Hong Kong's new giants

Chapter 505 [It's not your world anymore]

The Xiangjiang stock market performed very well in the first five months of this year (1993). The good results of the increase of more than 5500% also made most investors a lot of money. From less than 5 at the beginning of the year, it has broken through to 7200 in mid-May point.

Lin Zuhui's personal investment company, Hengjin Investment, also made a huge profit of nearly 10 billion because it started making futures contracts at the beginning of the year.

In terms of real estate, since the beginning of the year, luxury property prices have risen steadily, especially in April and May, with sales prices rising by 2% in two months.Driven by luxury buildings, the prices of small and medium-sized residential units soared again, with the average price approaching the mark of 2 yuan per square foot.

Driven by residential buildings, the rent and selling price of Xiangjiang office buildings have risen sharply. The Grade A office buildings in Central and Wanchai have risen by about 2% in less than half a year. More than 3%, and the central area may reach a 4% increase.

As the prosperous business district spreads from the core area to the fringes, the shopping malls and shops in Xiangjiang also perform well, especially Wan Chai, Causeway Bay, North Point and Tsim Sha Tsui on Hong Kong Island.From the perspective of Causeway Bay, since the opening of Sogo Department Store and the completion of Times Square, the number of people in the area has increased sharply, attracting many large chain groups to open branches nearby, causing the rent in this area to rise sharply.At this time, the rent of Hong Kong’s shops ranked first among 12 major cities in the world. Among them, the rent of a shop in Causeway Bay was 3429 Hong Kong dollars per square foot per month, and a buyer offered 19 per square foot to buy it, but it was put on hold because the business was reluctant to sell.

Real estate developers, agents, and real estate speculators are all smiling. Foreign capital has begun to invest in Hong Kong's securities and real estate, intending to get a piece of the pie.

Saturday, October 5.

In the morning, Lin Zuhui had a small meeting with the real estate core executives in the office of New Era Group.

He said: "In mid-May, the Hong Kong government announced the annual 'Official Land Auction' plan, and the stock market skyrocketed immediately. From this point of view, the property market will continue to be strong for several years. Therefore, we will have three years in 1993~1995. We should not lag behind Sun Hung Kai and Henderson Land in the next year, so as not to cause insufficient stamina in the future.”

In the past year or so, New Times Group has not been as aggressive in land purchases as before, but it has maintained its leading level among Hong Kong real estate developers. The fundamental reason is that there is not enough money.

Chen Bin nodded, and said, "Because of the boom in real estate, our company's profits are continuously generated, which can indeed strengthen land purchases. But now major real estate developers are boldly chasing high prices, and official land auctions are not so easy to win." landed."

This is true, the better the market is, the more people will chase up and buy; the worse the market is, the more timid and cautious everyone will be.

In any case, New Times Group will try its best to strengthen its land reserves in these three years; as for [-]~[-], it will naturally not chase after the high. The year and a half itself is the last madness. On the contrary, it has to take advantage of the high goods.

Therefore, in the recent official land auction, if there is good land or luxury land, New Times Group will try to get as much as possible, after all, there will be a lot of cash flow.

The real estate of Xiangjiang still occupies the absolute source of profit of the group. Although the New Times Group has successfully diversified, the investment in overseas and mainland China has not yet produced much return.

For example, the rent of properties in Manhattan does have a net profit of more than one billion yuan per year, but the interest on that investment needs to be paid by nearly 7.5%. The current annual return rate of the eight skyscrapers is 4%.This is still a case of buying at a low price, otherwise it is estimated that the rate of return is only 6-[-]%.

Therefore, it is not easy for Yankees to make money. In the previous life, a large number of Chinese enterprises in the Mainland bought Manhattan office buildings after 2010. At that time, the price was high, and they lost all their underwear.There are also companies that come to Hong Kong to buy properties and land, but they hardly make any money and become leeks for Hong Kong real estate developers.

The level is really bad!

The deep-seated reason is that it has only been opened for decades, and everyone's international business vision has not yet been cultivated.

After chatting with you about the general direction of the company's real estate, everyone left the office with confidence and devoted themselves to work.

Happy Valley, Ho Tung Hotel.

In the karaoke box on the 15th floor, Yang Shoucheng, Cheng Long, Huang Yulang and other friends were having a party while drinking and singing.

During the discussion, everyone discussed the 'doll' (comic pattern) design of T-shirts, and Huang Yulang talked endlessly, as if he was No. 1 in Xiangjiang comics.

Huang Yulang finished his sentence from Stanley in the second half of last year. He was sentenced to 4 years and actually served 2 years.When he was released from prison, there were journalists, his former staff and apprentices "waiting" in front of Stanley Prison.Mrs. Huang was still as arrogant as before, he clenched his fists and said: "I, Huang Yulang is still popular in the market!"

However, the reality is cruel. At this time, Xiangjiang’s comics industry has undergone great changes, that is, the new genre—the Japanese comic style has occupied the mainstream position, followed by the high-quality local comics of Ma Rongcheng and Shangguan Xiaobao.The low-quality comics that are full of violence and pornography in the market have been gradually abandoned by the market, and even suppressed by the Hong Kong government.

Huang Yulang can indeed live a fairly comfortable life with a bald pen in his hand, but if he wants to reproduce his glory, it is undoubtedly a dream.

Yang Shoucheng is also the boss of a media company now, and he has a good understanding of the situation of Xiangjiang's comics industry, so he said: "Now the T-shirts outside are printed with Pikachu, Bulgaria Seeds, Charmander, Squirtle and The prints are Conan, Sakuragi Flower Road, etc. In the entire Xiangjiang comics industry, the style of Japanese manga is absolutely dominant again.”

Huang Yulang said unconvinced, "That's succumbing to the power of money. Recently, I'm calling on some well-known cartoonists in Hong Kong to discuss the development of local comics again. I believe that Hong Kong people still like local comics."

Yang Shoucheng said with a smile: "With your ability, naturally you don't have to worry about having nothing to eat. But do you know how many people Wanhui Comic Club supports? Lin Zuhui and I are considered good friends. It will become a pillar industry of Xiangjiang. As far as I know, the profit of Man Fai Comics this year may exceed 8 million Hong Kong dollars."

Huang Yulang was taken aback, and couldn't help saying: "Impossible! Even if they have some overseas markets, how could they have such a high profit."

At its peak, Yulang Organization had an annual profit of just over 1 million yuan, which is why there were so many overseas publications; in just a few years, Wanhui Comic Books had an annual profit of more than 8 million yuan.

Don't say that Huang Yulang doesn't believe it anymore, I believe many people won't believe it.

Yang Shoucheng patted Huang Yulang on the shoulder and said: "I'm still making a rough estimate. Others made a profit of 5.5 million Hong Kong dollars last year, only in the comics industry. Wanhui Comics is not only doing comics, but the comics industry chain. Manga, anime, and manga peripherals are all being produced. Their toy factories are very large in the mainland, contributing a lot of profits. If you think about the Ninja Turtles back then, you will know how big the profits are.”

Huang Yulang was immediately discouraged. He had read "Pokémon" and found that there are many kinds of Pokémon in this comic, and they are very popular among comic fans, especially the big yellow ears "Pikachu". Famous throughout Asia.

"I don't understand why a Hongkonger wants to bring Xiangjiang comics into the style of Japanese manga!" Huang Yulang complained.

Cheng Long said: "It's easy to understand. It is in line with the world and Asia. The same is true when we make movies now. We will consider the Hollywood market. In this regard, we have to convince others. Lin Zuhui's status in Hong Kong is far from Comparable to those real estate developers, the 'cultural port' he opened has brought a large industrial chain to Hong Kong and added thousands of jobs."

Everyone agreed one after another. On this point, everyone can't lie.

Although everyone is Huang Yulang's friend, everyone must remind Huang Yulang that Hong Kong comics are no longer your domain.

It has been almost two years since "Manke SHOW" was born, and it is the No. 1 sales volume in Hong Kong. The local sales volume in Hong Kong is 27; plus the very normal sales in overseas and mainland China, the sales volume of each issue can reach 35 copies.

Of course, based on the profits of "Manke SHOW", even the main writers and screenwriters of Wanhui Comics' Japanese Manga Department cannot afford to pay their salaries.Coupled with the income from comic books and overseas copyrights of animation, it is possible to earn back the cost and make a slight profit.

The real profitable income all comes from comics, and from the peripherals of the three head works of "Slam Dunk", "Detective Conan", and "Pokémon"-dolls, figures, theater versions, and live-action versions Wait around.

The important thing is that the biggest profit source country/region is actually Japan, a big manga country.

Therefore, Wanhui Comics has aroused the attention and vigilance of the Japanese comics industry, and some Japanese comics even took risks to imitate and plagiarize similar themes, which also aroused Wanhui’s lawyer’s letter.

Copying "Detective Ke Lan" is fine, after all, this copyright is difficult to define, "Detective Ke Lan" still has references to "Sherlock Holmes".

However, "Pokémon" is a manga that integrates pet cultivation and fighting, and if it is plagiarized, it is almost guaranteed.

Although, the works of Wanhui Publishing House have also been criticized by the Japanese manga industry-the overall quality (painting) is not as good as Japanese manga works. It was originally a good material that is as famous as "Dragon Ball" and other excellent Japanese works, but it turned out to be "copycat Japanese manga" resulting in a decrease in quality.

This is probably the last self-esteem of the Japanese!
In fact, the criticisms from the Japanese manga industry are somewhat justified, but they have not affected the best-sellers of "Slam Dunk", "Detective Conan" and "Pokémon" overseas and in the mainland.

After all, the subtle quality is slightly poor, and it is difficult for comic fans to notice; in fact, the main writers of Japanese manga at Wanhui Comics, their salary is too high, so it is already enough to hire two outstanding Japanese manga writers for each work. It has reached the highest budget; as for the chief writer of local comics in Hong Kong, he will do the work of supporting the chief writer of comics.

As for the cartoonists trained, they can only draw some other works on "Manke SHOW", and there are no works that can become best-selling overseas.

(End of this chapter)