Chapter 735: Hutchison Whampoa is struggling

As for the cooperation involving a piece of land in Hong Kong Island with an area of more than 170 million square feet, it is naturally impossible for the two parties to decide quickly;
Swire also hopes to cooperate with Chinese capital to jointly develop this piece of land and cash out the funds. This will be a good choice whether to invest in other places or Cathay Pacific, which has suffered heavy losses due to the oil crisis.

However, both parties are not fools. There are too many interests involved here, and there may even be disputes within the Swire Group. Therefore, it is unlikely that a quick cooperation agreement can be reached in a short period of time. Swire may even be waiting for the economic crisis to pass. Once housing prices start to rise again, they will naturally have more say in the cooperation as they hold the land.

Yang Wendong also knew about this situation, but he was not in a hurry. Even if the economic crisis was over, it would take a long time for housing prices to return to their former peak, so there was still enough time for development.
Even if the Swire Group does not cooperate with him, it does not matter. He will only make a little less money. He can still make a profit from various plots of land in other places.
Although the housing price increase from 75 to 82 was not as large as that from 85 to 97, the increase was still very large. In addition, properties around subway stations and new towns promoted by the Hong Kong government became new economic growth points during these years.

Time soon came to August, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gradually began to rise;

Many stock investors were eager to try and gradually invested their funds in the market to test it out. The result was that the stock did not fall, but grew slowly and continuously.
This feedback immediately excited those who had invested a small amount of capital or were ready to go, so they invested more money. As more money entered the market, the entire stock market would naturally rise further, which in turn stimulated others, forming a new virtuous circle.
When it comes to the stock market or the property market, many times, what people look at is not the present, but the future. When many people are confident about the future, today’s performance is not important. Just like the Internet companies in the past, what everyone values is the future. So even if they lose a lot of money this year, as long as they have market share, that is not a problem.

As a result, more and more funds entered the stock market. The Hang Seng Index broke through 8 on the 180th and directly broke through 13 on the 200th.
When the psychological boundary is broken, all investors cheer in their hearts. Everyone can make money. How can everyone not be happy?

Various newspapers and even TVB television stations have begun to spend a lot of resources to report on this matter. For Hong Kong people, the stock market and property market can be said to be eternal topics. The popularity of this topic is even greater than the sum of all other news combined.

After all, making money is the most important thing in any era.

Kangle Building, top floor office:

Yang Wendong put down the newspaper, breathed a sigh of relief, and said with a smile: "The Hang Seng Index has finally started to rise. The economy has finally seen the light of day."

Fang Xianming also smiled and said, "The Hang Seng Index is now starting to rise. The stocks we have acquired in the past two years will soon be able to reap rich economic returns."

"These stocks are for long-term holding. There is no need to make any moves, and you don't need to worry about how much they go up." Yang Wendong waved his hand and said;
Economic crisis is naturally the best time to buy at the bottom. In 67, housing prices fell sharply, so he bought a lot of houses at the bottom. In the crises last year and this year, housing prices fell by half, but the stock market fell very much, so buying at the bottom of the stock market is the most appropriate, especially the stocks of listed real estate companies.
Now that the economy has begun to recover, there will be no problems in the next six or seven years, so I will naturally hold it for a long time. Around 81, in addition to the stocks of some future top companies, I can cash out other miscellaneous stocks. This way, I can maximize my profits.

"Yes, Mr. Yang." Fang Xianming agreed and said, "We have bought a lot of stocks from various companies, but Hutchison's stock is still falling. Qi Dezun seems to be unable to bear it. Do we need to take action now?"

"Well, let's get started. We will gradually acquire Hutchison's shares. We can also directly contact some of Hutchison's shareholders, but we must keep our identities secret for the time being." Yang Wendong nodded in agreement.
Hutchison's stock is different from other stocks in the economic crisis. Because of its strong foundation, Hutchison can still operate normally even in the crisis.

Even though there was a loss, Qi Dezun still paid out dividends normally in order to maintain the stock price, just to keep the collateral and avoid being harassed by the bank;
But no matter how strong the foundation is, after two years of hard work, resources in all aspects are almost exhausted.

"Okay, no problem." Fang Xianming added, "Hutchison's stock is not popular in the market now, and many people want to sell it. It is not difficult for us to acquire a certain amount of stock, but if we acquire too much, it will still arouse the vigilance of some people in the market."

Yang Wendong smiled calmly and said, "Don't rush to acquire dozens of points, just maintain about 20 points. Our acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa this time is different from the previous Wharf Holdings. We don't need enough shares.

I will even make countless shareholders beg me to take over Hutchison Whampoa. Only in this way can we achieve the lowest cost for acquiring the entire company."

Historically, many shareholders of Hutchison had called for the company to be closed down and liquidated, and then everyone would leave in a piecemeal manner. If it weren't for the heavy debt and HSBC's insistence, this might have really happened.
No one knows the future. Given that Hutchison was in debt of HK$20 billion at the time, no one could guarantee that Hutchison would be able to revive in the future.

Even HSBC took on huge debt pressure before it acquired Hutchison, because if it didn't rescue it, HSBC would be in trouble.

Now, due to his early efforts, Hutchison's debt is even bigger. In the whole of Hong Kong, no one except himself can save Hutchison. "Haha, that would be the best." Fang Xianming also understood what his boss meant.

The rebound of the Hang Seng Index has also given many people in Hong Kong some hope for the future;
At the end of the month, the Hong Kong government took the opportunity to hold a new auction, bidding a total of 9 plots of land, with a total transaction price of up to 8000 million Hong Kong dollars, which is not a lot but not too little. Obviously, the real estate market has not yet regained confidence, or it will take longer for the real estate market to regain confidence.

Affected by this, the share prices of some listed real estate companies fell again, and the Hang Seng Index was also dropped by 8 points, which almost caused panic.

Among Hong Kong's listed real estate companies, Hutchison Whampoa was naturally the most severely affected. Land prices have not recovered, which has caused Hutchison Whampoa's debt mortgage pressure to increase exponentially.

"Chairman, the Bank of East Asia just called us and hoped that we could increase some collateral to ensure financial security." A young blonde female assistant came in and said.

Qi Dezun held a cigar in his mouth. After listening to this, his brows were furrowed and he sighed, "They really are adding insult to injury. Now that the Hong Kong economy has improved, these banks are unwilling to give me a little more time."

The female assistant stood quietly without saying anything. She was also aware of the current situation of the company. The debt was too heavy. In the early days, Qi Dezun used bank stocks as collateral to obtain a lot of funds, but after the stock price plummeted, the collateral was gone, and the bank was naturally unhappy.
At the beginning, Hutchison Whampoa was able to maintain normal loan repayments by borrowing from Peter to pay Paul, and the banks were temporarily stable against the backdrop of the economic crisis. However, after a long time, Hutchison Whampoa's normal operations could no longer withstand the impact of the crisis, its financial situation deteriorated, and its payment capacity was insufficient, so the banks became more anxious to collect debts or demand additional collateral.

After all, you can't expect banks to really provide you with help when you need it.

After a while, Qi Dezun asked, "How is the progress with the overseas banking group? Can they give us an additional loan?"

The beautiful assistant replied, "Chairman, it didn't work. Japan's Sakura Bank rejected the loan, believing that the risk was too high. There are two banks in Southeast Asia that are willing to cooperate, but the collateral and loan interest rates they proposed are very high, and we can't agree."

"A higher loan interest rate is acceptable. We can negotiate. As for the collateral, let's see if it can be reduced a little." Qi Dezun replied with a grim expression.
The problem is that Hutchison does not have sufficiently valuable collateral, otherwise any bank would be able to get a loan.

"Okay, Chairman." The assistant agreed and added, "But this will only make our debt even heavier and our future risks even greater."

"Let's talk about future risks later. Now we have to wait until the economy recovers. As long as real estate prices rise sharply, we will be able to survive this successfully." Qi Dezun sighed.

As a business veteran with decades of experience in Hong Kong, he naturally knows what he is doing. He is now gambling on time. As long as he can wait until the land price goes up, everything will be turned around. Otherwise, he will lose everything.

The assistant replied, "Okay, I'll do it right away, but there is still a problem. Many subsidiaries are running out of funds to pay salaries, and this loan is not enough."

"Salaries?" Qi Dezun suddenly had a headache. If the salaries could not be paid, it would definitely trigger an unprecedented collapse.

Bank debts can be negotiated, but wages are the bottom line for workers. If they can’t be paid, no one will work and the entire business will be ruined.

And most importantly, he had previously used the accounts of many subsidiaries to patch up holes in others. These were all listed companies, so it was illegal to do so. Although it might not be a big deal if he really took the case to court, at this time, it would be a waste of time to cause trouble for himself.

After thinking for a while, Qi Dezun, who had no idea, sighed and said, "Annie, please make an appointment with Yang Wendong for me. It has been a long time since I discussed the development of Hutchison with him."

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

previouscatalognext