In Hong Kong, we build a global business empire

In the blink of an eye, a night passed.

The next morning, Lin Haoran stayed at home with his parents. After having a warm breakfast, he said goodbye to them and left Deep Water Bay Villa.

When I arrived at Kangle Building and just entered Ma Shimin's office, I saw Ma Shimin on the phone.

Lin Haoran did not disturb him. He just sat down on a chair and waited quietly.

A few minutes later, Ma Shimin hung up the phone.

"Boss, I received a message that the management of Jardine Matheson has decided to move out of Hong Kong today. In addition, Simon Keswick seems to have been ousted by the Rothschild family and other shareholders such as the Bank of Hong Kong. Henry Keswick is temporarily serving as the interim manager, but his position is also unstable. After returning to the UK, I estimate that there will be another fierce struggle!" Ma Shimin said with some emotion.

Obviously, Simon Keswick became the scapegoat for this incident.

Of course, Simon does bear the greatest responsibility, after all, this incident happened during his tenure.

This time, in just half a month, Jardine Matheson's losses amounted to at least over 10 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Including the HK$5 million fine imposed on the Governor's Office and the losses incurred by Jardine Matheson Securities.

After all, Ma Shimin had worked at Jardine Matheson for so many years and had once been a senior executive of the company, so he still had complicated feelings about this.

"Without Jardine Matheson Securities, they won't have much business in Hong Kong, right? There's naturally no point in keeping them. They can't make it here!" Lin Haoran said with a smile. He was not at all surprised that Jardine Matheson was in such a hurry to move out.

In Hong Kong, Jardine Matheson & Co. even offended the Governor-General's Office. In addition, their main business was almost gone. It can be said that they had no attachment to Hong Kong at all.

"There is still a little bit. For example, they still have several commercial buildings in Hong Kong. According to the current market price, these buildings are worth at least 20 to 30 billion Hong Kong dollars. In addition, there are businesses such as Jardine Motors, which are doing quite well. However, compared with their previous businesses, this little business is really nothing now." Ma Shimin nodded.

The largest car dealer in Hong Kong is Jardine Motors. Luxury car brands such as Mercedes-Benz and Rolls-Royce cooperate with Jardine Motors, which serves as their dealer in Hong Kong.

However, Hong Kong has too few people after all, and the number of cars owned is not that large, so even the largest car dealers, annual sales, annual profits, etc., in Lin Haoran's view, are very average and not worth mentioning.

"The once glorious king of foreign companies has fallen into decline. It's really sad!" Lin Haoran said with some emotion.

"By the way, boss, the Finance Department will send out last year's annual report this afternoon!" Ma Shimin reminded again.

"Okay, I understand! Mr. Ma, I also have something to discuss with you." Lin Haoran nodded and then said.

"Boss, please speak!"

"Mr. Lin Haoran, what do you think about the prospects of the Japanese market?" he asked with a smile.

“The Japanese market is indeed very large, second only to the US market, and is a rare, high-quality, large market. During the time when I worked for Jardine Matheson, the company had intended to make large-scale investments in Japan and wanted to develop Japan into a product sales market.

Unfortunately, however, it has never been actively accepted by the Japanese market. Japanese people have a characteristic: they like to support and buy domestic products.

Therefore, Jardine Matheson's market share in Japan is still limited, resulting in its investment in Japan being disproportionate to its returns. Therefore, Jardine Matheson had no choice but to withdraw many of its businesses from Japan to avoid greater losses.

As for our Hong Kong Land Group, as a subsidiary of Jardine Matheson, the same is true. Currently, Hong Kong Land Group only has a small business in Japan under its subsidiary Dairy Farm International, but not much. So, boss, do you want to enter the Japanese market?" Ma Shimin asked curiously.

"Indeed, I plan to enter the real estate industry in Japan. After all, unlike consumer goods, real estate is a rigid demand and is unlikely to encounter national rejection. As long as we can successfully acquire the land and develop it smoothly, profits will naturally follow." Lin Haoran explained with a smile.

"Boss, this may not be easy. Even if the Swire Group sets foot in the Japanese market, it will most likely be squeezed out by other local real estate companies. Although the Japanese market has great potential, it is also a tough nut to crack." Ma Shimin frowned and expressed his concerns.

"It's okay. Prepare a team for me. I plan to go to Japan in a while and bring the team there. I unexpectedly met with Japan's Foreign Minister last night. He invited me to visit Japan on behalf of the Japanese government and hoped that I would invest in Japan. I think this should be a very good time!" Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Ma Shimin suddenly realized, no wonder the boss suddenly mentioned the market in Japan.

Although the Hong Kong Swire Group is the largest real estate company in Hong Kong, it has actually always focused on the real estate industry in Hong Kong. It rarely invests in overseas markets and at most only involves investments in Macau.

Of course, now that Lin Haoran took over, the Swire Group has already made plans in Southeast Asian markets such as Singapore.

Especially in Singapore, everything is viewed the same way as in the Hong Kong market.

Because Lin Haoran is very clear about how great the future development of Singapore will be! Perhaps, no one could have imagined that in the future, Singapore would be able to surpass Hong Kong in terms of economic volume, financial center status, industrial structure and diversification, as well as innovation investment and technological strength.

After all, Hong Kong is now far ahead of Singapore.

In the eyes of many people, although Singapore is similar to Hong Kong in many ways, it is at most a younger brother compared to Hong Kong.

"Okay, boss. That's no problem. I will try my best to select some outstanding members from the management to form a team. If you have connections with the Japanese government, it will be much smoother to enter the Japanese business community!" It would be easy if you knew Japanese executives, so Ma Shimin was very supportive.

After all, according to their thinking, Hong Kong's real estate industry may be in crisis now, and no one knows when this incident started.

Therefore, the Hong Kong Land Group has temporarily stopped its large-scale investment in the real estate industry in Hong Kong.

Only a portion of the high-quality business was retained.

"That's easy. I plan to set off this month. I am very optimistic about the future market in Japan. If it develops well, there will be no problem in creating another land group!" Lin Haoran continued.

Just relying on the small market of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Land Group has been able to develop to such a scale. It is conceivable how strong the Hong Kong Land Group will be in the future once it develops overseas!
"By the way, boss, I have contacted the famous American architectural design company Gensler about the newly-purchased land in Central, and I plan to have them design the world's tallest building on that land.

In this regard, I have already asked the Governor's Office for its opinion, and they also support us in building the world's tallest building in Hong Kong. At that time, together with the funds we have obtained from the auction, the total investment may be between 30 billion Hong Kong dollars and 40 billion Hong Kong dollars. Do you have any objection?" Ma Shimin continued.

Today, the Hong Kong Land Group has sufficient funds and has no problem building the world's tallest building.

"Oh? The Governor's Office is so easy to talk to?" Lin Haoran said in surprise.

This time, the Governor's Office suffered a lot of losses from the Jardine Matheson Group. Although it was forced to do so, it was obvious that the Governor's Office must have some opinions about the Jardine Matheson Group.

Lin Haoran was even prepared for the possibility that the Governor's Office might make things difficult for his companies.

"Boss, this time the Governor's Office has done its best to prevent the real estate crisis in Hong Kong. Building the world's tallest building will obviously help enhance Hong Kong's visibility and continue to drive the development of Hong Kong's real estate industry. So they have no reason to stop us. It's not their money anyway!" Ma Shimin explained with a smile.

"That's true. I have no objection. You can do whatever you want." Lin Haoran nodded.

Today, the world's tallest building is the Sears Tower in Chicago, which was built in 1974. It has a total height of 442.3 meters, and with the antenna it is 527.3 meters high.

The last time Lin Haoran went to Chicago, he stayed in the hotel on the Sears Tower. The experience was indeed good.

According to the historical development he knew in his previous life, the Sears Tower was the tallest building in the world until 1998.

However, if a skyscraper that surpasses the Sears Tower were suddenly built in Hong Kong, then this history would change.

Although Hong Kong is a coastal area, it is still possible to build a building four or five hundred meters high.

In the world he traveled to, the tallest building in Hong Kong was 484 meters.

Moreover, unlike the Sears Tower, it does not have an antenna on its roof, so its height is real.

"Okay, boss, I feel relieved with your agreement." Ma Shimin said with a smile.

Before this, they had discussed building the tallest building in Hong Kong, surpassing the current Hopewell Centre in Wan Chai.

But Ma Shimin felt that if he had to build something, he might as well build the world's tallest building, because he was very optimistic about the future development of Hong Kong. Even if a real estate crisis came soon, it would only be temporary.

Moreover, as long as the world's tallest building is named after their Landmark Group, their Landmark Group will become more famous around the world.

Now, Ma Shimin has new pursuits. He wants to develop the Swire Properties Group into the world's top enterprise, and he, Ma Shimin, will also become the world's top professional manager.

Although with the current financial strength of the Swire Group, it can be said that it has already entered this category.

But it is ultimately just a regional enterprise, and is only well-known in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. No one knows it outside of this area.

Therefore, although the strength of the Hong Kong Land Group is not bad, there is still a big gap between it and internationally renowned companies. (End of this chapter)