In Hong Kong, we build a global business empire

Lin Haoran stayed at home for one night. That night, his eldest brother Lin Hao Ning also stayed at home.

The next morning, around eight o'clock, Lin Haoran went out early.

Since he had already made an appointment with the Li family of Bank of East Asia for a meeting and negotiation at 10 a.m., he naturally would not waste their time.

What's more, since he invited others to come this time, he could be considered the host.

He had just arrived at Kangle Building during rush hour. Many employees along the way were surprised to see him and greeted him enthusiastically.

Because when he came over yesterday, everyone was busy working and not many people noticed that the boss had returned to Hong Kong.

At this moment, the employees were really shocked to see that their boss, who had made some big news in Japan some time ago, had returned to Hong Kong so quietly.

The news spread quickly from the Kangle Building like wings, and soon reached major news media companies in Hong Kong.

All of a sudden, many people learned a piece of breaking news: the man who was so powerful and influential in the business world was back!

When I walked into Ma Shimin's office, I saw that Ma Shimin was looking at the information collected by the group's intelligence department.

Seeing Lin Haoran, Ma Shimin immediately stood up from his seat.

"Boss, I have already arranged the meeting room for your negotiations with Li Peicai's family today. I will go with you to meet with them then." Ma Shimin said with a smile.

Lin Haoran nodded and looked at the time. It was only nine o'clock in the morning, so he was not in a hurry.

"The reason why I target Bank of East Asia is because of my current situation. I have such a huge amount of funds, including a huge cash flow in the hands of the Hutchison Whampoa Group. I should not be controlled by others. Therefore, the financial sector must be vigorously expanded, especially this negotiation with the Li family. Once we successfully acquire Bank of East Asia, we will be able to gain a firm foothold in the financial field and have a more powerful capital operation platform." Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Ma Shimin was naturally very clear about this.

"Also, there is something I didn't report to you yesterday. I have been paying attention to the development of Hong Kong real estate. At the beginning of this year, the real estate transaction volume in Hong Kong has declined significantly, especially for industrial land. The price has dropped slightly compared to the end of last year.

On the contrary, commercial land is maintaining a slow price increase for the time being because all major real estate developers are still vigorously developing it, but the transaction volume has slowed down. All this shows that the real estate industry in Hong Kong is undergoing a transformation.

In addition, affected by the oil crisis, the economies around the world have been severely affected in the past two or three years, and international trade protectionism has risen. Starting this year, many countries have increased tariffs to restrict imports and protect their own industries.

As an important hub for international trade, Hong Kong was inevitably affected. Its export trade was hindered to a certain extent. The order volume of many factories that rely on exports dropped sharply and their operations fell into difficulties. Consumption in Hong Kong was obviously also declining.

Our group also has some subsidiaries involved in export business, and their performance has been affected to varying degrees, especially at Kwai Chung Port, where export volume has declined significantly compared to last year.

All this shows that the real estate industry in Hong Kong cannot rise as wildly as it did in the past two years. Fortunately, we cleared out many real estate projects early on. Otherwise, if a real estate crisis really happened in Hong Kong, the debt pressure on our Hong Kong Land Group would be huge!" Ma Shimin continued to report.

Lin Haoran was not surprised after hearing what Ma Shimin said.

Last night, Lin Hao Ning also said something similar to him, and was glad that he had sold all his real estate investments as soon as possible.

In fact, there were signs of all this, but the major real estate developers in Hong Kong, who were still deeply trapped in the real estate bubble, did not pay too much attention to these details.

Even Li Ka-shing's Cheung Kong Holdings is also investing heavily in the real estate industry at this moment.

People like Ma Shimin and Lin Hao Ning have talked about these things with Lin Haoran. Lin Haoran has also expressed his own opinion, believing that the current rise in Hong Kong's real estate prices has completely exceeded their own value and that it is supported by a bubble. Once the bubble bursts, the consequences will be disastrous.

Therefore, both Ma Shimin and Lin Haoran paid special attention to all movements in the real estate industry.

In particular, Ma Shimin, when he was the executive director of Jardine Matheson, had already realized that the development speed of the real estate industry in Hong Kong was a bit too crazy, and behind the ever-rising prices, there was a huge crisis.

However, when he shared these ideas with Niu Bijian, the then-captain of Jardine Matheson, the latter always thought that he was worrying too much and that the real estate market in Hong Kong would continue to prosper. After all, it has a unique geographical location and a booming economy.

Many people are blinded by the immediate benefits and simply cannot listen.

Seeing that he could not convince Nie Bijian and that they both held on to their own opinions, Ma Shimin felt helpless but had no choice but to leave Jardine Matheson.

After joining the Hong Kong Land Group, he devoted a lot of energy to the research and analysis of the Hong Kong real estate industry.

"These are just things that have been expected for a long time. Now, perhaps this is the last glory of the real estate industry in the next few years. In my opinion, in about a year and a half at most, the real estate industry will accelerate into the downward channel. When the time comes, this bubble will be squeezed and all major real estate industries will be hurt. Mr. Ma, you are the head of the Jardine Matheson Group. I believe in your ability. The focus of the group's business must be shifted faster in the future." Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

“Boss, please rest assured that apart from the core real estate projects of the Hong Kong Land Group, our focus is on diversified development. Under your suggestion, the Hong Kong Land Group now controls Dairy Farm International and has carried out mergers and acquisitions of many international fast-moving consumer goods brands.

In just two months, we have successfully acquired more than 30 brands. Moreover, the integration and operation of these brands are progressing in an orderly manner. We are carrying out unified resource allocation and management optimization on the basis of retaining their original brand characteristics and market channels.

In particular, the cooperation with 711-Eleven has provided a solid guarantee for the sales of our acquired products. Now, you have facilitated the merger of 711-Eleven with Lawson, which has greatly increased the number of convenience stores and expanded sales outlets, forming a complete business closed loop.

It is expected that in the second half of the year, we will see more significant results in the market, bringing considerable profits to the group." Ma Shimin said confidently.

“Well, the most important thing for fast-moving consumer goods brands is to ensure quality. Once word of mouth collapses, even if there are sales, it will be difficult to maintain it for a long time. Therefore, during the integration and operation process, quality control must not be relaxed.

We need to establish a strict and complete quality control system, from raw material procurement to production and processing, and then to transportation and sales, and every link must be strictly controlled." Lin Haoran said seriously.

Ma Shimin nodded in agreement: "Boss, you are right. We are already working on establishing such a system. We have arranged a professional quality supervision team to regularly inspect and evaluate the production processes of each brand to ensure that product quality meets the standards.

Moreover, we are also strengthening cooperation with suppliers, selecting high-quality and reliable suppliers to ensure quality from the source. This is a fast-moving consumer goods brand that we have acquired, please take a look. "

Finally, a piece of information about the Ma Shimin Empire.

Lin Haoran took the information and glanced through it casually.

Among them, there are brands he is very familiar with, such as Red Bull, Heineken, L'Oréal Paris, Carlsberg, etc., but there are also some brands he is not familiar with.

Many of the brands provided by Lin Haoran are impossible to acquire. Naturally, Ma Shimin cannot just rely on the list provided by the boss to acquire brands. They can also acquire some good fast-moving consumer goods brands.

The reason why these brands declined or disappeared in later generations is sometimes not because of the product itself, but due to many factors such as mistakes in business strategies, deviations in market positioning, broken capital chains, or being squeezed by powerful competitors.

Now that the Swire Group has the opportunity to intervene, it is entirely possible to use its own resources and advantages to give these brands new life.

Therefore, Lin Haoran did not reject Dairy Farm International's offer to acquire some fast-moving consumer goods brands that he was not familiar with but were relatively well-known in this era.

After putting down the information, Lin Haoran was about to continue speaking, but Ma Shimin stood up.

"Boss, I have a gift for you!" Ma Shimin said, taking out a box from the cabinet behind him, then turned around and handed it to Lin Haoran.

"Oh? What is this?" Lin Haoran took the box in surprise.

"Boss, you'll know if you open it." Ma Shimin said with a smile.

Seeing this, Lin Haoran could only suppress his curiosity and open the box.

What's inside is actually a mobile phone?

Looking at this big mobile phone that is almost half the size of a brick, Lin Haoran was a little surprised.

"Has mobile phones been put into commercial use in Hong Kong?" he asked, looking up.

Last year, under the leadership of Lin Haoran, the Hong Kong Land Group acquired Hong Kong Telephone.

Later, when Lin Haoran went to the United States, he also negotiated with Motorola and finally succeeded in getting Motorola to cooperate with the Hong Kong Telephone Company to make Hong Kong the first city in the world to realize commercial use of mobile phones.

Now, more than half a year has passed, and he has never asked about this before.

“Not yet, but with the help of Motorola, the cellular mobile communication network has now covered the core areas of Hong Kong Island, such as Central, Wan Chai, Causeway Bay, and North Point.

It is also currently in the mobile phone testing phase, and the signal is occasionally interrupted due to some gaps in coverage, but in areas with signal coverage, there is basically no problem making and receiving calls.

The mobile phone in your hand is the product that Motorola is preparing to put into commercial use. I intend to persuade them to hand over the OEM business of this product to us, so that the group can enter the field of communication equipment manufacturing and further expand its business territory. "Ma Shimin explained in detail. (End of this chapter)