In Hong Kong, we build a global business empire

Chapter 448 A God-given Opportunity
The next day, Hong Kong's property market was greatly affected, just as Lin Haoran had expected.

The headlines of several major pro-British media outlets are still hyping up the news that Lin Haoran is selling off his real estate projects, and the panic among the citizens is spreading further.

The sales office was deserted, and the originally bustling crowd of home buyers seemed to have disappeared overnight.

Real estate agents’ phones stopped ringing, and the market fell into an unprecedented downturn.

Yesterday was perhaps the most difficult day for the real estate industry, with performance plummeting by more than 90% and many real estate projects not even having a single transaction.

Not only that, many citizens who have already paid a deposit even came directly to the sales office to request a cancellation.

This kind of scene can be seen everywhere in major sales offices.

The former Kinmen Building, now the Carrian Building.

Chen Songqing sat in the office with a gloomy face.

He had just received a report from the finance department that the Jianing Group had almost no income yesterday.

Not only that, the share price of Jianing Group also fell sharply yesterday.

You know, the reason why the Jianing Group can survive, in addition to various ways of taking out loans, the most important thing is to continue selling pre-sale properties. They have already started collecting house payments before the houses have even started to be built.

He knew very well what it meant that there was no income yesterday.

Although there is no need to worry in the short term, if it continues for a few months, the Jianing Group will definitely be doomed.

He clenched his fists, his heart filled with anxiety and uneasiness.

Although Lin Haoran gave him some comfort yesterday, he still couldn't be completely relieved.

He even considered selling the controlling stake in Aigo.

In order to take over Aigo, he has put in a lot of effort in the past few months. Last month, he completely drove Liu Luanxiong, the founder of Aigo, out of the company.

Today, their Jianing Group has completely taken control of this first listed company in the manufacturing industry.

However, after taking control of Aimego, he discovered that Aimego was not as good as he had imagined.

Despite this, he could not make it public. Now he could only maintain the high-quality appearance of Aigo Company, so that the company's stock price would not plummet and would not affect the Carrian Group.

If things really don't work out, even the Golden Gate Building and the International Building that we recently purchased will have to be sold.

Thinking long-term, there is no need to panic in the short term, but if it continues like this for a few months, he knows that he will not be able to hold on.

If you take too big a step at once, you may easily pull your balls.

"What on earth is Lin Haoran planning?" Chen Songqing muttered to himself, his heart full of doubts.

At the same time, other real estate giants also held emergency meetings to discuss response strategies.

Especially those real estate companies with very high debt ratios, in addition to the Carrian Group, such as Hang Lung Properties, Great Eagle Holdings, Carrian Properties, etc., in just one day, the bosses of these companies began to panic.

If they expand blindly, once a real estate crisis occurs, one can imagine how disastrous the consequences will be.

In another world, one of these companies is called the Jardine Matheson Group!
In another world, due to blind expansion, the Hong Kong Land Group had debts of more than HK$1982 billion by .

It even directly dragged down its parent company, Jardine Matheson.

However, the Jardine Matheson Group in this world has obviously changed completely.

After Lin Haoran took over the Jardine Matheson Group, the first thing he did was to clean up the non-performing assets at high prices and completely stop blind investment.

Although the current Hong Kong Land Group still has more than 4 billion in bank debt, the actual funds it can mobilize are more than 10 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Even if Lin Haoran's own billions of debts were added, the funds of the Jardine Matheson Group could easily pay them off.

So, in fact, the financial condition of the current Swire Group is very good and it does not look like a real estate company at all.

In Hong Kong, almost all real estate companies have a certain debt ratio.

Including first-tier real estate giants such as Cheung Kong Holdings, Sun Hung Kai Properties, New World Development, and Hopewell Development.

However, most of the giants like Cheung Kong Holdings and Sun Hung Kai Properties do not have high debt ratios, and even if they encounter a real estate crisis, it will not cause any serious impact on them.

However, when the entire real estate industry was in a panic, Lin Haoran seemed unusually calm.

Today is December 12st, a very special day. Today is also the last day of 31.

After today, it will be 1981. He sat in the general manager's office on the 51st floor of the Connaught Building, holding a cup of coffee in his hand, looking through the French windows, overlooking the bustling streets of Central.

"Boss, should we issue an announcement? Although this incident has not caused any impact on our Jardine Matheson Group, it has a significant impact on your reputation. These unscrupulous media really think that the matter is not big enough." Ma Shimin, who was standing aside, put down the intelligence information in his hand and looked up and asked.

Lin Haoran took a sip of coffee and said calmly, "Don't worry, let the bullets fly for a while."

"Today, all the major sales offices are almost deserted, just like yesterday. News has also come from the Hong Kong Registrar's Office that today's second-hand transfers are still very bleak, with no more than 50 appointments." Ma Shimin continued.

These are all intelligence materials, which are the unique intelligence sources of the Jardine Matheson Group.

"By the way, tomorrow's official land auction will start at 3:30 pm, right?" Lin Haoran confirmed again.

"Yes, boss, the auction is scheduled to be held at 3:30 tomorrow afternoon. I have reported to you before that originally, in addition to our Jardine Matheson Group, there were three other real estate companies that had signed up, but according to the latest news, the Carrian Group withdrew yesterday. Now only Wheelock and Swire are still on the list." Ma Shimin reported in detail.

“However, my personal observation is that Wheelock and Jardine Matheson and Swire do not seem to have any real intention of participating in the auction. It seems that they are just attending reluctantly to give face to the Governor-General’s Office and to join in the fun,” Ma Shimin added.

Today, there are not many British real estate companies left in Hong Kong. The largest giant, the Hong Kong Land Development, has been taken over by Lin Haoran, Wharf Holdings has been taken over by Pao Yu-kang, and Hutchison Whampoa has also been taken over by Li Ka-shing.

Therefore, in fact, among the British real estate companies in Hong Kong today, only Wheelock and Swire are left to keep up appearances.

Hearing this, Lin Haoran curled up the corners of his mouth and smiled: "Wouldn't that be more advantageous for us? The fewer competitors we have, the greater our chances of successfully taking over those lands." His tone was full of confidence and expectation.

The official lands to be auctioned tomorrow are all scarce resources!

It would be a pity to miss it.

Although Hong Kong experienced a real estate crisis in 1982, the crisis only lasted for a short two years before recovery and a new wave of skyrocketing prices began.

Therefore, if these pieces of land are missed, it will be a huge loss for the Hutchison Whampoa Group.

These are all plots of land with excellent locations!

"Yes, if the auction of government land is not terminated, maybe we can win the bid at the starting price. In this way, we can save a lot of money!" Ma Shimin was also a little excited.

If these plots of land were auctioned in normal times, they would definitely be sold at sky-high prices, far exceeding the market price.

After all, their scarcity and core location mean that their prices cannot be calculated according to market prices.

But now, the most likely competitor, the Carrian Group, has withdrawn, and the other two companies have just treated them as decoration, especially Wheelock & Co., which started to continuously transfer assets overseas and buy ships more than ten years ago. How could they spend a high price to buy land in Hong Kong!

Although real estate is one of the core businesses of Swire Group, they focus more on shipping, sugar and food, aviation, trade and other businesses. They are a very diversified trading company. With the uncertain real estate industry in Hong Kong, it is impossible for them to invest too much money in the real estate industry.

Therefore, the normal situations of these two companies can basically be ruled out.

If this is the case, doesn’t it mean that the Jardine Matheson Group has no competitors?

Thinking of this, both Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin felt extremely excited.

This is simply a godsend, allowing them to acquire these priceless land resources at extremely low prices.

"Then do you think the Governor's Office will cancel this auction? After all, this situation means that the government will suffer a lot of losses." Lin Haoran raised a question.

He had participated in previous government land auctions.

In recent years, almost every auction of government land has been very fierce, and the ultimate biggest beneficiary is naturally the British and Hong Kong governments.

Although the financial revenue they obtained was stated to be kept for Hong Kong, everyone knew that in fact, the funds would eventually be transferred back to the UK.

But now, because the Hong Kong Land Group sold off so many real estate projects some time ago, most of the real estate companies in Hong Kong have no intention of continuing to participate in the auction.

Coupled with this sudden crisis, if this auction continues to be held, there is no doubt that the government's revenue will be greatly reduced.

"Under this situation, it is unlikely that the government will suddenly stop the auction of government land." Ma Shimin analyzed, with some confidence in his tone, "After all, the news of this auction has been widely circulated for more than half a month in advance, and major media have also rushed to report on it. The whole of Hong Kong is paying close attention to it.

Once the government decides to suspend the auction, it will undoubtedly send an extremely negative signal to the market, and even the Governor's Office will lose confidence in Hong Kong's real estate prospects.

I think the Governor's Office would never want to see such a consequence, so I boldly speculate that this auction should be held as scheduled. Moreover, it is now close to the auction time, and if they want to stop it, they should have stopped it long ago."

Upon hearing this, Lin Haoran nodded slightly, agreeing with Ma Shimin's analysis.

Every decision made by the government will cause a chain reaction in the market, especially at such a sensitive moment.

Suspension of the auction will undoubtedly exacerbate market panic and will also be a major test for the government's credibility.

(End of this chapter)