Chapter 279 Hutchison Whampoa’s three major businesses in the future

Author: Underwater Wild Fish

Chapter 279 Hutchison Whampoa’s three major businesses in the future

KMB is ranked among the top 100 listed companies in Hong Kong. In the eyes of many people, it is already considered a very large company, with two to three thousand employees alone. But for Hong Kong's top business giants,

After just a few words, the decision to quickly acquire KMB was made. The meeting went on and then ended, but the top managers of Galaxy and Hutchison Whampoa stayed on.

"Drink some coffee." Chen Zhiwen gestured, and the assistant next to him quickly went out to prepare.

"How are you preparing for the acquisition of Hong Kong Electric?" Chen Zhiwen asked again.

When the meeting just started, not only Zhou Jiayang, Xu Jinhong and others came, but also dozens of vice presidents from several companies, etc. The acquisition of a small company like Kowloon Bus was very sure, and the company knew that

There are actually a few people, but Hong Kong Electric is different. It is one of the top ten listed companies in Hong Kong. Its acquisition is absolutely confidential. Only the top managers of Galaxy, Hutchison and Whampoa participated and those directly under them

Only the trading team found out, and everyone in the latter group had signed a very strict confidentiality agreement and a high salary, so high that they could not go home once a year.

"During this period, we have been using the oil crisis to control public opinion and prevent the Hong Kong government from agreeing to the requests of the two power companies to increase Hong Kong's electricity prices. Hong Kong Electric's stock price has been in a sluggish state, and we currently own almost 20% of the stock."

Zhou Jiayang replied.

"That's okay. Let's continue the acquisition. When it reaches almost 30%, we will announce the acquisition plan." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said. Hong Kong Electric's market value is as high as more than 3 billion Hong Kong dollars, which is not at the same level as Kowloon Bus. Even if the funds are sufficient, secretly

Acquisitions are also much more difficult.

"But now there is a problem." Zhou Jiayang added: "I bribed a senior executive of Hong Kong Electric and learned that Hong Kong Electric was planning to package all the land in its hands, and then form a joint venture with Cheung Kong Industries to develop these lands.

, it is said that the negotiation requirements between the two parties are very different now, but I think this is a very dangerous matter. With Li Jiacheng's ability, if it really succeeds, then even if we acquire Hong Kong Electric, the deal is already done, and we can only

Collaborated with old Li Jiacheng."

"Li Jiacheng? This ability is really strong enough." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, although he took away Hutchison Whampoa that would have belonged to him, his ability always existed. In the golden age of the rapid explosion of the real estate market, other

Opportunities can also allow Li Jiacheng to rise.

"Yes, Li Ka-shing just cooperated with Swire Group to develop several pieces of land last year. It is said that he made hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars. Cheung Kong Holdings has now become the largest property holding company in Hong Kong." Zhou Jiayang said.

"The biggest?" Chen Zhiwen asked curiously. Although Li Jiacheng is indeed very strong, he shouldn't be this strong yet? Land's status is not comparable to that of Hutchison Whampoa + Galaxy Real Estate + Wharf.

"The largest area. Li Ka-shing owns a large amount of land in many remote places, such as Yuen Long, Sha Tin, and Sham Shui Po. He also cooperates with many British-funded companies to develop land. At present, the property area in the hands of Cheung Kong Holdings has exceeded that of Land. It is the location.

It’s much different, the value is estimated to be seven to eight times different.” Zhou Jiayang explained.

"That's not bad. With the route of surrounding the city from the countryside, with his development speed, sooner or later he will enter the prosperous areas of Hong Kong. With his ability, many British investors will also like to cooperate with him." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said,

I have to say that this trick works. Hong Kong housing prices have been driven up by many interest groups. Most companies are sitting in prosperous areas and enjoying the soaring land prices, but some people are working hard in remote places because they know that many people have to

Evacuating the city center will make it easier for these people.

The rise of Chinese capital in Hong Kong is actually a matter of seizing this opportunity. Otherwise, in the early days, how many people would be qualified to compete with several major British capital groups on Hong Kong Island or Tsim Sha Tsui?

"Sheng Chen, what should we do? If we start the acquisition war in advance, our costs will be higher. But if it is too late, we are afraid that Li Jiacheng will reach an agreement with Hong Kong Electric, which will be troublesome." Zhou Jiayang analyzed

.

"Then don't wait. Just like Kowloon Bus, let's go directly to the public acquisition." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said: "The acquisition has reached 34.9%. Let's not trigger the acquisition invitation first. Then we will talk to the senior management of Hong Kong Electric. Those who understand current affairs are heroes.

, as long as someone cooperates with us, it is enough. If it doesn’t work, we will still use the old trick of convening a shareholders’ meeting.”

In order to protect British capital, the Hong Kong government reduced the acquisition ratio that triggered a takeover offer from 50% to 35%. This change meant that once only 49.9% of the shares were received, one could absolutely and directly control the entire company, but now the 34.9% is still

No, you can only get one veto power. If the original shareholders or management do not cooperate, if you want to completely obtain the company's operating rights, you must go through the shareholders' meeting. The most troublesome thing about the shareholders' meeting is that it is difficult to recruit everyone.

It is also difficult to find 15% of the people who come to invest in us, especially the management teams of several large British-owned companies. After decades of operation, their relationships have already penetrated most of the company's relevant stakeholders.

Although it cannot be said that it will never succeed, this change in the law has made the acquirer's probability of success much lower. In later years, during the Yizhi Mutual Control period in 1984 and in 1987, Chinese giants wanted to acquire Land many times.

, I am trapped by this article and cannot give up in the end.

But this trick had little effect on Chen Zhiwen. In several acquisitions in recent years, he deliberately left several companies unprivatized in order to prove to investors in Hong Kong that the future prospects of the companies he acquired were unlimited.

For example, in the two years since Taohua Datong was acquired, due to the booming overseas sales of a hot sauce product, the market value of Taohua Datong has quadrupled, which is much higher than the increase in land prices in Hong Kong. The same is true for Wharf, whose market value has also increased.

As high as 4 billion Hong Kong dollars, those who voted for Chen Zhiwen to take over the Wharf have all received certain rewards.

The reason for doing this is to facilitate future acquisitions, such as Hong Kong Electric, and the land that makes him even more jealous.

"Okay, then I will announce the news after the year." Zhou Jiayang nodded and said. If the acquisition of Hong Kong Electric is successful, then the overall strength of their alliance will probably surpass the Jardine Group.

"Okay." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, "But keeping you here, Hong Kong Electric is just one of the things. The other thing is to discuss the future of Galaxy and how Hutchison Whampoa should develop."

"Sheng Chen, please speak." Zhou Jiayang and Xu Jinhong immediately became attentive.

"You also know that I mobilized funds from Hong Kong to go overseas more than a year ago and invested in a good project. I have already obtained good profits, so I will return to you double the funds you gave me originally. So it is so big

A sum of money needs to be invested in a suitable direction." Chen Zhiwen smiled and said that no one in Hong Kong knew about gold speculation, including his parents.

"If you have so much money, it is really not suitable to invest in the current real estate market. The bubble is already too big. It is not time to acquire large properties and hold them. If you develop properties and sell them, there will be too much money." Zhou Jiayang thought.

Liao Xiang said that Hutchison Whampoa raised US$600 million for Chen Zhiwen and signed a lot of debts for this purpose. Most of the profits last year were used to repay debts. Now if double the amount is returned, it will be close to US$1.2 billion.

This amount of capital is not absolutely unacceptable in today's Hong Kong real estate market, but since you are doing real estate, you must be desperately using other people's money, which is equivalent to the principle of financial leverage. If you leverage another US$1.2 billion, it will be too much. Even if

To invest in a Hong Kong real estate company, a leverage of US$100 million can drive several very large projects.

"So it's time to start Hutchison's former business." Chen Zhiwen smiled and said: "I hope that Hutchison can develop in several directions in the future. The first one is the existing advantage, the port business."

"As for the port, the Hong Kong government has no intention of expanding the Kwai Chung Terminal recently. There are no opportunities in Hong Kong. If we want to expand, we can only choose overseas. Are we going to acquire ports in Europe and the United States?" Zhou Jiayang asked.

"Not Europe and the United States, but the Mainland." Chen Zhiwen pointed to a world map on the table and said. Although he doesn't know whether the future ports in Europe and the United States can make money, what Chen Zhiwen knows is that the next few years will be a nightmare for the shipping market. Although the ports

Theoretically, both winter and summer prevail, but there are differences after all. If the global economy is not doing well and ocean shipping capacity is declining, then life at ports will also be difficult.

On the contrary, the current domestic situation is full of waste, and there are not many ports, and the ones that are there are not very good. They are not in line with modern ocean transportation at all, and the country has been short of funds in the past twenty years, which is exactly what I have invested in.

Good opportunity. Although the mainland's exports are very low now, except for a few big cities, there is probably no need for large ports. But you can win by quantity first, and every quantity can occupy a position.

"Chen Sheng, investment in ports should not be allowed in China now, right?" Zhou Jiayang said.

"There is no legal provision that does not allow it. The details still depend on whether there is such an opportunity in the future. As long as the country wants to develop its economy, ports are necessary, especially for the export of industrial products. Eastern Guangdong Province can still rely on Hong Kong ports, but for other

This is not a good place. This is a long-term goal, and it doesn’t matter whether it succeeds this year or next year, so what you have to do now is to send some people who know the port to go to some coastal cities in the mainland to find suitable locations, and then the group or I will

Come forward and talk to the domestic government about these matters." Chen Zhiwen said.

You must know that ports are not just cabbage. They cannot be built wherever they want. In many places, there may be hundreds of kilometers of coastline without finding a suitable port. For example, Shanghai in later generations did not have a suitable deep-water port.

Finally, a suitable location was obtained from Zhejiang.

As for Hutchison Whampoa, plus some of the funds that can be transferred back from the United States in the future, its scale is at least as large as that of the Fortune 500. It is unlikely that such a large-scale company will continue to seek ways to make money quickly as before.

, when the plate is too big, it is impossible to develop rapidly. What is more important is to invest in long-term projects with large and stable returns.

Of course, you can make quick money, and of course you can’t miss it. Only when you make quick money can you have more capital to invest in various big projects.

"Okay, now Hong Kong people can go directly to the mainland. After the year, I will arrange for relevant professionals to go to the mainland for inspection." Zhou Jiayang nodded and said.

"Hutchison Whampoa's second business is retail. Both PARKnSHOP and RT-Mart can fully expand in Southeast Asia. We should follow our previous rules and set up joint ventures with local capital giants and purchase some materials locally.

If Galaxy Trading has advantages, it will purchase from Galaxy. The profits can be shared generously with the joint venture partners, but we must control the purchasing side, and at least Galaxy Trading must become the main supplier." Chen Zhiwen continued.

The overseas expansion of retail supermarkets, based on the experience of countless giants in the future, basically few companies can achieve real success. American supermarkets are barely surviving in Europe and Asia, and European supermarkets are suffering serious losses in the Americas and Asia. Foreign companies manage the local market.

Supermarkets generally do not operate well because they do not understand the local market at all. This is completely different from a traditional product. Supermarkets are a business that combines tens of thousands of products, and this is not a factory. It will seriously infringe

to the interests of other local capital.

Rather than force yourself to operate overseas, it is better to cooperate with local giants, which is similar to licensing. However, as the licensor, you need to have certain purchasing control rights and financial supervision. However, even so, the risks are still very high.

"Over in Wanwan, we have now opened 6 RT-Mart supermarkets and 16 PARKnSHOP supermarkets. At present, the business is okay and maintaining it is not a problem. In Southeast Asia, our people are working with the Kerry Group owned by Malaysia's richest man Robert Kuok.

The negotiations are currently progressing well, and it is expected that the contract will be signed this year. By then, we will jointly invest in building a supermarket chain in Malaysia and jointly manage it. With Malaysia's population and even if the economy is slightly worse, the market will be several times that of Hong Kong.

"Zhou Jiayang said.

"Guo Henian? Okay, this person has a pretty good reputation." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said, at least judging from some of the reviews of later generations, Robert Kuok is really a good capitalist.

"Actually, the main reason is that Robert Kuok has been slowly transferring his assets to Hong Kong over the years, which reassures us a lot. Otherwise, if he cheats us in Southeast Asia, his investment in Hong Kong will not be able to escape." Yang Xiao of the Zhou family said.

"This is a good idea. Half of the rich people in Southeast Asia are Chinese. Many of these Chinese rich people are thinking of transferring some of their assets to Hong Kong. It is not just supermarket chains. If there are other businesses in the future, these Chinese can also be given priority to cooperate.

, this way, the security will be much higher." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

In fact, except for a few Chinese, others may not really like Hong Kong, but in places like Southeast Asia, there are too many wealthy Chinese, which is a bit like the Lin family's evil sword manual. Generally speaking, life safety is not a big problem, but assets are.

It’s hard to say. Therefore, many people moved to Europe and the United States, and some came to Hong Kong. After all, this is still a Chinese society, and many people are not used to settling among white people.

"That's what I think." Zhou Yang said with a smile.

"Then follow this idea. As long as we can open up the sales of Galaxy Trade in Southeast Asia, then many products will have more sales." Chen Zhiwen continued.

Just because a country is poor does not mean that prices must be very cheap. On the contrary, because there is no industry, many industrial products will be very expensive. Hong Kong, Bay Area, and the mainland's light industry in the future are very developed, and can reduce the cost of many industrial products very low.

Another problem in poor countries is that there is a serious information gap, and countless people within them cannot obtain cheap industrial products from the outside world.

Large supermarkets are actually weapons to crack this type of information gap. If the supermarket operates smoothly, the cost can be reduced to an appropriate price, thereby making everyone profit. However, the former vested interests will suffer serious losses. Therefore, it is necessary to cooperate with local

Strong people will cooperate and the other party will come forward to solve these problems, while Baijia and Galaxy Trade will provide cheap materials and share the profits together in the end.

"Okay." Zhou Jiayang agreed.

"The third business is something that Hutchison Whampoa has not been involved in before. I hope Hutchison Whampoa will enter the energy and mineral industry." Chen Zhiwen continued.
To be continued...