In Hong Kong, we build a global business empire

Chapter 177: Make a price

Today's Lin Haoran is no longer the young man that Li Jiacheng looked down upon, but a Hong Kong business tycoon who is on par with him.

Being able to achieve something that others cannot achieve in their entire lives in just two years is not easy at the very least.

“According to the current progress, it will take at least until the end of the year to completely increase Hutchison Whampoa’s shares to over 40%. During this period, there will be no other major moves. It’s really uncomfortable!” Leaning on the sofa, Li Jiacheng sighed.

If he didn't have to continue spending huge amounts of money to acquire shares of Hutchison Whampoa Group, he would have wanted to start taking action against the Jardine Matheson Group right now.

Li Jiacheng has always been good at making plans in advance and secretly acquiring target shares.

But now, he still has to put the overall situation first. He has not yet completely taken over Hutchison Whampoa. If he continues to divide his energy to acquire other companies, he is afraid that he will end up with nothing.

Moreover, the total market value of the current Swire Group is much higher than that of Hutchison Whampoa. He was able to take over Hutchison Whampoa thanks to the support of two Hong Kong business tycoons, Bao Yugang and Shen Bi. Otherwise, with his current strength, it would be impossible for him to take over Hutchison Whampoa easily.

If one wants to acquire the Hutchison Whampoa Group, one can only rely on financial strength, and it is even more difficult to seize the Hutchison Whampoa Group from Jardine Matheson.

These plans must not be spread out, otherwise Niu Bijian will definitely be on guard against him, and by then, all efforts will be wasted before he even starts to act.

……

Shi Xun Road, Lin family villa.

Lin Haoran, who had no other work arrangements for the time being, set his sights on Oriental Daily.

In Lin Haoran's hand, there is a document about the Oriental Daily.

Oriental Daily News, Hong Kong's largest comprehensive daily newspaper, was founded on January 1969, 1 by the Ma family, who had a background in underworld.

Since then, Oriental Daily has been controlled by the Ma family.

Two years ago, the two Ma brothers, founders of Oriental Daily News, were wanted by the police because of their involvement with Po Hao. The two brothers fled to Taiwan one after another.

After absconding, the Ma family's gray industries were successively eliminated or encroached upon by other underworld organizations, while legal industries such as the Oriental Daily were preserved.

Although the founder and boss ran away, the Ma family still had descendants in Hong Kong, so the control of Oriental Daily News was hastily handed over by the Ma brothers to Ma Xizhen's son Ma Chengkun.

It was quite a difficult job for this young man, who was only in his early 20s, to take over the best-selling newspaper in Hong Kong, especially at a time when the Ma family was on the decline.

Today, Ma Chengkun, who has just taken over Oriental Daily News, has not yet established a firm foothold in the Hong Kong business community. In addition, he is still young and his thinking is not stable enough. Therefore, Lin Haoran may have the opportunity to acquire the company from him.

When he has firmly established himself in Hong Kong and has become more mature in the future, it will be difficult for Lin Haoran to acquire Oriental Daily News from him.

Cheong Yip Building in Wan Chai is the current headquarters of Oriental Daily News.

After Lin Haoran carefully read the information of Oriental Press Company, he understood everything.

He decided to go to Ma Chengkun in person to talk and see if he could buy it directly from the Ma family.

In fact, news and newspaper media do not make a lot of money, but their role is greater than making money.

Taking over the Oriental Daily News would not only provide him with a good source of intelligence, but given the sales of the Oriental Daily News in Hong Kong, he could also rely on this newspaper, which has the largest sales in Hong Kong, to control public opinion to a certain extent.

These are things that other industries cannot do.

So, Lin Haoran called Ma Chengkun’s personal contact number according to the information.

"Hello, I'm Ma Chengkun." The call was quickly connected, and a young man's voice came from the other end.

"Hello Mr. Ma, I am Lin Haoran from the Hong Kong Electric Group. You should have heard of me, right?" Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

"It's Mr. Lin. Do you have something to talk to me about?" After hearing Lin Haoran's self-introduction, the other party's tone immediately became respectful.

After all, this is a business tycoon who acquired a major British bank in Hong Kong. His Ma family cannot compare to him.

In the past two years, there has been news about Lin Haoran basically every once in a while, and each time it is a big deal.

Therefore, Lin Haoran's popularity in Hong Kong is not low at all.

Even if they don’t recognize his appearance, at least most of them know Lin Haoran. When talking about Lin Haoran, they will be full of respect: “He is the pride of us Hong Kong Chinese.”

As the owner of the newspaper with the largest circulation in Hong Kong, Ma Chengkun is naturally very familiar with Lin Haoran.

"Is it convenient for me, Mr. Ma? If it is convenient, I would like to visit you and talk to you about something." Lin Haoran said with a smile.

"It's convenient, of course it's convenient. I'm at the Oriental Newspaper Company, which is on the 7th floor of the Changye Building in Wan Chai. You're always welcome." The person on the other end answered without hesitation.

"Okay, see you later." Lin Haoran answered and hung up the phone.

Walking out of the villa hall, the entire Hong Kong River was covered with drizzle. Looking from the Su family villa towards the Victoria Harbour, it was all hazy, without the magnificent scenery of the sunny days in the past.

"Weiguo and Weidong, let's go out for a while." Lin Haoran composed himself and shouted to the two brothers.

"Boss, where are we going?" After sitting in the driver's seat very consciously, Li Weiguo turned around and asked the boss sitting in the back seat.

"Go to Changye Building in Wan Chai." Lin Haoran said directly.

Li Weiguo has been a driver for more than a year and is already very familiar with Central, Wan Chai, Causeway Bay and other places.

After receiving instructions from his boss, he started the car steadily, quickly left the villa and drove towards Wan Chai.

After leaving Shixun Road, we soon arrived at the bustling downtown. The streets, which were usually busy, now looked a bit deserted. There were few pedestrians on the street, and even if there were any, they were hurrying along with umbrellas.

In just over ten minutes, Lin Haoran's car drove into a building with four large gold-plated characters "Changye Building" on it.

It is worth mentioning that after returning from the United States, he changed his car.

Today, he is worth a lot of money, and no one knows whether anyone will set their sights on him. Relying on two bodyguards for protection may not be 100% safe.

So, for safety reasons, Lin Haoran replaced his Mercedes-Benz with a Rolls-Royce, which was bulletproof.

Bulletproof glass, specially thickened body and tires make this car feel safe.

He spent more than three million Hong Kong dollars for this, but compared to safety, as long as he can play his role, then the money is worth it.

Besides, more than 3 million Hong Kong dollars is not a huge sum of money for him.

Nowadays, cars of this era are not expensive for him. Even an ordinary Rolls-Royce Phantom series with standard features only costs a few hundred thousand US dollars. Compared to him who has assets worth billions of Hong Kong dollars, tens of millions are really just a small amount of money.

Ordinary cars like Honda and Ford can be bought in full for only 20,000 or 30,000 Hong Kong dollars.

The car he had was a customized Rolls-Royce Phantom extended version. It was said that it was originally customized by a wealthy man. However, the wealthy man suddenly went bankrupt and was unable to pay the balance before the car was delivered. So Lin Haoran was lucky enough to get this special bulletproof Rolls-Royce in the shortest time.

The license plate with five eights hanging on the car was also purchased by Lin Haoran for tens of thousands of Hong Kong dollars.

After getting off the car, I took the elevator directly to the 7th floor. When I stepped out of the elevator, I saw the beautiful receptionist at Oriental Newspaper Company.

"I'm looking for your President Ma. I've already made an appointment." Lin Haoran greeted the receptionist with a smile.

"Mr. Lin, General Manager Ma has already instructed that if you come over, he will come out to pick you up immediately. I will contact General Manager Ma right away." The receptionist stood up immediately and said respectfully, obviously recognizing Lin Haoran's identity.

Working in a news media company like Oriental Daily, what people often talk about the most is current hot news. People like Lin Haoran who are most likely to attract attention are naturally the ones they talk about most.

"No need to go through so much trouble, just take me to his office." Lin Haoran said directly.

He doesn't care about these etiquettes. Although his status is special now, he never uses it to bully others.

Following the receptionist for about ten meters, I soon arrived at the general manager's office.

At this time, a young man in a suit and tie walked out of the office. Lin Haoran, who had read Ma Chengkun's information, recognized the man in front of him at a glance. It was Ma Chengkun.

"Hello, Mr. Lin. I was just about to go out to greet you, but I didn't expect you to come over. Please come in and take a seat." Mr. Ma had a very good attitude and appeared very respectful and low-key.

However, he has been very low-key in the past two years, and there has been little news about him in the market.

They had to keep a low profile. The two leaders of the Ma family had to flee Hong Kong, leaving only the younger generations behind.

In the past, the Ma family had competition with other social groups in Hong Kong and had offended many people.

Especially when selling flour and competing for territory with competitors, they really fought to the death and made many deadly enemies.

Today, the Ma family's influence in Hong Kong has been gradually weakened and is no longer as strong as before. They are also afraid that if they are too high-profile, their enemies will come to them.

The Ma family, one of the four major Hong Kong mafia families, has lost its glory and has lost the support of its elders, so its life is not easy.

Especially since they are all relatively young, it is a bit of a skill for them to be able to gradually gain a foothold in Hong Kong and stabilize their serious careers here.

Although Ma Chengkun was puzzled by the sudden visit of Lin Haoran, the new Hong Kong business tycoon, he did not dare to take it lightly.

The Ma family itself is a notorious underworld family. Even when the two brothers Ma Xiru and Ma Xizhen were in Hong Kong, there were few serious business tycoons who had dealings with them.

After the Ma Xizhen brothers fled Hong Kong, even fewer people from the serious business community wanted to cooperate with them, and those who had had a lot of connections with them in the past wanted to stay away from them.

Now, Lin Haoran, the most famous rising star in Hong Kong's business world in the past two years, suddenly visited him. He was surprised and a little nervous, not knowing what the other party's purpose was.

"Mr. Ma is really young and promising. At such a young age, he has taken over such a large industry and managed the company in an orderly manner. When I was your age, I was still in college!" After sitting down, Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Indeed, he was still studying at university in the UK when he was twenty-two or twenty-three, so this statement was not made up.

"Mr. Lin, I feel a little embarrassed by what you said. You are the role model in the hearts of young people in Hong Kong. You have built such a big family business through your own efforts at such a young age. If I can achieve one tenth of your success in the future, I will be very satisfied." Ma Chengkun said with a wry smile.

If Lin Haoran said this, it might be normal if it came from someone else, but since it was Lin Haoran who said it, it felt a bit strange. In terms of business achievements, which young person in Hong Kong can compare with Lin Haoran?

Perhaps it was because they were all young people, and although Lin Haoran was a few years older than Ma Chengkun, after the two chatted for a while, Ma Chengkun gradually became less cautious and his conversation with Lin Haoran became more natural.

From Ma Chengkun, Lin Haoran learned more than what was in the information. Now, except for some of the Ma family's descendants who stayed in Hong Kong, many of them went to Taiwan to find Ma Chengkun's father Ma Xizhen and uncle Ma Xiru.

The reason why Ma Chengkun did not leave Hong Kong was naturally because his parents entrusted all the formal industries here to him when they fled Hong Kong.

These were not secrets, so Ma Chengkun did not hide them.

After chatting for a long time, Ma Chengkun finally couldn't help asking: "Mr. Lin, you are visiting me today, there must be something going on, right?"

He wanted to ask this question when he first met Lin Haoran, but he kept it to himself because he thought Lin Haoran would ask it himself.

Unexpectedly, Lin Haoran not only did not bring it up, but instead kept asking him indirectly about some things about the Ma family.

"Since Mr. Ma has brought it up, I'll get straight to the point. I'm visiting you today with a clear purpose. I want to acquire the Oriental Press Company currently controlled by your Ma family. As for the price, you might as well name a price so we can negotiate." Lin Haoran said bluntly.

(End of this chapter)