The "Octopus Bank" building located on Des Voeux Road in Central was officially opened. Friends, business partners, and banking colleagues of Lin Zuhui came to congratulate him.
The Octopus Bank Building is the merger of the original Hong Kee Building and the Chinese Bank Building. It is 28 stories high and has a floor area of 326,000 square feet.
The current ownership belongs to New Era Commercial Management, but Lam plans to sell it to Octopus Bank at a reasonable price in 1995.
The land cost of this building is just over 1 billion, and the construction cost is 800 million, for a total cost of 1.8 billion. If the current price of Grade A office buildings in Central is at least 4.2 billion (unit price is 13,000 per square foot).
This building is open on three sides, facing Des Voeux Road, Pottinger Street, and Connaught Road respectively. It is in a first-class location. If it weren't for Lin Zuhui to merge the building, it would be difficult for anyone to successfully merge it. Naturally, it would not be possible.
Will have such a beautiful building.
The first thing to do when merging a property is to find the right time. The best time is when the real estate is at a low point. Of course, finding the right time is not enough. You have to buy it at a high price. In this way, the owner will be tempted to sell to you.
When we first acquired the Chinese Bank Building, it was after the crash in 1989. At that time, not only was the market not good, but there were also risks, and immigration agencies had to queue up.
Lin Zuhui happily entertained all the guests, especially the executives/chairmen of HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, and ZG Bank.
Puisi smiled and said: "Mr. Lin, a banker, makes us feel inferior. The development speed of Octopus Bank is really unbelievable. I'm afraid we can smooth out the 'accumulated losses' this year, right?"
Lin Zuhui pretended not to know and asked He Changhong: "President He, can you turn the accumulated losses into profits this year?"
Ho Changhong smiled and said to Pu Weishi: "I'm afraid it's still a little bit close, but our business is developing well and we are not in a hurry for success. For us at Octopus Bank, stability is the most important."
Everyone couldn't help but secretly slander, stability is the most important thing, so why are you still speculating on spot gold?
In fact, what Puisi is most worried about is not that Octopus Bank threatens HSBC, but that Octopus Bank threatens Hang Seng Bank (subsidiary), because both banks focus on "personal retail business."
Puisi said: "With the help of talents like President He, Mr. Lin has managed Octopus Bank very well!"
Ho Chang-hong said quickly: "Pu Weishi's senior class has received the award. Octopus Bank's achievements today are due to the boss's trust in us and the unity of our colleagues." He did not talk about the credit of the boss, which is what Lin Zuhui always meant.
Lin Zuhui's idea is very simple. Being a bank is not a company. If he is involved in too many things and is not a full-time banker, then it will be detrimental to the bank itself.
The bank's money is the bank's money, not personal money, this is what Lin Zuhui said to himself.
Therefore, Octopus Bank will be listed at the end of 1996 and then expand overseas.
After chatting with bankers for a while, everyone discovered that Lin Zuhui really knew very little about Octopus Bank, and they couldn't help but be secretly surprised. It is obviously a wholly-owned bank, but it behaves like a manager system of a listed company.
After chatting with everyone for a while, Lin Zuhui held a ribbon-cutting ceremony, and the invited guests were senior executives from HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, and ZG Bank. They cut the ribbon with him, which made the media secretly marvel. Lin Zuhui's reputation was so great that everyone finally understood.
They are obviously competitors, but they all come to support and advertise.
Octopus Bank finally has a good headquarters!
When Lin Zuhui started a bank, he did not want to make it big, but just wanted it to be a part of his own financial group, so that he could complete some financial investment conveniences for him in the future.
After the event, Lin Zuhui came to the office on the top floor and sat there thinking.
Octopus Bank will definitely go overseas, acquire foreign banks, or set up local branches. Policies in almost all countries allow it (important banks must pass national-level approval, and small banks do not have much hindrance).
Of course, Lin Zuhui does not want to make it big. He mainly wants to establish a banking network around the world to cooperate with the business activities of Octopus Financial Group.
As for Octopus Bank, with his golden finger, its thirty-year development policy will not go wrong. As for the bank's asset value thirty years from now, the bank's asset value will be strong enough, and its operations can become conservative by then.
Therefore, after Octopus Bank is listed, it is time to launch a full-scale attack.
Octopus Financial Group currently has three businesses: banking, securities, and insurance. Securities and insurance are currently just experiments and have not yet been seriously developed.
Lin Zuhui always feels that Octopus Financial Group still lacks a core. Yes, it is the core.
Banking, securities, insurance, to put it bluntly, it's just a service business, and it doesn't give Lin Zuhui any sense of accomplishment.
He is a man with a golden finger. If this is the case, even if these three industries are developed and expanded, he feels that the upper limit is not high and there is nothing to be happy about.
right!
There are Morgan Stanley and Morgan Stanley in the United States, why don't they become investment banks?
For a long time, Lin Zuhui has been somewhat resistant to making "risk investments". That is because he has enough funds to buy stocks from the secondary market after those companies are listed. This can reduce his "prophetic" risk and avoid him having nothing to do.
The image of being unable.
After all, SoftBank was so powerful in its previous life. It bet on Yahoo and Alibaba, but in the end it almost lost money and went bankrupt. The reason is very simple, because SoftBank invested in hundreds of companies, and some even lost billions of dollars or tens of billions of dollars.
Regardless of this, Lin Zuhui thinks being an investment bank is extremely cool.
For example, Goldman Sachs recently bought 28% of the shares of a clothing company, and then they directly replaced the presidents with their own (professional managers). In this way, Goldman Sachs does not need to directly intervene in the operation, but because of their personal connections
, the president in the photo is likely to take this clothing company to a new level. Lin Zuhui has memories of this transaction. Goldman Sachs invested more than one billion US dollars, which seems to have increased nearly ten times in three years.
This company is a large clothing company in the United States, called Ralph Lauren. In view of this, Lin Zuhui also asked his second wife and fifth wife to buy 2%, and follow Goldman Sachs to make money.
The more Lin Zuhui thought about it, the more he felt that he should be an investment bank and not let Wall Street be so arrogant; of course, it is not just Wall Street that is awesome, Singapore's Temasek, China International Capital Corporation, China Investment Corporation, etc. (the latter two are the soy sauce).
However, he feels that he has enough money. After all, he holds about 2% of the equity in many U.S. stocks. These stocks may be worth trillions in 25 years.
The family has enough money to pass it down, so what else do you need so much money for?
Therefore, he has been troubled and confused recently. Does he have no motivation to fight? (PS: Is he stuck?)
Now Lin Zuhui finally understands that he wants to do something more meaningful!
What's the meaning?
The first is to retain the major shareholders of domestic companies such as Alibaba and Penguin and become their largest investors.
Second, if you invest in Hong Kong's SoftBank, Morgan Stanley, or other listed companies, you can not only increase your family's influence, but also divert your attention.
Third, go to the United States and build Yahoo, Amazon (temporary loan), Google, eBay, etc. The venture capitalists of the American Internet must die, and of course they have to spend money. After all, the Internet has no shortage of investors in the past few years, it’s up to you.
Whether the conditions given are good or not, refer to SoftBank's investment in Yahoo in the previous life. The conditions were so good that founders such as Yang Zhiyuan were dumbfounded.
Of course, you can't just invest in some familiar Internet companies, but invest in more companies and pretend to win the lottery.
Lin Zuhui analyzed it carefully and decided to go public first, using listed companies to raise funds, and then go into venture capital.
The next day, Liang Botao was invited to the office of Octopus Bank Building by Lin Zuhui.
Liang Botao looked at Lin Zuhui's office and said with a smile: "I don't know what else you don't know. Octopus Bank is now a large bank with good reputation in Hong Kong, and it has huge development potential!"
The two have been friends for many years. Liang Botao is very aware of Lin Zuhui's supernatural powers. It is not an exaggeration to say that he is a stock god.
Lin Zuhui responded: "You are really right, I do know everything, so I invited you here this time just to ask you to find a listed company for me. I want to buy it and plan to become an investment bank."
Liang Botao was stunned for a moment, and then said: "This makes me very stressed!"
Lin Zuhui said with a smile: "Don't be nervous, I plan to do venture capital, and I will go to the United States to find projects!"
Liang Botao said curiously: "With your wealth and ability, wouldn't it be better to use your private investment company? After all, I don't even know that you have ever made a loss in business!"
Lin Zuhui said: "It is venture capital, so it is naturally risky! In addition, I hope to raise a lot of money, so it is best to be completed by a listed company."
Liang Botao thought for a while and then said: "I'm afraid it will be difficult to raise a lot of money. Although you have good appeal, the acquired company itself does not have very good assets and profitability, and cannot support a high market value."
Lin Zuhui suddenly began to think, what Liang Botao said made sense!
He does venture capital and does not want to be a fund company. He just hopes to raise funds through listed companies instead of raising funds through private equity funds.
Simply put, he hopes to be a company like SoftBank or Berkshire Hathaway.
Finally, Lin Zuhui said: "Never mind it for now, you can find a few suitable companies for me, but don't talk about acquisitions for now. I'll find a suitable opportunity. As for the market value, it's only a few hundred million Hong Kong dollars. I'll create the market later."
Bar!"
When Liang Botao heard about the market creation, he had no doubts and said: "No problem, I will give you the information later!"
"Um"
After sending Liang Botao away, Lin Zuhui began to think.
Internet venture capital is not so urgent at the moment, and companies such as Yahoo have not yet been established. As for the problem Liang Botao mentioned, in fact, Lin Zuhui already knows how to solve it.
Make a market!
It's very simple. Lin Zuhui uses his own money to purchase a high-quality asset, and then injects it into a listed company for free or with stock exchange warrants. Then the market value of the listed company will immediately skyrocket. When he issues new shares, relying on his reputation as a "stock god",
There must be a lot of responders.
There are two advantages to investing in venture capital through listed companies:
First, it can bring him enough influence. After all, if he invests with a private investment company, it is easy to make people jealous; with Lin Zuhui's ability, if he does venture capital, he can have trillions of assets. And venture capital is all
If it is to be investigated in the name of a private investment company, it will cause him trouble.
Second, the Lin family's shares in this investment bank can be held partly through some hidden channels, and then partly held on the surface.