Chapter 679 Oil Tanker Building

Chapter 679 Oil Tanker Building

Chapter 679 Oil Tanker Building

Fang Xianming replied, "Mr. Yang, I have already checked Murdoch's information. He was born into a media company family in Adelaide, Australia. He took over the family company at the age of 25, and then turned it around in a few years. He then launched a national newspaper throughout Australia, which was quite popular.
In 1968, his company officially entered the British market and acquired the British newspaper The Sun. It subsequently turned losses into profits and made great achievements in the British media industry.

"Has his capital entered the U.S. market?" Yang Wendong asked.

Fang Xianming replied: "According to the information I have found so far, not yet, but I heard that he often lives in the United States, so it is very likely that his next target will be the US market."

"Well, has his company gone public?" Yang Wendong asked again.

Fang Xianming said: "No, his company has always been private and has not been listed."

Yang Wendong thought about it and said, "Okay, then we can try to cooperate with his company for our business in the UK. Anyway, we also need to expand the UK market, so let's keep a cooperative relationship for now."

In fact, even if the other party goes public, it is not very meaningful, because the return on investment of the news media group in the future is not high. After all, the media is still far behind many highly profitable industries.
And even if they become a major shareholder, once News Corporation really becomes a sharp weapon for the United States, foreign capital will not be able to have any influence on such a company of national strategic level;

It would be enough to have a good relationship now. Anyway, I will need to carry out large-scale publicity of various products on a global scale in the future. It will at least do no harm to establish a good relationship with them when they are weak in order to seize future news opportunities.

Murdoch also wants to make money, and by becoming a major client, he might be able to influence some small things sometimes, at least in terms of his own industry.

"Okay, Mr. Yang." Fang Xianming agreed quickly. Although he didn't know why the boss was optimistic about this little guy, it was not convenient for him to ask more questions.

Yang Wendong continued, "In the current stock market, don't touch any stocks except Wharf Holdings. Wait for my order. According to historical rules, this stock market crash will not reach the bottom in one or two years."

Most listed companies are still capable of holding up at least in the early stages of a stock market crash. In the past, Hutchison Whampoa survived the two-year economic crisis and made it to 1975 when the real estate market began to recover.
It's just that the patience of so many shareholders and creditors has reached its limit, or HSBC may have made a plan to completely drive Qi Dezun away, but ultimately failed. Otherwise, if we wait another two or three years and the land price soars, Hutchison Whampoa will be able to return to its peak like Huang. However, there is no "if" in history.
Fang Xianming said, "I understand, Mr. Yang. I have arranged for multiple households to gradually purchase Wharf's stocks. However, we have too many stocks and too few circulating stocks. Our purchases have also caused Wharf's stocks to hardly fall, and the trading volume has also increased. At this time, it is still easy to be discovered, unless we pause appropriately and let the stock price fall occasionally."

"Okay, you decide." Yang Wendong was not in a hurry and said, "We have the advantage now, so the more we secretly acquire, the better."

The overall strength of the Jardine Matheson Group may not be as strong as it was in the 1950s and 1960s, but it still has some resources, so he does not want to go head-to-head with it. The sooner he can acquire more shares, the easier it will be for him to launch a takeover battle later.

Otherwise, even though we are in a stock market crash period, the confrontation between the two top giants may give countless stockholders the last hope. When the time comes, there will be a bloodbath and their losses will be even greater.

"Okay, I know what to do." Fang Xianming agreed with a smile.

"Knock knock knock~" At this moment, the door outside rang. Yang Wendong looked up and saw that it was his secretary.

Ah Ying walked in and said, "Mr. Yang, Henry Keswick of the Jardine Matheson Group invites you to have tea at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. You can set the specific time."

"Henry Keswick asked me out again?" Yang Wendong suddenly didn't know why;

The last time it was Jardine Matheson’s intention to acquire Dairy Farm and wanted to persuade him not to get involved, so what was the reason this time?
But no matter what the purpose was, the invitation had to be accepted, so he said, "Okay, tomorrow afternoon."

"Okay, I'll reply right away." After saying that, Aying left.

Yang Wendong looked at Fang Xianming again and asked, "What do you think it will be?"

Fang Xianming thought for a moment and said, "I don't know either. We don't have any major business dealings with Jardine Matheson right now, unless they already know that we are acquiring Wharf Holdings. But my actions are very cautious, and we use overseas people to operate. Even those people don't know what they are doing."

"Then let's talk about it when we meet tomorrow." Yang Wendong said, "Even if they find out, we can just fight them."

He was not too worried about how cautious the people at Jardine Matheson were. In the past, Li Jiacheng launched a takeover war against Jardine Matheson, which caused the share price of Wharf Holdings to surge. This first attracted the attention of stock market commentators, and then many stockholders and financial groups paid attention and rushed in.
At this time, the top management of Jardine Matheson Group actually did not take it seriously. It was not until someone in the market estimated that Li Jiacheng had nearly 20% of Wharf Holdings' shares that the top management of Jardine Matheson Group urgently found HSBC to put out the fire.
The next afternoon, Yang Wendong came to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel:

"Hello, Mr. Keswick." Yang Wendong shook hands politely.

Henry Keswick also smiled and shook hands, saying, "Hello, Mr. Yang, please sit down. I have prepared some fine mainland tea for you."

"Thank you." After Yang Wendong sat down, he took a sip of tea and asked directly, "Mr. Keswick, I wonder why you suddenly asked me to come here?"

He also didn't want to waste a lot of time. After all, he and Jardine Matheson, one of the British giants, were bound to be in a hostile relationship, because Jardine Matheson's Hong Kong Land and Wharf Holdings were too lucrative.
As for the other companies, such as HSBC, Wheelock, Swire, etc., they are actually easy to deal with. Even if they are competitors, their competitors cannot be considered enemies. But if they want to acquire the core industries of other companies, that might be a problem.

Henry Keswick smiled and said, “It is like this, Mr. Yang, my Jardine Matheson Group is preparing to make a bigger investment in the shipping industry, but as you know, if you want to buy a ship now, the delivery time is also very long;
So I want to buy a 20-ton tanker from you. You seemed to have the same intention before, right?"

"Buy an oil tanker?" Yang Wendong smiled faintly and said, "The last time I asked, you didn't agree."

After Pao Yu-kang informed Yang Wen-dong that Jardine Matheson was interested in exchanging the building for the tanker, he arranged for someone to go to Jardine Matheson to ask, but was rejected. Perhaps Jardine Matheson really did not want to trade with Yang Wen-dong, fearing that Changxing Real Estate would surpass Hong Kong Holdings in size;

Since Jardine Matheson was unwilling, Yang Wendong would not pester him. After all, the tankers could still make money for a few years, and there would be opportunities to acquire the buildings in Hong Kong in the future, and even the entire Hong Kong Land could be acquired in the future.

Unexpectedly, today, Jardine Matheson would bring up this matter again, and it was a case of "going back to the old flame".

Henry Keswick smiled and said, "The times are different, so the decisions made by any of us or our company will naturally be different. Mr. Yang should understand this." "The times are indeed different. Hong Kong's economy is not very good now. At this time, I am more optimistic about oil tankers that can make money at any time." Yang Wendong said with a faint smile.

Henry Keswick said, "Now our views are the same. However, Mr. Yang, don't you want to hear our offer? Even the most profitable business has a price, right?"

"Okay, you tell me first." Yang Wendong did not refuse. He was very happy with such a deal.

Henry Keswick said, "I would like to exchange the two buildings, the Starlight Building and the Royal Building, with Mr. Yang."

"Mr. Keswick, do you take me for a fool? Although your two buildings are in a good location, neither of them is in Central. How can they compare to a 20-ton oil tanker?" Yang Wendong asked back.

Star House is located in Tsim Sha Tsui and Windsor House is located in Causeway Bay. The locations are both very good. At other times, these two buildings are also good enough for Yang Wendong to personally participate in the acquisition.
However, compared with some buildings in Central, it is still not good enough, and Hong Kong's housing prices are still far from their peak at this time, while oil tankers are now super profitable, so I naturally have to do my best to make a more cost-effective deal.

Henry Keswick laughed and said, "Haha, I haven't finished yet. For the rest, I will add cash or small properties from other places. We will negotiate again. As long as you are willing to make this deal, it's fine."

"This deal is fine." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "But why not use the building in Central? Then the price will be about the same, right?"

"Our properties in Central are not included in this transaction." Henry Keswick paused and said, "In fact, the properties in Causeway Bay, Tsim Sha Tsui and Admiralty are not much worse than Central."

Yang Wendong thought for a moment and said, "Mr. Keswick, why don't we make a bigger deal? I can give you two 20-ton tankers. We can also negotiate for tankers of other tonnages. How about that?"

"Two?" Henry Keswick's face changed, and then he said, "Mr. Yang, this deal is bigger than I expected, and I'm not prepared to trade so many buildings."

There are indeed many buildings under the Hong Kong property market, even those outside Central, but these are all very high-quality assets. Exchanging two of them for a ship is something that can be considered, but if there are more, one would certainly be hesitant.

Yang Wendong smiled and said, "It doesn't have to be a building, some land will do, or other businesses can be considered."

"I need to discuss it internally." Henry Keswick did not agree immediately.

"Okay, there's no rush." ​​Yang Wendong nodded and said, "I'll let Changxing Real Estate negotiate with you on the specific transaction."

Now is not the time to trade real estate, but for very prime locations, you don’t need to think too much. After all, these buildings are rarely sold as a whole. In the long run, the slight drop next year will not be a big deal.
The most important thing is that in less than a year the oil crisis will break out and the Middle East will stop shipping oil to Europe and the United States. The price of oil tankers will be greatly discounted. Although oil tankers can still make money, by that time, even if you want to exchange oil tankers for Hong Kong properties, they will not be as valuable as they are today.

"Okay." Henry Keswick said with a smile.

The two of them only need to complete the negotiations on "willingness", and their subordinates will naturally take care of the subsequent details.

After finishing the negotiations with Henry Keswick, Yang Wendong returned to Changxing Building and immediately called Zheng Zhijie and Zheng Yuhua to inform them of the transaction with Jardine Matheson.

Zheng Zhijie said happily: "The locations of Starlight House and Royal Plaza are both very good, and the area is more than 20 square feet. If we can get them, it will be a big deal for Changxing Real Estate."

"Of course, after all, it was exchanged for a 20-ton oil tanker." Yang Wendong smiled and said, "The global demand for the transportation of oil and refined oil is very high now. Often, the transportation cost is higher than the oil price on the ship. On the surface, no one is losing money."

Tankers can transport not only oil, but also various finished products made from oil: such as gasoline, diesel, aviation fuel or other oils, etc.
This is because not every country has the ability to process oil. There are only a few countries in the world that have the oil industry chain at any time. In this era, basically only Europe, the United States, Japan and other countries have this ability.
In other words, oil needs to be transported from oil-producing countries such as the Middle East to oil-processing countries such as Europe and the United States. When returning, refined oil can be taken to other countries. In short, it circles around the world along the ocean currents and stops sailing according to demand. The ability to attract money is very strong;

Zheng Yuhua also said with regret: "Yes, a 20-ton tanker can make a profit of more than one million US dollars. According to the current housing prices in Hong Kong, the rent cannot even compare."

"It's not comparable, but I'm not optimistic about the future of the shipping industry, especially the oil industry." Yang Wendong shook his head and said, "The Suez Canal is always an unstable factor. HSBC's new boss, Stephen Schmidt, has also begun to restrict loan support for the shipping industry. So apart from this one, other tankers can be sold at a suitable price, or in cash."

After the first oil crisis, the tanker shipping industry has been in decline. Although it is still profitable, it is no longer a huge profit. So it is time to let go and sell it while the market is good, and then invest in Hong Kong real estate or other areas with higher future potential.

It’s just that the oil crisis is difficult to talk about, so the only excuse is the Suez Canal. And after the opening of the Suez Canal, it did affect the shipping industry.

Zheng Yuhua also understood that the boss's vision was unquestionable, so he asked, "Does Mr. Yang need to deal with the other ships as well?"

"That's not necessary. We will continue to operate container ships." Yang Wendong smiled and said, "But we won't buy new ships for the time being. We will buy them when the ship prices return to normal in the future."

The closure of the Suez Canal in 67 and the rapid growth of the global economy have combined to cause ship prices to skyrocket in recent years;
Now it was the last minute, and Yang Wendong naturally needed to take advantage of the last opportunity to dispose of the tankers that would not make much money in the future but were very profitable now. The container industry was a long-term business, because it was a definite rigid demand in the future, but it was not necessary to go to the shipyard to purchase ships when the price was high now;

At present, the shipping industry just needs to be stabilized. In a few years, there will be a serious shipping crisis. If he hadn't known that he could stabilize his business by seizing the mainland market, he might have been ready to sell all the ships and even the shipping company.
Of course, ship orders are also a kind of influence. As long as there is no loss in the future, the industry can operate. The golden time for the shipping industry is actually only in the next few years. With more ships in the future, unless the industry encounters special circumstances, the profit will be average.

"Okay, Mr. Yang." Zheng Yuhua breathed a sigh of relief.

Yang Wendong looked at Zheng Zhijie again and said, "Old Zheng, the stock price has plummeted, and so have the land prices, but the decline is not as large as the stock market. You should also take advantage of this opportunity to negotiate with Hong Kong Land. In addition to Star House and Royal Court, it would be best if you could get me another building."

PS: Please give me a monthly ticket
(End of this chapter)