In Hong Kong, we build a global business empire

Chairman’s Office, Shaw Studios, Tai Po Tsai, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon.

At this moment, the two bosses of Shaw Brothers Film Company, Run Run Shaw and Renmei Shaw, were sitting facing each other in the office.

For many people, they only know their sixth uncle Run Run Shaw but not their third uncle Run Run Mei. In fact, Shaw Brothers Film Company was founded by Run Run Mei and Run Run Shaw.

However, compared with Run Run Shaw's diligence, who was still able to handle all kinds of affairs after he was 60 years old, Run Mei Shao was willing to delegate power to his brothers and nephews, and enjoyed a luxurious life himself.

Therefore, Shao Renmei's presence is not very high and he is a very low-key person.

"Third brother, this is a good opportunity for us, Shaw Brothers, to take over TVB. Hong Kong has developed rapidly in recent years, televisions have become more and more popular, and the rise of television is unstoppable. If I can become the chairman of the TVB board of directors, then for us, we can attack or defend!" Run Run Shaw looked serious at this time.

Although Run Run Shaw was somewhat saddened by the passing of his good friend Li Xiaohe, he believed that birth, aging, sickness and death are the natural laws of life.

When the news of Run Run Shaw's elder brother's death came last year, Run Run Shaw was sad for a while, but he soon figured it out.

At this moment, what he needed to consider was the interests of Shaw Brothers Film Company.

Although he has not directly served as the chairman of the board of TVB in recent years, he has indirectly cultivated a large number of outstanding actors for Shaw Brothers Film Company through the TVB platform.

This experience also made Run Run Shaw deeply aware of the huge potential of the television industry.

Especially throughout the 1970s, Hong Kong's film market share was overtaken by Golden Harvest Film Company, while Shaw Brothers Film Company's market share was gradually declining. This was one of the important reasons why Run Run Shaw came up with the idea of ​​taking over TVB.

In the 1960s, it can be said that Shaw Brothers Film Company occupied almost half of the film market in the Chinese world.

But since the 1970s, the departure of Zou Wenhuai, the missed opportunity of Bruce Lee, the job-hopping of Hui Koon-wen, etc., directly led to the Shaw Brothers Film Company, which was at its peak, suddenly having a new competitor - Golden Harvest Film Company.

Despite this, Shaw has no regrets about his past decisions.

As the saying goes, there is no order without rules.

As the scale of an enterprise expands, in order to ensure stable development, corresponding rules must be formulated and implemented.

If anyone tries to break these rules, it will undoubtedly be a disservice to the company.

The death of Li Xiaohe also gave Run Run Shaw the opportunity to shift Shaw Brothers' focus from movies to television.

"Yifu, I also think that the prospects of the television industry are very good. Just go for it. I fully support you. But considering that the Li family holds the largest number of TVB shares, if you directly become the chairman of the TVB board of directors, your position may be unstable in the future.

Therefore, I suggest that if you want to become the chairman of the TVB board, you can consider purchasing some shares from the Li family. In this way, our Shaw Brothers can officially become the largest shareholder of TVB, and it will be natural for you to serve as the chairman of the board!" Shao Renmei put forward his idea.

Now 79 years old, Shao Renmei has long lost interest in corporate management. He prefers to enjoy a leisurely life in his later years.

Therefore, he always gave unconditional support to his sixth brother Shao Yifu's decisions.

Although he was also one of the owners of Shaw Brothers, he had long since rarely participated in the company's management affairs.

However, although Shao Renmei seems to be in semi-retirement now, he is still a businessman with great business talent.

Shao Renmei was a calm and sophisticated person, and he complemented his decisive sixth brother Shao Yifu.

It is said that in the early 70s, Li Hanxiang, known as the "traitor" of Shaw Brothers, once requested to return to Shaw Brothers. At that time, Run Run Shaw intended to refuse. Fortunately, his third brother Runme Shaw persuaded him, "We only compete for money, not for reputation." This gave the great director a chance to "make a comeback."

Shao Renmei is not only a steady person, but also a very eloquent person.

In order to learn advanced technology, Shaw Brothers often invited Japanese directors to Hong Kong to make films. On the surface, it was to bring in foreign aid, but in reality it was to learn from them so that the directors of Shaw Brothers could learn more filming methods.

At a press conference, a reporter asked about this matter. Shao Renmei was not flustered at all. He easily resolved the issue by saying, "Hollywood also uses European directors," which impressed director Chang Cheh who was also present.

“Third brother, I actually thought so too, but Xiaohe’s funeral just ended yesterday. It doesn’t seem appropriate for me to go to Lijia to discuss the purchase of shares right now. I plan to negotiate with Lijia in two days.

Considering the deep friendship between our Shaw Brothers and the Lee family for so many years, if they have no intention of continuing to manage TVB, they should not reject us. After Xiaohe's death, I am afraid that the only one in the Lee family who is capable of taking over the position of Chairman of the TVB Board of Directors is Mr. Li Mingze.

However, I remember that when we founded TVB, Mr. Li Mingze was not interested in it, so he personally did not hold any TVB shares, and I guess he will not change his mind now." Run Run Shaw also nodded.

Run Run Shaw is still very confident about purchasing TVB shares from Lee Ka.

"Yes, we have had decades of friendship with the Li family, so there will basically be no problem. The era when Shaw Brothers monopolized the film industry is indeed over. We can't indulge in the glory of the past. It's time for Shaw Brothers to find a new way out!" Shao Renmei sighed.

Recalling their experience of being involved in the film industry since the 1920s, they initially helped out in the Tianyi Film Company founded by their eldest brother. Later, Run Run Shaw and Renmei Shaw co-founded Shaw Brothers Company. The two brothers have been working in the film industry for more than 50 years, from starting a business to glory, and then from glory to decline. This experience made him feel deeply moved.

"I really miss the days when our father was alive, when we six brothers and sisters were together." Shao Yifu couldn't help but miss the old days as he spoke.

Shao's father died early, in 1920. When he died, Run Run Shaw was only 13 years old.

Now, decades have passed in the blink of an eye.

The two elderly men, both in their seventies, reminisced about their teenage years together in the office.

……

At the same time, after Lin Haoran left Li Mingze's office, he went to Wanqing Building.

Soon, he appeared in the office of Huanyu Investment Company on the 31st floor of Wanqing Building.

Nearly half a month has passed since Su Zhixue last told Lin Haoran that they held more than 25% of the shares of the Jardine Matheson Group.

Although the share prices of Jardine Matheson and Hong Kong Land Holdings and other listed companies of the Jardine Matheson Group stopped falling after the Oriental Daily and other media stopped targeting them, it is difficult for the stock price to rise as much as before in the short term. Originally, the share price of Hong Kong Land Holdings had exceeded 10 billion and was rising rapidly towards 11 billion Hong Kong dollars.

As a result, after this incident, the total market value of the Swire Group fell back to around HK$9 billion. Although it is impossible to return to the market value of more than HK$7 billion when Universal Investment Company first entered the market, it is already very good for Universal Investment Company.

At least the cost for Huanyu Investment Company to acquire stocks will not be that high.

As for Jardine Matheson, its fall was even worse this time. Its market value, which was about to rise to HK$6 billion, was directly reduced to a total market value of more than HK$4 billion.

This month, Huanyu Investment Company also seized this opportunity and secretly and quickly absorbed the shares of these two companies.

What happened at Fengze Electric Appliance Company this month brought Lin Haoran a huge benefit in a roundabout way.

This farce allowed him to speed up the pace of acquiring shares of two major British banks, Jardine Matheson and Hong Kong Holdings, while also reducing costs a lot.

At this moment, his shareholding in the Jardine Matheson Group has reached 26.27%.

The shares of Jardine Matheson & Co. held by it also reached 15.23%.

It can be said that he has secretly become a major shareholder of both foreign companies.

On the side of the Swire Group, Lin Haoran has the opportunity to compete with Jardine Matheson for controlling rights.

The reason why the acquisition progress of Jardine Matheson was so slow compared to that of the Hong Kong Land Group was that the British consortium of Jardine Matheson held more shares, resulting in far fewer Jardine Matheson shares circulating in the stock market than Hong Kong Land's circulating shares.

This is also the reason why the absorption of Hong Kong Land Group’s shares was so smooth.

Lin Haoran sat opposite Su Zhixue and looked at the current business progress of Huanyu Investment Company.

"Boss, our available funds are almost used up!" Su Zhixue reminded.

"How much money is left in the account?" Lin Haoran was very surprised. A total of 58.24 billion Hong Kong dollars was almost used up so quickly?
This is really outrageous.

In his subconscious, he always felt that he still had 20 to 30 billion Hong Kong dollars available and he felt no urgency for the funds.

"I just went to the finance department and she said there are still about 30 million Hong Kong dollars in the account," Su Zhixue responded.

"Give me the calculator." Lin Haoran pointed at the calculator in front of Su Zhixue and said.

Taking the calculator handed over by Su Zhixue, Lin Haoran did some calculations.

When he returned from the United States, he brought back a total of HK$57.44 billion, and later received two dividends from Aigo Company totaling HK$0.8 million.

As for his other companies, Lin Haoran had never taken money from those company accounts. After all, if he took profits out of the enterprises at will, the enterprises themselves would have no available funds to expand. He originally had sufficient funds, so naturally he did not need to ask for money from his companies.

So after he returned from the United States, the actual available funds were approximately HK$58.24 billion.

However, he later spent HK$5.94 million on Hong Kong Electric Group;
Then, he invested another 2 million Hong Kong dollars in Wan'an Company;
Soon after, he spent HK$10 billion to buy the Federal Building and International Building, two commercial buildings in Central, from Wheelock & Co.

Then he spent another HK$2 million to acquire Oriental Press Company from the Ma family;
Then he spent nearly HK$2 million to acquire 49.9% of the shares of China Gas Company;
Cooperating with Guo Henian to purchase a plot of land in Sheung Wan for the commercial plaza project, the initial capital cost was HK$2.5 million;
In April, it successfully acquired 4% of the shares of Kowloon Motor Bus, also spending about HK$49.9 million;

The 26.27% stake of Hong Kong Land Group cost about HK$22.3 billion;
Jardine Matheson's 15.23% stake also cost about HK$7.6 million.

If you don’t calculate, you won’t know. If you calculate, he has spent nearly 58 billion Hong Kong dollars in the past six months!
This speed of spending money was so fast that even Lin Haoran was shocked after doing some calculations.

“I will take care of the money issue. The shares of the Swire Properties Group will continue to be acquired as planned, and Jardine Matheson can stop temporarily.” Lin Haoran thought for a while and said.

Judging from MacLehose's attitude towards Jardine Matheson, the possibility of him taking over Jardine Matheson was a little small, but he was determined to take over the Hong Kong Land Group.

In Lin Haoran's mind, Jardine Matheson is far less important than the Jardine Matheson Group, so he doesn't care.

It doesn't matter if he can take over Jardine Matheson, but if he can't, it can still become an important bargaining chip for him to control the Hutchison Whampoa Group.

This is also the most important reason why he wants to buy Jardine Matheson shares.

"Okay, boss!" Su Zhixue replied respectfully.

Thirty million Hong Kong dollars won’t take long because the market value of the Hong Kong Land Group is so high.

In addition, he will also spend money to purchase TVB's shares from the Li family in the near future.

However, it is not difficult for Lin Haoran to make money.

Or, take the old approach and take out a loan!
Or, they could embezzle funds from subsidiaries such as Towngas, Hong Kong Electric and other companies, easily embezzling hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars.

Or, they can manipulate a company to go public and raise funds from the stock market.

Or sell certain properties, land, etc., such as the International Building.

However, he does not intend to use the second method. After all, these companies need to continue to use funds to expand, and it is not yet the harvest season.

As for the third method, if you want to manipulate a company to go public, it will take at least two or three months of preparation, so this path is also a troublesome one.

International Building, now is not the best time to sell.

Then the best way is to take out a loan! (End of this chapter)