In Hong Kong, we build a global business empire

Chapter 185 Development of the Yingni Land in Qingzhou

In a small private room in the Joyful Restaurant, Lin Haoran ordered a few signature dishes. Four people couldn't eat much, and he didn't like extravagance.

The dishes were served quickly.

"Boss, should we continue to purchase shares of China Gas Company?" asked Chen Shoulin.

Regarding the acquisition of China Gas Company, Chen Shoulin decided to follow his boss's instructions and not act on his own. His focus was on managing the development of the entire Hong Kong Electric Group.

Today, HK Electric Group is no longer a listed company without shareholders who can make decisions, but a listed company that already has a controlling shareholder.

Although Lin Haoran rarely interferes in the affairs of the group, in such a large investment project, Lin Haoran's decision must be the main one. As a professional manager, he can only give suggestions at most.

Judging from the boss’s previous behavior, his intention was to target the shares held by the Li family.

If Lee Ka or other Chinese shareholders are unwilling to sell shares to them, then the Hong Kong Electric Group can basically declare that its acquisition of China Gas Company has failed.

It would be difficult for them to compete with Jardine Matheson by simply acquiring shares on their own, because Jardine Matheson probably already holds a large number of shares, such as 15% or even 20%.

The Hong Kong Electric Group only holds 7.2% of the shares of China Gas Company. How can they buy more shares on the stock market? No matter how hard they try, they can never catch up with Jardine Matheson.

After all, Jardine Matheson is one of the top three financial giants in Hong Kong, and the strength of Jardine Securities is almost the same as that of Huifeng Securities.

As for the Hong Kong Electric Group, its business in financial securities is at most a sideline. If they compete with Jardine Matheson in the secondary market, they will not be able to compete with the securities under Jardine Matheson.

Fortunately, the Chinese shareholders of China Gas Company were very disgusted with the British company Jardine Matheson, and it was basically impossible for them to sell their shares to them.

This is also an advantage of Hong Kong Electric Group.

As long as he could reach a deal with the Chinese shareholders, he would be able to easily surpass Jardine Matheson.

"Absorb. Tomorrow you will start organizing the absorption of China Gas Company's stocks in the secondary market. Although we are placing our heavy bets on Chinese shareholders such as the Li family, we must also have sufficient strength ourselves. The more shares we control, the greater our chances of winning will naturally be." Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Not only the Hong Kong Electric Group will absorb the shares, but Universal Investment Company will also continue to absorb the shares of China Gas Company from the secondary market.

He was not sure how many shares Jardine Matheson actually held, so what he had to do was to absorb as many shares as possible. If the shares held by Hong Kong Electric Group and Universal Investments exceeded 15% or even 20% of each other, the Chinese shareholders would have to choose to sell part of their shares to him when faced with the impact of Jardine Matheson. Then, no matter how hard Jardine Matheson tried, it would be of no use.

Lin Haoran didn't believe that Jardine Matheson could acquire more than 40% of the shares.

After they had a sumptuous dinner at the Xiyuelai Restaurant, Lin Haoran asked Li Weiguo to send Chen Shoulin back to the headquarters building of the Hong Kong Electric Group, and then returned to the villa on Sze Hoon Road.

In the blink of an eye, another night had passed.

The next morning, Lin Haoran didn't get up until after 10 o'clock.

He was not in a hurry until Jardine Matheson launched a full-scale attack on the China Gas Company.

The Hong Kong Electric Group is headed by Chen Shoulin, and Universal Investment Company is headed by Su Zhixue. They have explained everything that needs to be explained, so there is naturally no need for him to get involved too much.

After having a leisurely lunch at home, Lin Haoran went out.

The rain stopped today, but it is still cloudy. Hong Kong has not seen the sun for several days.

"Weiguo, go to Qingzhou Yingni Company." Lin Haoran said directly to Li Weiguo who was sitting in the driver's seat.

"Good boss!"

Half an hour later, the Rolls-Royce had parked downstairs of Qingzhou Building.

Since the acquisition of Hong Kong Electric Group, he has spent less time at Qingzhou Cement Company.

After all, his largest asset today is the Hong Kong Electric Group, and the Ching Chau Cement Company has become second.

"Good afternoon, boss." Seeing Lin Haoran, Burton, who was sitting in the office, stood up and greeted him.

"Well, good afternoon. Have you had lunch?" Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

"I've eaten in the cafeteria. I just came back from the cafeteria." Burton replied.

Lin Haoran nodded, straightened the armchair beside him, and then sat down.

"By the way, boss, we have applied to the Governor's Office to convert the land in Hung Hom owned by Ching Chau Cement Company from industrial to commercial use. We are just waiting for the government's approval. When the time comes, we will need to pay a large sum of money to the government to pay the land premium." Burton said.

"How much funds are expected to be needed?" Lin Haoran asked.

This piece of land in Hung Hom is industrial land. If you want to use this land for real estate development, you must change the nature of this land from industrial land to commercial land.

Of course, the government certainly would not stop the Ching Chau Cement Company. After all, if a high-rise building could be built on this land, it would also improve Hong Kong's city image to a certain extent.

On the contrary, if the cement factory building continues to be maintained, it will undoubtedly be a huge loss to Hong Kong’s urban landscape.

This is the Victoria Harbour, and across from it are the prosperous business districts of Causeway Bay and Wan Chai. "Our land has an area of ​​80 square feet. According to the current policy, it is estimated that it will require a little over HK$1 million in funding," Burton replied.

"So many?" Lin Haoran frowned.

"This is already based on the preferential treatment. The government has always been very supportive of our industrial land on the coast of Victoria Harbour being converted into commercial land, thereby improving the appearance of Hong Kong's city skyline. In addition, the cement factory causes serious dust pollution, and people often complain about us. The government has approached us many times hoping to relocate the cement factory, so there is a certain degree of preferential treatment. If we follow the intensity before the preferential treatment, we will at least have to pay the difference of more than 2 million Hong Kong dollars." Burton said with a wry smile.

After hearing what Burton said, Lin Haoran no longer felt that over 100 million was too expensive.

In fact, if Lin Haoran knew that Hutchison Whampoa developed the Whampoa Dockyard land a few years later and paid an additional HK$5.9 million for it, he would not think that HK$ million was expensive.

Of course, the total area of ​​Whampoa Dock is about three times larger than the land in Yingni Hung Hom, Tsing Chau, so it is normal that it is several times more expensive.

Moreover, in a few years, the land premium will also rise sharply instead of being the current price.

"When can this piece of land be developed?" Lin Haoran walked to the window and looked at the cement factory outside.

Although the Ching Chau Ying Ni Cement Factory is still in production, the main production has been moved to Yuen Long. Now all we have to do is wait for the land and infrastructure in Sai Kung to be completed before we can move the equipment to the Sai Kung Second Factory Area.

After moving out, this place can be demolished and developed at any time.

"We will be able to move to Saigon in about a month, and then we can find a design company to design and plan this piece of land. By the way, boss, do you think we should develop residential buildings or commercial buildings in this location?" Burton asked.

"Develop commercial buildings and large shopping malls!" Lin Haoran said without hesitation.

It is a sheer waste to develop a residential area here.

This is a place with a first-line sea view of Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour. By developing commercial buildings and large shopping malls, we can earn a lot of money just from rent every year.

However, developing residential communities is just a one-time transaction and is not cost-effective.

For example, Li Jiacheng developed the Whampoa Dock into a super-large residential community, built 94 residential buildings, and made a total profit of HK$52 billion in a few years.

It was only HK$52 billion, but Lin Haoran felt that it was too little. If he were to develop the Whampoa Dock land, he would never build a residential community.

After all, he knows how hot the real estate market in Hong Kong will be in the future!
Although we will experience a real estate crisis in two years, this crisis will only last for two years, and the market will soon resume its faster growth. What will follow will be a real estate boom lasting more than ten years. There will also be real estate crises later, but they will all be safely overcome and then take off again.

Therefore, even if he had the financial strength, it would be impossible for Lin Haoran to develop a residential community and sell houses to do such a one-time business.

Although there will be property income in the later stage, how much money can the property make?
For Lin Haoran, the housing prices in Hong Kong in the 80s were still too cheap, and there was still a lot of room for appreciation in the future.

"Well, I think so too. However, whether it is developing a residential community or a commercial building, including the land premium, the development cost may be more than 700 million to 800 million Hong Kong dollars. With our Qingzhou Yingni's current income, it is difficult to support the development of this land. In addition, we still have a loan of 500 million Hong Kong dollars. Although the current housing prices are still rising, it is not clear what the future market will be like." Burton continued.

Although Burton was indeed good at running a business, he had no idea how the real estate market in Hong Kong would grow.

Qingzhou Cement's current monthly profit has reached tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars, which is the highest profit ever for the company.

80 square feet of land can be developed, and commercial buildings need to be built on this land. At least a dozen commercial buildings and a large shopping mall need to be built. The cost alone may be to million Hong Kong dollars. Moreover, the development time is long, and the construction cost will continue to rise in a few years. By the time the development is completed, the cost may reach billion Hong Kong dollars.

Fortunately, cement, an important infrastructure material, can be provided by ourselves, which can save some costs, but steel bars, stones, sand, etc. all need to be purchased from outside.

"Don't worry about the funding. We will naturally find a way when the time comes." Lin Haoran said with a smile.

He already had the idea of ​​developing the land in Yingni, Qingzhou.

So since last year, he has let Qingzhou Yingni Company hoard land and properties.

It is not easy to build ten commercial buildings here, and it is also difficult to develop them all at once. It will take at least seven or eight years to develop this land, and it does not need to be paid for all at once.

Since the acquisition of Qingzhou Yingni Company, Lin Haoran did not make much profit from it. Most of the profit was left to Qingzhou Yingni Company to buy land and properties, because Lin Haoran knew that after 1981, the value of these land and properties would at least double.

Even Qingzhou Yingni Company mortgaged its land in Hung Hom to obtain a loan from Huifeng Bank, borrowing a full HK$5 million to purchase the land property.

The market value of this piece of land has already exceeded HK$10 billion after increasing over the past year based on today's land prices, so it is easy to borrow HK$5 million.

Therefore, Qingzhou Yingni Company now controls a lot of valuable land in the city center and even some commercial properties.

The purchase price of these commercial properties and land is as high as more than 600 million yuan. Many of them were bought last year. After several months of appreciation, their prices have increased a lot.

Lin Haoran will ask Burton to quickly sell these land or commercial properties when housing prices are at their peak next year, thereby raising funds.

His goal is not high. As long as the price doubles, it will be enough. If it doubles exactly, he can sell it for 13 billion Hong Kong dollars. Even if he pays off more than million in loans and interest, he will still make to million Hong Kong dollars.

The cement industry of Ching Chau Cement Company will also continue to have stable income. For example, the current profit is HK$10 million per month. If the overseas market is developed further in the future, the profit will be even higher.

In this way, Qingzhou Yingni can develop this piece of land by itself, and there is no need for Lin Haoran to continue investing money in it.

Lin Haoran acquired these companies because he wanted them to develop on their own rather than asking him to keep investing money in them.

(End of this chapter)