Chapter 620: The Beginning of the Sino-British War in Hong Kong

Yang Wendong did not participate in the detailed and professional content. The planning and production of 4004 chips in Hong Kong was naturally handled by relevant experts.
Just like the boss of a big real estate developer who doesn't know how to move bricks, Yang Wendong doesn't understand the electronics industry. He doesn't need to understand it, he just needs to control the direction and industry.

Moore and Noyce soon left Changxing Building, accompanied by several senior executives of Honor Electronics, and went to North Point of Hong Kong Island, where a most modern chip factory was to be built;

Fortunately, the scale of the chip industry is not very large, and the US government does not care much about it. Compared with the globalization that the US is promoting now, this industry is nothing at all, which gives Hong Kong certain opportunities;

Perhaps there will be restrictions in a dozen years, but we can talk about the future later. At least now it will be convenient for the current industry. As long as the game industry is controlled, the early arcade machines and future home game consoles will be enough to bring Honor Electronics huge profits and brand effects. Even the traditional industries that Honor Electronics has been engaged in in the past ten years cannot compare with games.

This is how powerful emerging industries are.

In August 1971, an event comparable to a super earthquake occurred in the global financial market. That was the United States’ announcement of the decoupling of the dollar from gold, which was the Nixon administration’s “New Economic Policy.”

After the end of World War II, thanks to the perfect geographical location to avoid war and the common culture of Europe, a large number of European talents, gold, wealth, factories, technology, etc. moved to the United States. By 1945, the United States was almost the only dominant country.

Therefore, the post-war world rules are naturally decided by the Americans, the most important of which is finance, that is, currency. Before that, the British pound dominated the world for nearly a hundred years. Among the currencies of various countries, the British pound had the highest recognition.

Even though Britain declined after World War II, the long tail effect still existed. In order to replace the British pound with the US dollar, the US dollar was pegged to gold, and anyone with US dollars could exchange them for gold from the United States.

Gold is a natural currency and everyone trusts its value, so the status of the US dollar quickly rose and the world entered the era of US dollar reserves.

At that time, the United States had an astonishing amount of gold, so it seemed that there was no problem. However, decades later, the development of the U.S. economy led to an increasing amount of dollars, which naturally led to insufficient gold reserves. Other countries or financial institutions were not fools and could see this a long time ago, so they frantically ran on the U.S. gold in recent years.
In the end, the United States could not bear it anymore, so the dollar was decoupled from gold, and the dollar has since become a national credit currency.

In Changxing Building, Fang Xianming of Changxing Financial Company came to his boss' office early and asked, "Mr. Yang, the Bretton Woods system is gone. Do we need to take some hedging measures for the many US dollars or other foreign currencies our group has?"

"Hedging? How to hedge?" Yang Wendong said with a smile: "Even if the US dollar is not exchangeable for gold, so many people around the world are already using the US dollar. Its value still exists and it is impossible for other currencies to replace it.

Moreover, modern society is different from decades ago. At that time, gold and silver were the mainstream, but now paper money is the mainstream, and gold and silver have gradually become commodities. "

Although the value of gold will always be high in the future, in international trade, except for very few cases, gold is not normally used;

As for silver, it goes without saying that after the development of industrial technology, the price of silver has plummeted.

Fang Xianming said: "I see that the price of gold has increased a lot, maybe we can buy some gold."

"No need. The price of gold will indeed rise, but it will still be very limited. Instead of investing in this, it would be more cost-effective to invest in some Asian real estate or other industries." Yang Wendong shook his head and said.

Gold would indeed continue to rise in the future, and by the early 80s it would even rise to more than $1000 per ounce, but the period of time was too long, and the real big increase in gold was in the last year, when huge profits could be made through financial means, so there was no point in investing before that.

The comprehensive investment returns of Hong Kong's real estate, stock market or other places in Asia are definitely higher than those of gold;
Fang Xianming said: "Okay, then I won't do anything here for now."

Yang Wendong added: "I estimate that a lot of overseas capital will flow into Hong Kong in the near future. You should also collect some information appropriately."

Last month, the United States and the mainland made peace, and this month the Brinton financial system was announced to collapse. A large amount of international hot money will naturally withdraw from the United States, and some of it will also come to Hong Kong;
Historically, it took less than two years for the Hang Seng Index to rise from less than 1971 in 400 to 1700. The most fundamental reason for this was that Hong Kong's local capital and overseas international capital were optimistic about Hong Kong and also wanted to seek refuge in it.

Fang Xianming nodded and said, "I understand. It just so happens that several of the companies we invested in are also about to go public. They are really lucky to catch this bull market."

"Which ones?" Yang Wendong asked.

Fang Xianming replied: "Three companies, Cheung Kong Holdings, Sun Hung Kai Properties and Wo Hup Properties, will be listed next month."

"Hehe Real Estate? Hu Yingxiang founded the company only three years ago, and it has already met the conditions for listing?" Yang Wendong asked. The other companies are all future top families, but Hehe is an exception. In the 80s, this company was known as the leader of the five real estate tigers, but it invested a lot of money in China and missed the wealth feast in Hong Kong, so Yang Wendong also paid special attention to it.

Fang Xianming said, "Yes, Hu Yingxiang is very capable, and with the full support of Hang Seng Bank, he is also very courageous. He often works on more than a dozen projects at the same time. With the continued success of the real estate industry, the profits are very high and the scale is also very large. It may not be as good as companies like Cheung Kong Industries and Sun Hung Kai, but it can be considered a very good Chinese company."

"He has good vision and great courage. He is really amazing." Yang Wendong nodded and said.

As a time traveler, he knows the future, so he dares to go ahead with his eyes closed most of the time. However, for local wealthy businessmen, every step is risky. When to move forward, when to withdraw, and what proportion of leverage to use are all tests of everyone's ability and determine future wealth.

Whether it is Hong Kong or the Mainland, the market is like this. There are many successful people, but some are on a small scale and some are on a large scale. It all depends on the combination of courage and vision.

Fang Xianming smiled and said, "Yes, I have seen Hehe's performance. It should not be a problem for the market value to exceed 100 million after listing. The other companies are probably about the same, at most a little stronger."

Yang Wendong said: "Going public is just the beginning. The future of these companies is where I will focus my investment."

Fang Xianming asked: "Mr. Yang, do we need to purchase more of their shares?"

"Not yet, there's no need for now, let's talk about it later." Yang Wendong shook his head and asked, "How much stock have you acquired from Wharf Holdings?"

The time for the future real estate five tigers, four big families and the like to rise rapidly is not now, but about seven or eight years later, which is the time when British capital withdraws and Chinese capital seizes the market;

But although his existence now does not mean that he will take away the business of Chinese companies, he will definitely not give up some good British companies on his own initiative.

Among the major British giants, Jardine Matheson's assets are the ones he covets the most. However, Jardine Matheson has a strong foundation and it may be a bit difficult to swallow it all at once, and Wharf Holdings is its huge weakness.

Fang Xianming replied, "Mr. Yang, Wharf Holdings conducted a financing in the first half of this year, and I took the opportunity to acquire 4.8% of the shares. Together with our earlier acquisitions and the acquisitions made by Citibank, we now hold a total of 21.6% of Wharf Holdings shares."

"21.6? This ratio has exceeded the shares held by Jardine Matheson, right?" Yang Wendong asked.

Fang Xianming replied: "Yes, it exceeds Jardine Matheson, but the board of directors and management of Wharf Holdings are all in the hands of Jardine Matheson. If we want to take over smoothly, we must acquire at least 33.4%. The safest is still 49.9%."

"With this ratio, it's hard to succeed through covert means." Yang Wendong shook his head and said.

The market value of Hutchison Whampoa is actually not very high, and is not even as high as that of Hutchison Whampoa. But no matter how much the other party’s market value is, if it cannot be acquired directly, there will be many restrictions on what can be done in secret.

Fang Xianming nodded and said, "Yes, this is a problem. There are not many shares in circulation now. If we continue to acquire shares, the efficiency will be much lower. If we contact the shareholders, it will easily alarm Jardine Matheson."

"Then there is no need to acquire them slowly." Yang Wendong said directly: "Take advantage of the international funds entering Hong Kong now and use overseas shell companies to acquire Wharf Holdings shares on a large scale. You can also acquire some Hong Kong stocks. As for the media, I will let them publicize that international capital is optimistic about Hong Kong, and Jardine Matheson Group is the best choice. This will also paralyze some of Jardine Matheson's management."

Fang Xianming asked: "Mr. Yang, this is indeed possible, but if you do this, the share price of Wharf Holdings will increase a lot."

Yang Wendong said nonchalantly: "At this stage of acquisition, we can't expect the stock price to remain low. When the price is about right and we have acquired more shares, I will directly initiate an acquisition invitation."

As the top Chinese financial group in Hong Kong, he naturally could not wait until the 80s to follow history and launch the Sino-British War;

He wants to start now.

(End of this chapter)

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