The Industrial Giant Reborn.

Chapter 359 Ma Shiming and the Expansion of Hutchison Port Business

Time soon came to October, and the weather in Hong Kong began to cool down, just like Hong Kong's economy.

Although the auction of land kings more than a month ago stimulated housing prices and stock prices, the fundamental problem still cannot be solved. That is, a large number of ordinary people can no longer afford housing. Although the customers of commercial office buildings are not ordinary people, they will have a lot of housing in the hands of real estate speculators. Housing consumes too much of their funds, which will definitely affect other investments.

However, there are still several large companies that are constantly pushing up the housing prices. Although the transaction prices of some auctions held by the Hong Kong government are not as good as before, they are still quite strong.

The most special one is the Carrian Group owned by Hong Kong upstart Chen Songqing, who has been buying all kinds of large-scale properties, and the transaction price is much higher than the market price. Like "Landmark", the two of them are called "big friends" in the Hong Kong real estate market.

"Dong dong dong" there was a knock on the door of the office of Hehuang Building.

"Come in." Chen Zhiwen looked up and saw that it was Ma Shiming who he had recently recruited personally.

As a time traveler, what Chen Zhiwen is good at is guiding the company's development direction, and what he lacks is the company's direct management. Therefore, recruiting the most powerful managers is one of the musts for the company to grow, that is, the working emperor of later generations.

In a society, there are many talents that can be born. In the original history, Ma Shiming, who was favored by Li Jiacheng and directly invited him to be He Huang's class, was the talent Chen Zhiwen had always wanted to acquire. In his previous life, He Huang's achievements in his hands were also obvious to all.

Of course, there are other working emperors, such as Huo Jianning, He Huang's next big class in the previous life, who is still very young, but he was also found by Chen Zhiwen. Under the secret arrangement, he was also recruited to He Huang and became one of his assistants.

As for Ma Shiming, he could directly create value for him now, so Chen Zhiwen personally interviewed him and granted him the status of vice president of Hutchison Huang, who was specifically in charge of Hutchison Huang's port business.

"Chen Sheng, good morning, this is my preliminary port investment business plan, please review it." Ma Shiming handed the prepared materials to Chen Zhiwen, and said: "At present, Hutchison has accepted the berths of Wharf. Currently, we own 5 and a half of the 2 terminals in Kwai Chung, half of which are joint ventures with Swire. I also consulted them, and they are not willing to sell.

The Hong Kong government has not yet planned to develop a sixth berth, and the mainland currently only has one Shekou terminal. Therefore, our port needs to expand overseas, and my investment targets are some relatively well-developed countries in Asia. "

"Why not choose Europe and the United States? These places have stronger consumption power, right? Don't docks rely on consumption power?" Chen Zhiwen asked. Basically, the main commodities of docks anywhere in the world are daily necessities. After all, civilian products are the largest market in the world. Even for chemicals, most of their ultimate purpose is for daily civilian use.

Ma Shiming replied: "Europe and the United States do have a large market, and the port infrastructure is also very stable. If we buy it, we can directly operate it. But at the same time, the risk is low and the income is also low. Even if we buy this kind of port, we can only maintain the previous operation or a little bit better. Moreover, in the past few years, the labor unions of European and American ports have often gone on strike. It is not beneficial for us to buy such companies.

But Southeast Asia is different. Although they are also poor, they have a large population. Moreover, under the current globalization model, Europe, the United States and Japan have begun to transfer their low-end industries and polluting industries to these countries. If they want to take over these industries, they need ports most. Otherwise, exports will become a problem. If they take over these industries, their own economies will also develop, and the demand for external goods will also increase.

In addition, labor costs in these places are lower than those in Hong Kong, and the requirements for technology are not very high, which is in our interests. "

"It's very reasonable, but there is no guarantee that there will be cases against foreign capital in these places. How do you plan to deal with it?" Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

The current Hutchison has already begun to cash out its various Hong Kong properties on a large scale, plus the huge funds it once earned in the gold futures market. The investment in the mainland alone does not consume much.

Under such circumstances, so much money cannot be put in the bank to earn interest. Therefore, after recruiting Ma Shiming, Chen Zhiwen prepared to start investing in overseas port business. After all, this was the most stable business under Li Jiacheng.

The shipping market is prone to crises because too many shipyards can build a large number of ships within a few years, resulting in excessive global shipping capacity. However, ports are different. Although the number of global ports is not constant, the variables are very low. Once there is a port in a place, it is unlikely that there will be a second one on the nearby [-]-kilometer coastline. Even if the port is not enough, it will only continue to expand here.

Therefore, basically there will be no major problems in the port business, unless the location is poorly selected when investing, but this possibility is very low. After all, port investment is not a factory, and the local government must have its own plan for the port.

But there are still risks, and that is the ZZ problem.

"Hong Kong is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. Most countries don't dare to do anything about it, but boss, you have reasonable considerations, so I plan to bring some British-funded groups in Hong Kong to participate, such as the Swire Group." Ma Shiming replied.

"It's okay to cooperate with Swire, but are you sure the Commonwealth still has such a big influence?" Chen Zhiwen asked with a smile.Whether it is Ma Shiming or many British people in Hong Kong, they still like to indulge in the prestige of the British Empire for decades.At this point, even decades later, many people still think so.

"Then we can also introduce some American capital. I heard that Boss knows a lot of people in the United States. It is better to introduce a small amount of their capital. In this way, our risk is much smaller." Ma Shiming naturally understood what Chen Zhiwen meant.

"Okay, I'll take care of this matter. You separate the overseas port business, and then split the shares. I will introduce some American capital." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, the future port business between Hong Kong and the mainland will not have any problems, and the profits are very high, so there is no need to become independent.

(End of this chapter)