Reborn Tycoon Rise

"That's true. The so-called crisis means that there is an opportunity in the crisis. As long as we can survive this cold winter, the harvest in the future will be very considerable." Xu Zhi nodded in agreement. The reason why the Chinese-funded consortium in Xiangjiang can rise is because they have enough vision. Well, if you are bold enough, during the real estate crisis, you will use a large amount of capital to acquire high-quality cheap assets. When spring comes, the value of these assets will double.

Of course, those who can be known and admired by future generations are also the successful ones. In fact, there are many people who can predict the outbreak of the crisis, but there are very few who can accurately predict the exact time. Many people also know how to buy the bottom, but they Copying at the wrong time is a fatal mistake in the case of leveraged financing. If you are not careful, you are very likely to lose everything.

Faced with this golden opportunity, Xu Zhi actually did not miss this feast. However, even during the real estate crisis, there were few opportunities to sell buildings in prime locations in Xiangjiang, while ordinary properties were operated by his subordinates. Purchases are counted once a month and given to Xu Zhi for review.

In just the past six months, Evergrande has spent HK$300 million to acquire a large number of shops, small office buildings, industrial office buildings, etc. These assets can easily double several times in a few years.

"What are you two talking about?" While Xu Zhi and Li Jiacheng continued to chat, Bao Yugang and Huo Yingdong came over.

Xu Zhi smiled and said: "It's nothing, just chatting about the real estate business."

Bao Yugang joked: "Haha, I have to listen carefully. Both of you have first-class business vision in Hong Kong. Maybe you can learn a lot of good things."

Xu Zhi said with a smile: "Bao Sheng, you are just joking. When it comes to business vision, there are not many people here who can compare with you. I heard that among the several shipping kings in Xiangjiang, you are the most dashing now, Bao Sheng." .”

Although Xiangjiang is small in area, after World War II, thanks to its advantageous geographical location and access to mainland goods, trade and transportation have become extremely developed. Among them, the shipping industry is the most powerful. The small Xiangjiang has given birth to several of the top ten Ship King is also a miracle in the history of world business.

In the late 1970s, the British Times Daily ranked the top ten shipping kings in the world. Bao Yugang ranked first in the world with a shipping tonnage of 20 million tons. This tonnage and weight exceeded the national fleet of the Soviet Union at that time.

In Xiangjiang, there are also several other shipping kings, such as the Dong family of Orient Overseas, Zhao Congyan, Xu Aizhou, etc. In addition to the Chinese fleet, there are also several Yingzi consortiums involved in shipping. Hutchison Whampoa originally also had a fleet, but Xu Zhi After taking ownership, all of them have been sold. Jardine, Swire, and Wheelock also have their own fleets, but except for Wheelock, the other three are not large in scale and are not the main business of the entire group.

At the end of the 1970s, Bao Yugang predicted that the shipping industry would enter an unprecedented downturn, so he began to make a major business transfer of "abandoning the ship and landing". He sold the ship in his hand at a very low price, and then cooperated with Jardine Matheson in capital He fought head-on in the market and successfully transferred the family's assets to land.

Other shipping kings were not so lucky. Dong Haoyunxin, the founder of the Dong family, also saw the coming crisis in the shipping industry. Instead of cleaning up the ships, he went in the opposite direction and expanded the size of his fleet on a large scale. As a result, he suddenly fell ill last year. Fa passed away, leaving a mess for his two sons, and the company was on the verge of bankruptcy.

Another shipping tycoon, Zhao Yongyan, has always had a hobby of acquiring antiques since he started his business. Then the shipping crisis forced him to cash out most of the antiques in his possession, obtaining HK$300 million in funds, and finally managed it slowly and survived.

The British-owned foreign trade company Wheelock, like several major shipping companies, suffered serious losses in the shipping business. Fortunately, Wheelock had already diversified its business, and profits from other industries could make up for the losses in the shipping business.

The other two foreign banks, Jardine Matheson and Swire, suffered smaller losses because of their small fleets.

When Bao Yugang sold the ship at a bargain price, countless people laughed at it as if they were sitting in a well watching the sky. Only recently did everyone understand how far-sighted the charter king's strategy was, so a bunch of media began to tout it again.

Bao Yugang shook his head and said: "It's not unrestrained. The disaster at sea is inevitable, but another one has happened on land, and life is just as difficult!"

"Sheng Bao, the price drop in the real estate market is just a loss in the accounting figures. At most, it will lose some rent. When the economy recovers, these will naturally come back." Huo Yingdong said with a smile on the side: "But this sea ship But it’s different, the price drops a lot every day, and even if there is no business, the maintenance cost is an astronomical figure.”

"Yes, in comparison, real estate is indeed much safer." Bao Yugang sighed.

"Indeed, real estate in Xiangjiang is much safer, as long as you don't make large-leverage investments." Xu Zhi said after taking a sip of red wine. It is said that many shipping kings in Xiangjiang regretted most in their later years that they did not use their funds to purchase properties in Xiangjiang. real estate.

"Xu Sheng, I wonder if you have heard about the situation of Dong Haoyun's Dong family." Huo Yingdong suddenly changed the subject and asked.

"I know a little bit." Xu Zhi nodded and said. In recent times, the most reported news in Xiangjiang Financial Weekly is the news about whether the Dong family will go bankrupt. There are even many bets on the future fate of the Dong family, and The odds of bankruptcy are much lower.

Although many real estate companies and financial institutions are currently trapped by housing prices that have almost halved, the companies that have gone bankrupt are generally small businesses. Even if large companies are heavily in debt and suffer serious losses, they generally survive. Looking back on the entire In the real estate crisis of 1983/84, except for the huge fraudster Jianning Company, very few other real estate giants went bankrupt, and a few of them were severely damaged and their scale was greatly reduced.

But the shipping market is even more bloody. This is a crisis sweeping the world. Countless shipping giants have completely collapsed in this crisis.

The shipping industry is an industry that values ​​financial leverage more than real estate. Under normal circumstances, buying a ship requires tens of millions of dollars. All shipping companies pay this capital through bank loans and then operate the ship after it is acquired. Pay off debt.

The shipping industry is a highly volatile industry. It takes 2-3 years to build a large ship, but economic ups and downs do not. When the global economy develops well, freight volume will increase rapidly, and the number of freighters or oil tankers will immediately be stretched. , at this time, freight rates have skyrocketed. A 100,000-ton container ship can make millions of dollars in profit from a single trip to the United States. A ship can make back its investment in three years.

In the 1970s, the cost of building a 200,000-ton ocean-going oil tanker was as high as US$60 million. At that time, Bao Yugang owned eight such giant oil tankers, and the value of any of them was comparable to the skyscrapers in Central. The Jardine Group at that time once The intention was to exchange Hong Lok Building (the tallest building in Hong Kong in the 1970s) with Bao Yugang for such a large oil tanker, but was rejected by the latter because the value of the oil tanker at that time was much higher than that of Hong Lok Building at that time.

It is said that Bao Yugang regretted this incident for the rest of his life! .

But the opposite shipping crisis was that the tonnage of ships was insufficient before, which led to a large number of shipping companies placing orders with shipyards. A few years later, a large number of new ships were launched into the sea. At this time, the global economy began to shrink and freight volume dropped significantly. The shipping crisis has officially arrived.

In the early 1980s, in Europe alone, the excess ship tonnage exceeded 100 million tons.

Moreover, unlike a building, a ship must invest a lot of money in maintenance. It is more likely to be damaged when it is parked at sea. Even parking a ship is a huge investment.

Therefore, when the crisis struck, a large number of shipping companies simply could not afford to maintain so many cargo ships parked on the seashore, so they could only queue up and send the ships for demolition.

This is the situation of the Dong family. A large number of its ships are stranded outside major ports around the world, and orders are sluggish. Moreover, before Dong Haoyun's death, in order to surpass the previous world shipping king Bao Yugang, he did not hesitate to borrow heavily to purchase new ships and annex overseas shipping companies. The company, therefore, owes $1.4 billion in debt, which at its current size would have already made it insolvent.

After Dong Haoyun passed away, his second son Dong Cheehua took over the entire company. He can be said to be the hardest-working "rich second generation". In the past year, he has spent almost all his efforts to pay off debts.

Huo Yingdong said: "The sudden death of the old director has left a lot of trouble for their family. I am going to inject a sum of capital to help their company get out of trouble, so I would like to ask the three of you if you are interested in investing together?"