The birth of the Hong Kong Island family

In mid-November, the media group and Lai's Voice (UK) announced at the same time that they had reached an agreement on the share transaction of Lai's TV station. The media group had acquired 60% of the equity of Lai's TV station for HK$120 million.

At the same time, Lin Zhichao personally announced his resignation as a director of TVB.

For a time, public opinion was shocked!

"Sir Lin is so confused! Hutchison Whampoa, which he leads, is the major shareholder of TVB, and the other major shareholder is HSBC. As long as he wants TVB, it's just a matter of words."

"That's right! TVB's ratings account for more than 80% of Hong Kong's TV industry, while Lai's TV station only accounts for 20%. TVB doesn't want the ready-made TVB, so we have to find an 'unable to help' Dou. Sir Lin is also confused sometimes!"

"I think this is Lin Sheng's moral character of "benevolence and righteousness" among Chinese people, and he should not take away what others have. TVB is a company that Shao Liushu has worked hard to run, and it was also organized by Li Xiaohe. If Mr. Lin forced it through equity Being classified as a media group, there is a loss of morality."

"Yes, Lin Sheng has only acquired British capital in the stock market, and has not targeted Chinese capital. If he acquires TVB, he will be doing something unknown."

"It makes sense! Moreover, Lin Sheng is the 'god of management'. With Li's TV station in his hands, he might be able to share the ratings equally with TVB. In this way, it would be very beneficial for Hong Kong TV to form a healthy competition instead of monopolizing the ratings. of."

Citizens were talking a lot, and various media outlets also commented.

TVB TV station.

Li Xiaohe, Li Rongsen, Run Run Shaw and others were talking in the office. Their faces showed relief, and they felt indescribably relaxed.

In the past year or two, they have always been worried about Lin Zhichao taking over TVB, because it is entirely possible. First of all, Lin Zhichao's media group lacks TV business; secondly, Lin Zhichao controls Hutchison Whampoa and has a very good relationship with HSBC, so he can easily increase his stake in TVB to more than 51%.

Based on this, they even thought that after Lin Zhichao incorporated TVB into the media group, they might have to cash out.

Li Xiaohe said: "Lin Sheng's quality has always been highly praised by his eldest brother (Li Zeming). I knew that he could not seek the management rights of TVB. Now it seems that Lin Sheng has never thought about the management rights of TVB. The target is on Li’s TV station.”

At this time, Toshitaka had real power in TVB. He was the chairman of the board of directors, and his two younger brothers were directors. TVB switched from black and white to color mode (1971), TVB training courses, and emphasis on local drama production. These things were all led by Ritakawa and Run Run Shaw, but Ritakawa was the one at the center of the stage.

If Li Xiaohe does not die next year, Run Run Shaw will always be the general manager and will not get the chance to take the position. Because in TVB, his influence is not as big as Li Xiaohe's, which is why after Li Xiaohe's death, his wife can still come out with Shaw.

Run Run Shaw said: "Lin Sheng is really ambitious. He ignored the ready-made TVB and chose Li's TV station. It seems that he thinks that with his leadership, he can lead Li's TV station to rise and compete with our TVB Confronted.”

The three Lee brothers immediately looked at each other. They had forgotten that Lin Zhichao symbolized the "invincible" spirit. Having been in business for more than 30 years, he has become a dominant player in every industry, including shipping, industry, real estate, hotels, clothing, newspapers, movies, publishing and other industries.

"Don't take a peek!" Li Xiaohe sighed.

At this time, Run Run Shaw became energetic!

He said confidently: "Don't worry about this! Although Lin Sheng is known as the 'God of Management', in the film and television industry, he actually relies on Zou Wenhuai, He Guanchang and others. As for the television industry, what should he take? Can talents compete with us at TVB? Obviously there is no such thing. The television industry focuses on the entire link, not something that can be changed by one person or a few people. Moreover, we at TVB are full of talents and are not afraid of challengers at all."

The Lee brothers thought it right and stopped worrying.

The other side.

Lin Zhichao was in the office, having face-to-face discussions with Li Ziduo and Lin Ruikai.

Li Ziduo will serve as the chairman of the board of directors of Li's TV station, and Lin Ruikai will serve as the chief executive of Li's TV station. This arrangement is obviously Lin Zhichao's "stirring up trouble."

At this time, there were other shareholders of Li's TV station, occupying 40% of the shares, but Lin Zhichao believed that it was necessary to win them all, and there was no need to share his results with everyone.

So before that, he needed Li's TV station to have a "turbulent period" to shake the minds of these shareholders.

"The first thing you should do after you take office is change the name of Li's TV station to 'Asia TV'"

"The second thing is to reduce the staff, shrink the budget, implement cost control, and initiate a drastic rectification with a businessman style."

Regarding the second thing, Lin Ruikai immediately said in confusion: "Father, wouldn't this be like cutting off both arms? It is inconsistent with the style of our media group. You must know that you were willing to invest money in newspapers and movies in the first place. , and the effect is very good.”

Lin Zhichao smiled and said nothing!

Li Ziduo immediately explained to Lin Ruikai: "Asia Television does not fully belong to us yet. At this time, a turmoil will kill two birds with one stone for us. It can not only establish the majesty of the media group, rectify the wasteful internal style, but also make the remaining shareholders I feel like giving up."

Lin Ruikai immediately blushed and secretly thought that Jiang was too old.

Lin Zhichao said at this time: "So, I can't appear on the stage at this time, Ziduo will take the blame for me."

Li Ziduo said quickly: "The boss is serious. This is my responsibility."

He also understood that his boss was the chairman of the board of directors of Golden Harvest Films, so there was no reason why he should not also serve as the chairman of the board of directors of Asia Television. But he was appointed as the chairman of the board of directors, which shows that he is only temporary.

Lin Zhichao nodded and said nothing more. Li Ziduo wears many hats and is also a veteran in the media field. In fact, he was managing the entire media group for Lin Zhichao, and Lin Zhichao was just leading the management.

Afterwards, he asked Li Ziduo to leave first, and then began to warn Lin Ruikai.

"You serve as the CEO, but you have to cooperate with Ziduo's work. Don't stand out, but more to learn. After we get all the equity, you will not work in Asia Television, but in the group to avoid you getting involved. A woman in the entertainment industry!”

Lin Ruikai blushed, thinking that it was unreasonable for his father to care about this, but his father's majesty could not be challenged, not to mention that he had no thoughts about his woman.

"Father has a target for the people who manage Asia Television?"

"Yes, it won't be you and Li Ziduo. You will both manage the group's affairs from now on."

"Ok, I see."

Lin Zhichao came to inspect near Raffles City Plaza, accompanied by Lin Ruihuan and other senior officials of Cheung Kong Group.

The former naval dockyard site has undergone earth-shaking changes and is divided into two areas, north and south, with Queensway as the boundary. On the north side of Queensway, the side close to Victoria, it now sits on:

An ultra-luxury five-star hotel - Shangri-La Hotel;

Five first-class Grade A commercial office buildings - Tower A\\B of Far East Financial Center, Admiralty Center, Admiralty Building, Taifu Building, totaling 2.8 million square feet of rental properties;

A ‘Raffles City Plaza’ with an area of ​​200,000 square feet.

From 1978 to 1979, the Lin family built a total of 4 commercial office buildings. In addition to Tower 3 of Admiralty (Admiralty also belongs to Central), they also had the development rights above Chater Station in Central - Penfolds Centre.

The rental unit price of each building is almost 18 to 20 Hong Kong dollars per square foot (only for the office part, the commercial retail part is more expensive). The monthly rent of a building is about 8 to 10 million Hong Kong dollars, and the annual rent is Between 100 million and 120 million Hong Kong dollars (non-net profit).

In addition to the above six buildings (Far East Financial Center Tower A\\B, Admiralty Center, Admiralty Building, Taifu Building, Penfolds Center), the Lin family also operates the Victoria Harbor Center (skyscraper) in Central, as well as Midea Building, International Building, Universal Building, Poly Building, Yingzhi Building, 50% of Chinese Bank Building, 50% of Wheelock Building, 50% of Marden Building, Crocodile T-shirt Building, Taiping Building, Lee King Center, Century Building.

The Lam family already holds more than 8 million square feet of rental properties in Central alone, including two five-star hotels - Shangri-La Hotel and Hilton Hotel. For such a rich asset, the annual rent is more than one billion.

In Wan Chai, the Lin family does not have any rent-collecting properties. The Elizabeth Building and Locke Building, which they jointly built, are all sold in layers.

However, in Causeway Bay, the Lam family is still very powerful, including the future ‘Times Square’, the current Walden Building (Daimaru Department Store), and Xintiandi Building.

In Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, the Lam family plays an invincible role in Wharf (Harbor City); not to mention a hotel and a commercial complex in Tsim Sha Tsui, as well as the Mira Plaza, hotel, and Fuller Building in Tsim Sha Tsui. , Star Building.

Sitting on such a lucrative rental property makes Lin Zhichao very satisfied.

"Did Gongbei Bank acquire it?" Lin Zhichao asked as he remembered something while walking on the road.

Gongbei Xing is a small building property located next to the Hilton Hotel in Central. This is a property that Cheung Kong Holdings Group must acquire.

This is because the Hilton Hotel only covers an area of ​​39,000 square feet. If you want to build a high-rise building with more than 60 floors, you must transfer the plot ratio (merge the building); therefore, Lin Zhichao plans to acquire the adjacent Garden Road parking lot and In Gongbei, these two small properties are used to transfer their plot ratio to the future Yangtze River Group Center.

Lin Ruihuan immediately said: "We have reached an agreement, 102 million Hong Kong dollars."

Lin Zhichao said with a smile: "I thought the owner would have to struggle with the price. I really plan to let you go. The Yangtze River Group Center will be built later."

Lin Ruihuan immediately said: "This price is already very expensive! However, Land sold Kinmen to Chen Qingsong for 998 million this month, which also drove up the price of buildings in Hong Kong."

Lin Zhichao was stunned for a moment, and then he remembered that 'Hong Kong's biggest liar' had already appeared!

Chen Qingsong's appearance is very sudden. It may give people the impression that his net worth last year and the first half of this year was only tens of millions, but he was suddenly able to buy a large building worth 1 billion, and he also acquired the listed company Han Dynasty at the same time. beautiful.

"Where does this Chen Qingsong come from? How come he can actually afford a building worth one billion? I have never heard of him before."

"We don't know for sure. We heard that he seemed to be a small-time speculator speculating on land and properties. We didn't expect him to be so wealthy now."

Lin Zhichao nodded and said, "Don't do any cooperation projects with such a person of unknown origin. It's risky."

Lin Ruihuan said seriously: "Yes, I remember it!"

Get vaccinated first, after all, Lin Zhichao is not involved in many small projects now.

Next, Lin Ruihuan asked: "Father just said that the Yangtze River Group Center is not in a hurry to build? I am negotiating with Hilton Hotel Group. They mean that if the management rights of Hilton Central are transferred to Hilton East Tsim Sha Tsui, we still need to Make up for the difference. I’m thinking that if the Yangtze River Group Center is not in a hurry to build it, we can negotiate with them and use the management rights of Hilton Central for each year to offset the difference.”

Lin Zhichao said: "This is Hong Kong's territory. Why are you afraid of them? Let them take the initiative. Be tough and let them compromise. Otherwise, we will file a lawsuit and drive them out of Hong Kong."

As long as Central and Tsim Sha Tsui East don't renew their contracts, wouldn't the Hilton Hotel be evicted?

Lin Ruihuan was stunned for a moment, then nodded quickly and said, "Well, I'll reorganize the negotiations!"

Lin Zhichao said: "Well, although it is inevitable to pay a liquidated damages, Hilton Hotel is more afraid that we will not give them the opportunity to produce in Hong Kong. Therefore, the most condition is to transfer the remaining period of the management rights of Central to East Tsim Sha Tsui Hilton. As for the Central Hilton The management rights of the hotel were changed to a one-year contract, and we were told that we were not sure when it would be demolished.”

"Ok, I see!"

"When it's time to be tough, you have to be tough! Just like the Gongbei trip, didn't the owner also guess the real purpose of our acquisition, so we have been unable to negotiate the price in the past two years. I originally wanted to let you let it go, but since it has already If it succeeds, forget it. In a few years, he will still beg us to acquire it."

Lin Ruihuan blushed, his father was criticizing him.

"I remember!"

He finally understood what his father meant. He meant the Dinghai Shenzhen. Even though his father is often absent from the company, he is almost always planning the company's large and medium-sized projects.

Even many partners came to cooperate because of their father.

A high-level meeting was being held in Hutchison Whampoa's conference room. Lin Zhichao and Mai Lisi were both present. As for Li Yeguang, he usually only attended board meetings.

Lin Zhichao said: "Regarding the development of Huangpu Dockyard, I plan to organize a team to discuss the land premium with the Hong Kong government. Do you have any suggestions or opinions?"

The senior officials all agreed and raised no objections. This means that Cheung Kong Group has taken over Hutchison Whampoa's real estate business, and it is personally led by Lin Zhichao.

At the end of 1977, Hutchison Whampoa announced an investment of HK$800 million to develop a large-scale real estate project in Aberdeen. Later, Hutchison Whampoa was acquired by Lin Zhichao. At that time, Lin Zhichao was just making suggestions and convincing people with his reasoning, which won everyone's respect. .

Now, Lin Zhichao has full control of Hutchison Whampoa's real estate development projects. In fact, Lin Zhichao understood that starting negotiations with the Hong Kong government now was just a show. The Hong Kong government must demand a very high price, and he would definitely not agree. Instead, he would choose to postpone it until Sino-British negotiations.

"Okay, for this project, a team led by myself, Malisi, and Xia Boyin will start land premium negotiations with the Hong Kong government."

"Yes, Sir Lin."

Wellington felt desolate. From beginning to end, he, the CEO, had become a decoration, even though it was just a real estate project.

Hutchison Whampoa also has four listed companies, namely Hebao, Hutchison Real Estate, Watsons, and Junyicang.

Hebao is Hutchison Whampoa's listed company with the most extensive business. It was originally formed by merging old-name foreign companies - Debao and Taihe. Its businesses mainly include: import and export trade, commerce, machinery, and automobile sales. , building material supply, etc.

Hutchison Real Estate is the flagship real estate company of Hutchison Whampoa.

Watsons is the retail flagship company of Hutchison Whampoa, including Watsons retail, PARKnSHOP supermarkets, pharmaceuticals, beverage production and other businesses.

Jun Yicang is the largest warehouse company in Hong Kong and also owns equity interests in international containers.

This is just the business of its four listed companies. Hutchison Whampoa itself also has a huge business, including properties and land, container terminals, shipyards (shipbuilding) and ship repairs, transportation, manufacturing, real estate, etc.

Next, Lin Zhichao said: "Currently, the profit from the gold held by Hutchison Whampoa has doubled, reaching just over 110 million Hong Kong dollars. It is time to close it when it is good, and arrange to sell it in batches by the end of the year."

In one year, the profit has more than doubled (expected to reach HK$130 million). Hutchison Whampoa's normal profit this year is only about HK$330 million (expected); and including this non-recurring profit, it will reach 460 million. Hong Kong dollars and above.

Just get out of trouble!

Even the market value of Hutchison Whampoa has reached more than 3.6 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Weili said deliberately: "Maybe gold will rise and reach 500 US dollars per ounce!"

Lin Zhichao said with a smile: "That's why I said to sell it in batches, and the price will almost reach US$500 per ounce next month (December)."

Currently, gold is around $420 an ounce.

Weili was speechless. In fact, when he said those words, he felt that he was on a different level from this person.

He thought in his heart, is it time for him to leave?

Nowadays, Hutchison Whampoa's "old ministers" headed by Richard Chasin seem to be watching the fire from the other side. Sometimes they support Lin Zhichao, but they have never opposed Lin Zhichao.

In this way, he felt that as the CEO, he was completely suppressed by the chairman of the board of directors above, and there were people like Richard Letter and others who were at odds with each other below.

After the meeting.

Wei Li came to Lin Zhichao's office and said proactively: "Sir Lin, you are an entrepreneur that I admire. Under your leadership, Hutchison Whampoa will surely prosper."

Lin Zhichao said modestly: "What's going on today, President Wei Li, he's flattering me, but I can't do anything for a salary increase, because your salary is determined by the board of directors. Of course, Hutchison Whampoa is under your leadership It is a fact that we have gotten back on track in the past four years."

Wei Li was stunned. He didn't expect Lin Zhichao to admit his contribution to Hutchison Whampoa so readily. However, he believed that Lin Zhichao was just a "smiling tiger" who was trying to appease himself while seizing power.

So, he said: "Sir Sir Lin, my mission at Hutchison Whampoa has been completed, so I intend to resign to you and the board of directors."

Lin Zhichao was immediately surprised and said quickly: "President Wei Li, don't think so, I never meant to drive you away."

Wei Li felt much better immediately. He found that Lin Zhichao was quite sincere, but he still said: "Of course, after working with Mr. Lin for nearly two years, I also learned some business methods, and I am very satisfied. But you know, One mountain cannot accommodate two tigers, and I will not choose to work in a real sense, so I will definitely leave Hutchison Whampoa."

When Lin Zhichao heard this, he immediately hesitated.

He also needs Wei Li, mainly from Ma Shimin, who has just resigned to start a business in Singapore (Lin Zhichao has participated in a stake, as well as the shares of the Rothschild family in Europe), so it will take Ma Shimin at least two or three years to make it possible. Join the Changshi Department.

So, if Wei Li leaves now, people like Richard Chaxin, Xia Boyin, and Wei Peter will easily become more 'deep-rooted'. Of course, Cheung Kong Group currently holds 46% of Hutchison Whampoa's equity, which is no longer unchallenged.

"Mr. Weili, your bonus is 2.5% of profits. This year you can get a bonus of almost 12 million. And next year, it will definitely be at this amount, even if there is no non-recurring profit. I know you want to start a business, but how do you start a business? I’m short of money, so why not do it for another year?”

Wei Li was stunned, but he didn't expect Lin Zhichao to keep him up.

After thinking about it, he felt that what Lin Zhichao said made sense. Of course, he also knew that Lin Zhichao wanted to keep him for one more year. He was more familiar with Hutchison Whampoa, and Lin Zhichao was also wary of Richard Richard and others.

"Okay, then I will say goodbye to Sir Lin in advance today, and I will officially resign in 1981."

"Well, it's a win-win situation."