Chapter 694 Harbour City Development

Yang Wendong also read a lot of reports and read them carefully;
Not to mention, some critics are quite capable, either predicting some of Yang Wendong's future actions towards Wharf Holdings, or proposing some ideas that even Yang Wendong had not thought of;

This also gave him some ideas to think about. After all, as a time traveler, he only understood the general direction of development, but did not have much advantage in terms of specific details.

The next afternoon, Yang Wendong once again came to the Wharf headquarters building. The last time he came here was more than a month ago to obtain a board seat. Now, he has complete control of the company.

Zheng Zhijie and Fang Xianming had been waiting at the door for a long time: "Mr. Yang."

"Are the senior management of Jardine Matheson still there?" Yang Wendong asked.

Zheng Zhijie replied: "Henry Keswick and some of his core senior executives have already left. Most of the middle and senior British foreigners are still here. We have also talked to them. For the time being, everyone will maintain their original positions."

Fang Xianming smiled and said, "Jardine Matheson is not able to provide additional jobs for so many people, so they can only let them fend for themselves."

"It's impossible to let them fend for themselves. These people will definitely try to form a group to prevent us from taking action against them after we gain overall control in the future." Yang Wendong smiled and said, "Although I don't plan to do that, if someone goes too far, we will need to deal with them appropriately. Those who work hard may stay, and the others should be fired."

The carrot and the stick are usually used simultaneously. It will not work if you only give one of them. Only by gathering up a group and winning over a group can you achieve the best effect.

Although he wanted to win over capable people among the British, it did not mean that he had no other means. After all, he wanted to win over this group, not just certain individuals.

Zheng Zhijie said, "I understand, Mr. Yang. Apart from the dock, the rest of Wharf's business is not that important. I will find some people who don't cooperate and make an example of them."

"Okay, is there any problem with the people over at the dock?" Yang Wendong asked again.

Zheng Zhijie replied: "So far, no one has expressed any special opinions, but there is still some resistance to us sending people in."

"Be tough, at least arrange the personnel and finance first." Yang Wendong said with a faint smile: "Wait for a long time in the future, and then slowly change it. There should be quite a few Chinese people inside the Kowloon Wharf. Contact them. These people must also want to seize the opportunity."

He wanted to use the British, but he would not let the British control some businesses that he could not control, even the Chinese groups were the same. Anyone who was not under his control would inevitably be suppressed. This was not allowed by any company or even the ancient imperial court.

"Okay." Zheng Zhijie agreed and said, "Mr. Yang, let's go in first and take a look at Wharf's operating data. After the shareholders' meeting ended yesterday, I arranged for more than 60 financial staff to come and look at the financial data. They are now sorting out the financial data. The specifics have not come out yet, but some major projects have also been counted."

"Okay, let's go take a look." Yang Wendong nodded. He was also very curious about how many industries such a century-old British giant had.
The outside world actually has statistics on these, but Hong Kong companies hold a lot of shares in each other, and there are many shell companies. Unless there are some large projects and assets, the outside world has no idea.

For example, in history, Wheelock Group was controlled by the Chinese Zhang family very early, much earlier than Li Ka-shing's acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa. However, because it was low-key enough, no ordinary people knew about it until conflicts occurred within Wheelock Group, and then the public learned about it.

After entering the Wharf Building, Yang Wendong also carefully examined some of Wharf's asset projects worth more than HK$10 million, as well as the locations and sizes of a large number of properties.

"There are so many plots of land, but they don't know how to develop them. Some of them are even sold directly, and the money is used to develop other properties." After reading the rough accounts, Yang Wendong shook his head and said, "It's really a waste of resources. No wonder British capital in Hong Kong is getting worse and worse."

Zheng Zhijie smiled and said, "Mr. Yang, the Chinese financial groups in Hong Kong today are all started by the first generation of founders. This group has basically emerged from countless people and has outstanding abilities. However, the top financial groups among British capital basically inherited the wealth of their ancestors, or they do not have a controlling family but are controlled by the management. These people are naturally incapable, and for them, the more core task is to protect the existing assets and not make mistakes. They will not be so radical in business practices."

"You are right. Qi Dezun's existence shows that there are strong people among the British." After listening, Yang Wendong nodded and said, "The wealthy families in the early days of Chinese capital are actually declining now, including the He family. It is indeed a bit unfair for me to make such a comparison."

If you think about it carefully, even a hundred years in the future, the descendants of the Yang family only need to have the ability to protect their ancestral heritage. There is no need to compare them with the top powers of this era. There is no comparison at all. Every era has its own king, and no family can stand at the top forever.

Compared with the British financial groups, the Chinese families in Hong Kong in the 1930s and 1940s were even worse off. Many of them were so low-key that they only made money by collecting rent. In fact, this was quite good. It was a blessing for the descendants of the family not to work hard and only eat, drink and have fun. Those descendants who were unwilling to be inferior to others and wanted to build their own careers might easily squander their ancestors' wealth.
Zheng Zhijie smiled and said, "In fact, if Yihe had been more low-key, it wouldn't have revealed its loopholes and been targeted by us."

"Let's get down to business." Yang Wendong took another look at the accounts and said, "The port terminal business should continue to be stable and remain the same as before. We also need to take our time to differentiate the British management team and not let anything go wrong.
All other real estate businesses within Wharf Holdings will continue to be built, especially Harbour City. This large project must be built as quickly as possible. If the various apartments, hotels and office buildings above are not completed in time, at least the large shopping mall below must be completed first.”

In addition to a super large shopping mall, Harbour City also has multiple buildings above it, otherwise it would be a waste of land.

The future rental income of these buildings will also be very high, especially the hotels and apartments. They are the favorite places for wealthy groups in Hong Kong and overseas to live because there is Harbour City below, and Harbour City will also benefit partially from these groups above.

Zheng Zhijie agreed and said, "Okay, Mr. Yang, I'm already preparing here. In addition, HSBC sent someone to tell me that they are willing to further cooperate with Wharf. The meaning is also very clear. Mr. Yang, what do you think we need to do?"

In the early days of Changxing Group, when it was small, it had a good relationship with HSBC and had deep cooperation in many fields. According to HSBC's cooperation strategy for Chinese enterprises, Changxing Group was a relatively promising target, just like Pao Yu-kang.
It's just that the development speed of the Changxing Group was too fast, so fast that no one could have imagined. It directly became the first Chinese financial group in Hong Kong. Its large scale threatened HSBC. In 1965, the Changxing Group rescued the Hang Seng Bank which was hit by a run, and also became a shareholder of Hang Seng. It was rumored that this was promoted by HSBC. Although there was no evidence, everyone could guess that this naturally led to the bad relationship between the two major groups.

Yang Wendong thought for a moment and said, “This time we were able to successfully acquire Wharf Holdings. HSBC’s decision not to subsidize Jardine Matheson is also very helpful to us. Let’s cooperate once. For the Harbour City project, let’s see how much HSBC is willing to support.

Moreover, HSBC has a new boss now, and the future operation strategy will be different from that of Sanders. We need to observe it again, and our relationship with HSBC may also change. "

Shen Bi is the most powerful British tycoon in Hong Kong's history. "One of the best" is not enough for him. Even in the global banking industry, he is the top expert.
During his ten years in office, he made the first steps towards HSBC's internationalization and made future plans, which enabled HSBC, a local city bank, to become one of the top ten banks in the world in the next thirty years or so. This ability is beyond doubt.

Although HSBC has the special advantage of being the "Central Bank of Hong Kong", many large banks in the world, even if they are not "central banks", have much stronger fundamentals than HSBC. However, only HSBC can ultimately succeed.

In the financial field, if both parties stay in Hong Kong, they will be strong competitors, but if the market is global, no matter how big they are, they are just a drop in the bucket compared to the entire market.

Zheng Zhijie nodded and said, "That's good. With HSBC's support, the Harbour City project will be much easier. This project is really too big and requires at least 1 billion in funding."

"Although Harbour City costs more, I am still optimistic about it." Yang Wendong smiled and said, "In addition, various transportation supporting measures must be well prepared. The Star Ferry is in our hands, so we need to build a route from Central to Harbour City, which is more convenient than going through the Hung Hom Tunnel and saves customers time.

As for Kowloon Peninsula, we cannot control KMB, so we can negotiate and add more routes in the future. In addition, we can take advantage of the low land prices to buy some land near Harbour City and build a parking lot. This will not be a loss anyway.”

When visiting a mall, the most important thing is transportation. If the transportation and parking are convenient, more people will come.

Moreover, once Harbour City develops, the surrounding land will become extremely valuable. It would be a good idea to buy at a low price during the economic crisis.

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(End of this chapter)

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