In Hong Kong, we build a global business empire

Chapter 398 If you don’t do it for yourself, you will be punished by heaven and earth.
Last time, after making billions of Hong Kong dollars from gold futures in the United States, Lin Haoran bought a lot of properties.

Among them, the International Building and the Federal Building were purchased at that time. In order to acquire these two buildings, Lin Haoran finally spent 10 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Lin Haoran does not intend to sell the Federal Building, now known as the Wanqing Building.

However, due to its location and the building itself, the International Building is much inferior to the Wanqing Building and is not as important, so it can be sold.

At the beginning, he bought the two buildings from Wheelock & Co. for only HK$10 billion.

Now, less than a year has passed, and he has sold the worst building and kept the best one, which he can still sell for HK$10 billion or even more.

This is equivalent to getting a Wanqing Building for free without spending any money. It's really a huge profit!
Investing during the period of real estate bubble growth was indeed very enjoyable. As long as you could sell all the investment projects before the crisis came, it was like picking up money.

Two years later, when housing prices hit rock bottom, he could have his companies such as the Wan Qing Group and the Hong Kong Land Development start to aggressively acquire commercial buildings and land in Central, Causeway Bay, Wan Chai, Tsim Sha Tsui and other places.

The most important thing is that this time, the Swire Group took out projects worth HK$68 billion to sell to more than real estate companies in Hong Kong, including major real estate companies in Hong Kong such as Cheung Kong Holdings, Far East Holdings, Hang Lung Properties, Overseas Chinese Holdings, Cheung Kong Holdings, Carrian Holdings, and Wayhop Properties.

This was equivalent to consuming a lot of available funds of these real estate tycoons, and when the real estate crisis broke out, everyone had even less cash reserves.

The Swire Group consumed a total of HK$68 billion from these real estate companies. This time, Lin Haoran asked Qingzhou Yingni and Wan'an Real Estate Company to sell these lands and commercial buildings, which cost more than HK$ billion. In this way, it is equivalent to that Lin Haoran consumed tens of billions of Hong Kong dollars in cash of these real estate developers.

When the real estate bubble burst, these real estate companies not only had no margin, but they also spent a lot of money during this period, which dragged them down and made them more indebted. In this way, wouldn't all the properties on the sales racks in Hong Kong be left to be slaughtered by Lin Haoran's companies?
Therefore, there is nothing wrong with selling some projects at high prices now. Instead, it will become another strategy to drag down these real estate developers.

If a man does not work for himself, he will be punished by heaven and earth. Lin Haoran would not consider whether the real estate companies in Hong Kong would encounter a financial crisis because of this.

Anyway, these transactions are all done willingly by everyone.

Even if some land, commercial buildings, etc. may not be taken back after being sold, it is the same if other commercial buildings, land, etc. are purchased at a lower price in the same location.

Of course, Lin Haoran would never sell properties like Connaught Building, Prince's Building, Alexandra House, Landmark Plaza, Gloucester Building, Wan Ching Building, etc.

Once these are sold, it is not easy to buy them back.

Bao Yugang had coveted Prince's Building before, because the headquarters of Global Shipping Group is in Prince's Building. Even the personal reception room of Bao Yugang, the shipping magnate, is located in Prince's Building.

When Bao Yugang was fighting with Jardine Matheson to increase its stake in Wharf Holdings, Jardine Matheson once proposed to exchange properties for Bao Yugang's shares in Wharf Holdings.

At that time, Bao Yugang proposed that Jardine Matheson Company exchange properties for Prince's Building. This shows how much Bao Yugang liked Prince's Building.

However, it was rejected by Jardine Matheson at that time because Prince's Building, like other buildings such as Connaught House, Alexandra House, Landmark Plaza, etc., were extremely important to the future layout of the Landmark Group, so the Landmark Group would never give them up.

Now that the Hong Kong Land Group has been acquired by Lin Haoran, it is also impossible for him to sell these best commercial buildings in Hong Kong.

Once sold, there is a high probability that you will not be able to get it back in the future.

Even if you can get it back, the cost will be extremely high. In this case, why sell it?

But the International Building is different. This building is not very important. Even though the location is good, it looks very ordinary in Central. People would exchange cash if they could.

If you are lucky, you might be able to buy it back at a very low price in two years!

Now, he needs funds, so it is better to sell what needs to be sold.

Today, the rent that the International Building can collect in a year is only a few million Hong Kong dollars, and it will not reach 10 million Hong Kong dollars in two years. Therefore, he does not care about the rent in the short term. It is better to sell it and get more than billion Hong Kong dollars of available funds. The reason why he bought these lands and commercial buildings was to sell them when the housing prices rose to a certain level, rather than to hold them for a long time or develop them himself. Now is a good time.

In the president's office of Wanqing Group, Burton frowned after hearing what Lin Haoran said, and then relaxed his brows.

Although he didn't understand why the boss had to pay the full amount before the deal with the Jianing Group could be concluded, Burton didn't ask any more questions and nodded in response: "Okay, boss, if we really reach a deal with the Jianing Group, I will set this condition as a prerequisite for the transaction!"

"Well, not just this transaction, Wanqing Group should also try to avoid cooperating with Jianing Group on projects in the future!" Lin Haoran continued to remind.

"Boss, you seem to have some opinions about the Jianing Group?" Burton became curious.

"I have investigated the details of the Jianing Group and found that the source of funds of the Jianing Group is always problematic. It is precisely because it is too mysterious that makes me very suspicious. So I think there will be great risks if we really cooperate with them on the project. Therefore, in order to reduce our risks, we should not cooperate if we can." Although Lin Haoran did not directly state the real reason, he also indirectly expressed his meaning.

"Okay, boss, I understand. But don't worry, the projects currently developed by Wan'an Real Estate Company, except for the real estate projects in cooperation with your companies such as Hong Kong Electric Group, Ching Chau Cement Company, China Gas Company, and Kowloon Motor Bus, do not have any cooperation with any other real estate companies outside!" Burton suddenly realized and said to Lin Haoran with a smile.

"Well, this is the best. Wan'an Real Estate Company should not expand blindly in Hong Kong in the next two years. It should develop steadily and steadily." Lin Haoran was still satisfied with Burton's decision.

"The focus of our Wanqing Group now is actually more about internationalization, especially Qingzhou Yingni Company. In just two years, we have basically entered the markets in Southeast Asia, such as the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia. Some of the market shares we have occupied are among the best. In the whole Southeast Asia, the cement produced by our Qingzhou Yingni Company is already a well-known brand. However, Southeast Asia is far from our ultimate goal. I hope to expand Qingzhou Yingni Company's market to South Asia, Australia and even Europe and the United States!" Burton continued.

Burton is very ambitious, and it can be seen from his eyes.

Lin Haoran had no objection to this. He was not afraid that you had no ambition, but he was afraid that you had no ability.

Burton's performance in the past two years has clearly shown that he is not incompetent, but rather a talented professional manager, which is exactly what Lin Haoran needs.

Although Burton is an Australian and not a native Chinese in Hong Kong, he does not care whether his generals are Chinese or not. He needs people who can work hard for him, make a lot of money for him, manage the company for him and be loyal to him!
"By the way, how much money does Wanqing Group have in its account now?" Lin Haoran suddenly asked.

“I looked at the financial statements a few days ago. The group has about HK$7.4 million in available funds, of which Qingzhou Cement Company is the largest, with nearly HK$6 million in available funds.

Kowloon Motor Bus also has about HK$1 million;
As for Wan'an Group, since most of the funds are used for land acquisition and project development, the available funds are less than 5000 million Hong Kong dollars. Boss, do you need to use these funds? If necessary, you can transfer some of them. "Burton thought Lin Haoran wanted to use the money, so he asked.

It has been two years since Lin Haoran acquired Qingzhou Yingni Company, but he has never taken money from Qingzhou Yingni Company. Even after the financial surplus last year, he did not embezzle any money.

Because Lin Haoran had obtained a large sum of funds from the United States at that time, he naturally looked down on the little funds of Qingzhou Yingni Company.

He also never used company funds such as the Hong Kong Electric Group and local newspaper companies, and kept them for their own development, market expansion and investment.

"Don't touch the funds yet. You can transfer the proceeds from the sale of the land and commercial buildings to the account of Huanyu Investment Company. As for the funds of Wanqing Group, keep them for now. The group can use them as long as they are reasonable. I know that you also need investment in the early stage of opening up new markets.

We will wait until the financial statements are released early next year to see how much funds the group has available, and then we will discuss how to allocate them. "Lin Haoran pondered for a moment, shook his head and said.

Of the more than 700 million Hong Kong dollars, the only funds that can actually be used are the nearly 600 million Hong Kong dollars of funds of Qingzhou Yingni Company.

As for Kowloon Motor Bus, since Wan Qing Group only holds 49.9% of the shares, Kowloon Motor Bus still maintains its status as a listed company and has not been privatized by Lin Haoran. Therefore, he cannot use the funds for other purposes at will unless he obtains them in the form of dividends.

As for the tens of millions of dollars from Wan'an Real Estate Company, he was even less interested in them.

Therefore, these hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars will not be used for the time being.

After all, once the funds from the sale of the property arrive, his funding needs will be met in the short term.

(End of this chapter)