Lin Zuhui and his wife Wang Lingyin came to the vault of Octopus Bank. After passing through the layers of security, a 38-ton titanium alloy door came into view.
With the joint efforts of Octopus Bank Chairman Ho Chang-hong and the person in charge of the treasury, the door of the treasury was finally opened.
What follows is a heart-shaking moment.
I saw a large number of gold nuggets, piled into a square cylinder about 1.5 meters high. The golden color was eye-catching.
"Boss, there are currently 1,155 tons of gold here." He Changhonghui reported.
Lam Cho-fai has resigned as chairman of the board of directors and has been replaced by Ho Chang-hong. Lam Cho-fai no longer holds any position in Octopus Bank. Of course, he is also the chairman of Octopus Financial Group and the absolute majority shareholder of Octopus Bank.
At this time, Octopus Bank's net assets were approximately HK$68 billion, its deposits exceeded HK$500 billion (Lin Cho-fai personally had HK$100 billion), and it had branches or offices in many countries and regions in Asia.
Octopus also has a shortcoming, that is, it cannot launch RMB business in the mainland. This is not because Lin Zuhui does not have enough connections, but because the mainland requires that the asset value must be 160 billion RMB.
The development of Octopus Bank has been fast enough. When it was listed, the asset value was only more than 30 billion, and it has doubled in less than four years. There are many reasons for the doubling of the asset value, such as: more deposits and more loans, and bargain hunting in Korean finance.
The business has made huge profits, including the acquisition of a small Thai bank, etc.
"Well, how much gold does Octopus Bank own?"
"52 tons"
The two of them tacitly understood that about 1,020 tons of gold was stored by Lin Zuhui. Of course, it was stored in the name of a registered company. The only people who knew about it were a few core management members of Octopus Bank.
Seeing Wang Lingyin picking up a gold nugget and admiring it, Lin Zuhui walked over and said, "Do you like it?"
Wang Lingyin smiled and said, "I like it!"
"Then I will arrange for you to be the treasury keeper!"
"Brother Hui!"
The two of them were flirting like young people. He Changhong and the other three stood far away, pretending not to hear.
At this time, the price of gold in London was only US$270 per ounce, which is about US$9.52 million (HK$74 million) per meal. The average price of the 1,020 tons of gold purchased by Lin Zuhui was around US$280 per ounce, and the cost was less than HK$80 billion, which is quite a lot.
Cheap.
It took three years to purchase so much gold, and I continued to increase my holdings to 1,200 to 1,300 tons of gold.
Money begets money, it’s so easy.
After walking out of the vault door, Lin Zuhui and Wang Lingyin returned to the office.
Seeing that there were no outsiders, Wang Lingyin asked curiously: "Brother Hui, why does Octopus Bank have so much gold?"
To be honest, she didn't know how much money her husband had. She never took the initiative to ask, and Lin Zuhui only revealed part of it.
Even so, Wang Lingyin also knows that her husband's money is an astronomical figure. Her Hengjin Real Estate alone has more than 60 billion in properties and stocks. In addition, Wang Lingyin also knows that the assets of the family office have reached 200 billion.
Around 100 billion; Matrix Capital, which she also knew about, was around 100 billion.
The most mysterious thing is of course Hengjin Investment. Lin Zuhui has never told anyone, even though he has a wealth of about 400 billion.
Lin Zuhui said with a smile: "I bought about 1,000 tons and deposited them in Octopus Bank as a long-term investment."
Suddenly, Wang Lingyin was stunned.
After a long time, she nodded and didn't ask any more questions.
........
Mid-December.
Lin Zuhui, Yuan Tianfan, Zhong Chuyi and others took his private plane to the United States.
Yuan Tianfan is the vice president of New Era Group, a core executive responsible for emerging industries and mergers and acquisitions, while Zhong Chuyi is the head of mergers and acquisitions and investment business of Xiangjiang Telecom.
It was the first time Zhong Chuyi took a ride on Lin Zuhui's private jet, and he couldn't help but secretly gasped at its luxury. Yuan Tianfan, on the other hand, was used to it. He was also a rich man in Hong Kong. In early 1999, he successfully acquired Hong Kong Telecom. Lin Zuhui rewarded him according to his merits, and Yuan Tianfan got a Hong Kong worth 100 million.
As soon as the unbundling period came, Yuan Tianfan sold the telecommunications stocks and got 200 million.
In fact, in recent years, several core senior executives of New Era Group have earned hundreds of millions in income every year; of course, almost all of them are rewarded to everyone in the form of ‘bonuses’ to avoid excessive taxation.
The important thing is that they were originally rewarded with 100 million shares, but when they cashed out, they often received more than 150 million.
"President Yuan, did you also buy a private jet that day?" Zhong Chuyi said with a smile.
At this time, several senior executives were sitting in the reception room on the first floor, while the boss was already resting on the second floor, and the atmosphere became slightly livelier.
Everyone looked at Yuan Tianfan. Several senior executives of New Era Group are wealthy people who live in independent houses on the top of the mountain. Their annual income is no less than 100 million. More importantly, they can get more or less from the boss by usually following him.
Some investment news; Yuan Tianfan’s wife Li Huiling, also the vice president of Octopus Bank, is a well-known real estate speculator in Hong Kong and has made a lot of profits.
Seeing his colleagues joking, Yuan Tianfan smiled and shook his head and said: "I won't take this one for free. Why should I buy a private jet? Besides, the boss doesn't dare to expect a private jet like this. Even the annual maintenance costs are terrifyingly high."
, it’s all worth hundreds of millions.”
Everyone secretly smacked their lips, but they were not envious. After all, these things were not something they could expect. Although everyone's annual salary was several million or even tens of millions, they were far from being truly rich.
........
Lin Zuhui and his party arrived at the Priceline headquarters as their first stop.
Priceline is an Internet company that sells online tickets in the United States, equivalent to Ctrip in China; of course, Priceline is Ctrip’s teacher.
At that time, Priceline invented a patent for a 'customer self-pricing system', which was very impressive. It received US$100 million in venture capital that year, including the co-founder of Microsoft. However, because Matrix Partners missed the opportunity, they wanted to
For additional investment, its founder Walker directly shouted out a sky-high price, which means that you must either invest at my price or give up on your own.
At that time, although Lin Zuhui told his subordinates in private that there would be a day when Priceline could no longer laugh, he still did not give up cooperating with Priceline and introducing it to Asia for development.
In fact, Lin Zuhui is not just talking nonsense. The Internet bubble burst in the past year, and Priceline was also devastated. The stock price fell from a maximum of 80 US dollars per share to the current US$6.5 per share.
In fact, founder Walker had to leave Priceline.
"Mr. Lin, welcome to Priceline!" Jeffrey, the new president, happily extended his hand.
At the same time, Priceline's executives all smiled.
They are very aware of Lin Zuhui's name. Now that the world's richest man and technology tycoon has taken a liking to Priceline, this is definitely exciting news.
After a simple greeting, everyone came to Priceline's conference room.
Prior to this, Yuan Tianfan, as Lin Zuhui's representative, had already conducted consultations.
"Mr. Lin, the board of directors has agreed to sell 17.5% of the new shares to two of your companies, receiving $73 million in cash from you; at the same time, you will also get a director seat." Jeffrey said.
Lin Zuhui nodded and said: "No problem, I am very happy to join Priceline. I see the future from this company. You know, I proposed to Mr. Walker to buy shares, but unfortunately no agreement was reached at that time."
Jeffrey nodded. He knew about this because he joined Priceline in 1999. Walker told him about it. Walker was very proud at the time. Now it seems that Walker should be happy too early.
"Mr. Lin, since you are so optimistic about Priceline, you must also know the current situation of the company. The market value is less than one-tenth of its peak period. To be honest, it is very difficult." After speaking, Jeffrey and others looked at Lin Zuhui.
, I hope this outstanding business tycoon can have a good suggestion of his own.
Lin Zuhui said directly: "The bursting of the Internet bubble does not mean that the Internet disappears or languishes. On the contrary, the bubble only targets the reduction of high price-to-earnings ratios, while the Internet itself is still developing at a rapid pace...So, the Internet industry is still
The prospects are endless.”
The applause came to mind in the conference room. Everyone felt confident in Lin Zuhui's statement from the bottom of their hearts.
Jeffrey took the opportunity to ask again: "What suggestions does Mr. Lin have for Priceline currently?"
Lin Zuhui thought for a while and said: "If you want to survive the Internet winter, you must reduce costs. Lay off employees, reduce office space, postpone the expansion of new businesses, and focus the company's energy on air tickets and hotel reservation services. In addition, the company also optimized
Its own service quality has reduced the time to respond to customer orders from the original 1 hour to 15 minutes, and 80% of emails must be replied within 3 hours... Through these reforms, Priceline can successfully survive a period of downturn.
After Priceline's market value increases and the general environment improves, it can take the opportunity to acquire overseas companies and globalize Priceline."
Priceline's senior executives listened and took notes one after another, with expressions of admiration on their faces.
As soon as Lin Zuhui finished speaking, applause rang out again.
Jeffrey even said happily: "With Mr. Lin's guidance, we believe we will get out of the trough."
Lin Zuhui waved his hand modestly!
Next, the two parties signed a contract. This time, Lin Zuhui asked New Era Group and Xiangjiang Telecom to jointly invest in Priceline, instead of direct investment from Matrix Partners.
This is because New Era Group itself is cooperating with Priceline to expand Priceline's business to Asia, and the two parties have established a joint venture. In addition, Lin Zuhui cannot just eat alone, which makes people curious as to why his investment is so accurate.
To be honest, Jingwei Capital has future industry giants such as Apple, Amazon, Kingston, Alibaba, and Penguin, and Lin Zuhui is very satisfied.
He doesn't think it's a waste to keep some money to invest in his companies.
When all agreements were signed, Yuan Tianfan became a director of Priceline, representing New Era Group.
Of course, Lin Zuhui does not have that much time and serves as a director of too many companies.
After settling the Priceline matter, Lin Zuhui continued to make arrangements with Yuan Tianfan and Zhong Chuyi.
"Walker, the founder of Priceline, still has a large number of shares. Go and negotiate with him and try to increase our shareholding to more than 30%. Become the real major shareholder of Priceline and increase the number of board seats to 2.
seats.”
Yuan Tianfan nodded and said, "Okay! Presumably since Walker has resigned, he will not miss Priceline."
Lin Zuhui said: "It can only be said that he is unlucky and has no sense of risk!"
Yuan Tianfan and Zhong Chuyi couldn't help but think of their boss, who had been like this from time to time, but later began to pay attention to cash flow and debt issues. Of course, their boss's vision was definitely top-notch sharp.