Chapter 695 The Success of the Tripartite Cooperation

Although Wharf Holdings is large in scale, its core businesses are port terminals and real estate development;
Everything remains normal for the former, and for the latter, due to the economic crisis and limited funds, priority should be given to the development of Harbour City. Other aspects will be decided according to the situation. There will be many opportunities in the future. As long as the land is in your hands, you will be able to make huge profits sooner or later. There is no need to rush now.
After arranging the matter of Wharf, Zheng Zhijie left. Fang Xianming smiled and said, "Mr. Yang, in addition to the successful acquisition of Wharf, our overseas funds are also gradually acquiring stocks of some oil field companies in the UK, the US, and Canada. At present, a total of 1500 million US dollars has been invested."

"Okay, if you have extra funds, continue to invest." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Give me detailed information about the companies and investment amounts."

Yang Wendong was really unfamiliar with the oil field companies of this era, and he had no intention of treating this transaction as a long-term project. He just wanted to make a short-term profit by taking advantage of the oil crisis, and didn't need to consider anything else.

In the absence of futures, it is better for most people to have less exposure to oil. If you really get involved too much, it may have the opposite effect.

"Okay, Mr. Yang." Fang Xianming said.

Yang Wendong added: "There are no other major investments in Hong Kong at the moment, so we can also mobilize some funds to buy stocks of oil field companies. However, I still need to discuss the specific amount with the other people."

The economic crisis of 73-74 was mainly caused by a stock market crash. Historically, the lowest stock market was at the end of 74, which was one year and nine months after the outbreak of the economic crisis.

Although history has changed now, the length of time should not have a big impact, and even a slight difference will not have much impact. Therefore, there is no need to consider bottom fishing for a long time in the future. Moreover, with the current asset scale of Changxing Group in Hong Kong, except for a few large British-owned enterprises, there will not be much profit from bottom fishing for others.

As for Hutchison Whampoa, it also survived the economic crisis in history and collapsed in 75, so it was even earlier. He also needed to wait until Hutchison Whampoa was really in trouble and Qi Dezun was driven out by all shareholders before he could take action, because at this time, Hutchison Whampoa's management was also the most vulnerable;
Compared to Wharf Holdings, Hutchison Whampoa's business is much more complicated. If he wants to take over such a business smoothly, he needs the cooperation of internal people, or reuse Qi Dezun. He has not considered this yet. After all, although Qi Dezun has some ideas of his own over the years, he still has a good relationship with him and his ability is not bad. If he guides the direction in the future and he operates, it will be a good cooperation.

However, it is hard to say whether such a proud person would be willing to be inferior to others. In addition, there is the issue of his life span. According to historical records, he only lived to the early 80s.
These issues can only be discussed later. It is still early now, and there is no need for him to worry about future matters now.

Soon it was May, and the heat of the Wharf acquisition storm gradually subsided. However, there were still many people in the crowd who occasionally brought up the matter again. Many Chinese were still very happy about it. The Chinese giant acquired the British foreign company, especially from Jardine Matheson, and the British Hong Kong did not respond. This also marked the improvement of the status of the Chinese again.
Many construction workers and their families were also very happy because after Changxing Group took over Wharf, it immediately started the large-scale construction plan of Harbour City. As a super project covering an area of nearly 200 million square feet, when the funds were sufficient, the number of jobs it could absorb was also very astonishing. Tens of thousands of construction workers were directly re-hired to enter the construction site;
The construction of Harbour City also requires a large amount of materials, supporting services, etc., which will indirectly create no less than 10,000 jobs. Perhaps compared with the current depressed real estate market, 10,000 or 20,000 people cannot be said to solve many problems, but at least it is much better than nothing.

Harbour City is located on the edge of Victoria Harbour, facing the most prosperous area in Central, which includes the Kanglok Building. From the high floors of the Kanglok Building, one can directly see the Harbour City which is under busy construction on the other side of the harbour.

In the chairman's office at the Kangle Building, a man in his 40s looked into the distance and said with emotion: "Mr. Yang, I have only been away from Hong Kong for a few months. I didn't expect you to do such an earth-shattering thing. It is really amazing."

Yang Wendong said with a smile: "Mr. Guo, what you did in South America is also amazing. With the current rising sugar prices, you actually diverted the attention of countless sugar futures speculators and purchased 30 tons of sugar in batches and sent it to Hong Kong. I have to say that I really admire you."

The visitor was none other than the "Asian Sugar King" Guo Henian. At the beginning of the year, he came to Hong Kong and discussed with Yang Wendong the need for sugar in the mainland.

Yang Wendong could not help much in this matter. He could only use Changxing Shipping to provide appropriate assistance in transportation. The main force was still Guo Henian, and he did not disappoint others. He successfully bought 30 tons of sugar and sent it from Malaysia to Hong Kong, and he also came along.

"It's just this one chance. Now all the investors know about this. It will not be possible in the future." Guo Hanian shook his head and said.

"Once is enough. The mainland will know how to play by international rules in the future. They won't suddenly need so much goods like this time." Yang Wendong said: "In addition, we can also increase investment in building sugarcane or beet farms in Malaysia to meet the needs of the mainland."

Guo Henian nodded and said, "Yes, I think so too. However, for such a large investment, we still have to negotiate with the domestic side before we can invest with confidence, otherwise we will lose a lot of money."

"Well, let's go to the dock together in the afternoon. The people from China Resources are also there. We can discuss it together then." Yang Wendong agreed.

Malaysia is different from the mainland. It has a small population and a large land area, similar to Australia and Canada. The area of arable land far exceeds the local agricultural population or even the total population. A large amount of land can only be abandoned and the price is very cheap, unless there is a large capital to carry out modern farm planting;
However, this kind of planting requires huge investment. According to their current plan, both parties need to invest tens of millions of dollars in multiple farms in Malaysia and recruit tens of thousands of local workers to meet the annual demand in the country.
Such a large investment naturally requires negotiation with the buyer or signing of some agreements, similar to futures. Otherwise, if the investment is made and no one wants the produced sugar, the company will have to enter the international market and lower the price, which will likely result in a loss.

"Okay." Guo Henian agreed;
At noon, after the two had a quick meal together, they took Yang Wendong's motorcade to Kwai Chung Pier. However, there was a little traffic jam on the road, and it was almost 2 o'clock when they arrived.

In fact, Yang Wendong originally wanted to buy a helicopter. The roof of the Kangle Building has special supporting facilities. However, after investigation, he finally gave up because the helicopters in the early 70s were not stable enough and safe enough.
After all, it has only been around for more than 20 years, and most of it is used for military needs, so the market is very small; without sufficient market cultivation, technological progress will be relatively slow; airplanes are special in that the technological content of civil aviation is much higher than that of military aircraft, especially in terms of long-term use, and many military products do not consider their lifespan to be too long.

Therefore, for now, it is better to take the car honestly. If the car breaks down, it can only be parked on the roadside. If the helicopter breaks down, it is finished. At most, there will be occasional traffic jams. After a few years, helicopters will begin to enter the civil aviation market. When they are mature, we can consider it ourselves. After arriving at Pier 2, a large number of containers were being unloaded. Under the guidance of internal personnel, Yang Wendong and Guo Henian also met Zhang Guangdou, the person in charge of China Resources Group in Hong Kong.

"Hello, Mr. Zhang." Yang Wendong and Guo Henian shook hands and said.

Zhang Guangdou also smiled and said, "Mr. Yang, Mr. Guo, I have long heard of your great names. On behalf of countless people in the mainland, I would like to thank you both for your help this time."

"You're welcome. This matter is mainly due to Mr. Guo's contribution. What I did on my part was also limited." Yang Wendong said with a smile.

He would not be modest about the credit that should be attributed to him, but he did not do much in this matter, and it was mainly done by Guo Henian.

Guo Henian laughed and said, "Haha, Mr. Yang, there's no need to be modest. Your ships have made it very convenient for me to transfer a large amount of sugar. Otherwise, I would have to spend a lot of money to transport the sugar in containers."

Normal sugar transportation by sea is naturally carried by bulk commodity ships, one ship can carry tens of thousands of tons, and a few ships can carry 30 tons;
But this time they had to buy sugar secretly, so they couldn't do it in a big way. So they had to use containers, and a container could only hold 20 tons at most. This would require tens of thousands of batches of containers, plus the cooperation of the terminal and shipping companies.

With his own shipping company and the port in Hong Kong, Guo Henian only needs to deal with the port in Malaysia, and the exposure risk is much lower.

"There's no need to be so modest, both of you. We will definitely remember this kindness." Zhang Guangdou also said with a smile.

Yang Wendong looked at the containers being unloaded in the distance and asked, "Are these sugars going to be transported directly into the country via the containers?"

Zhang Guangdou shook his head and said, “No, there are no trucks in the country that are specifically designed to transport containers, and the roads generally cannot withstand trucks weighing dozens of tons;

So the cargo can only be unloaded at China Resources' warehouse in the New Territories of Hong Kong, and then transported northwards by cargo ship to cities such as Shanghai and Tianjin."

"There is no container terminal in the country at present, which is indeed troublesome." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "In fact, we can consider building one in the country, which will also facilitate trade."

He naturally knew that he could not participate in this year, so this was just a suggestion. It could really facilitate the domestic situation, and even in the future, when he purchased materials from the domestic market, it would save a lot of transportation costs;

The era of containers has arrived, and container transportation can really benefit both buyers and sellers.

"I can't make any suggestions on this matter. Logically, the people at the container terminal should know about it, so it's not our turn to make any suggestions," Zhang Guangdou continued.

"That's right, I was overthinking it." Yang Wendong didn't hesitate any longer and said, "Mr. Zhang, your sudden need for 30 tons of sugar is actually very taboo in international trade. If this matter is leaked, it will inevitably lead to a surge in global sugar prices. It will be difficult for the mainland to purchase enough sugar, or it will require a large amount of foreign exchange.

This kind of thing cannot happen again, because this incident cannot be concealed for long, so whether from the perspective of supply stability or domestic foreign exchange, there needs to be a stable source of supply, just like the current market, booking future sugar orders. "

Through various means, Guo Henian successfully purchased 30 tons of sugar without noticing the truth. However, there were not many freely traded sugars in the market. The sudden decrease of so much sugar would inevitably have an impact on the price. As long as someone investigated it, the matter would be exposed.

If there is another sudden demand in the mainland next year, even if Guo Henian is a god, he will not be able to be as successful as this year.

"I understand what Mr. Yang said, but we can't predict this kind of thing." Although Zhang Guangdou is from the mainland, he has lived in Hong Kong for many years and is familiar with the rules of the capital market. He asked, "Does Mr. Yang have any suggestions?"

Yang Wendong smiled and said, "If there is stable demand in China, Guo Sheng and I can increase the number of farms in Malaysia on a large scale to ensure more sugar output."

(End of this chapter)

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