Siheyuan: Big City, Small Love

He Lai also took advantage of this opportunity to acquire many industries at low prices, including various factories and companies, and even purchased more than a dozen cruise ships. There was no other way, it was cheap, and if he missed this opportunity, it would be gone.

That day, He Lai was lying on a chair in his office, listening to his assistant reporting documents to him, when suddenly Lu Zixuan walked in hurriedly.

"He...Mr. Wu..." Lu Zixuan wanted to speak without even catching his breath.

"Zixuan, what's wrong with you? Don't be anxious, tell me slowly, what happened?"

He Lai sat up and looked at Lu Zixuan. He was obviously a little surprised by Lu Zixuan's reaction today. After all, Lu Zixuan was usually calm.

"Then you guys go out first. I have something to discuss with Mr. Wu alone."

After hearing what He Lai said, Lu Zixuan gradually calmed down.

The assistant and secretary looked at He Lai, and after getting He Lai's consent, they walked out of the office.

"Zixuan, this is not like you. What's wrong?" He Lai said with a smile.

"Hey, Mr. He, someone from Jardine Matheson called me just now and asked me if I wanted Wharf Holdings. They want to sell it!"

Lu Zixuan said.

"What? Hutchison Whampoa!" He Lai was shocked.

He Lai certainly knew about Hutchison Whampoa. During his time in Hong Kong, he also learned about it. As the largest unloading terminal in the city, its value was self-evident.

Wharf Holdings was originally a thoroughly British-owned enterprise, founded in 1886 by Sir Paul Chartered of the Keswick family. Its capital structure was affiliated with the Jardine Matheson Group, the first of the four major trading companies in Hong Kong. It had a history of over a hundred years from its founding to the 70s.

Wharf Holdings and Harbour City Land are collectively known as the "two wings of Jardine Matheson". The head of Jardine Matheson also serves as the board of directors of Wharf Holdings. Wharf Holdings plays a pivotal role in the Jardine Matheson Group.

He Lai remembered that Wharf Holdings was successfully listed in 1972. In 1978, Li, the richest man in Hong Kong, made a fortune of million Hong Kong dollars by acquiring shares of Wharf Holdings, thereby expanding his real estate business and officially joining the ranks of Hong Kong's wealthy.

Mr. Li was very far-sighted. He predicted that the share price of Hutchison Whampoa was seriously undervalued, and took the opportunity to acquire nearly 18% of the shares from retail investors.

You have to know that at that time Jardine Matheson only owned 20% of Hutchison Whampoa's shares. If Mr. Li continued to acquire it, Hutchison Whampoa would have changed hands.

With the subsequent joining of HSBC and Pao Yue-kong, the battle for Hutchison Whampoa became extremely fierce.

In the end, Jardine Matheson ended in failure, and the shares in his hands were transferred to Pao Yue-kong for 10 billion.

In this battle for equity, Pao Yue-kong won control of Wharf Holdings, while Jardine Matheson and its affiliated land companies obtained premium income through equity transfer. The one who benefited the most was Li Ka-shing, who earned nearly HK$100 million in the process of reselling shares. More importantly, he was able to successfully take over Hutchison Whampoa.

The stock trading war is so magical. Due to the underestimation of prices in the capital market, Li's Cheung Kong Holdings easily acquired Hutchison Whampoa's assets worth HK$6.93 billion for HK$50 million.

"Yes, Chairman William of Jardine Matheson called me personally."

Lu Zixuan was also very excited. Although Lai Xin Industrial had indeed acquired many industries, none of them were large-scale. Hutchison Whampoa was undoubtedly a piece of fat meat.

He Lai smiled. It seemed that Jardine Matheson wanted to give up its industry in Hong Kong City. After all, the economic downturn in the past few years had affected people's judgment.

"How much does he want?"

"Two billion Hong Kong dollars."

"Haha, 2 billion?" He Lai was speechless. The current Hutchison Whampoa is not worth this price.

At a time when a factory can be purchased for just a few hundred thousand dollars, it is absolutely impossible for He Lai to come up with 2 billion to buy Hutchison Whampoa.

After all, even Pao Yue-kong only spent 2 billion Hong Kong dollars to buy 20% of Hutchison Whampoa's shares, which means that a full acquisition would require 10 billion.

Don't be fooled by the five-fold difference. That's because his time period was the 1980s when the economy was taking off, but He Lai was in the 1960s when the economy was depressed. How can they be compared?

What's more, at that time, the richest man Li only spent more than 200 million to get nearly 20% of Hutchison Whampoa shares.

He won't be taken advantage of like this.

"Ten billion, my bottom line is 1.5 billion. You go and negotiate. If the company doesn't have enough money, you can give him that batch of gold." He Lai directly stated his price.

"Okay, Mr. He, I'll go and talk to him now." After receiving He Lai's reply, Lu Zixuan hurried to find Jardine Matheson to discuss the specific details of the acquisition.

He Lai's mind is now full of thoughts about why Jardine Matheson would sell Wharf Holdings. After all, even if it was Pao Yue-kong who acquired Wharf Holdings back then, it was Jardine Matheson that sold it under forced circumstances.

What He Lai didn't know was that under the control of Jardine Matheson, although Wharf Holdings had built famous properties such as Harbour City and Ocean Centre, its management methods were not commendable.

They stick to the idea of ​​building buildings and renting them out as their main profit model, and only rent but not sell.

This also leads to slower capital recovery and the growth rate of rent is slower than the increase in land prices, so the company's profit performance is average.

In order to alleviate the company's financial crisis, it had no choice but to sell a large number of bonds to raise cash, which in turn caused the group to be heavily in debt and its credibility to decline.

Although He Lai's houses are also only rented and not sold, He Lai has strong financial resources. The annual revenue from lighters and plastic products is good. In addition, the investments from companies around the world also bring in a lot of income every year.

This is the advantage of being an angel investor. You don’t participate in the management, but the returns are very generous.

As the most valuable industry in Hong Kong, naturally many people in Hong Kong want to own Wharf Holdings. However, there are only a few people who are capable of taking a piece of the Wharf Holdings cake.

It can even be said that almost no one is willing to take on this hot potato during this period of time, after all, Jardine Matheson wants too much.

But He Lai is an exception.

After all, the wealthy people in Hong Kong are now questioning the future of Hong Kong, wondering whether it can continue to prosper.

At this time, with the strong financial support of He Lai, Lu Zixuan quickly acquired Hutchison Whampoa for HK$1.2 billion.

The news shocked the entire Hong Kong city. Many people did not understand He Lai's approach. After all, they all felt that if Hong Kong city was in chaos for a few more years, Jardine Matheson would definitely sell Hutchison Whampoa at a lower price and there would be no need to spend so much money.

They could only say that Lai Xin Industrial was a sucker and a local rich man. Even Fu Huo and Huo Ying called and asked about He Lai. After all, it was unwise to acquire such a large Wharf at this juncture.

But He Lai just smiled and said that he had a lot of money and wanted to invest more. He had too much cash. He was just so generous.

There are tens of billions of Hong Kong dollars and foreign exchange in his own space. If He Lai had not been afraid of causing currency depreciation and being discovered, he would have used them long ago.