In Hong Kong, we build a global business empire

In a 19-story building in Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan, Lin Haoran, Huo Jianning, and Zhao Xin were sitting in an office.

This is the office of the Hong Kong Land Group in Japan. It is not large, only about 200 square meters.

In Hong Kong, this office is not even as big as Lin Haoran’s own reception room.

However, the Hong Kong Land Group did not have much business in Japan before, and its Tokyo office employed only more than 20 people, so the rented office area naturally did not need to be too large.

Now, they are preparing to expand rapidly in Tokyo, and with the surge in personnel, they definitely need to move to another location.

Chuo-ku is the most prosperous core area in Tokyo, and it is also the CBD of Tokyo.

This office is located on the 16th floor. Through the glass window, Lin Haoran can see the Tokyo Imperial Palace one kilometer away, and the scenery of downtown Tokyo outside the window is in full view.

The prosperity and bustle of the central area seem to be isolated through this layer of glass windows, leaving only tranquility and grandeur.

Lin Haoran's gaze swept across the golden roof of the Tokyo Imperial Palace and turned to the surrounding low-rise and medium-rise buildings, and he couldn't help feeling a little touched.

In Lin Haoran's opinion, Tokyo's urban construction is far inferior to Hong Kong.

The reason is simple. Although Tokyo is also an international metropolis, it has no shortage of land, so there are not many high-rise buildings, especially in the city center.

Today, although the tallest building in Asia is in Tokyo, which is now the Sunshine 60 Building, it is not located in Tokyo's traditional core urban area, but in the Itabashi Ikebukuro commercial district in the northwest of Tokyo.

On the contrary, there are not many high-rise buildings near Tokyo's famous Ginza commercial district.

Because of this, Lin Haoran and others have a very wide view just from the 16th floor.

Today, Tokyo's urban planning and development concepts focus more on the combination of tradition and modernity, unlike Hong Kong, where there is large-scale concentrated construction of high-rise buildings.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Hong Kong's economy was developing rapidly, the population was dense, and land was extremely valuable.

In order to meet residential and office needs, high-rise buildings have sprung up like mushrooms in Hong Kong.

It is also because of this that Tokyo’s urban skyline is far less spectacular than Hong Kong’s at the same time.

Despite this, Tokyo still has its own characteristics.

Yesterday afternoon, Lin Haoran met with the Prime Minister at the Prime Minister's official residence. The Japanese leader expressed a warm welcome to Lin Haoran and said that Japan is a place very worthy of investment.

Lin Haoran also said that the two-day visit gave him a great understanding of Japan. After investigation, he decided to make large-scale investments here, such as infrastructure, trade, manufacturing, and finance.

The Prime Minister also said that he would provide certain conveniences in investment.

In recent years, Japan's economic development has obviously slowed down.

Especially since the oil crisis, that is, starting from 1978, Japan's economy has become complex and changeable.

Japan's economic growth rate has slowed down compared with previous years, mainly due to the combined influence of various factors, including changes in the international economic environment, adjustments in domestic industrial structure and policy adjustments.

At the same time, factors such as inflation, slower export growth, increased fiscal pressure, and intensified trade wars have led to Japan's domestic economy being less active today than it was in the 1970s.

Moreover, due to the slower export growth rate and the decline in operating rates, many factories have laid off employees and the unemployment rate has increased significantly.

Taking all these factors into consideration, Japan's economy in the past two or three years has been very difficult, if not very bad.

It is for this reason that Japan now welcomes foreign investment, which will not only bring more jobs to Japan and reduce the unemployment rate, but also make the Japanese economy more active.

In addition to Lin Haoran's status in the business world and his promising future, these are the reasons why the Japanese government attaches so much importance to Lin Haoran's coming to Japan.

The Prime Minister also said that if Lin Haoran encountered any difficulties in Japan, he could call him at any time and he would definitely help Lin Haoran properly solve all the problems he encountered!

Such a promise also surprised Lin Haoran.

It's just like when he was in the UK. When he visited the UK, the British government also attached great importance to him.

In contrast, Lin Haoran did not receive such treatment when he was in the United States.

When he was in the United States, no government officials met with him.

The two sides had a pleasant conversation and finally reached a preliminary letter of intent for investment, marking the official start of the Swire Properties' large-scale investment plan in Japan.

With the support of the Japanese government, Lin Haoran is more confident about investing in Japan.

"Boss, after two days of field investigation and combined with the detailed information provided by the Landmark Group Office, I plan to first purchase a building here as the headquarters of our Landmark Group.

After in-depth communication and screening with several real estate agencies, I finally locked on a 28-story building near Ginza, Tokyo. The boss behind this building started out in foreign trade and suffered heavy losses in the past two years, so he had to choose to sell this building.

This building is quite conspicuous in the Ginza area, has superior floor height, and is currently for sale at a relatively reasonable price. The initial offer is about 160 billion yen, but I estimate that there is still room for further negotiation to lower the price.

It is worth mentioning that the current average housing price in Tokyo is about half of that in Hong Kong. According to what you said, the future housing price trend in Tokyo will not be worse than that in Hong Kong. If this is true, then this will undoubtedly provide us with a more favorable investment environment. "

As Huo Jianning spoke, he handed over the relevant information to Lin Haoran and explained in detail. Today, the exchange rate between the Hong Kong dollar and the Japanese yen is around 1:40.

In other words, the 40 billion Hong Kong dollars brought by Lin Haoran is worth about 1600 billion yen.

This amount of money has been converted into Japanese yen and transferred to Citibank's Tokyo branch under the operation of Citibank's Hong Kong branch.

Lin Haoran looked at the photo in the information. This building was not old, but rather very new. It was built in 1975, and it was only about 6 years old.

Although the building is located on the edge of the Ginza commercial district, it still belongs to Ginza.

And a building like this only costs 160 billion yen, and you can still bargain.

And 160 billion yen, converted into Hong Kong dollars, is only about 4 million Hong Kong dollars.

If this building was placed in Central, Wan Chai or Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, it would be worth at least HK$10 billion.

Worth it, really worth it.

As far as I can remember, the places with the highest housing prices in Tokyo in the future will probably be Chuo-ku and Minato-ku.

The Ginza area is the core of the core.

If we take over this place, I can’t believe how much the housing prices here will rise after the economic bubble starts.
Is there any investment that is simpler than buying a house and waiting for it to appreciate in value?

There shouldn't be any more.

"It's in such a good location, has been on the market for more than a month, and the price is right, but there is no suitable buyer?" Lin Haoran was a little surprised when he looked at the listing time displayed above.

It seems that although the Japanese economy during this period was very developed, it was completely different from the performance of the Japanese economy after 1986.

Lin Haoran guessed that no one would have thought that Japan's economic development would be so rapid in the future, so in the current stage of economic downturn, no one dared to act rashly, even though the location of this building is excellent and of extremely high quality.

"Boss, I learned from the agent that there are several potential buyers for this building, all of whom are well-known Japanese companies. However, most of them think the price is too high and they have not reached an agreement on the price. Of course, this is only one side of the agent's words, and I don't know whether it is true or not.

In addition, there is another extremely important information, that is, the owner of this building is now eager to sell, if the price is right, the transaction period can be very short. "Fok Jianning said.

Lin Haoran nodded, thought for a moment, and said, "In that case, let's take it. Of course, the price can be lower, the better. If others think the price is too high, we can't be a sucker. After all, the housing prices and commodity prices in each city are different. We can't always compare the housing prices and commodity prices in Hong Kong with those in Tokyo.

In addition, the Japanese branch of the Swire Group should be established soon. After we take over this building, we will prepare for the establishment of the company. At that time, I will organize a grand opening ceremony and invite many Japanese celebrities to participate. At that time, it will be your time to show yourself.

I can't stay in Japan forever. Whether this place can develop or not, more of the burden is placed on you, and knowing the bigwigs in the Japanese political and business circles will also be beneficial to your future development here. I have high expectations for you, and I hope you won't let me down! "

Hearing this, Huo Jianning nodded solemnly and said, "Boss, don't worry, I will do my best to develop the business of the Hong Kong Land Group in Japan. This is not only for the group, but also for myself. I know how precious this opportunity is."

Lin Haoran looked at Huo Jianning with satisfaction. He naturally knew that this young man possessed a rare foresight in the business world and was a rare top business talent, so he valued him so much.

He patted Huo Jianning's shoulder gently to show encouragement, and then continued: "Very good, I believe you. By the way, you will be responsible for the negotiation of the building yourself. If necessary, you can appropriately demonstrate our sincerity and strength. It would be best if we can trade at a price with the best cost-effectiveness."

Huo Jianning’s greatest advantage is his strong negotiation ability.

Lin Haoran is very confident about this.

as predicted!

Two days later, on February 2, Lin Haoran received a call from Huo Jianning, whose voice could not hide his excitement.

"Boss, good news! After two days of intense negotiations with the owner, we finally succeeded in acquiring the building for 138 billion yen!"

Hearing this, Lin Haoran couldn't help but smile with satisfaction.

138 billion yen, converted at the current exchange rate, is approximately 3.45 million Hong Kong dollars. This price is much lower than the initial offer and lower than the average transaction price of similar buildings in the market.

Huo Jianning did not disappoint him. His negotiation skills were indeed very strong. Not only did he win the deal in just two days, but he also saved 22 billion yen.

Although it only saved tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars, it was not a huge amount of money for Lin Haoran.

But every negotiation and every deal can be more beneficial to their Hutchison Whampoa Group. At the end of the year, the money saved is very considerable.

This is not just a matter of tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars.

After acquiring this building, it also announced that the Swire Group officially started in Tokyo.

The reason why Lin Haoran did not set up a new company here, but invested in the name of a branch of the Swire Group, is actually very simple.

The Hong Kong Land Group is now his private enterprise, which means that no matter how much money the Hong Kong Land Group makes in the future, it will all belong to him, Lin Haoran.

Moreover, with two generals, Ma Shimin and Huo Jianning, Lin Haoran is very confident about the future of the Hutchison Whampoa Group!
In addition, he wanted to withdraw his investment before the Japanese economic bubble ended, so it would be easier for the branch to sell off its assets. (End of this chapter)