The Industrial Giant Reborn

A week later, many real estate giants in Hong Kong came to a meeting room on the highest floor of the Hilton Hotel.

"Everyone, everyone who came here is interested in investing in Hengyi Group. Here is the basic information before we prepare to go public. You can take a look. The current price is 5 Hong Kong dollars per share. Everyone here can get up to 1,000 Hong Kong dollars. Ten thousand shares, after reading the information, you can decide how many shares to buy, but there is a requirement for this transaction, that is half of the transaction, you need to exchange shares with your own company." Chen Tianfu was at the front, smiling Introduced.

The stock exchange was proposed by my son before. Although the main purpose of this IPO is to raise money, the real estate crisis that they predicted is still a year or two away, and even the preparations are made so early because they want many projects to be implemented slowly. Cash out, and after this listing, the large amount of cash in Hengyi's hands can't really be kept for interest. It is a very good choice to buy the top few or even the top ten real estate companies in Hong Kong. Not only now, but after obtaining funds after listing, there will also be investment plans in this direction.

"A total of 800 million shares, Chen Sheng is going to set off a big firework." Zheng Yutong from New World Group said in surprise after seeing the number.

"It's only 4 billion Hong Kong dollars. The value of Hengyi is far more than that." Another person laughed and said, it was Chen Zengxi of Hang Lung Group.

"That's right." Several people echoed, just looking at the half-year profit of 170 million Hong Kong dollars, this can almost rank among the top five real estate companies in Hong Kong, and the fifth-ranked real estate company in Hong Kong has a market value of about four or five billion. Hong Kong dollars, and the biggest advantage of Hengyi Group is that it is backed by Chen Zhiwen. This advantage is even more important than 2 billion Hong Kong dollars in cash. Not to mention that Hengyi Company itself has a cash reserve of 870 million Hong Kong dollars.

Everyone is discussing with each other, only Li Jiacheng of Cheung Kong Industrial Co., Ltd. is carefully looking at the information released by Hengyi. As a shareholder who is about to invest, he can get more comprehensive information than ordinary shareholders. However, the specific business There is no confidentiality, generally it is the approximate profit, the number of projects, the number of self-owned properties, rental income and so on.

"Li Sheng?" A familiar voice suddenly came from Li Jiacheng's side, and when he looked up, it was Hu Yingxiang from Hehe Industrial.

"Hu Sheng, what advice do you have?" Li Jiacheng asked with a smile.

"It's nothing. I see that Li Sheng read it so seriously. I seem to have discovered something. I'm a lazy person. I'm lazy to read these too cumbersome materials. It's like asking Li Sheng." Hu Yingxiang said with a smile.

"I'm just looking at it. It's my habit. I look at it more seriously." Li Jiacheng said with a light smile, and immediately changed the subject: "I heard that Hu Sheng has talked about many projects in the Mainland recently? Or with Chen Zhiwen and Chen Chen?" born together?"

"Li Sheng is really well-informed." Hu Yingxiang nodded and said, "I heard that Li Sheng has served as the director of CITIC Group in the Mainland?"

The existence of the Taishan Society is currently only known to a few of them, and no outsiders have been informed, but there must be some traces of their investment, but these have nothing to do with Hong Kong. In theory, no one in Hong Kong should know, after all It is still only an investment intention and a verbal negotiation, but there must be a lot of high-level people in China who know about it. As a director of CITIC Group, it is possible for Li Jiacheng to know about this matter. After all, CITIC Group was actually created domestically to attract foreign capital.

"Just an honorary director, how can it compare to Hu Sheng's large-scale investment in various parts of the country." Li Jiacheng said with a light smile.

"Does Li Sheng have any plans for Hengyi's investment this time?" Hu Yingxiang asked again.

"Of course, I want 10 million shares, what about Hu Sheng?" Li Jiacheng asked rhetorically.

"Same." Hu Ying said with a smile.

"Although Hengyi is not owned by Chen Zhiwen, it is basically the same. If there is an opportunity, of course we have to do it. I also heard that Chen Zhiwen's Costco in the United States is also preparing to raise funds. Unfortunately, we in Hong Kong probably cannot invest." Li Jiacheng shook his head and said regretfully.

"It's normal. Costco mainly develops in the United States, and has nothing to do with Hong Kong. Of course, it will not introduce capital from Hong Kong. However, if it is listed in the United States, then Li Sheng can also buy some." Hu Yingxiang said with a smile.

"We'll see when the time comes." Li Jiacheng nodded and said.

This meeting achieved a very good result. Almost everyone is willing to invest. Six people directly promised to buy 10 million shares at the beginning. Others may not choose all due to financial pressure, but they also promised to inform the purchaser soon. how much.

After the party, Chen Tianfu treated guests and had a sumptuous lunch at the Hilton Hotel. After that, everyone went back to their respective homes.

Hengyi conducted the only equity sale as planned, but at the same time obtained 530 million Hong Kong dollars in cash and 470 million Hong Kong dollars worth of stocks with strong future potential, including Cheung Kong, Henderson Land, Sun Hung Kai Properties, New World Group Wait, there are a few other companies that were severely taught by the real estate crisis in 1983, such as Hang Lung Properties, Great Eagle Group, and Heng Yi. Now to 1982, these stocks can still rise some.

Unlike Nasdaq technology companies, as a real estate company in Hong Kong, one round of financing is enough, and the next step is to submit materials to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and prepare for listing. When the news spreads among the public, even more It has aroused the interest of many people. When various acquisition wars broke out before, although there were many opportunities, there were also risks. When a new company goes public, especially in such a good real estate market, coupled with Hengyi's background and profitability, how many People are already preparing funds, and they are ready to start when the time comes.

Hong Kong's real estate market and financial market are still rising at a steady rate, but the rate of increase is no longer comparable to the previous few years. The Hang Seng Index has also reached 1900 points, surpassing the previous record in 1973. Not only Heng Yi, Many other companies are also queuing up for listing, and even some large companies are planning to package their subsidiaries or some businesses into a new company to apply for listing, in order to collect more funds in the stock market.

Chen Zhiwen has also seen the madness of the stock market. According to the original history, although the next economic crisis in Hong Kong began in September 1982, two years away from now, by the middle of next year, the entire market will start to grow weak. The arrangement is to allow his real estate companies and Hengyi to slowly switch their businesses to adapt to this change. After all, these companies rank high in the real estate business in Hong Kong, and they also have thousands of employees. With tens of thousands of people, it is impossible to prepare to close all of them suddenly. We can only slowly complete the risk elimination step by step, and at the same time obtain more cash to prepare for bottom hunting in the future.

Professionals do professional things. After Chen Zhiwen has finished guiding the direction, he will basically not ask about the details. In the future, it only needs a period of time to know the progress.

And far away in the United States, an important matter is about to be completed. The U.S. Department of Commerce approved Chen Zhiwen’s acquisition of AMC (American Automobile Group) at a price of 216 million U.S. dollars, and at the same time assumed the company’s foreign debt of about 350 million U.S. dollars.

There are some other conditions. For example, the labor union does not require large-scale layoffs. However, in today's environment, the labor union is not so tough and allows appropriate salary cuts when the company's performance is poor. This is actually the result of the American negotiating team. Either do not buy, or have to make appropriate concessions. The main purpose of this is to save money. The main purpose is not to let the trade unions ride on their heads.

So, Chen Zhiwen boarded his private plane on October 3 and went to the future city of sin, Detroit. Of course, now, this is the automobile capital of the United States.

The Boeing 747 with two additional fuel tanks can easily go from any city in the world to any other city. At the same time, because the plane is large enough, it basically has little effect when it encounters ordinary air currents. At most, people shake slightly. Two times, and if it is a large airflow, it can be detected in advance, so that everyone inside the plane feels like they are on land.

The stewardesses inside the plane have been replaced by three Hong Kong people who were recruited from Cathay Pacific. Although there are many beauties with blonde and brown hair in European and American whites, it’s okay to experience their services occasionally, but it’s okay to face them often. Meaning.

Working on a private jet is much easier than a normal flight, and often even takes a month off, and the income is much higher. This naturally allows the flight attendants to do their best to serve the owner of the plane. .

After a 16-hour flight, the plane arrived at Detroit Airport.

Gu Dehua, who was scheduled to be Chen Zhiwen's representative in AMC in the future, naturally came to pick up the plane, but at the tail of the private jet, there were already two special bulletproof Mercedes-Benz cars, one with left-hand drive and the other with right-hand drive, so that Chen Zhiwen could use it in different countries.

Gu Dehua also got into the bulletproof Mercedes-Benz sedan, and the other vehicles that picked up the plane led the way to the headquarters of AMC.

As the current automobile capital of the United States, more than half of the cars in the entire United States are produced in this city. On the way forward, I saw a GM factory and a Chrysler factory, plus dozens of different parts. The supplier factory, but Chrysler's factory seems to be more lively, and many people gathered at the door to strike.

"Chrysler is still not doing well recently?" Chen Zhiwen asked with a smile.

"Not only Chrysler, but the entire American auto manufacturing industry is not doing well. The White House has made it clear that they want to force the American auto giants to get out of their comfort zone, and either reform or die. The life of the three giants is not easy." Gu Dehua introduced : "The U.S. auto industry has always pursued the pursuit of large power and strong power. It has never cared about fuel consumption. In the past, oil prices were low, so it didn't matter, but now oil prices have risen 10 times compared to 7 years ago, and the entire United States is also very short of fuel. , The White House directly issued a restriction order, General Motors and Ford Chrysler rushed to launch new products in order to meet the regulations, but the market feedback was poor, and it became like this over time. Chrysler even almost went bankrupt.”

"Now is indeed the darkest time." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said. Before the shale oil technology revolution, the United States was the world's largest oil importer. In the past, the United States was able to control the entire Middle East, so the source of oil was naturally not a problem. The United States has been caught in the quagmire of foreign wars several times, its control over the world has weakened, and with polar bears behind it, the Middle East, the largest oil exporter, will naturally not be willing to sell oil cheaply. Over the past few decades, the oppression of the Middle East has been too severe, coupled with local conflicts, resulting in two world-level oil crises within 7 years, and Western countries have fallen into a serious shortage of oil.

The soaring oil price has made the global economy worse, a large number of Americans have lost their jobs, and companies have gone bankrupt or suffered serious losses.

Although it can be said that the development of Costco and Wal-Mart is inevitable, they are actually taking advantage of this advantage. After all, if most Americans are not short of money, they will be more willing to go shopping in nearby supermarkets, even if the price is a little more expensive. Instead of going to cheap supermarkets far away.

For the three major American auto giants, the soaring oil price can be said to be a fatal blow. Before the 1970s, Americans liked cars with strong power and large space. American auto companies naturally developed in this direction, but the engine and gearbox Technology research and development is too difficult. Instead of researching how to increase power while saving fuel consumption, it is better to just make the engine bigger and the fuel tank bigger. Anyway, the car is also big, so before the 1970s, V8-level engines were only available in the United States. The standard configuration of ordinary cars is cheap anyway.

The Japanese auto industry mainly develops how to save fuel, because Japan is seriously short of oil, and its technology in other aspects is much worse than that of German and American cars. Before the 1970s, Japanese cars could only be sold locally and in a few countries. sales, but the emergence of the oil crisis made the entire United States fall in love with Japanese cars at once.

After all, no matter how much you like power, what is the use of more power when you go to the gas station and find that you are out of gas? Or spend a hundred dollars on oil, and it turns out to be gone in a few days. Who can afford it for ordinary Americans with a monthly income of one or two thousand dollars?

As a result, the three giants have completely declined in the past few years, lingering on their last legs, but what no one knows is that after the second oil crisis is over, the world will attract a long period of low oil prices, which also makes the three giants of the United States succeed. After coming out of the quagmire, even Chrysler, although it has the credit of Li Iacocca, but the main reason for its survival is that the price of oil has dropped, and Americans have begun to like cars with high fuel consumption and high power.

Of course, the same is true for AMC, but it is much smaller than the three giants.

Gu Dehua naturally didn't know the future, he continued: "Li Iacocca went to Washington last month and met with several officials from the Ministry of Commerce. This month, the US Department of Commerce approved our acquisition, which may have a lot to do with him."

"It can be regarded as taking what they need." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, he needs the permission of the US government, and Chrysler needs to sell its assets to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars in cash.

The car soon arrived at the gate of the headquarters of the AMC Automobile Group. This is a large building with only 6 floors. Behind it is the factory of AMC Automobile. In such an industrial area with cheap land, it is obviously not cost-effective to build high-rise buildings. of.

About 20 white Americans were waiting for Chen Zhiwen at the gate. After the car arrived, when Chen Zhiwen got off the car, everyone stepped forward and greeted each other.

This is not the first time Chen Zhiwen has come here. He has been here when he was preparing for the acquisition, but he was very low-key at the time, and only met with some high-level executives of AMC to discuss some basic things. The follow-up will be followed by a professional team. Enter.

The current CEO of AMC is named Jim Hughes. This old man has been in power for 20 years, and he can be said to be the minister of AMC.

"Mr. Chen, please come inside." After everyone greeted each other, as a landlord, Jim Hughes quickly invited the future boss to enter.

In the interior of AMC, a lot of thought was put into welcoming Chen Zhiwen, and a sign was specially placed at the door, which was written in traditional Chinese. However, Chen Zhiwen did not go directly to the upstairs office, but asked to transfer to the lap.

This is an inevitable itinerary, and AMC has also made preparations. The environment in the entire workshop is also very good. After seeing this group of people, many white workers also greeted them politely.

What is produced in this workshop is the best-selling Jeep under the AMC Group, which is the first car brand in the history of joint venture production with the mainland. It could have taken this opportunity to become one of the main cars in the mainland. , However, due to the short-sightedness of AMC's top management, this opportunity was finally missed.

Before industrial PLC (automatic control technology) was applied on a large scale, the automation level of automobile production lines was still not high, and many of them relied on labor, but basically there would be certain equipment assistance. For all kinds of heavy parts, there are forklifts, small cranes, etc. on site, but they are still far behind the mechanical arms of later generations.

However, it is precisely because of this that the investment in automobile production lines is much lower, allowing many small brands of automobiles to have a chance to survive. After all, the large-scale production lines of later generations are characterized by high investment and high output, but they can To reduce production costs, this type of production line can only be played by large companies. This is why since the 1980s and 1990s, various car brands in Europe and the United States have been gradually acquired by various giants. The fundamental reason is the development of technology, which has led to capital The monopoly effect is getting stronger.

"The production capacity here, how many units can be produced in a day?" Chen Zhiwen asked after walking around.

"The maximum production capacity is 350 units a day, but the current market is not good. We generally only produce 160 units a day, and the night shift has been removed." Jim Hughes said.

"Sales of 50,000 units a year? It's actually not bad." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, one advantage of the semi-automated production line is that the initial investment is not large, so the pressure on production capacity is not too great.

"Jeep is positioned as hard-core off-road. Although many people like it in the United States, it is still a small market and consumes a lot of fuel. However, Jeep's positioning is relatively high, and the profit is still considerable." Jim Hughes said.

"How does the jeep drive on the sand?" Chen Zhiwen asked suddenly.

"On the sand? Of course, this is no problem. Although the current production is not a military vehicle, it is only a little bit worse in terms of performance. There is no problem on the sand." Jim Hughes said.

"Then let me give you a suggestion." Chen Zhiwen continued: "Send people to the Middle East and sell cars there. The Middle East can be said to be very rich now, and they don't care about the price. There is a high demand for the off-road function of the car before it can be repaired in time, and as for the gas cost, it is not a problem, as the gas there is cheaper than water.”

Speaking of off-road-loving countries, who else is there besides the Middle East? A lot of rich people here like off-road and big cars. It is a market with great potential. Although it may not be as big as the United States, it does not need to build factories in the Middle East, and more orders can be produced here.

"In fact, we have also considered the market in the Middle East, but because of financial pressure, we have not done marketing there. Now it has begun to be occupied by some other brands. If we go again, the initial investment will not be low. said Jim Hughes.

"Leave this to me." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, "I have other companies under my umbrella that have developed in the Middle East for many years. Although they are not selling cars, they have many relationships. I will invest in the Middle East alone. Build a car sales and after-sales center there, but in terms of technology, we need your support."

"That's no problem." Jim Hughes said happily. Although the sales of cars mainly depend on the quality and cost performance, channels also play a big role. Product sales.

Especially with regard to export, it is almost impossible to be able to gain a foothold in a country without a large amount of investment and long-term cultivation in a country. After all, there is a limit to the scope that a site can serve. If you want to do it well, at least a big city One, for many small companies, the financial pressure is too great, and if you fully rely on others, unless your product is very popular, otherwise, at most, it will be sold by others.