Hong Kong's new giants

Chapter 532 [Do meaningful things]

Beginning in late January.

The "Octopus Bank" building located on Des Voeux Road in Central officially opened, and Lin Zuhui's friends, business partners, and bankers came to congratulate him one after another.

The Octopus Bank Building is a combination of the original Hong Kee Building and the Chinese Bank Building. It is 28 stories high and has a floor area of ​​32.6 square feet.

The current ownership is under New Era Commercial Management, but Lin Zuhui plans to sell it to Octopus Bank at a reasonable price in 1995.

The land cost of this building is just over 10 billion, the construction cost is 8 million, and the total cost is 18 billion.If it is based on the current price of Grade A office buildings in Central, it will be at least 42 billion (unit price 1.3 per square foot).

This building is open on three sides, facing Des Voeux Road, Pottinger Street, and Connaught Road respectively. It is a first-class location.If Lin Zuhui hadn't come to merge the buildings, it would be very difficult for anyone to merge the buildings successfully, and naturally they would not have such a beautiful building.

The first step in merging buildings is to find the right time, and the real estate downturn is the best; of course, finding the real estate downturn is not enough, you have to buy it at a premium; in this way, the owner will sell it to you.

When the Chinese Bank Building was acquired, it was after the sharp drop in [-]. At that time, not only was the market bad, but there were also risks, and the immigration agencies had to queue up.

Lin Zuhui happily entertained all the guests, especially the executives/chairmen of HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, and ZG Bank.

Pu Weishi said with a smile: "Mr. Lin, the banker, let us bow down. The development speed of Octopus Bank is really unbelievable. I'm afraid it will be able to wipe out the 'accumulated losses' this year?"

Lin Zuhui pretended not to know, and asked He Changhong, "President He, can you 'turn losses into profits' this year?"

He Changhong smiled and said to Pu Weishi: "I'm afraid it will be close, but our business is developing well, and we are not in a hurry. For us at Octopus Bank, stability is the most important thing."

Everyone can't help but slander in their hearts, stability is the most important thing, so you still speculate in spot gold?
In fact, Proves is most worried not about Octopus Bank threatening HSBC, but about Octopus Bank threatening Hang Seng Bank (subsidiary), because both banks focus on 'personal retail business'.

Pu Weishi said: "Mr. Lin is assisted by a talent like President He, no wonder he manages Octopus Bank very well!"

He Changhong said hastily: "Pu Weisz won the award for the top class. Octopus Bank has achieved today's results. It is the boss's trust in us, coupled with the unity of colleagues." He did not talk about the boss's credit, which is what Lin Zuhui always meant.

Lin Zuhui's idea is very simple. To be a bank is not to be a company. If he involves too much and is not a full-time banker, then there will be disadvantages to the bank itself.

Bank money is bank money, not private money, this is what Lin Zuhui said to himself.

Therefore, Octopus Bank will be listed at the end of 1996, and then expand overseas.

After chatting with a group of bankers, everyone also found that Lin Zuhui really knew very little about Octopus Bank, and they couldn't help but secretly wondered.It is obviously a wholly-owned bank, and it operates like a manager system of a listed company.

After chatting with everyone for a while, Lin Zuhui held a ribbon-cutting ceremony, and the invited guests were executives from HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, and ZG Bank who cut the ribbon with him, which surprised the media secretly.Everyone finally understood Lin Zuhui's face. He was obviously a competitor, but they all came to support him and do live advertisements.

Octopus Bank finally has a good headquarters!
Lin Zuhui didn't want to be a big bank when he became a bank, but he just wanted to be a part of his own financial group, so that he could complete some financial investment convenience for him in the future.

After the event, Lin Zuhui came to the office on the top floor and sat down to think.

Octopus Bank is definitely going overseas, acquiring foreign banks, or setting up local branches, which are allowed by the policies of almost all countries (important banks must pass the approval at the national level, and there is no big obstacle for small banks).

Of course, Lin Zuhui didn't want to do too much. He mainly wanted to build a banking network around the world to cooperate with Octopus Financial Group's business activities.

As for Octopus Bank, with his golden finger, there will be no mistakes in its 30-year development policy. As for 30 years later, the bank's asset value will be strong enough, and its operations can turn conservative at that time.

Therefore, after the listing of Octopus Bank, it is time to make a full-scale attack.

Octopus Financial Group currently owns three businesses: banking, securities, and insurance. Securities and insurance are only tentative and have not yet been seriously developed.

Lin Zuhui always feels that Octopus Financial Group still lacks a core, yes, it is the core.

Banking, securities, and insurance, to put it bluntly, are service providers, and Lin Zuhui cannot have any sense of accomplishment.

He is a person with golden fingers. If this is the case, even if these three industries are developed and expanded, he still feels that the upper limit is not high, and there is nothing to be happy about.

Correct!
There are Morgan Stanley and Morgan Stanley in the United States, why doesn't he become an investment bank?

For a long time, Lin Zuhui has been a bit resistant to doing "venture investment", that is because he has enough funds to buy stocks from the secondary market after those companies are listed, which can reduce the risk of his "prophet", so as not to cause him nothing. Can't image.

After all, Softbank was so powerful in the previous life, betting on Yahoo and Ali, and almost went bankrupt in the end; the reason is very simple, because Softbank has invested in hundreds of companies, and some even lost billions of dollars or tens of billions of dollars.

Anyway, Lin Zuhui thinks that being an investment bank is really cool.

For example, Goldman Sachs recently bought a 28% stake in a clothing company, and then they directly replaced the president with their favorite (professional managers).In this way, Goldman Sachs does not need to directly intervene in the operation, but because of their connections, the president in the match is very likely to bring this clothing company to a new height.As for this deal, Lin Zuhui has some memories. Goldman Sachs invested more than one billion U.S. dollars, which seems to have doubled nearly ten times in three years.

This company is a large clothing company in the United States, called Ralph Lauren; in view of this, Lin Zuhui also let the second wife and fifth wife buy 2%, and followed Goldman Sachs to earn a wave.

The more Lin Zuhui thinks about it, the more he feels that he should be an investment bank and not allow Wall Street to be so arrogant; of course, Wall Street is not the only one that is bullish, Temasek in Singapore, CICC and CIC in China (the latter two are soy sauce).

However, he feels that he has enough money. After all, he holds about 2% of many US stocks. After 25 years, these stocks may be worth trillions.

The money is enough for the family to pass on, so why do we need so much money?

So, he is distressed and confused recently, does he have no motivation to fight? (PS: Is it Calvin?)
Now Lin Zuhui finally understands that he wants to do more meaningful things!
What does it mean?

The first is to keep the major shareholders of domestic companies such as Alibaba and Penguin, and be their largest investors.

Second, as Softbank and Morgan Stanley of Xiangjiang, they use listed companies to conduct venture capital, which can not only increase the influence of their own families, but also divert attention.

Third, go to the United States and be a venture capitalist in the American Internet such as Yahoo, Amazon (temporary loan), Google, ebay, and Fiede. Of course, you have to spend money. After all, the Internet has no shortage of investors in recent years, it depends on you Whether the conditions are good or not, refer to Softbank’s previous investment in Yahoo, the conditions are so good that the founders such as Jerry Yang are dumbfounded.

Of course, you can't just invest in some familiar Internet companies, but invest in more companies and pretend to win the lottery.

After careful analysis, Lin Zuhui decided to "backdoor listing" first, use listed companies to raise funds, and then do venture capital.

The next day, Liang Botao was invited by Lin Zuhui to the office of Octopus Bank Building.

Liang Botao looked at Lin Zuhui's office, and said with a smile: "I don't know what else you can't do. Octopus Bank is now a large bank with a good reputation in Hong Kong, with great potential for development!"

The two have been friends for many years, Liang Botao is very aware of Lin Zuhui's magical powers, and it is not an exaggeration to say that he is a stock god.

Lin Zuhui responded: "You are really right. I really know everything, so I invite you this time because I want you to find a listed company for me. I want to buy it and plan to become an investment bank."

Liang Botao was taken aback for a moment, and then said: "This has greatly increased my pressure!"

Lin Zuhui smiled and said, "Don't be nervous, I'm planning to do venture capital, and I'm going to the United States to find projects!"

Liang Botao said curiously: "With your wealth and ability, wouldn't it be better to use your private investment company, after all, I don't even know that you have lost money in business!"

Lin Zuhui said: "It's a venture capital investment, so it's naturally risky! In addition, I hope to raise a lot of money, so it's best for a listed company to complete it."

Liang Botao thought for a while, and then said: "I'm afraid it's difficult to raise a lot of money. Although you have a good appeal, the company you're acquiring doesn't have very good assets and profitability, and it can't support a high market value."

Lin Zuhui immediately thought about it, what Liang Botao said makes sense!

He does not want to be a fund company when he does venture capital, but he hopes to raise funds through listed companies instead of raising funds through private equity funds.

Simply put, he hopes it will be Softbank or Berkshire Hathaway, a similar company.

In the end, Lin Zuhui said: "Forget it, you can find a few suitable companies for me, but let's not talk about the acquisition issue, I will find a suitable opportunity to talk about it. The market value, a few hundred million Hong Kong dollars will do. I will make the market later. Bar!"

Hearing about market making, Liang Botao had no doubts and said, "No problem, I'll give you the information later!"

"Um"

After sending Liang Botao away, Lin Zuhui thought about it.

Internet venture capital is not in such a hurry at present, and companies such as Yahoo have not yet been established.As for the problem Liang Botao mentioned, in fact Lin Zuhui already knew how to solve it.

Make a market!

It's very simple. Lin Zuhui used his own money to buy a high-quality asset, and then injected it into the listed company free of charge or with a stock exchange certificate; then the market value of the listed company would skyrocket immediately. At that time, he was issuing new shares. Relying on his reputation as a "stock god", There must have been a lot of responders.

There are two advantages to investing in venture capital through listed companies:

First, it can bring him enough influence. After all, if you invest with a private investment company, it is easy to make people jealous; with Lin Zuhui's ability, if you do venture capital, trillions of assets are no problem.And venture capital is subject to investigation, if it is in the name of a private investment company, it will bring him trouble at that time.

Second, the Lin family holds shares in this investment bank. They can hold part of the shares through some hidden channels, and then hold part of the shares on the surface.

(End of this chapter)