The next morning, Li Guangyu, Li Ka-shing and others went to the Tin Shui Wai area. The Heung Kong Electric Group Power Plant officially started construction today, and all major shareholders came to attend the groundbreaking ceremony.
The Tin Shui Wai Power Plant is expected to invest 18 billion Hong Kong dollars, which is only 2 billion Hong Kong dollars less than the Chung Shan Power Plant of China Power Group. The start of this project marks the official northward expansion of Heung Kong Electric Group's business.
The construction period is divided into three phases. The first phase of the project will take three years. Once completed, it will be enough to meet the electricity consumption of residents and businesses in Tin Shui Wai and Yuen Long areas. This has taken into account the future expansion of the Tin Shui Wai area.
The Li Group is gradually increasing its investment in the Tin Shui Wai area. There are more and more workers and production companies here, and the electricity consumption is also very high.
A series of actions by the Heung Kong Electric Group have brought great pressure to the China Electric Power Group. The Heung Kong market is only so big. They originally expected the Heung Kong Electric Group to occupy the Heung Kong Island and Lamma Island areas, and they would occupy the area north of Kowloon.
That's why a huge investment of HK$2,000 million was invested in building such a large power plant to meet Hong Kong's electricity demand for many years to come.
Fortunately, before the construction of their own power plant is completed, Heung Kong Electric Group is ready to seize the market. Once the Tian Shui Wai power plant is completed, they will lose a large part of the market.
The shareholders behind Heung Kong Electric Group are too powerful, and they have a very good relationship with 80% of the real estate groups in Xiangjiang. When these groups open real estate projects, they will definitely choose to connect with Heung Kong Electric Group instead of China Electric Power Group.
If you look at the ranking of Heung Kong Real Estate Group, you will know that the top ten real estate groups in Heung Kong and Heung Kong Electric Group account for more than half of the shareholders. Especially in Tin Shui Wai, the major electricity consumer is the Lee Group. As long as the Tin Shui Wai Power Plant is put into operation, China Electric Power Group
You will lose this big customer.
At present, CLP Power Group is affected by both the stock market and Heung Kong Electric Group. The group's market value on the stock market continues to fall. The Kadoorie family is also currently under great financial pressure.
Although they transferred 40% of their shares to HSBC Standard Chartered, Jardine Matheson and Swire last year, they have never had sufficient funds due to the money hole of Qingshan Power Station.
Currently, 60% of his shares in China Power Group are still mortgaged with HSBC. This time the market value of the stock market plummeted, he had to make up the difference. Even if he and HSBC were allies, it would be useless. Shen Bi had nothing to do with it.
Way to help him.
When Li Guangyu and others attended the groundbreaking ceremony, Lawrence Kadoorie made an appointment with several shareholder representatives of China Power Group to discuss the matter at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel owned by Jardine Matheson.
In the box, Lawrence Kadoorie said: "Everyone, the current situation is very serious for our Heung Kong Electric Power Group, especially the decision of Keswick this time has also brought a huge blow to our group. If we don't take some actions,
I'm afraid that the future prospects of our China Electric Power Group will be worrying."
Henry Keswick's independent action this time made some of them very unhappy, especially Rowlands Kadoorie. 10% of their shares in China Electric Power Group were also controlled by Jardine Matheson Group. This time Jardine Matheson Group moved
In the place of registration, China Electric Power Corporation also suffered a heavy setback in the stock market. This made the Kadoorie family, which was already relatively tight on funds, now even more difficult.
Henry Keswick didn't say much about Rowlands Kadoorie's complaints. The relocation of the registered place was not decided by him alone. It was a joint decision of all the shareholders of the group. As for the current losses, he had nothing to do. , when he made the decision at that time, he was mentally prepared.
Shen Bi said: "Don't bring up the issue of Keswick anymore. Under the current situation, it is understandable that they choose to do this. And this may not only be their own decision, London must also have made a lot of efforts. Now we Let’s study the future development of China Electric Power Group, this is what we need to discuss today.”
Shen Bi is also aware of the complexity of the Jardine Group's announcement of relocation of its registered place. However, it seems that this time it will be impossible to achieve the wishes of some people. The counterattack from the Li Group was too fast and too harsh.
This time, the total investment made by the Lee Group and its interest groups exceeded HK$30 billion. Not to mention the relocation of the Jardine Matheson Group, even if Swire was added, they could all offset it.
The situation faced by China Power Group now is that their power plant has been halfway built. If they choose not to continue investing at this time, they will lose billions of Hong Kong dollars.
After it is completed, it is likely to face limited customer resources and there will be no need for so many engine units to operate, and it will only become a decoration.
Now they are riding a tiger between a rock and a hard place. In the past, Xiangjiang Electric Group was their ally, each occupied its own territory, and everyone seemed to be in peace.
Now the situation has changed. After the Li Group joined, they are obviously not satisfied with only occupying 30% of the electricity market in Xiangjiang. The Tin Shui Wai Power Station is their first step to seize the market.
Moreover, there is no possibility of peace talks between them and Heungkong Electric Group in this regard. It is impossible for them to just give up the market, and it is impossible for Heungkong Electric Group to just hold on to the market it currently occupies.
Now Henry Keswick is too busy with his own affairs in Yihe, so he still has the energy to consider the problems of China Electric Power Group. In this regard, he just listened quietly and did not say anything.
The former leader of the British-funded consortium is now completely silent. In the future, Jardine Matheson Group may not be able to represent the British-funded consortium in Hong Kong.
And Wooden Swire does not care too much about this. Now their main asset, Swire Holdings, the Lee Consortium occupies nearly one-third of the shares, and the Singaporean consortium occupies nearly one-fifth of the shares. Both companies join forces. He can be kicked out of the group.
Fortunately, Li Guangyu doesn't seem to have the intention to kill everyone. His Shihuaiya family has firmly controlled the company, and his beverage orders are increasing through the channels of Hengyu City and Watsons. Recently, he is planning to establish a New beverage production company to cope with continued growth in orders.
Wooden Shihuaiya felt that getting along with the Li Group like this would not be harmful to the Shihuai family. As long as they could make money, there was no need to think about grabbing the market with the Li Group.
As for his group's shares in China Electric Power Corporation, Wooden Swire is ready to trade them out at the appropriate time. He doesn't want the group to continue to invest in them.
Judging from the current situation, it is difficult to recover the cost of the huge investment in the Castle Peak Power Station in the short term. Especially after the operation of the Tin Shui Wai Power Plant, it may cause the profitability of China Power Group to drop significantly, and recovering the cost may be a luxury.
Rowlands Kadoorie looked at the reactions of these people and felt very uncomfortable. How could such a cooperative alliance compete with the Li Group? Everyone only cares about their own interests and does not consider their allies. How can this continue? It would be weird to go on.
Then he talked about some of his own views. Qingshan Power Station should continue to be built, and at the same time provide more discounts to customers, so as to capture more customers before the Tianshuiwei Power Plant is established.
After all, electricity involves wiring. As long as customers use the habits of their own group, they will not choose to replace it if there is no big benefit. After all, this aspect is still quite troublesome.
Shen Bi said: "Kadoorie, construction can continue. The only problem is whether we can reduce the installation of electric motor units. When there is demand in the future, we will purchase new electric motor units, so that we can also reduce some investment."
Henry Keswick and Wooden Shihuai Ya also agreed with Shen Bi's proposal. At present, the lives of their two major groups are not very easy, and they can save a little.