In Hong Kong, we build a global business empire

The privatization of the Hong Kong Swire Group suddenly became the most sensational news in Hong Kong.

On the contrary, Jardine Matheson & Co. returned to the hands of the British financial group and seemed less important.

Because everyone knows that today's Jardine Matheson is actually just headquartered in Hong Kong.

Most of its assets are overseas.

An economic expert in Hong Kong analyzed that Jardine Matheson's current assets in Hong Kong account for less than 10% of its total assets!

In other words, its core is no longer Hong Kong.

In the past, people often said that in Hong Kong, the lives of citizens were inseparable from the shadow of Jardine Matheson.

Jardine Matheson has had a profound impact on Hong Kong in many aspects, including commercial retail, real estate, infrastructure and public services, as well as the economy and employment.

However, to date, Jardine Matheson has lost a series of important assets including Wharf Holdings, Hong Kong Properties, Dairy Farm International, Kwai Chung Ferry Terminal, Culture Hotel, and Oriental International Hotel. In the actual operations in Hong Kong, there are few subsidiaries that play a significant role.

Even the 20% stake in Gammon Construction, a listed subsidiary of Jardine Matheson, which was originally held by Jardine Matheson, has now fallen into the hands of the Hong Kong Land Group.

At present, perhaps the most critical subsidiary of Jardine Matheson in Hong Kong is Jardine Securities.

Although Jardine Matheson has a long history of over a hundred years and its influence is deeply rooted in Hong Kong, as it loses its important subsidiaries one by one, in the eyes of the public, Jardine Matheson has become like a weak and sick cat and can hardly be compared with the Hong Kong Land Group.

After completely drawing a line between itself and Jardine Matheson, the Hong Kong Land Group successfully took over most of the Jardine Matheson's core assets in Hong Kong.

This means that the already powerful Jardine Matheson Group has now become even more powerful!

Privatization cannot be completed in a short period of time. According to past experience, even with the help of Waldo, it will take several months.

Therefore, Lin Haoran is not very anxious about privatizing the Swire Properties Group.

On the morning of November 11, Lin Haoran appeared at Hong Kong's Kai Tak International Airport.

He wasn't going anywhere, he was just here to see someone off.

The employees of Huanyu Investment Company have finally completed their preparations and departed from Hong Kong to New York, USA, by charter flight at 10 o'clock this morning.

Two days before departure, Lin Haoran went there to conduct a secret screening and passed all the employees whose loyalty level was below 80. The remaining 198 employees would eventually go to the United States.

After all, the focus of his future layout is in developed countries such as the United States, Japan, and Europe, which are overseas and far away from Lin Haoran's control. If their loyalty is too low, they are very likely to betray him and secretly leak some of his confidential matters.

Therefore, the most important thing for employees who leave is that they have to have high loyalty!
And 80 loyalty is already the minimum standard.

In New York, a week ago, Lin Haoran had already commissioned John Reed, vice president of Citibank, to find and select a skyscraper near Times Square and buy one floor with an area of ​​about 1300 square meters as the office space for Universal Investment Company.

Based on today's New York housing prices, Lin Haoran spent approximately $480 million on this.

Converted into Hong Kong dollars, this figure is more than 20 million Hong Kong dollars, just to purchase one floor.

Nowadays, housing prices in New York are indeed much higher than those in Hong Kong.

In this era, the price of commercial buildings in the core areas of New York is roughly between US$200 and US$300 per square foot.

Areas like those near Times Square are the core of the core, and the prices there are relatively much higher.

For example, the floor that Lin Haoran purchased was priced relatively favorable. It was sold by a company on behalf of Citibank. The price that Lin Haoran paid was already much lower than the market price.

After settling down there, the employees of Huanyu Investment Company can start working quickly.

Prior to this, Lin Haoran had already given Su Zhixue detailed instructions, asking him to target listed companies after he started working.

In addition, Lin Haoran did not use the funds previously in the account of Huanyu Investment Company.

Therefore, after Su Zhixue led the team there, there was no shortage of funds in the company's account.

"I have arranged a guide for you in New York. This guide will pick you up at the airport and help you and your team settle down in New York. If you need anything, feel free to call me.

I will also go to the United States next month, and I hope to see that you have everything ready when I arrive!" Standing in front of the boarding gate, Lin Haoran patted Su Zhixue on the shoulder and said with a smile.

At this moment, there are less than twenty minutes left before the plane takes off, and it's time to board the plane.

Lin Haoran reminded again to make sure Su Zhixue understood the importance of the mission.

"Okay, boss, I'll let you know I'm safe as soon as I get there!" Su Zhixue replied gratefully.

Su Zhixue feels extremely honored to have such a good boss.

Facing the future, he did feel a little confused, after all, this time he would lead nearly 200 people to the unfamiliar United States. Although he had been on a business trip with Lin Haoran once before, the purpose at that time was completely different from the long-term settlement work now.

Although he was a little uncertain, Su Zhixue felt that even if there were difficulties and obstacles ahead, he was willing to go all out and do his best in everything his boss asked him to do.

Only in this way can he repay his boss's kindness to him and live up to the trust in him.

Standing in the airport hall, looking through the glass window, Lin Haoran came to his senses as he watched the plane carrying Su Zhixue and nearly two hundred other employees soar into the sky until it gradually disappeared from his sight.

Next month is also when Apple goes public.

He has promised Apple's chairman, Mr. Steve Jobs, that they will ring the bell for the company's listing together at the Nasdaq Stock Exchange.

Although Apple is not doing very well today, especially after going public, it will experience a long period of lows.

But Lin Haoran is very optimistic about the future of Apple.

Not to mention him, he also believed that everyone who traveled back in time would own shares in Apple.

After all, everyone in the 21st century knows how powerful Apple is, especially in terms of market value, it is almost invincible, and only a few companies such as Microsoft and Nvidia can compete with it.

Moreover, personally ringing the bell when Apple went public meant that Lin Haoran not only witnessed Apple's listing, but also participated in it. Naturally, he was willing to do such a historically significant thing.

"Let's go to Kangle Building!" Lin Haoran said directly.

"Okay, boss!" Li Weidong replied respectfully.

After arriving at Kangle Building, Lin Haoran found that the lobby on the first floor was still crowded with reporters. They were trying their best to interview a senior executive of the Jardine Matheson Group in order to obtain exclusive information that other media had not yet obtained.

The media industry is indeed very competitive. Although the job of reporter seems glamorous, they need to make great efforts to obtain more valuable news.

When the reporters saw Lin Haoran, their eyes almost popped out and they were about to come forward to surround Lin Haoran and interview him.

However, he was stopped by security in time.

Lin Haoran also successfully took Li Weidong and Li Weiguo into the elevator and headed straight to the 51st floor.

A dozen reporters were left watching Lin Haoran disappear before their eyes with regret.

I arrived at the 51st floor, knocked on Ma Shiming's office door, and heard a "come in". Sure enough, Ma Shiming was in the company.

Lin Haoran opened the office door and saw Ma Shiming holding a plan in his left hand and a pen in his right hand. At this moment, he was looking up at Lin Haoran, obviously wanting to see who was coming to see him.

"Boss, you're here." Seeing Lin Haoran, Ma Shiming stood up from his chair and came out to greet him.

"Well, Mr. Ma, thank you for your hard work during this period. How is the handover with Jardine Matheson going?" After shaking hands with Ma Shiming, Lin Haoran asked while sitting casually on a chair.

"Everything is going smoothly at the moment, and Jardine Matheson has not made things difficult for us. Everything that needs to be handed over is being handed over. Based on the current progress, it looks like it should be done in another three or four days! I was planning to go to Kwai Chung Pier No. 5 after I finish dealing with the group's affairs!" Ma Shiming replied with a smile.

"Well, that makes me feel relieved!" Lin Haoran nodded.

"By the way, boss, your influence in Hong Kong is getting bigger and bigger. Even the United States has reported on your deeds. Take a look at this report. It says that your influence in Asia is rapidly rising on your own. You have become a force that cannot be ignored!" Ma Shiming handed over a newspaper and congratulated with admiration.

"The whole of Asia? That's an exaggeration. It's more like saying that I'm an entrepreneur with a certain influence in Hong Kong. But to say it's the whole of Asia, that's really too much of a compliment to me. After all, there are still many hidden and powerful wealthy people!" Although he spoke with a bit of humility, Lin Haoran still took the newspaper handed to him by Ma Shiming.

He looked down and found that it was a copy of the Wall Street Journal. His personal photo was prominently printed on the front page, with a striking headline next to it.

Lin Haoran smiled slightly, knowing that these international media reports often contained a certain amount of exaggeration, but he also understood that what was reflected behind this was his growing personal attention and influence on the global business stage.

This is how entrepreneurs work. As their strength grows, their influence naturally increases as well.

On the right side of the personal photo in the newspaper, there is a title called "The New Giant in World Business: Lin Haoran and His Business Empire". The article describes in detail how Lin Haoran quickly rose from an ordinary rich kid to become a heavyweight figure who influenced the entire Hong Kong and even Asian economy.

The report not only mentioned the privatization process of the Hong Kong Land Group and the overseas expansion of the Wanqing Group, but also analyzed Lin Haoran's layout in real estate, finance, infrastructure and other fields, as well as his unique insights into future economic trends.

After reading the report, Lin Haoran's mouth corners unconsciously rose, but he remained calm in his heart.

It is naturally a pleasant thing to be praised, and this recognition is undoubtedly an affirmation of his current achievements.

But he also knows that although these praises are inspiring, he still has a long way to go and the real challenges are yet to come.

While his business empire continues to expand in Hong Kong, his layout in Southeast Asia is also in full swing. Next, his attention will be turned to the country with the strongest economic power in the world - the United States.

As for the development over there, everything is still unknown. (End of this chapter)