In Hong Kong, we build a global business empire

Things went very smoothly. Based on the good cooperation between Lin Haoran and Citibank and Citibank's in-depth understanding of Lin Haoran's assets, the bank's chairman, Mr. Walter Reston, naturally accepted the transaction proposal.

Then, that morning, after the preliminary framework discussion, Lin Haoran quickly contacted a trusted and loyal employee of Galaxy Securities and his personal legal advisor to participate in the detailed terms negotiation with Citibank.

After all, this is a huge transaction worth tens of billions of Hong Kong dollars. Even Lin Haoran, who has always been prudent, dare not take it lightly. Every detail is crucial.

He was naturally well aware that in the financial market, a slight negligence could lead to huge losses, especially in the face of such huge capital flows.

Even though he had a very good cooperation with Citibank in this regard, if the interests involved were too great, Lin Haoran was actually worried that Citibank would take advantage of his disadvantages.

Therefore, even if you trust Citibank, you must be fully prepared.

In the business world, even the strongest partnerships can become fragile in the face of huge interests.

In addition, Lin Haoran also directly instructed those in the securities department over the phone to stop buying stocks of other companies and focus on buying Sony stocks before the 15th.

After all, since everyone believes that even if Sony releases the data, its stock price will not rise much, this is also a good opportunity for Lin Haoran.

He still has nearly 400 billion yen in available funds, which is already a lot of money, but he can only absorb as much as he can within the seven-day trading day. Anyway, he might as well make some money first.

After Sony announced the global sales data of Walkman portable players, an increase of more than 20% in one day is already quite good.

Although it cannot be compared with Toyota cars, it is better in that it takes less time and the results are seen in ten days.

Therefore, next, the employees of Galaxy Securities' Japan branch will all suspend the purchase of stocks of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, Toyota, Honda, Nintendo, Industrial Bank of Japan, Mitsubishi Estate, Tokyo Electron, etc.

Instead, we will focus on buying up as many Sony shares as we can, provided that it does not interfere with the normal stock price fluctuations.

And here at the headquarters of Citibank Japan Branch.

The two parties finally reached an agreement that Citibank will serve as the financial advisor for Lin Haoran's acquisition of Toyota Motor shares, and the commission is set at 1% of the total transaction price.

If Citibank is able to negotiate shares at a price below market value, it will also receive additional commission rewards based on a gradient of savings.

In addition, Citibank agreed to provide financing services for the acquisition, with the financing period tentatively set at 6 months and the total interest rate preferentially reduced to 2.5% during the period.

If the advance is repaid in advance, the interest will be reduced proportionally.

Regarding the number of shares to be acquired, the agreement does not set a specific upper or lower limit, but specifically states that if the final acquired share ratio is less than 10%, the interest rate on the advance payment provided by Citibank will be reduced to 2%.

This series of terms seemed harsh, but they were finally finalized, which indirectly reflected Citigroup's high confidence in successfully acquiring at least 10% of Toyota Motor's shares within a month.

Regarding the interest rate, Citibank is indeed very generous.

During this period, housing prices in Japan had not been driven up as much as in Hong Kong. On the contrary, some transaction volumes were very flat. This was also the reason why Lin Haoran easily acquired the four plots of land.

At the beginning of 1981, Japan's benchmark annual loan interest rate was 7.25%. However, due to the small number of loan applicants and fierce competition, the interest rates offered by various banks were often lower than the benchmark annual loan interest rate.

Under normal circumstances, the annual interest rate is between 6% and 7%, which is the mainstream interest rate of many Japanese banks today.

The loan is for half a year with an interest rate of 2.5%, which is equivalent to an annual loan interest rate of 5%. The interest rate that Citibank gives to Lin Haoran is indeed a very favorable condition. This is not only based on the good cooperation between the two parties in the past, but also Citibank's recognition of Lin Haoran's strength and credibility.

If Lin Haoran went to cooperate with a local Japanese bank, he would definitely not receive such preferential treatment.

This is why even when he came to Japan, he gave priority to cooperating with Citibank.

After the contract is signed, the employee of Galaxy Securities who came with them to negotiate will be stationed at Citibank to supervise this cooperation and report to Lin Haoran at any time.

After finishing all this, it was already past three in the afternoon.

A deal involving more than 100 billion yen was concluded in just a few hours.

After all, the two parties have cooperated many times, so naturally they have a very high level of tacit understanding and trust.

After the deal was done, Lin Haoran left the headquarters of Citibank Japan Branch in a good mood.

Back at the Landmark Building in the Central District, Lin Haoran finally saw Huo Jianning. This busy man rarely returned to the company and spent most of his time outside.

New projects, new investments, new markets. As the head of the Japanese branch of the Hong Kong Land Development, Kening Fok is busy expanding his territory in this new market.

"Boss, you're here at the right time. I recently visited several fast-moving consumer goods brands in Tokyo." When Huo Jianning saw Lin Haoran, he greeted him enthusiastically and reported his new discoveries incessantly, "Although it is a bit difficult to acquire them directly, I have an idea that our Jardine Matheson Group can consider becoming an important shareholder of them by investing in them.

This will not only help our Dairy Farm International to enter the fast-moving consumer goods sector faster, but also allow us to share the resources and markets of these brands.”

Lin Haoran listened to Huo Jianning's report, nodded slightly, and motioned him to continue.

"In addition, there is another good news." Huo Jianning's eyes were shining with excitement. "Tokyo's Cheung Kong Real Estate Company has broken its capital chain due to its previous massive expansion and has fallen into a predicament of insolvency.

The Tokyo Court is currently preparing to auction all of its real estate projects and properties. The auction will be held next month, and the specific time has not yet been announced. The news is released now, which can be regarded as a warm-up.

I think this is a great opportunity for our Hong Kong Land Group! If we can seize the opportunity to acquire Cheung Kong Properties, then our Hong Kong Land Group can save a lot of trouble in its layout in Japan."

Cheung Kong Real Estate?
Lin Haoran had never heard of it, so he asked, "Do you have any specific information about this company?"

"Yes, I'll give it to you right away." After saying that, Huo Jianning turned around and took out a folder from the bookshelf behind him.

"Boss, please take a look."

Lin Haoran nodded, took the folder, and sat in a chair to read it.

It turns out that this Changhe Real Estate Company can be ranked among the top 50 private real estate companies in Japan. Compared with Japanese real estate giants such as Mitsui Fudosan, Mitsubishi Estate, and Sumitomo Realty, there is indeed a very large gap, but it can also be regarded as a large real estate company.

Before the oil crisis, Japan's real estate industry was booming. At that time, Cheung Kong Property Holdings was preparing for an IPO and wanted to have a good market value, so it expanded blindly. After developing many real estate projects, it continued to take out mortgage loans and continue to acquire land to develop the next project.

As a result, the oil crisis suddenly came, Japan experienced an economic depression, the quality of life of the people declined, and real estate transaction volume dropped sharply.

Although house prices in Japan have not fallen, the volume of house transactions has dropped significantly. Even if the house prices are maintained, it will be of no use because there is a price but no demand.

Therefore, Cheung Kong Property Holdings was in trouble. Not only did it fail to go public successfully, but because it had won so many real estate projects, after struggling to survive for two years, it could no longer hold on and had to file for bankruptcy.

As a result, we now have the scene of Cheung Kong Properties’ assets being auctioned off.

After reading the information, Lin Haoran frowned slightly, thinking about the risks and opportunities.

Of course, in fact, in Lin Haoran's view, there is no risk at all.

After all, when the Japanese economic bubble comes, all this money will be thrown away!

It is conceivable that if he takes over all the real estate projects and properties of this parent and real estate now, he will definitely be able to earn a lot of money by then.

He looked up at Huo Jianning and asked, "What is the current debt situation of this company? If we take over, how much capital will we need to revitalize it?"

Huo Jianning was well prepared and answered immediately: "According to my investigation, Cheung Kong Real Estate's debt is about 200 billion yen, but their assets are actually worth only about 150 billion yen. However, it is impossible to sell them at this market price in the short term, which is why they had no choice but to file for bankruptcy.

This auction includes all the assets of Cheung Kong Real Estate, especially some prime plots of land and commercial real estate projects in central Tokyo, which are very valuable. Once the assets are purchased, we will not need to bear the debt.

This auction is actually an application by the debtor to the court for auction. In other words, if we win the bid, the debt of Changhe Real Estate Company will have nothing to do with us.

If we can bid for these assets at a reasonable price and then through effective operation and management, once Japan's real estate economy recovers in the future, it is entirely possible to achieve profitability in a short period of time."

"In other words, if we participate in the auction, we can basically acquire this company at a price lower than 150 billion yen, right?" Lin Haoran put down the information, looked up and asked.

"Yes, according to the estimate of a Japanese real estate expert I hired, the auction price could exceed 130 billion yen, which is beyond imagination. In the past two years, major Japanese real estate companies have slowed down their development pace, and no real estate company will be willing to bid at the market price." Huo Jianning replied quickly.

Lin Haoran nodded and had a more detailed understanding of the company's situation.

However, even 130 billion yen is not a small amount.

Converted into Hong Kong dollars, it is a sum of more than 3 billion Hong Kong dollars. (End of this chapter)