial office buildings will not be able to catch up with commercial real estate properties, because industrial real estate is affected by industrial profits, and the upper limit is limited , when the increase is too fast, industrial profits cannot be supported, and it will inevitably affect the price of industrial land in reverse.

As for residential buildings and businesses, they target the economy of the entire society, or the carrying capacity of the entire society. They will only collapse when housing prices are too high for social operations to bear. In this rising cycle of real estate, it will not be until 81 Something went wrong, and by 82 it completely collapsed.

"Old Xu, you also came from Cheung Kong Industrial. You understand many of Li Jiacheng's tricks. Next, I am basically optimistic about Hong Kong's real estate market, so your task is very simple. Get land with all your might. , or cooperate with those British capitals." Chen Zhiwen continued.

Although Chen Zhiwen gave his father a lot of resources to develop his Hengyi, his real estate company also needs to develop. Hong Kong is so big that there will be no competition. There is no conflict, because many of the current cakes are unowned, and all major capitals are selectively expanding. Only when Huazi Real Estate can rank its assets at the level of the Asian rich list more than ten years later, Basically monopolized all the interests of Hong Kong.

As for Galaxy Real Estate, Chen Zhiwen is very optimistic about its future. If possible, owning dozens of buildings and collecting rents would be very rewarding.

However, it is still a bit far from the goal now. Naturally, it has to develop normally like other Chinese-funded companies. Digging teams everywhere is to catch up with the dividends of this wave of land price rising cycles in the past few years.

"Okay, I understand." Xu Jinhong nodded and said.

"Okay, you can report to me once a month in the future, and your team can negotiate on what projects to do. I only want to see a little bit. Compared with Li Jiacheng, 7-8 results are enough." Chen Zhiwen smiled lightly Said.

Since 74, Chen Zhiwen has devoted a lot of energy to the real estate industry. That is because he wants to give full play to the ability of the golden finger of the prophet, and seize many opportunities when the real estate market is low or just starting to rise. Now the real estate market has begun to take off. , Prepare everything that can be prepared, but it will be of little use, and it will be better to let professionals do professional things.

Both Galaxy Real Estate and Hutchison's real estate business have started to operate on their own. Chen Zhiwen only needs to intervene at special opportunities, such as about a year before the local price is about to fall, and start to withdraw on a large scale.

On April 4th, Admiralty, the headquarters of Galaxy Building:

"Eric, your building is very beautiful, I like it very much." Henry Morgan said with a smile after walking around the Galaxy Building on the helicopter.

"This is the design of Bei Jinming, a Chinese-American architect. You should know the library in Los Angeles, right? It's also his work." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

"I've heard of him. He is very famous in the construction industry in the United States." Henry Morgan nodded.

"Go down." Chen Zhiwen said to the driver.

On the roof of Xinghe Building, there is a large helipad, which Chen Zhiwen specially prepared for himself. Although he is already one of the most powerful businessmen in Hong Kong and drives a million-dollar Mercedes-Benz bulletproof car, when the traffic jam , all beings are equal.

But most of the time, this is a waste of time, so after suggesting to Bei Jinming to build a helipad on the top floor of the building, he went to Germany to order a helicopter in person, the one with the best quality and the highest safety, and the price Well, it is naturally more expensive, but as long as it can save Chen Zhiwen's time, it is still very cost-effective.

After getting off the plane, Chen Zhiwen brought Henry Morgan to his office, and the assistant also prepared coffee.

"Good coffee, is this from South America?" Henry Morgan asked with a smile.

"Good eyesight." Chen Zhiwen smiled and said, this is actually cat poop coffee from Brazil, which is very expensive, but Chen Zhiwen has no such hobby, and bought these to entertain some Western guests.

"Speaking of South America, I recently bought a 5-acre farm in Brazil for only 400 million US dollars. There are many wild animals in it. Eric, if you are interested, we can go hunting. Flying a helicopter, carrying an AK47, shooting wild boars in the sky, the bullets are still fluorescent, and you can see the trajectory of the bullets, that feeling is really cool." Henry Morgan laughed and said.

"Uh, it's a little bit." Chen Zhiwen put himself into it, as if he was a bit too bullying to animals, but wild boars are an agricultural disaster in many countries, and many countries encourage farmers or people who have nothing to do to eliminate them Wild boars, Australia even encourages people to kill kangaroos and wild cats.

"Then take a look for yourself, and tell me if you have time, and I will accompany you at any time." Henry Morgan said with a smile.

"Are you so free?" Chen Zhiwen asked curiously.

"I've always been so free." Henry Morgan shrugged and said, "Many of Morgan's properties are managed by professional managers. I used to participate in a little bit. Now, our arcade development is the most important thing, Eric Ke, the Magic Cube is really unbelievable. It has been on sale for almost a year, and many places are still so popular. Although the order in my hand has only dropped a little, it is much better than Snake."

"The playability is different, and it's naturally long-lasting, but I guess it's about the same." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

Last summer, Midea began to send Magic Cube arcade machines to the United States. At the stage when Snake was a bit weak, Magic Cube immediately aroused new popularity and became the new favorite of American bars.

With the channels already opened up, the production capacity in Hong Kong has also reached a very high level, especially after entering the US industrial park.

In more than half a year, the sales volume of the Magic Cube in the United States has exceeded 8 units. Most of the bars have participated in the purchase, and some large bars have also purchased several units, because one or two units are often not enough for everyone to play.

The market outside the United States developed later than the United States, and the main focus in the early stage was Snake. At the beginning of this year, when the orders in the American market were down, the Magic Cube was also released.

Midea Industrial Park has more than 2000 workers producing arcade machines, and it also provides Chen Zhiwen with the highest profit since he started his business.From June last year to April this year, the two arcade machines brought Midea a net profit of up to 6 million U.S. dollars, which is stronger than the "Space Invaders" who earned 4 million U.S. dollars a year in the original history.

Of course, these are two games, but they are already terrifying. The arcade market in Europe and America has completely exploded.

"But Eric, the lifespan of the magic cube seems to be about the same. Should we prepare for the next game?" Henry Morgan said with expectant eyes.

(End of this chapter)