Reborn as a tycoon in Hong Kong

After the new year.

Lin Baicheng came to Galaxy Financial Building. The secretariat had compiled the annual reports of all the companies under Lin Baicheng's name. He came here specifically to read the annual reports.

"Mr. Lin, the stack here is the annual reports of various companies in Xiangjiang, the stack here is the annual reports of several companies in Japan, the stack here is the annual reports of various companies in the United States, and the rest are from other regions. The company’s annual report.”

In the chairman's office, Qin Lan and several people moved all the annual reports over and divided them into four stacks.

"Okay, put them all here, I'll take a look at them slowly."

Lin Baicheng nodded. Xiangjiang and the United States have the highest number of companies. Who has the most companies in these two places?

"Mr. Lin, if nothing happens, we will go out first."

After Qin Lan made sure that Lin Baicheng had no other instructions, he took the people out.

"I'm quite busy today."

Lin Baicheng said as he picked up one of the annual reports from the pile in Xiangjiang. It was possible to read the annual reports of so many companies in a whole day today, but if you want to keep all the important data in your mind, it cannot be done in one day. .

The top one is Hutchison Whampoa's annual report.

Last year in 1979, Hutchison Whampoa's operating profit was about HK$700 million, but its non-operating profits were nearly HK$10 billion.

In 1980, Hutchison Whampoa's non-operating investment profits were also very high. The first is to go long on gold futures with a principal amount of US$400 million in early January. This investment has already been settled, and the profit is as high as more than US$1.3 billion. If converted into Hong Kong dollars, it is more than five billion Hong Kong dollars.

In addition, Lin Baicheng participated in the financing of several companies, including US$7.5 million for a 3% stake in Apple, US$22 million for a 4% stake in New Century Software, and US$6 million for a 3% stake in Zhonghe Games. These Investments have now received generous returns, and the shares in hand are worth more.

Take New Century Software's shares as an example. After the company went public, Hutchison Whampoa held 6.4 million shares of New Century Software. Even based on the company's issue price of US$6, it was worth US$38.4 million, not to mention New Century Software. The company's stock price now exceeds the $20 price point, and the total value of 6.4 million shares has exceeded $130 million.

In other words, Hutchison Whampoa has made more than US$100 million in profits from its investment in New Century Software.

Although the profit of 100 million US dollars is only a book profit, and Hutchison Whampoa did not sell the company's shares, these must be included in the statistics when making financial statements.

Therefore, when calculating Hutchison Whampoa's non-operating profit losses in 1980, the change in market value of New Century Software's shares must also be taken into account. The result is that the investment made Hutchison Whampoa's profit in 1980 more than $100 million.

In the same way, Hutchison Whampoa's participation in Apple and Zhonghe Gaming also made Hutchison Whampoa profitable.

In terms of non-operating profits, Hutchison Whampoa's profits in 1980 exceeded HK$6 billion.

Compared with 1979, this profit is much smaller, reaching more than 3 billion Hong Kong dollars. This is mainly because when he was long crude oil futures, Lin Baicheng did not let Hutchison Whampoa participate. Otherwise, Hutchison Whampoa's investment profits this year could completely break through. The mark of 10 billion Hong Kong dollars.

The reason why Lin Baicheng did not let Hutchison Whampoa participate was not only because he already had a large amount of private investment, but also because he had reduced his holdings of many Hutchison Whampoa shares. Now he only holds Hutchison Whampoa. 25% shares. In other words, even if Hutchison Whampoa makes money, only a quarter will belong to Lin Baicheng, so naturally he is not that concerned.

Hutchison Whampoa's own operating profits experienced a huge increase in 1980 compared with 1979. The profits in 1980 were as high as 1.56 billion Hong Kong dollars, more than double the increase compared with 1979.

The reason why there is such a high growth rate and such high profits is that, in addition to the operating profits brought by the expansion of Watsons and the profits brought by the expansion of other businesses, the main reason is that Hutchison Whampoa began to increase the number of houses sold in the second half of the year.

Unlike last year when few houses were sold, Lin Baicheng asked Hutchison Whampoa to increase the number of houses sold starting from the second half of this year. Next year, the sales will only be more, because he already knows that the crisis is coming, so he will naturally let Hutchison Whampoa start slowly from a high position. Ship and cash out, and then use the funds previously cashed out to buy the bottom after the stock and property markets plummet. By then, the money from selling one house can easily buy back two, three or even more houses.

Compared with 1979, land prices and house prices increased a lot in 1980. Housing prices have increased, and the number of properties sold has increased a lot, so profits have naturally increased significantly year-on-year.

However, Hutchison Whampoa has more revenue and more investments.

Among them, Watsons invested the most. Watsons expanded rapidly. The two main areas of expansion in 1980 were the United Kingdom and the United States. Watsons was self-operated, so the investment was naturally very high. This company alone invested nearly 20 billion Hong Kong dollars.

There is also the acquisition of Bentley Motors. In addition to the subsequent new factory expansion and R\u0026D investment, Hutchison Whampoa spent a total of 2 billion Hong Kong dollars in cash. At present, this company only invests but does not report. The sales profits of the automobile company cannot support itself, let alone repay the parent company Hutchison Whampoa.

In addition, the hotels, terminals, pharmacies, hospitals and other companies under the group all need investment, and the investment for each one is not small.

Fortunately, with Hutchison Whampoa's huge investment profits, it is no problem to support the company's current expansion, and there is even some money left over to distribute dividends as a return to shareholders.

In general, Hutchison Whampoa developed very well in 1980, with total net assets at the end of the year reaching about 34 billion Hong Kong dollars, an increase of more than 9 billion Hong Kong dollars compared with last year. The reason why it has increased so much is partly because of huge investment profits, partly because of the increase in valuations of various companies, and partly because of the increase in real estate assets.

Even though Hutchison Whampoa's current net worth is very high, Lin Baicheng knows very well that when the stock market and property market plummet, Hutchison Whampoa's net worth will fall sharply, and it is feared that the net worth of Hutchison Whampoa will be cut off by tens of billions of Hong Kong dollars. .

The things are still the same, and the companies are still the same, but after the stock market and property market plummeted, many things are no longer worth so much, and Hutchison Whampoa's net assets have naturally shrunk.

"After the stock market collapses, Hutchison's share price would be better off falling a little more."

Lin Baicheng secretly thought that he currently holds 25% of Hutchison Whampoa's shares. When the property and stock markets plummet, he will definitely buy the bottom. If he hadn't been afraid that reducing too many shares would lead to someone stealing the chicken, which would affect his control over Hutchison Whampoa, Lin Baicheng would really like to take advantage of the current high level to reduce his holdings more, and wait for the stock price to plummet before buying back. Can make billions of Hong Kong dollars.

After looking at Hutchison Whampoa's overall data, Lin Baicheng looked at the operating conditions of the various companies under the group.

At this glance, it lasted more than an hour.

There are still many subsidiaries under Hutchison Whampoa, and each company has a lot of data. If you look carefully, it will naturally take a lot of time.

Next, Lin Baicheng looked at the annual report of Asia Star Media Group.

The group has subsidiaries such as Asia Television, Star Pictures, Star Cinema, Asia Star Records, ATV News, Star Daily, Movie Fortnightly, Star Printing Factory, Sanwei Bookstore (Publishing House), Star Sports, Star Comics and other subsidiaries.

Compared with Hutchison Whampoa, Asia Star Media Group does not make much money. What is important about this group is its media attributes. It promotes other companies and allows Lin Baicheng to control media channels. Making money is not its main task.

Of course, compared to most companies in Hong Kong, Asia Star Media Group is still very profitable.

Asia Television's net profit in 1980 was HK$44 million, an increase of HK$13 million from last year; Star Pictures' net profit last year was HK$36 million, of which the box office share and peripheral income from self-made films reached HK$32 million. The net profit from this business is about HK$4 million.

The reason why Star Pictures' net profit last year was HK$1,900 higher than the HK$13 million the year before was mainly because Cheng Long was favored by the company. Last year, the company successively shot several movies starring Cheng Long and made a lot of money. Coupled with the expansion of overseas channels, it is natural to make huge profits, with profit growth reaching nearly 150%.

In addition to the company's self-operation, several companies invested by Star Pictures have also made money, especially Xu's Pictures, owned by the three Xu brothers. Xu's comedies are still very popular in this day and age. Although they were filmed in just one year Two movies, but the combined box office of these two movies exceeded 10 million Hong Kong dollars.

The box office share between Star Cinema and the producer is 50/50, and the producer can get 50% of the box office. Because Star Cinema only holds 20% of the shares of Xu's Pictures, Xu's Pictures' movies require If you want to show it in Xingchen Cinema, you need to distribute it through Xingchen Pictures, and 10% of the box office share will be deducted here.

In other words, the box office share that Xu's Pictures can get is 40% of the total box office, and the profit belonging to the three Xu brothers is only 80% of the 40% of the box office.

Despite this, from the box office of more than 11 million Hong Kong dollars, Hui's Pictures can get about 4.5 million Hong Kong dollars, and the three Hui brothers can get 3.6 million Hong Kong dollars.

Even though the three Xu brothers can only get more than 30% of the box office, this is already a lot. If it were Shaw Brothers and Jiahe, they wouldn't be able to get so much at all. And when will the box office split be available? A question mark is required. Unlike Star Cinema, after the movie is released, the box office share will be paid to the producer in three batches over three months without any delay.

Xu's Pictures is very profitable, so the 20% shares of Star Pictures are naturally more valuable, and this will also be calculated into the net assets of Star Pictures.

In addition to Xu's Pictures, Star Pictures has also invested in New Art City and Seven Little Fortunes, but the current development of these two companies is not as good as Xu's Pictures.

However, because Star Pictures holds 51% of the shares of Seven Little Fortunes, Star Pictures focuses on supporting Seven Little Fortunes. With the tilt of resources, this company will definitely develop slowly.

Star Cinema's net profit was as high as HK$25.5 million the year before last, but its net profit last year was only HK$11 million, which was less than the company's net profit in 1978 the year before that. The reason for this is mainly related to the company's overseas expansion. Not only has the company invested heavily in building new theaters overseas, the attendance rate of the new theaters is not high enough, and it is currently operating at a loss.

If we only count Hong Kong, because the box office of Xiangjiang movies was higher last year than the year before, and the attendance rate of Star Cinema has always been high, the overall net profit was actually higher than the year before, reaching HK$33.8 million, which is quite good.

It's just that the company's overseas business has dragged down its overall performance.

But looking on the bright side, once the attendance rate of overseas theaters can increase this year and the performance turns losses into profits, the company's net profit will definitely increase greatly this year, and it is possible to increase it several times.

Asia Star Records, this company ushered in an explosion last year.

The new singers trained by the company itself and the first-line singers poached have achieved all-round development through the channel of Asia Star Media Group, and the company's performance has also exploded.

19.2 million Hong Kong dollars, which was the net profit of Asia Star Records last year. Compared with the net profit of 7 million Hong Kong dollars the year before, it nearly tripled.

With the help of the entire Asia Star Media Group, Asia Star Records is catching up with PolyGram. The company's net profit last year announced by PolyGram this year was only a little over HK$26 million. Although there is still a gap between Asia Star Records and PolyGram , but the gap is not that big anymore, at least it is not so far behind that Polygram cannot be seen.

With the support of the entire Asia Star Media Group, I believe that within a few years, the net profit of Asia Star Records will exceed that of PolyGram (Hong Kong).

That's right, PolyGram here only refers to PolyGram Xiangjiang Branch. It is an international company with its headquarters in London. The revenue and profit of the entire company are calculated in pounds. Now Asia Star Records and There is no comparison at all.

In fact, if Asia Star Media Group had not been blocked by the Bay Island authorities last year, resulting in the inability to sell records to the Bay Island, which reduced Asia Star Records' revenue by a large amount, the company's revenue and profit last year might have exceeded Polaroid. Gold (Hong Kong).

Star Daily is one of the four major newspapers in Hong Kong. Last year, the company consolidated its position among the four major newspapers. Although the lack of serialization of novels has reduced the newspaper's newspaper sales a lot, the newspaper has opened international news and entertainment news sections, which has allowed the newspaper to gain the familiarity of more groups, thus stabilizing the newspaper's sales and preventing the newspaper from losing ground. The status of the four major newspapers fell.

In terms of making money, Star Daily does not actually make much money, but its status is very important. In this era, people mainly understand current affairs through newspapers, and its importance is beyond doubt.

Movie biweekly has lower sales and is more difficult to make a profit, but it plays a big role in promoting the movie.

Moreover, the "Asian Golden Dragon Awards" held by Film Weekly will cost more money. Reimbursement of air tickets, food and accommodation for inviting participants, funds needed to produce prizes, etc. are all expenditures.

The "Asia Golden Dragon Awards" has not yet been held. It invites movies released last year, so it can only be held in the second year because it has to give the participating parties some preparation time. In addition, it will not be held during the Chinese New Year. To be staggered in time with the international award Oscar, the current preliminary scheduled time is March.

In addition to these companies, some of the other subsidiaries under the name of Asia Star Media Group are still under development, and some are just supplements to the businesses of other companies. Their revenue and profits are very low and have little impact on the overall revenue and profits of the group. big.