Reborn Tycoon Rise

The Hong Kong media had been bombarding the merger and acquisition for a month, and then the heat gradually subsided. A few years ago, this topic would have lasted for more than half a year, but at this moment, the Sino-British negotiations Any news about it will immediately make headlines.

For example, recently, China and the UK have been negotiating for a long time on how to exchange flags on the evening of June 30, 1997. The British side insisted that it would lower the British flag at 23:59:59 on the evening of June 30, but at this time the Chinese side But they disagreed. The reason was naturally that lowering the British flag at this time meant that China did not have enough time to raise our own flag on time at midnight on July 1, so the two sides began a long-term tug-of-war of negotiations.

Many people may think that it is a bit incredible that negotiations are only for these two seconds, but the fact is that the raising of the national flag on time is closely related to national sovereignty. This marks whether Hong Kong will return on time. It will also be recorded in history forever.

There are many similar things, such as Hong Kong's land policy, fiscal policy and other issues in the next 14 years. Each negotiation will involve dozens of issues, and many issues will go through several or even ten negotiations.

Xu Zhi is also very concerned about the negotiations between the two parties. He will also pay attention to the process reports every day. However, after all, he knows the outcome of this kind of thing, so he is not worried.

After a month of taking over, Xu Zhi’s team has successfully taken over the Land Group.

When Xu Zhi acquired Hutchison Whampoa, he was very cautious about Hutchison Whampoa's management at that time. In order to stabilize these people, Xu Zhi did not arrange for a large number of Chinese to take over important management positions, but only in important positions such as finance and human resources. Even Hutchison Whampoa's top team is still an Englishman.

There are many reasons for this. One is that Ma Shimin is indeed very capable, which has been proven in history. The second is that Xu Zhi did not have enough teams to take over all Hutchison Whampoa's business. The third is that Even for Hutchison Whampoa's future internationalization considerations, a large number of British talents still have enough use.

But now Land is completely different. First of all, Xu Zhi already has a strong enough team, and most importantly, Land's business is mainly rent collection. The management of this rent collection business is naturally better than that of Hutchison Whampoa. Large conglomerates spanning dozens of industries are much simpler.

However, the business is single, but the scale is huge. Over the past few decades, Jardine Matheson has been able to maintain its position as the number one foreign company in Hong Kong. The main reason it relies on is Land Group and Wharf, among which Land Group is larger.

Several other foreign companies in Hong Kong, even if Swire Pacific's Cathay Pacific monopolizes the sky in Hong Kong and Hutchison Whampoa's pier monopolizes the port in Hong Kong, they are still not as good as Landmark's dozen or so buildings in Central.

Currently, Land's main rent-collecting properties in Hong Kong include Connaught Building (the future Jardine House), Alexander Building, Gloucester Building, Lane Crawford Building, Standard Chartered Building, Landmark Plaza, Duke Building, Swire Building, Cultural Building Chinese Hotel, Prince's Building, Holland Bank, Lee Bank Building, Hong Kong Club Building, Duke of Windsor Building in Causeway Bay, Excelsior Hotel, Star Hotel, Royal Bank Building, Ocean Terminal, Causeway Bay World Trade Center, etc...

The total area of ​​these buildings exceeds 10 million square feet (1 million square meters). Even at the current rental price, the annual rental income is as high as HK$2.5-3 billion. If it were not for the high debt, just relying on this rental income, The five Chinese real estate giants combined are no match.

In addition to the existing properties, due to the acquisition of milk companies, it also has large tracts of land in Causeway Bay and Pok Fu Lam. At the same time, in the early 1980s, several large-scale investment investments by Land also brought some prime location land to the company, such as White House. A piece of land in Bishan that can build 400 single-family villas, land at Exchange Square, the former Carnegie Center building and the old wing of the Miramar Hotel.

In addition to the real estate business, the original milk company also has a monopoly on the dairy products business in Xiangjiang and the largest ice-making factory in Xiangjiang. This business was sold to Jinniu Beverage Company and cashed in HK$600 million in cash.

"The jewel in the crown" is what Hong Kong media calls Land Land. With so many high-quality properties, if the top management of the Jardine Group were not reluctant to sell the properties for cash, the company would not be in such a predicament, and Xu Zhi would not have the opportunity to enter the market. Main land.

Although the returns from this acquisition are very generous, Xu Zhi has also endured a lot of economic pressure. The funds for the comprehensive privatization of Land are not bad. As collateral, a loan of US$1 billion was loaned from Citibank. However, because Xu Zhi himself held a lot of Land shares, and Jardine Matheson Group also cashed out a lot of funds, after the acquisition of Land, there was still money left. 1.5 billion Hong Kong dollars were invested into the Land Company for development.

The biggest debt problem is the huge debt owed by Land itself, a loan of almost 18 billion Hong Kong dollars. Xu Zhi must also bear this part of the debt while acquiring the entire Land.

Fortunately, Xu Zhi knows the future. As long as housing prices in Xiangjiang rise until 1985, the value of Land's properties will also rise, and the rents will also rise. By then, banks will naturally not put any pressure on you, and they will even want you to pay more. Loan some money.

But the future is the future, Xu Zhi knows, but many creditors do not know that Land's current short-term debt is as high as 4 billion Hong Kong dollars, and this money still needs to be paid soon.

In the original history, after Simon Keswick took over Land, he also demolished the east wall to repair the west wall and sold a large number of overseas assets to solve the short-term debt problem. Now, Xu Zhi has no other option. After all, the real estate market will not recover quickly, so he can only repatriate HK$2 billion in funds from overseas to fill the huge financial hole left by Land.

Hong Le Building:

This is currently the second tallest building in Hong Kong. Before the roofing of Wohe Center, Connaught Building was not only Land's flagship but also the tallest building in Southeast Asia. After paying a certain price, all the original tenants moved away. It is also the current headquarters of Land Group. Headquarters.

"Chairman, this is Land's annual financial report for 1983." Zhou Enmao handed Xu Zhi a summary report.

After Land was fully privatized, Xu Zhi specially transferred a real estate veteran from Evergrande Company to serve as the general manager of Land. This person was Zhou Enmao. He had worked for Yangtze River Industrial for more than ten years and was responsible for the development of many projects. Few large properties.

Xu Zhi flipped through the pages for a while and said, "Can you briefly explain the situation?"

"Yes, Chairman." Anniversary Maohui reported: "Because Chairman, you have mobilized nearly 4 billion Hong Kong dollars in capital injections, the short-term liabilities of Land have been basically solved. However, in terms of long-term liabilities, the company still owes nearly 15 billion Hong Kong dollars in debt. , of which 4.5 billion Hong Kong dollars are mature debts, and the rest need to be repaid on a monthly basis. Currently, the company needs to pay 330 million Hong Kong dollars every month to pay the principal and interest of the debt, plus the operating costs of the major office buildings themselves. Currently, The company is losing money every month. About HK$80 million a month."