Chapter 419: Planning for economic crisis, cashing in US dollar foreign exchange

Chapter 419: Planning for economic crisis, cashing in US dollar foreign exchange

Chapter 419: Planning for economic crisis, cashing in US dollar foreign exchange (asking for monthly votes at the end of the month)
As a time traveler, Yang Wendong's daily life is also very boring, so he pays more attention to the information of many "pleasure-type" products, especially some new electronic products.

The cassette music player was what he had always been paying attention to. Don't underestimate the simplicity of the cassette. The technical content of this thing is very high. Even if it is developed, there are still a series of standards that need to be unified. In the past, Japan, Europe and the United States fought hard for this standard, because whoever mastered the standard could make money easily.
Therefore, even though he knew that this was the trend of the future, Yang Wendong did not participate in it himself in the early years. Hong Kong itself is a complete technological desert in this field, and it is useless to invest money, so he could only wait.

In 1962, Philips finally released the world's first cassette music player.

"Tapes? I saw one once in 1956 when I was in the United States." Wang Zhiqun said, "But the player was too big, bigger than a refrigerator."

Yang Wendong said with a smile: "The one that Philips recently released is about the size of a large radio, about ten kilograms. Although it cannot be held in the hand like a radio, at least it can be placed at home or in the room."

It is relatively difficult to miniaturize electronic products. The tape player did not become truly convenient until the launch of Sony Walkman in 1979. Before that, the player could only be placed at home or in the car.

Although not perfect, people of that era were already very satisfied with this type of player, and music players were about to experience explosive growth. The music industry also benefited from the cheapness of tapes (compared to vinyl records), which indirectly promoted the rapid progress of music around the world, including Hollywood.

Now both of his industries require music players to be realized, so he is naturally interested in this.

"More than 10 kilograms or 20 kilograms is within the acceptable range." Wang Zhiqun nodded and said, "I never thought that in just ten years, European and American companies have actually been able to miniaturize this kind of tape equipment."

"That's normal. The electronics industry itself is developing rapidly." Yang Wendong said, "You should also pay more attention to some overseas technology news in the future, especially some large companies. Maybe they will be of great help to us."

In fact, this cannot be blamed on others. In an era without the Internet, no one would know what was happening outside. Even if one could learn about it through TV news, radio news, or even newspapers, the media were responsible for what was broadcast and what was communicated.

Even if you are a super-rich person or the president of a country, you cannot compare to a smartphone decades later in terms of knowing basic external information. Even Yang Wendong today can only selectively arrange people to keep an eye on some large companies or individuals, and the cost is very high.

"Okay, Mr. Yang." Wang Zhiqun agreed and said, "Mr. Yang, do you want to produce this kind of tape and player in Hong Kong?"

"Yes, Philips has released the patent of magnetic tape for free, so we can also produce it." Yang Wendong said, "But how to produce it? Hong Kong does not have this technology, so we can only buy it overseas;

The corresponding player equipment also has a lot of technology, and we need to purchase patents, as well as production lines, etc. It is very important that you personally monitor this matter. "

Smart big companies will release some patents for long-term profits, so that many people and companies around the world can use them for free. However, the related supporting patents have to be purchased, especially for new products. If they don't do this, others will bypass them and may use them for free. In fact, the principle is similar to the Internet.

Business routines are nothing more than the best choice for profit. Even though Yang Wendong knew it, he had no choice but to jump in. Besides, the technology developed by others should make money, and Honor Electronics will also follow this path in the future.
"I understand. I will go to Europe and communicate with the people from Philips." Wang Zhiqun agreed.

"Okay, inform me of the relevant progress in a timely manner." Yang Wendong paused, and then said: "In addition, music players and tapes are so fast, I will not only produce them, but also continue to develop them in Hong Kong;

So in the future we will start to build a technology R&D center in Hong Kong. As for personnel, we will directly recruit people from overseas, even foreigners, and then train a Chinese team.”

Yang Wendong still felt that it was not cost-effective to carry out in-depth research and development of television picture tubes because it was too difficult and would be eliminated in the future, so he never considered whether he should invest.

But there was no hesitation about music players. This industry was an evergreen before the emergence of smartphones. Even MP3 was one of them, and relatively speaking, its technical content was much lower than that of cathode ray tubes.

More importantly, it is closely related to music and is also a core part of China's cultural industry, especially the Walkman. Hundreds of millions of this player have been sold worldwide. The volume is so large that it was very rare before the emergence of smartphones. It can also drive a large number of jobs, whether in Hong Kong, Taiwan or the Mainland.

"Indeed, Hong Kong has had more and more factories in the electronics industry in recent years, and so have some talented people in this field." Wang Zhiqun nodded and said, "Plus, we can recruit people from overseas, so doing research in Hong Kong is not a problem."

"Okay, that's it." Yang Wendong said, "For Honor's products now, we will follow the market demand and expand if necessary. For other new products, except for this music player, if you have any ideas, you can decide whether to do it or not. If it involves too much money, you can apply to me again."

"Yes, thank you, Mr. Yang." Wang Zhiqun said with a smile.

"You're welcome. It's my duty to support you." Yang Wendong added, "As long as everything else is normal, I will invest more resources to expand overseas channels in the next few years. I will also increase the budget for Honor brand advertising. We want to create an international Chinese brand."

Although Chinese people are good at doing business, they have few brands in the international market. This is indeed difficult, but today's Changxing Group has the opportunity to do this.

"I understand. I will also do my best to improve production capacity and quality." Wang Zhiqun said with a smile.

"Well," Yang Wendong said again, "Okay, that's it. I'll leave first. Don't forget tomorrow morning. The group will hold an internal high-level meeting in Changxing Building."

"Yes." Wang Zhiqun also said.

There are multiple businesses within Changxing Group, and generally, when there is cooperation, only two or three businesses will go to the headquarters together, and other subsidiaries will not participate. Although a lot of information within each subsidiary is not top secret, there is no need to let people from other subsidiaries know if there is no need to know it.

The general meeting held by the headquarters is usually convened by the boss himself, and it must be a major event that involves all subsidiaries.
On November 11, the last day of this month, Changxing Group held an internal high-level meeting, and all the heads of first-level subsidiaries came to Changxing Building.

In the conference room on the top floor, Wei Zetao, Zheng Zhijie and others have already arrived. Everyone is chatting with each other. Before the formal meeting, things are usually quite casual, until Yang Wendong arrived.

Everyone stood up, and Yang Wendong waved his hand and said, "Everyone, please sit down."

After hearing this, everyone sat down. Yang Wendong said, "Everyone, I called you here today for one thing. From today on, all your businesses must start saving foreign exchange.

For external trade, after foreign exchange settlement, try to keep all the US dollars or Japanese yen; for domestic business, if you can't exchange foreign currency, then cooperate with companies that have foreign exchange, give them Hong Kong dollars for operation, and exchange it into foreign currency yourself."

Everyone was shocked when they heard this. The meaning of this operation was very clear. Even if the economy was not good in the future, there was no need to exchange foreign currency unless the Hong Kong dollar would fall sharply in the future. Wang Fengzhi, the chief financial officer, asked, "Mr. Yang, do you think the Hong Kong dollar exchange rate will fall?"

"Yes, I think so." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "The main reason is that the Hong Kong dollar is currently pegged to the British pound, and you all know the economic situation in the UK, so it is not optimistic in the long run;

In addition, I believe that Hong Kong's economy is about to run into problems, so it is better to avoid exchange rate risks. You can just exchange foreign currency according to your needs. Relatively speaking, the US dollar is the most stable, and the Japanese yen is also OK."

In fact, this analysis is not wrong. Hong Kong's economy is growing rapidly, but the British domestic economy is not doing well. One needs an increase in the exchange rate and the other needs a decrease. This is the biggest contradiction. However, in actual history, the two currencies were not decoupled until the early 70s.

I am doing this now to prepare for 67. Although the Hong Kong dollar was not considered worthless at that time, many people did not want it. During that period, many people sold properties, assets, etc. If you have foreign exchange in your hands, it will be much more convenient to trade.

But this kind of thing is naturally difficult to say out loud and no one can know it in advance.

After listening to this, Wei Zetao nodded and agreed, saying, "Okay, then for the transactions on my side, if they can be converted back to Hong Kong dollars, they will all be kept in foreign currency, mainly in US dollars."

Zheng Yuhua also said: "It's the same here. Many of my overseas businesses are directly priced in US dollars. I can also use the Hong Kong dollars earned from some shipping businesses in Hong Kong for internal operations."

Wang Zhiqun followed up and said, “I have no problem on my end either.”

Yang Wendong smiled and said, "Okay, the three of you are involved in a lot of foreign exchange transactions, so this is not difficult to do, and it will take a long time. If you don't have enough Hong Kong dollars, then exchange them with other internal business companies at the official exchange rate."

It is still early, so we just need to inform our subordinates in advance, and then everyone can gradually exchange foreign currency in a subtle way. Otherwise, such behavior in a short period of time will definitely have a strong impact on the Hong Kong dollar given the scale of funds and various businesses in Changxing Group's hands, and many people in Hong Kong will also know about it.

"Okay." The others also agreed.

Wang Fengzhi said, "Mr. Yang, our group still has a lot of funds in Hong Kong. This method can only ensure that we can earn foreign exchange for future business, but we still have a lot of funds before. How about exchanging them at HSBC or Standard Chartered?"

"With such a large amount of money, can the code be redeemed freely?" Yang Wendong asked again.

Although some countries state that their currencies are freely convertible, this is only for small amounts. Exchanges of large amounts may not be feasible, even in Western countries.

Therefore, many countries transfer assets through mergers and acquisitions, using some names that the government cannot prevent to achieve the purpose of transferring assets.

Wang Fengzhi replied: "It is definitely not possible to openly request to exchange hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars in foreign exchange, but it is still possible to open multiple accounts and gradually convert the funds in the name of overseas investment, but it may take some time, perhaps about one or two years.

Unless you have large-scale overseas consumption or merger plans recently, you can openly exchange Hong Kong dollars for foreign currency, and the Hong Kong government will generally not stop you. "

“Buying a ship may not work, right? Although the amount seems large, it is actually mainly based on loans, and is divided into multiple transactions.” Yang Wendong shook his head and said.

Wang Fengzhi agreed, saying, "Yes, unless we put our principal into it, but if we do that, the funds will be stuck on the boat, which may not be cost-effective."

"That's definitely not worth it." Yang Wendong smiled and said, "We'll talk about the ship later, but I'm planning to go to the United States recently. I might spend some money there, so it's an opportunity to spend Hong Kong dollars, but the amount won't be large.

The funds in Hong Kong can be collected slowly, and I may spend some money in Hong Kong in the future, also in Hong Kong dollars.”

By the mid-60s, he had more funds at his disposal, so he could start preparing for opportunities in the international market.

As for the expenses in Hong Kong, it would naturally be a run on Hang Seng Bank. However, he cannot resist the run on his own. He will wait and see the situation. In the initial stage, he can directly invest in the shares with funds. When there is a run on the bank, Ho Sin Hang will definitely agree.

If the follow-up is the same as history, he will be able to obtain a large number of shares of Hang Seng Bank, a subsidiary of HSBC. This deal is definitely a good deal. If Hang Seng Bank can survive, that's the same. With Ho Sin Hang's ability, he will definitely be able to run Hang Seng well.

"Okay, then I will follow my method and gradually and legally convert the Hong Kong dollars in our hands into foreign exchange." Wang Fengzhi agreed and said, "There is another way, which is to borrow US dollars from overseas banks, and then when returning them, apply to exchange Hong Kong dollars for US dollars;
However, if the amount involved in this method is too large, it will be an obvious problem and easy to be discovered."

"No need to do that for now." Yang Wendong shook his head and said, "First, everyone should calculate how many Hong Kong dollars they have, and then when I come back from the United States, we can work together to see how to deal with it."

After all, it is still early to 67. Even though the economic crisis of 65-66 affected the Hong Kong economy, it did not affect the exchange rate, so we can take it slowly. Besides, even if we don’t exchange all of it, our loss will not be that big, we can only say that we will earn a little less.

This time, the currency exchange is not like in 1998. There is no harm to the interests of the group, so he does not have any psychological pressure.

"Okay." Everyone agreed.

After everyone left, Yang Wendong kept Zheng Zhijie and asked, "How is the property cashing out going?"

Zheng Zhijie said: "There are only 78 square feet of properties available for sale now."

"Okay, I'll cash it all out in the next one or two months." Yang Wendong paused and said, "It just so happens that you have the most Hong Kong dollars right now. I'm going to invest in the United States and I'm going to use part of your money. You can come with me."

PS: Please give me a monthly ticket at the end of the month
(End of this chapter)