In Hong Kong, we build a global business empire

At the headquarters of Sun Hung Kai Properties, in the office of the chairman of the board, Guo Desheng is currently listening to reports from his subordinates.

The decision to acquire Kowloon Motor Bus was made by him personally.

With its rapid development in the real estate industry in recent years, Sun Hung Kai Properties has become increasingly powerful, even gradually surpassing many large British banks. It has become one of the top 20 listed companies in Hong Kong by market value, and judging from the current increase in real estate stocks, by the end of the year, Sun Hung Kai Properties may even be among the top ten listed companies in Hong Kong.

Guo Desheng has a goal, which is to make Sun Hung Kai Properties surpass the Hong Kong Land Development and become the largest real estate company in Hong Kong.

His target has never been Cheung Kong Holdings and New World Development. If we only consider real estate strength, he feels that Sun Hung Kai Properties is stronger than Cheung Kong Holdings and New World Development.

Therefore, the Hong Kong Land Group is the goal that Sun Hung Kai Properties aims to surpass.

The Wan Chai Sun Hung Kai Centre, which is currently under construction and acquired the land in 1977, is designed to be 53-storey with a floor area of ​​86 square feet. The building has a majestic and modern appearance, facing the Hong Kong Building of the Hong Kong Land Development Group. Its design is only 1 foot higher than the Hong Kong Building, which subtly reflects Sun Hung Kai Properties' intention to surpass the Hong Kong Land Development Group.

Now that the company has money, it naturally needs to take advantage of the opportunity to expand.

A series of acquisitions, including Li Ka-shing's acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa, Bao Yugang's acquisition of Wharf Holdings, and Lam Ho Yin's acquisition of Hong Kong Electric Group, deeply stimulated Guo Desheng. If he wanted to develop rapidly, it would not work just relying on the company itself to move forward step by step. The best way was to merge with other high-quality companies.

Before Li Ka-shing acquired Hutchison Whampoa, the overall strength of Cheung Kong Holdings was not as good as that of Sun Hung Kai Properties.

But after the acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa, Hong Kong citizens generally believed that Li Ka-shing had completely surpassed Guo Desheng.

Such voices deeply touched Guo Desheng's heartstrings.

He was unwilling to admit defeat, so naturally he planned to find a way to surpass his old Chinese friends such as Li Jiacheng.

So he began to search for high-quality listed companies that could be acquired, and Kowloon Motor Bus, a public utility listed company, soon came into their sight.

In fact, Guo Desheng was not interested in the transportation industry of Kowloon Motor Bus.

It is not easy to make money from a public utility industry like buses.

The bus industry, like the electricity sales industry, is also a monopoly public utility industry in Hong Kong.

On Hong Kong Island, China Bus has a monopoly on the operation.

On the Kowloon Peninsula, Kowloon Motor Bus also has a monopoly on the operation.

This may seem good, with no threat from competitors, but in reality there are various limitations.

Apart from anything else, the Hong Kong government has formulated a profit restriction agreement to restrict the bus industry, which stipulates that the annual profits of China Motor Bus and Kowloon Motor Bus, the two Hong Kong monopoly transportation companies, cannot exceed 15% of the stipulated net asset value. If there is more, this part of the funds needs to be allocated to the development fund, and the shortfall will be allocated back from the development fund.

This limits the profits of transportation industry bosses to a certain extent.

Therefore, Guo Desheng looked down upon the transportation profits of Kowloon Motor Bus.

In the real estate industry, profits can easily double in a year.

Since he looks down upon the transportation industry, why does Guo Desheng want to acquire Kowloon Motor Bus?
The reason is very simple. Naturally, there are other benefits that are great enough to make Guo Desheng covet it!
As a long-established public utility listed company in Hong Kong, Kowloon Motor Bus continued to buy land in the early days and now owns a large number of cheap land including a large number of bus factories, parking lots, etc.

These plots of land are not only found in the suburbs of Kowloon, but also in the most prosperous city centers such as Tsim Sha Tsui, Hung Hom, Mong Kok, Yau Ma Tei, etc.

Not only that, since the opening of the Hung Hom Cross-Harbour Tunnel, China Motor Bus and Kowloon Motor Bus have been able to open bus routes to the other side.

Therefore, in the 1960s and 1970s, Kowloon Motor Bus successively purchased a lot of land on Hong Kong Island to build parking lots, bus factories, etc.

In fact, because the land in the suburbs was cheap back then, Kowloon Motor Bus continued to hoard land. Now that those suburbs have become the city center area, the value of the land has naturally increased significantly.

The land that was hoarded in the past is now worth a fortune. Many of them can even be developed into commercial buildings, commercial communities or industrial buildings.

It can be said that the stock market value of Kowloon Motor Bus, like many old British companies, is significantly lower than its net asset value.

These are the plots of land that Guo Desheng has his eyes on.

As the owner of a real estate company, if he can acquire Kowloon Motor Bus, he can naturally use his controlling status to develop these lands through cooperation, and can continuously squeeze the potential of Kowloon Motor Bus. Eventually, the land of Kowloon Motor Bus will slowly become the land of Sun Hung Kai Properties.

The reason why Lin Haoran wanted to acquire Kowloon Motor Bus was the same as Guo Desheng's idea.

He also took a fancy to the large amount of land owned by Kowloon Motor Bus.

If these lands were developed by Wan'an Real Estate Company, then the ultimate biggest beneficiary would naturally be Lin Haoran.

"Do we now hold a total of 5.32% of Kowloon Motor Bus shares? The progress is still too slow." After listening to the report from the securities director, Guo Desheng frowned.

In recent years, Sun Hung Kai Properties has made more and more money, so he has more and more available funds. Being wealthy, Guo Desheng naturally hopes to take over this coveted listed company as soon as possible.

"Boss, we have only been acquiring shares of Kowloon Motor Bus for two weeks. In fact, this acquisition speed is not slow. I don't know why this stock is so popular. The daily trading volume is not even inferior to some listed real estate companies.

Today, we have stepped up our efforts to acquire shares, and ultimately acquired two or three times more shares than before. If we start acquiring shares at the same pace as today tomorrow, I think in at least three months, the shares secretly held by Sun Hung Kai Properties will exceed 30%.

By then, we can openly propose to acquire Kowloon Motor Bus." The person in charge of securities reported to Guo Desheng.

"Three months?" Guo Desheng's fingers tapped the desk irregularly. "Boss, I analyzed the trading volume of Kowloon Motor Bus's stock in the past six months. I suspect that the reason why the trading volume of Kowloon Motor Bus is so high is that not only we are eyeing Kowloon Motor Bus, but other consortiums are also eyeing Kowloon Motor Bus. If this is true, then let alone three months, it is still a question whether we can compete with them!" After struggling for a while, the head of securities still said his guess.

"Are there any suspects?" Guo Desheng asked.

"Yes, the Eagle Group. I heard a rumor in the industry that the Eagle Group is interested in acquiring China Bus or Kowloon Motor Bus. This news was rumored at the beginning of this year, so I don't know whether they have taken action or not." The subordinate replied.

"Eagle Group!" Guo Desheng frowned even more tightly.

The strength of the Great Eagle Group is not bad. Among the Chinese real estate tycoons, it ranks fifth after Li Ka-shing's Cheung Kong Holdings, Kwok Tak-seng's Sun Hung Kai Properties, Cheng Yuk-tung's New World Development and the recently emerging Carrian Group.

Therefore, Guo Desheng did not underestimate the Eagle Group.

As a listed company, it is not difficult for the Eagle Group to raise funds.

However, if the opponent was only the Great Eagle Group, Guo Desheng would not be so afraid. What he was most worried about was that the opponent was the likes of Jardine Matheson and Hong Kong Holdings.

After all, no matter what, his Sun Hung Kai Properties is much stronger than the Great Hang Lung Group. In terms of asset strength, Guo Desheng is much stronger than Luo Yingshi of the Great Hang Lung Group.

"I will investigate the authenticity of the information. Once I have the result, I will tell you. You can continue to purchase Kowloon Motor Bus shares tomorrow!" Guo Desheng said to his subordinates.

After his men left the office, Guo Desheng asked the intelligence department under his control to investigate the matter.

Intelligence is very important to the big guys, so when they reach their position, they naturally have their own sources of intelligence, but some are strong and some are weak.

However, it is not difficult if there is a targeted investigation.

For example, if his subordinates suspect the Eagle Group, he can ask them to collect intelligence on the Eagle Group. The difficulty of this kind of intelligence investigation has been greatly reduced.

……

A day later, at Huanyu Investment Company in Wanqing Building, Lin Haoran received another call from Cui Zilong.

"Boss, I have obtained some intelligence information based on the investigation. We learned from a middle-level manager of Sun Hung Kai Securities Department that they are indeed secretly acquiring shares of Kowloon Motor Bus.

Moreover, we unexpectedly discovered an additional information that not only Sun Hung Kai Properties, but another real estate giant, Great Eagle Holdings, has also been involved.

After receiving this news, I immediately arranged for people to conduct a more in-depth investigation into the Great Eagle Group. The results showed that the acquisition was personally led by Luo Xurui, the son of Luo Yingshi, chairman of the board of directors of the Great Eagle Group.

Luo Xurui is a financial expert. Earlier this month, he integrated all of his hotel businesses into Regal Hotels Group and planned to list it on the stock market.

After the call was connected, Cui Zilong quickly reported the situation to Lin Haoran.

As for intelligence, as long as you are willing to spend money and have certain clues, it is not difficult to conduct a secret investigation.

If you don't want to spend money, it would be a fantasy to obtain intelligence information.

However, some intelligence without any clues makes it difficult to start an investigation.

For example, this time Lin Haoran asked Cui Zilong to find someone to investigate. If he had not guessed in advance that this matter was related to Sun Hung Kai, the intelligence agency would be like a headless fly, and it would be difficult to find out truly useful information.

After all, since the other party chose to secretly acquire shares, they must have taken certain confidentiality measures.

After learning that he had two competitors this time, Lin Haoran was not too anxious.

As expected, both the Great Eagle Group and Sun Hung Kai Properties have only been eyeing Kowloon Motor Bus for a short time, while Universal Investments has already taken the lead and has no worries about funding.

In this case, if the acquisition of Kowloon Motor Bus still fails, it will only mean that Lin Haoran is unlucky.

At 4:10 in the afternoon, Su Zhixue handed the report in his hand to Lin Haoran.

"Boss, today's trading is more difficult. Although we have increased our efforts to absorb stocks and even dispatched two reinforcements from the Jardine Matheson project team, we have only managed to capture about 36% of today's trading volume. As of today, we only hold 24.58% of the shares, which is much less than expected. Our competitors have increased their efforts to absorb stocks.

If this continues, it will not only seriously affect our acquisition progress of Kowloon Motor Bus, but will also continue to increase our acquisition costs. "When Lin Haoran was looking at the data report, Su Zhixue also expressed his concerns.

Sun Hung Kai Properties is very strong, even not inferior to Cheung Kong Holdings. Guo Desheng is also one of the big Chinese tycoons in Hong Kong. The shares that Lin Haoran holds now are not enough to ensure victory.

Therefore, it is not easy to get them to give up the acquisition of Kowloon Motor Bus easily.

Su Zhixue's words also made Lin Haoran think.

Although the market value of Kowloon Motor Bus is not high compared to the stock market value of Jardine Matheson and Hong Kong Land, it would be better to acquire it at a low price.

Moreover, over the past few months, the stock market value of Kowloon Motor Bus has been rising rapidly.

They started acquiring Kowloon Motor Bus in early February, when the total market value of Kowloon Motor Bus was only over 500 million Hong Kong dollars.

But only three months later, the total market value of Kowloon Motor Bus has increased from more than 500 million Hong Kong dollars to more than 700 million Hong Kong dollars today.

If the three companies, namely, Great Eagle Holdings, Sun Hung Kai Properties and Universal Investments, continue to compete, wouldn't the share price of Kowloon Motor Bus soar?
This is not worth it!
Therefore, we must stop them from coveting Kowloon Motor Bus! (End of this chapter)