Reborn as a tycoon in Hong Kong

On Friday, Lin Baicheng entertained Standard Chartered's chief executive Anthony Fok at Hutchison Whampoa.

Huo Yaohua contacted Lin Baicheng yesterday afternoon and said he wanted to visit him at home, so he asked Huo Yaohua to come to Hutchison Whampoa.

In Lin Baicheng's office, the secretary came in with coffee and then went out.

While drinking coffee, Huo Yaohua said: "Lin Sheng, I came to visit you today. First of all, I want to ask you something."

"Taban Huo, please tell me."

Lin Baicheng gestured.

Huo Yaohua said: "I would like to ask, Lin Sheng, you bought a large amount of Wharf shares, isn't it because you want to acquire Wharf?"

Lin Baicheng was a little surprised when he heard this: "How did Huo Daban know about this?"

"It was Chairman Henry Caesar of Jardine Matheson who told me. He also asked me to inquire about Lin Sheng's thoughts on his behalf."

Huo Yaohua sold Jardine Matheson without thinking. After all, it cannot be said that Standard Chartered Bank found out about this matter. That would be like Standard Chartered Bank monitoring Lin Baicheng's every move. The capital exchange between Standard Chartered Bank and Lin Baicheng is not small, and the bank does not want to lose a major customer by doing others a favor.

"It seems that Jardine Matheson responded quickly."

Lin Baicheng was a little surprised. He only asked Anyuan to arrange for someone to buy Wharf stocks on Monday. On Friday today, and at the latest on Thursday, Jardine Matheson knew about it, and it was found out that he was the one buying.

Huo Yaohua said: "Jihe \u0026 Matheson is one of the largest group companies in Xiangjiang. Its strength should not be underestimated. Lin Sheng, you have suddenly made a fortune. Naturally, your connections are not as good as those of Jardine \u0026 Matheson, so Jardine \u0026 Matheson wants to find out that it is Yum Securities." It’s not difficult to buy stocks.”

"That makes sense."

Lin Baicheng couldn't help but nodded in agreement when he heard the words, but he was thinking that Yum Securities has been exposed now. If he makes any important acquisitions in the future, he will not be able to go through Yum Securities, otherwise he will clearly tell others that he is doing it. .

It seems very necessary to register a separate offshore investment company, and it is also necessary to separate the management operations from Yum Securities. Too many people cannot know that the person responsible for management belongs to him, so that he can use the offshore The company is taking bolder steps.

There are still many advantages to offshore companies. The first is confidentiality. Shareholder information, equity ratio, income status, etc. can not be disclosed to the outside world if the shareholders are unwilling. If a few more layers of vests are put on, it will not be easy even for the official US agencies to investigate who owns an offshore company. They can cancel the company before the investigation comes.

Another major advantage of offshore companies is that they can avoid taxes. The local government does not impose any taxes on such companies and only charges a small annual management fee. Take a company with annual revenue of tens of millions of dollars or more as an example. The annual management fee is nothing compared to the tax of no less than 5% in various countries, so the tax can be basically ignored. This is why many capitals are willing to Reasons for registering an offshore company.

Huo Yaohua didn't know that his words made Lin Baicheng think so much. He said: "Lin Sheng, I wonder if I can tell you about this matter? If it needs to be kept confidential, forget it. Then I will tell Chairman Henry directly, Lin Sheng, you don't have Just tell me.”

"Now that it's known, I have nothing to say."

Lin Baicheng smiled and said: "I personally want to acquire Wharf. After all, before acquiring Hutchison Whampoa, my target was actually Wharf at the beginning. Later, by chance, it was changed to Hutchison Whampoa. However, now Baocheng Mr. Sheng has already acquired a large number of shares in Wharf, and Jardine Matheson also holds a large number of shares in Wharf. The possibility of my acquisition being successful is too low."

"The reason why I bought Wharf stocks is because I don't think Bao Sheng and Jardine Matheson can coexist peacefully. They will still fight for control of Wharf. At that time, Wharf's stock price will inevitably rise sharply. , so I first bought some shares and held them for appreciation, which can be regarded as a financial investment."

This was the rhetoric that Lin Baicheng and Bao Yugang had discussed with the outside world. They didn't think it would be used at the time, but they didn't expect that it would already be used in just a few days.

"Thank you Lin Sheng for informing me."

Huo Yaohua expressed his thanks aloud after hearing this. He didn't care whether Lin Baicheng's words were true or false. Anyway, he would say so to Henry Kaiser when the time came. Whether he believed it or not was Henry Kaiser's business and had nothing to do with him.

Lin Baicheng smiled: "This is just a small financial investment, there is nothing that cannot be said."

"No matter what, I still want to thank Lin Sheng for telling me this."

Huo Yaohua expressed his gratitude, and then said: "Sheng Lin, and also, I want to say that if Hutchison Whampoa has financial needs, please ask Mr. Lin to take more care of Standard Chartered."

"Hutchison Whampoa currently owes a lot of debt. How dare Standard Chartered lend a large amount of money to Hutchison Whampoa?"

Lin Baicheng couldn't help but say that Hutchison Whampoa already had debts of more than HK$1.3 billion before his acquisition. Later, because of the agreement with HSBC, he borrowed another HK$500 million from HSBC. In total, the company's debt totaled HK$1.8 billion. many.

Hutchison Whampoa has currently shrunk the company's scale, reduced its business scope, and sold many companies, thus recovering a lot of funds. However, most of these funds have been used to develop real estate and retail industries. In addition, we made hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars from the stock repurchase a few months ago, so we are not short of funds for the time being, otherwise we would have to borrow funds from banks to develop the real estate and retail industries.

However, Hutchison Whampoa's debt of more than 1.8 billion Hong Kong dollars is still a bit worrying. At least the creditors will be worried that there will be problems with Hutchison Whampoa's operations and they will not be able to pay back the money. Therefore, it will take a lot of courage to lend money to Hutchison Whampoa at this time.

"Hutchison Whampoa's market value is nearly 10 billion Hong Kong dollars, which already explains the problem. So as long as Hutchison Whampoa needs it, Standard Chartered is very happy to lend to Hutchison Whampoa."

Huo Yaohua immediately said that the reason why he dared to say this was because he knew one thing. Hutchison Whampoa invested long in gold futures shortly after making a big fortune last time investing in gold futures. Over the past few months, the price of gold futures has rebounded to around US$180 per ounce. Hutchison Whampoa has made money from its investment this time. Even if the gold price will fall in the future, Hutchison Whampoa is unlikely to lose money unless the gold price A sudden plunge is not far off, but the possibility is obviously very small.

"If necessary, I will seek a loan from Standard Chartered."

Lin Baicheng agreed, provided that Hutchison Whampoa had loan needs, otherwise forget it. After all, bank loans require interest.

Huo Yaohua said no more after hearing this. Lin Baicheng's words were enough.

Huo Yaohua did not leave immediately afterwards, but chatted with Lin Baicheng. In the middle, Shen Chou from HSBC called and asked Lin Baicheng about his purchase of Wharf stocks. Lin Baicheng told Shen Chow in the same way.