Chapter 753 Hutchison's Arrangements and Ship Disaster Preparations
Chapter 753 Hutchison's Arrangements and Ship Disaster Preparations
After listening to this, MacLehose asked in surprise, "Mr. Yang, is Hutchison planning to develop this piece of land? For such a large piece of land, the cost of converting industrial property into commercial property and starting the project must be quite high, right? Can Hutchison afford its current debts?"
As the Governor of Hong Kong, he also always pays attention to the financial status of some large companies in Hong Kong. After all, Hong Kong is just a city. If a large conglomerate within the city suddenly encounters a financial crisis, the Hong Kong economy may regress by several points and may even cause various other problems. The Governor of Hong Kong would also be afraid!
Yang Wendong smiled and said, "Mr. Governor, don't worry about this. Since I have acquired Hutchison Whampoa, I will naturally have relevant plans. First, I will go home to inject capital and borrow a certain amount of money to help Hutchison Whampoa alleviate its short-term debts.
Later, I will also let Hutchison Whampoa undergo a large-scale downsizing, recover funds, and then focus on a few core businesses, which will help alleviate the debt problem in the long term.”
Whatever he was about to do to Hutchison would also be made public. After all, Hutchison was still a listed company, and the Governor of Hong Kong would certainly know about it. Plus, it was not a big secret, so it didn't matter if he said it earlier.
MacLehose said: "If this is the case, Hutchison Whampoa will have to be significantly reduced in size."
"A few decades ago, one of our Chinese literature masters, Mr. Lu, once said: Fake fat is not strong." Yang Wendong said with a faint smile: "The scale formed by a large number of useless companies is meaningless. The real strength lies in being strong in one field, even if a company only has one field."
In the past, many companies, especially those in the technology field, were good at one field and only needed to become strong and big.
It’s just that Hong Kong doesn’t have this kind of culture for the time being. Basically, everyone is thinking about developing in multiple fields. Even Yang Wendong is the same. However, he only works in fields that he is confident of. It is impossible for him to only work in one or two industries. This would be a waste of the advantages of a time traveler.
MacLehose nodded and said, "You are right. Of the four major foreign companies in Hong Kong, Hutchison Whampoa did not have its own business."
Jardine Matheson owns Landmark Land and once also had Wharf Holdings, Swire owns Cathay Pacific and the beverage industry, and Wheelock owns shipping. Only Hutchison Whampoa, although it looks large in scale, has no real core industry to show off. The port can barely be counted as one, but that was only acquired after the acquisition of Whampoa.
Yang Wendong went on to say: "I have already set the future industrial plan for Hutchison Whampoa, one of the core areas of which is real estate, and the Hung Hom Pier is a project that Hutchison Whampoa will focus on developing."
"Okay, I understand. Mr. Yang, do you want to discuss the matter of 'industry-to-commerce' with me?" asked Murray MacLehose.
Nowadays, every company in Hong Kong is involved in real estate, which is normal. After all, almost half of the Hong Kong government’s finances come from land sales and various taxes derived from the subsequent real estate industry.
Yang Wendong said: "Yes."
MacLehose thought for a moment and said, "According to the recent industrial and commercial land prices in Hung Hom, there is a difference of about HK$150 per square foot. For a 200 million square foot property, Hutchison will need to pay a difference of about HK$3 million."
As the Governor of Hong Kong, he also knew the land prices in various places, but he was shocked when he calculated 3 million Hong Kong dollars. This number is an astronomical figure for the Hong Kong government today.
Yang Wendong said: "Mr. Governor, although I know that the Hong Kong government is very strict about the conversion of industry into business, such a large piece of land, such a large investment, and the need to spend such a large amount of money to convert it into a business model, the risk is too great;
So I hope the Hong Kong government can moderately reduce the cost. In this way, after the project starts, it can at least provide employment for nearly 10,000 people and last for several years. This will also be of great help to the stability of Hong Kong society.”
"Mr. Yang, industrial-to-business transformation is the lifeblood of the Hong Kong government. There is basically no room for negotiation on this issue." Murray MacLehose shook his head and said.
Even though employment is important, the Hong Kong government’s revenue is more important.
Yang Wendong followed up, “I know, but although the Hong Kong real estate market has recovered somewhat, it lacks stamina, and too many real estate developers are still hesitant. If such a large-scale real estate project is started, it will definitely give the market confidence;
In this way, when the Hong Kong government bids for land in the future, more people will definitely participate. Once more projects are started and the Hong Kong economy improves, the employment problem of the entire society will be solved.”
Although many people do not like the real estate economy, in many cases, the real estate economy is the core economy of a region. Building houses can increase employment, and homeowners will consume after buying houses, which will drive all walks of life, even the advertising in the media, film and television industries, the core of which is also real estate;
Hong Kong's industry is now developed, but real estate also accounts for a large part of it, and the proportion is increasing year by year, because factory owners will invest in real estate, and conversely, real estate owners are unlikely to open factories, and the income of the two is completely not at the same level.
After listening to this, MacLehose fell into deep thought and then said, "Mr. Yang, this matter involves a lot of things and I can't decide it alone. How about you wait a moment and I will give you a reply after we have discussed it internally."
"No problem." Yang Wendong did not urge him;
With hundreds of millions involved, even giant companies like Mobil and Toyota would not agree to it on the same day;
Historically, Li Jiacheng had to negotiate with the Hong Kong government several times before he successfully converted the land from industrial to commercial use.
Nowadays, the land price in Hong Kong is rising very slowly, so he is not in a hurry. Anyway, as long as the development is completed before 81, it will be fine. Even within this period, the later the better, because the later the property is, the higher the price will be.
Of course, there were some other opportunities around the 80s. If you get the money earlier, even if it seems to be less, there will still be other opportunities.
After leaving the Hong Kong government, Yang Wendong returned to Changxing Real Estate and called Zheng Zhijie and Fang Xianming, saying, "Old Zheng, has your joint venture with Hutchison Whampoa been established?"
"It's set up. The industrial land is not very valuable. 200 million square feet, a total of 5000 million Hong Kong dollars, I bid 2500 million and bought it." Zheng Zhijie smiled and said, "I will provide the funds when the Hong Kong government gives an offer. After the subsequent projects are completed, Hutchison will repay my payment from the profit they share."
Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Okay, this method is fine. You can communicate with the Hong Kong government later and settle this matter as soon as possible. I also want this land to be converted into residential housing as soon as possible."
"Okay, Mr. Yang." Zheng Zhijie paused, and then said, "But there is a problem. I sent someone to check the land. There may be some pollution in the land. It may also be a problem caused by the long-term use of the port. We may need to spend an additional 20 to 30 million to renovate the land."
"Renovate? Well, I'll have someone take a look. If it really needs to be renovated, then just do it." Yang Wendong said, "This is also a bad thing about industrial-to-commercial conversion. Some land does have pollution problems."
This is the bad thing about doing industry. Even some companies that don't seem to pollute much or even don't seem to pollute at all will pollute the ground over time. For example, some companies just dump lubricating oil from machinery and equipment, which naturally pollutes the land, but it's much better than professional polluting companies.
The container terminal has very strict control over this area, but the traditional dock used to handle wooden boxes, and there were many people, many of whom were gangsters, and no one knew what these people had done before. Zheng Zhijie said: "Okay, relatively speaking, the dock is much better than the factory. Now there are no problems in other aspects. It's just waiting to be converted into commercial land, and then it can be developed."
Yang Wendong nodded. "Well, I will arrange for someone to do this. You and Hutchison should also keep an eye on it and complete the negotiations as soon as possible. When it's almost done, I will meet with Murray MacLehose again to finalize the matter."
Whether it is cooperation between consortiums or between the government and consortiums, the beginning and the end are all decided by the bosses in meetings, and the bargaining in the middle is naturally the responsibility of the subordinate team;
You can't let Yang Wendong, the richest man in Hong Kong, and Governor MacLehose bargain with each other in the same room, right?
Professional matters are best done by professionals.
Zheng Zhijie agreed: "Understood, I will follow up with Richard Xin."
The largest "industrial-to-commercial" land in Hong Kong's history was difficult to negotiate in a short period of time. For the Hong Kong government, this was also a huge income. You know, the real estate crisis in the past two years had only allowed them to earn about 30 million yuan from selling land. Most of this was arranged by Yang Wendong after he saw a few prime locations.
Now this amount of money, at least 2 million, is estimated to be a lot less. With such a large amount of money in the account, the life of the entire government will be much better. They naturally value it. On my side, I also see that they value this income and don’t want this money to be lost, so I can also lower the price appropriately;
Since there is no rush, just let your subordinates talk slowly.
At Hutchison, Richard Xin also began to reorganize the entire company, categorizing hundreds of different businesses, and then sorting them into data for Yang Wendong. When Yang Wendong saw it, he was almost shocked. There really were all kinds of businesses.
There are chain restaurants, barbershops, car washes, pharmacies, gyms, real estate agencies, antique shops, flower shops, etc. Basically, there are all kinds of services, mainly chain stores. In addition, there are also various factories, such as watches, toys, clothing, etc., which are also of various types.
So, without any nonsense, Yang Wendong directly authorized the signature to sell off all these useless businesses, regardless of whether any of these businesses were profitable or not, and did not waste time on these messy things.
After Richard Xin obtained the authorization, he immediately listed a portion of it throughout Hong Kong. He was a smart man and knew that selling too much at one time would actually lower the price;
At the same time, Richard Xin also began to cooperate with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to issue additional shares, and all these shares were given to Yang Wendong. Once the formalities were completed, Hutchison Whampoa could directly obtain HK$2.5 million in cash;
Because of Yang Wendong's entry, the creditor banks are no longer in a hurry to collect debts. They all believe that Yang Wendong must be able to repay the debts, so naturally they are not in a hurry. Some banks even expressed that they can lend more to Hutchison. The main point is that I will not help when it is snowing, but I like to add icing on the cake.
However, at present, Hutchison has the capital injection from Yang Wendong, the bank is not demanding the debt, and many businesses are being gradually sold, which can also bring back some funds, so it is not needed for the time being;
After reviewing Hutchison Whampoa's current finances, the finance department of the General Affairs Office of Changxing Group concluded that there would be no risks for the time being. Yang Wendong was relieved. The core purpose of his acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa was to be optimistic about Hutchison Whampoa's core businesses. As long as they could get through this period, the Hong Kong economy would take off, Hutchison Whampoa's various assets would skyrocket, and it would be able to complete its self-sustaining business. He would not need to invest any additional funds.
Time soon came to the beginning of June. This month, a major event happened in the world, that is, the Suez Canal was reopened;
As a result, global shipping prices plummeted, and the prices of ships in Japan and a number of shipbuilding factories also plummeted, not to mention second-hand ships;
On the 8th, in Yang Wendong's office, Zheng Yuhua of Changxing Shipping said with a smile: "Mr. Yang, your decision is really brave. The price of oil tankers has almost been cut in half now."
"This is just the beginning. I'm not optimistic about the future shipping." Yang Wendong said with a smile after taking a look at Victoria Harbour in the distance below.
The ship disaster broke out in the 80s, but in fact there had been a trend long before, that is, there were signs in 75. Pao Yu-kang, Tung Chao-yen and others saw it, but one judged that the disaster would last a long time, so he abandoned the ship and landed, while the other thought it was a good opportunity to expand the fleet, so he expanded madly, and finally almost killed his own family;
Of course, now that Hutchison Whampoa has been acquired by himself, it is not clear how Pao Yu-kong will land.
Fang Xianming said, "I was thinking that the Jardine Matheson Group exchanged three buildings and a lot of properties for our two 20-ton tankers. Now they must be so angry that they are vomiting blood."
"Haha, almost. But they have been operating for two years. In fact, from the perspective of oil tankers alone, the loss is not that much." Yang Wendong said: "But the real estate in Hong Kong is hard to say in the future."
In fact, the price of oil tankers in exchange for buildings was about the same at that time, and neither side lost money; but Yang Wendong made money in the future. In the next few years, the price of ships will plummet, and even fall to the point where he can only sell them as scrap metal quickly, otherwise he will lose a lot of money if he keeps them. Hong Kong's buildings, especially those in Central, have become a money-making tool and high-quality financial assets;
Zheng Yuhua then asked: "Mr. Yang, will we continue to operate only container ships? Or do we need to place orders to continue purchasing container ships?"
"No need to increase the scale, let's wait a little longer. For now, just keep it stable." Yang Wendong shook his head and said.
If the real estate crisis is like that, there is a time lag between the beginning and the bottom, the time lag for the ship disaster is even longer;
Another point is that the mainland had been looking for overseas customers to buy ships since the reform and opening up in the past. However, this was the first time they did this kind of business. Coupled with the ship disaster, no one was interested in the mainland ships in the international market. As a last resort, they could only find Bao Yugang.
But at that time, Bao Yugang was abandoning his boat and landing, and although he eventually purchased two domestic 10,000-ton cargo ships, it was a bit of a stretch;
We will not expand now, but wait until around 80, when international shipping disasters are severe. At this time, placing orders in the mainland will be like killing two birds with one stone.
Of course, quality and safety are still the most important, but there haven’t been any problems in the past, so it should be about the same now.
PS: Ask for monthly ticket
(End of this chapter)