Chapter 121: Bank Game

Chapter 121: Bank Game

Chapter 121: Bank Game

"Hello, Ms. Ye." The three of them shook hands politely.

Although it was the first time they met, Yang Wendong and Wei Zetao naturally already knew the name of the person who was in contact with their company through communication on the phone. The person in front of them was called Ye Zhirong, a customer manager who had worked at Hang Seng Bank for more than 20 years and specialized in serving clients with huge amounts of money.

Obviously, although there is no cooperation yet, Hang Seng Bank still attaches great importance to Cheung Hing Industrial. This may also be because of the cash flow provided by Liu Chong Hing and the market potential of his own company's products.

Ye Zhirong then said, "Please come in, both of you."

"it is good."

The three of them entered the bank headquarters together. It was a 12-story building. Although in the previous life, even if it was a small county, such a height would not be worthy of the word "building", but in this era, it is considered a building.

You should know that even the newly built buildings in Central, Hong Kong in the 60s were generally only 40 to 70 stories high. Buildings over 80 stories only appeared sporadically in the s, and only gradually became the mainstream of new buildings after the s.

This is also because the height of the house is closely related to the land price. The higher the land price, the taller the house. The lower the land price, the more cost-effective it would be to use the funds to buy two more plots of land and build a few shorter buildings, which can also obtain the same size of building area.

Even if Yang Wendong invests in real estate in the future, he will abide by this rule.
Along the way, Ye Zhirong briefly introduced the development process and strength of Hang Seng Bank, and also mainly mentioned the 22-story new Central Building that was about to start construction.

After a while, the three of them came to an independent office. Outside the window was the Victoria Harbour. They could also see a large number of ships waiting in line at the Wharf Terminal opposite.

A female staff assistant served tea to everyone and then left, leaving the three of them chatting.

"Mr. He from your bank is really capable." Yang Wendong naturally praised him in a business way: "It is really admirable that he can run Hang Seng Bank into the third bank after HSBC and Standard Chartered."

This statement was actually quite sincere. Hang Seng Bank was acquired by HSBC a few years later because of its rapid development ability, which made HSBC's management somewhat afraid.

Even if Hong Kong was not still ruled by the British and British capital did not receive any special treatment, it would be hard to say who would be the No. 1 bank in Hong Kong after another 20 years of fair development.

However, there are no "ifs" in history. Today, Chinese capital can only do businesses that British giants disdain to do, such as factory industries. As long as you infringe on the territory of British giants, you may be targeted and eventually end up like Hang Seng or Dairy Farm International.

Things didn't get better until the late 70s.
Ye Zhirong smiled and said, "You're too kind. When our Hang Seng Bank was first established, it was also to facilitate the Chinese in Hong Kong. The British banks at that time did not cooperate with the Chinese at all."

"It's not much better now." Yang Wendong said with a faint smile.

British banks in the late 50s were doing better than in previous decades, also because the Chinese were becoming more and more powerful. Even the Hong Kong government began to win over wealthy Chinese people, because the weakened "British Empire" no longer had the ability to control so many colonies.

However, even so, the big British banks only cooperate with wealthy Chinese people. Ordinary people are not allowed to deposit money there.

Ye Zhirong nodded and said, "Yes, but now Hong Kong's economy is getting better and better, and we Chinese still account for the vast majority of Hong Kong. Theoretically, this market will also become larger and larger. The arrogant attitude of British banks will only make their losses greater and greater;
Especially if there are more and more elites like Mr. Yang, it will be an opportunity for our Chinese banks.”

"You're flattering me." Yang Wendong said with a smile, "But if there are more and more wealthy Chinese, British banks will probably compete for their customers. For example, the boss of HSBC may not care, but the Chinese employees below may not think so."

Even HSBC has a large number of Chinese employees, many of whom hold middle and senior management positions. After all, HSBC's main business is in Hong Kong. Even though its early clients were British companies, there were also many Chinese employees in those British companies.

The Chinese, or the three East Asian countries in Confucian culture, are all the kings of the economy: Japan in the early days, Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea in the middle, and finally the mainland's reform and opening up. They have expanded step by step and eventually became the new center of the global economy.

This has never happened anywhere else in the global economic era dominated by Europe and the United States. Although there is an element of taking advantage of the situation, the desire to become stronger is the most important thing.
"So in the end, it's all about service." Ye Zhirong nodded and said, "As the largest Chinese bank in Hong Kong, our main customers are naturally Chinese, including real estate and factory industries.

Mr. Yang, as a latecomer in Hong Kong industry, we also hope to have long-term friendly cooperation with you. "

"I hope so too." Yang Wendong naturally said the same thing: "Then, I wonder if Hang Seng Bank can meet the loan needs we applied for?"

Ye Zhirong smiled slightly and then said, "Mr. Yang, we at Hang Seng are still very willing to cooperate with your company, but we have almost no collateral, and it is the first time for us to lend a huge amount of HK$400 million.

But we are also very optimistic about you, so we have another plan for you. How about you listen to it first?"

"Please speak." Yang Wendong didn't care about being rejected. This kind of thing is very common in business cooperation. If you care about this, then don't do any business.
Business itself is the result of multi-party negotiations and compromises. Even for a strong industry leader like Coca-Cola, it is impossible for others to listen to what it says when negotiating with many sales channels or even production agents like Swire Group.

Ye Zhirong continued, "We also roughly know Mr. Yang's future plans. You need funds because you are eager to expand production capacity, but your production capacity expansion speed is too fast, even far exceeding that of Cheung Kong Industries last year.

If you can go slower and divide it into three or four phases, as long as the initial capacity expansion goes smoothly, then Hang Seng Bank will certainly provide sufficient support for the subsequent capital loans.”

Yang Wendong's expression did not change, and he asked in return: "Does this mean that we expand slowly to reduce the risks for the bank?" He was not unhappy. When banks cooperate with customers, they often advise customers to reduce risks. This is also what banks should do.

But after all, only you know how big the market for post-it notes will be in the future. Even if others can roughly guess it, they generally don't dare to go all in.

Ye Zhirong still had a professional smile on her face and said, "It does reduce the risk for our bank, but it also reduces the risk for Changxing Industrial, which is good for all of us."

Yang Wendong smiled and said, "That's what I said, but if I want to do it this way, I can do it with any bank. Why do I need to come to Hang Seng?"

Ye Zhirong nodded and said, "Of course, the risk is low. With Mr. Yang's conditions, many banks are willing to cooperate. However, you know that our Hang Seng is well-known in Hong Kong. The supporting services are absolutely no problem. We will also make certain concessions on the interest rate."

"For me, what's more important is that the funds are in place," Yang Wendong said after a pause.

Ye Zhirong paused and said, "If that's the case, how about we both take a step back? Our bank can give you 200 million first. When you have used up most of the money, our bank can also see the future development of your company. At that time, we will give you the rest of the funds."

Yang Wendong immediately refused and said, "That won't work. If you don't give me money later, I've invested so much in infrastructure, but I don't have the money to buy equipment and raw materials. Who can I turn to?"

In fact, it is barely enough, but he also needs financial security. The more money in the account, the better, even if it is borrowed.

"Mr. Yang, why do you have to rush to build the infrastructure all at once?" Ye Zhirong analyzed, "Wouldn't it be better if we could do it half and half?"

"If Hang Seng can't agree, then maybe we should try other banks." Yang Wendong said with a faint smile: "Time is also very precious to me. Build half first and wait for the other half. It sounds simple, but I'm afraid it will delay at least half a year."

Seeing that she couldn't convince Yang Wendong, Ye Zhirong looked at Wei Zetao, thought for a moment and said, "You two, with such a large amount of funds, if there is not enough collateral, even if we can finally agree, it will probably take a long time to get the board's approval.

This is probably the same in any bank, even HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank. Perhaps because of different management systems, their CEOs can directly decide on the issuance of such loans. However, as long as it is an unsecured loan, it will be strictly reviewed.

Not to mention that you two are Chinese, British banks may accept your deposits, but it will certainly not be easy to get a loan from you. "

"Hmm~" Yang Wendong didn't say much after listening.

What she said is right. All banks, even Liao Chong Hing Bank, have basic risk control. After all, the management is not stupid. Unless they want to accept bribes or be cheated for personal reasons, this method is illegal and Yang Wendong will not do it.

It seems that in the original history, Bao Yugang wanted to go to HSBC for a loan when his business was good, but he was rejected even with a mortgage. It was not until he found a Japanese company to act as a guarantor that he succeeded.

Obviously, 3M would not do this for itself, otherwise it would have given itself the funds directly.

Wei Zetao on the side suddenly asked: "Ms. Ye, what if the amount is not 400 million, but 200 million or even 100 million?"

"If it's only 200 million, that would be much better. 100 million would be even simpler." Ye Zhirong asked again, "But your application doesn't have enough funds, and we're not going to give you a second loan later. Why do you want to lend less?"

"The total amount of funds is not small." Wei Zetao said with a smile: "Since you think the risk is high, why don't you lend it to several banks together?"

Ye Zhirong felt something was wrong when she heard this, and quickly said, "Mr. Wei, one bank is enough!"

"But you are worried that the risk is too great." Wei Zetao smiled and said, "In that case, you can just pay half of the funds. In this way, even if the worst-case scenario you expect occurs, the loss will be reduced by half."

"But..." Ye Zhirong wanted to say something else, but she had nothing to say because their fund approval involved large amounts and high risks, so it would definitely be slow.

Wei Zetao said: "Our subsequent investment plan will require a large amount of funds in a short period of time. If you give it to us in two installments, it will cause us great risks.

Why don't we all reduce the risk and complete the transaction as soon as possible? Besides, this is our first cooperation. As long as our business grows, there will be no shortage of cooperation with larger amounts in the future, right?"

"This is a good idea." Yang Wendong nodded.

Although by doing this, my family is still considered to be at the same risk level in everyone's eyes, but the bank has to pay much less.

This way you can get enough funds as soon as possible.

(End of this chapter)