In Hong Kong, we build a global business empire

Hearing Lin Haoran's idea, the people present couldn't help but admire him.

Let’s not talk about anything else, just the real estate group has countless companies that depend on it for survival!

For example, the building materials suppliers of the Jardine Matheson Group, furniture and electrical appliance partners, shopping mall merchants in commercial entities such as Jardine Matheson Plaza, and partners of Dairy Farm International, etc.

These companies are like stars surrounding the giant business tree of the Hong Kong Land Group, interdependent on each other and together building a huge and complex business ecosystem.

Relying on the Jardine Matheson Group, they have stable business and a stable source of income.

But once they leave the Jardine Matheson Group, they will encounter unprecedented survival crisis and numerous difficulties. Not only will they need to find new opportunities for cooperation, but they will also face many difficult problems.

Just like why does the United States dare to launch a trade war against the whole world?

Because the United States is a major consumer country and most of its goods are imported, they can use their trade deficit status to control those countries that rely on exporting products to the United States.

By imposing additional tariffs, setting up trade barriers and other means, they force the other party to make concessions in trade negotiations in order to obtain more economic benefits and political bargaining chips for themselves.

For example, Annan in Southeast Asia, as one of the important export destinations for the United States, a large number of products from labor-intensive industries, such as textiles, shoes, and furniture, are continuously shipped to the American market.

Once the United States wields the stick of trade war and imposes high tariffs on Annan-related products, the order volume of many Annan companies that rely on the US market will drop sharply.

Factories were forced to reduce their production scale, a large number of workers faced the risk of unemployment, and the production lines that were originally operating well came to a standstill. The entire industrial chain suffered a severe blow.

In this case, Annan would be in a difficult position of passive defense in the trade negotiations, and would have to grit his teeth and accept many conditions that were unfavorable to him.

These companies that rely on the Hong Kong Land Group are in a similar situation to countries such as Annan that have been affected by the US trade war.

The Hong Kong Land Group is like their stable "American market", providing them with a steady stream of business and income.

But if the Swire Properties Group wants to target the companies that depend on it, these companies will find themselves in a difficult situation, just like Annan Enterprises faced with the US trade war.

At this time, the Swire Group asked them to transfer all the company's financial business from other banks to Bank of East Asia, and these companies naturally had no choice but to comply.

Although the Wan Ching Group and the Hong Kong Electric Group are not as strong as the Hong Kong Land Development, they are also well-known companies in Hong Kong, and there are also many companies that rely on them for survival.

Once all of these financial businesses that are completely dependent on or are important partners are transferred to Bank of East Asia, Bank of East Asia's business volume will see explosive growth, its customer base will further expand, and its strength will be even stronger.

At the same time, other banks in Hong Kong, such as Huifeng Bank, Hengsheng Bank and Standard Chartered Bank, will also lose a large number of customers.

In particular, Huifeng Bank, as the uncrowned king of Hong Kong's financial sector, has the largest market share.

In this case, the impact faced by Huifeng Bank will be particularly severe.

The loss of a large number of customers will not only mean a sharp reduction in the scale of Huifeng Bank's basic businesses such as deposits and loans, but will also cause immeasurable damage to its market share and position in the financial market.

Great, this method is really great!

Once successfully implemented, Bank of East Asia's market share will be further expanded.

In comparison, what is the small amount of market lost previously?
"Boss, don't worry. After I get back, I will immediately start preparing for the interview. I will try to get all the companies that mainly rely on us to transfer their financial business to the Bank of East Asia within a week. They will have no room for objection!" Chen Shoulin said with a smile.

Others nodded.

In fact, although this method is compulsory, it does not cause any loss to those companies. It is just a matter of changing a cooperative bank.

"Boss, I was deeply inspired by your idea. I learned from it and came up with a plan that can help Bank of East Asia expand its business."

At this time, Ma Shimin, who had been silent, spoke.

"Oh? Mr. Ma, tell me about it." Lin Haoran asked with interest.

Others also turned their eyes to Ma Shimin.

"Take our Hong Kong Land Group for example. The number of our own employees plus dispatched employees is nearly 100,000, not to mention that you also have many companies under your umbrella, such as the Hong Kong Electric Group and the Wan Qing Group.

Taking all these into account, the number of employees who directly or indirectly rely on our companies for their livelihoods, even if it is less than 200,000, is not much different.

At present, there are two main forms of salary payment for these employees. One is direct cash payment, and the other is payment by check. Everyone should be clear about this. Under this model, we cannot guide employees to cooperate with specific banks.

But I understand that some banks in the United States and Europe have taken the lead in trying to use bank transfers to pay wages.

I think that if Bank of East Asia wants to increase its business volume, it can change the salary payment method of companies such as Hong Kong Land Development, Hong Kong Electric Holdings and Wan Ching Group to bank transfer.

In this way, if all employees want to get their wages smoothly, they can only choose to cooperate with the Bank of East Asia, which will undoubtedly bring a very large new customer group to the Bank of East Asia, and the amount of depositors' funds of the Bank of East Asia will also be able to be increased to a certain extent. "Ma Shimin directly expressed his thoughts.

As the controller of Hong Kong's largest conglomerate, Lin Haoran's companies have grown to a terrifying number of employees as they have continued to make acquisitions over the past two or three years.

As the largest real estate company in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Land Group has a considerable number of employees, including construction workers, sales staff, logistics support staff, etc.

Not to mention, the Hong Kong Swire Group also has subsidiaries such as Dairy Farm International, Hong Kong Telephone, Galaxy Securities, Mandarin Oriental Hotel, etc. Each of these subsidiaries can be regarded as a behemoth, with employees ranging from a few thousand to tens of thousands.

In addition to the companies under the Hutchison Whampoa Group, Lin Haoran also owns the Wan Qing Group, the Hong Kong Electric Group, the Oriental Press Group, etc.

It can be said that there are quite a few people in Hong Kong who rely on Lin Haoran for their livelihood.

Although 200,000 people is a bit exaggerated, there are still more than 100,000 people.

These employees are scattered in various corners of Hong Kong, doing different jobs, but they all rely on the salary provided by the group to make a living.

Nowadays, throughout Hong Kong, most companies and employers are accustomed to paying wages in cash. On payday, financial staff will prepare employees' salary bags in advance, which contain sufficient cash.

Employees receive their pay packets directly from their employers or financial personnel and have the amount counted in person.

This method is more direct and convenient. Employees can get real money immediately. It is easier to accept for some people who are not familiar with banking operations or do not have bank accounts.

Some employees with higher salaries, such as senior executives like Ma Shimin, Burton, Chen Shoulin, etc., have a monthly salary of at least hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong dollars. If the business is good and dividends are added, their salary will be even higher!
In this case, finding cash is obviously unrealistic. You can't carry a sack to carry the money, right?
Therefore, when dealing with them, payment is usually made in the form of checks.

After receiving the check, the employee needs to go to the bank to cash the check or deposit it into his or her bank account.

Check payment is safer than cash payment because the check contains clear information about the payee and amount and needs to go through the bank's payment process.

As for why it is not popular in Hong Kong to pay wages via bank transfer, the reason is actually very simple.

The bank transfer procedures in this era are complicated and require a certain amount of time to process. If the business volume is large, it is difficult to complete all transfer operations in a timely manner. It is also easy to have problems such as information entry errors, resulting in delayed salary payment or incorrect amounts.

Moreover, at that time, bank service outlets in Hong Kong were not widely distributed, and it was extremely inconvenient for employees in some remote areas to go to banks to handle business. The procedures for opening accounts and binding accounts also took a lot of time and effort. This to some extent hindered the implementation of the bank transfer salary payment method.

However, these problems are not unsolvable. On the contrary, solving these problems is both a challenge and an excellent opportunity for Bank of East Asia.

What's more, these are things we can learn from the advanced financial systems in Europe and the United States.

If this can be overcome successfully, not only will the salary bank transfer model be smoothly implemented, but it will also help the company stand out in the Hong Kong financial community and win more market share and customer trust.

As soon as Ma Shimin finished speaking, everyone present applauded.

Once this method is implemented, the business volume of Bank of East Asia will surge directly, and the customers lost due to the unfair "choose one of two" policy implemented by Huifeng Bank can be immediately replenished, or even more so.

After all, the previous Bank of East Asia had less than tens of thousands of ordinary customers.

After all, there are only five million people in Hong Kong now.

If we count the number of households, according to last year's data, there are only 113 million households.

In fact, each of these employees under Lin Haoran basically represents a family and is the backbone of this family.

Once the funds of these hundreds of thousands of families are transferred from other banks to Bank of East Asia, it will be a big blow to other banks.

After all, once their salaries are connected to Bank of East Asia, these employees will gradually adapt to using Bank of East Asia's various financial services, and business needs such as savings, consumer credit, and financial investment will follow.

Bank of East Asia can not only gain a large number of basic customers, but also deeply tap the potential value of these customers and further expand its business territory.

Don't underestimate the financial capabilities of these clients. You should know that being an employee of a large company such as the Hong Kong Land Development and HK Electric Group is considered to be a relatively good career in Hong Kong.

Although Bank of East Asia's previous business ranked fourth in Hong Kong, its actual market share was only about 3%.

You have to know that there are hundreds of banks, financial companies, etc. in Hong Kong, and the competition is unimaginably fierce.

Last year, Huifeng Bank and Hengsheng Bank alone accounted for 60% of the market!

This means that the remaining hundreds of banks and financial companies can only share the remaining 40% of the market.

It is not easy for Bank of East Asia to capture 3% of the market among hundreds of financial companies, otherwise it would not have become the fourth largest bank in Hong Kong.

Therefore, once the funds of these hundreds of thousands of families are all cooperating with Bank of East Asia, it will be another milestone for Bank of East Asia.

The more they thought about it, the more excited they became.

It seems that Huifeng Bank is not invincible.

Last year, Huifeng still had 6% of the market.

However, after Bank of East Asia has successively implemented these strategies, it remains unknown how much market share the Huifeng Group can still occupy.

You should know that just by transferring the financial business of companies such as Hong Kong Land Development and HK Electric Group to Bank of East Asia, Bank of East Asia directly obtained financial business worth more than HK$200 billion.

Last year, the financial business amount of Bank of East Asia was only around HK$62 billion.

Now, if those companies that depend on Lin Haoran's companies for their livelihood are forced to cooperate with Bank of East Asia and have their employees' salaries paid through Bank of East Asia, it is hard to imagine what Bank of East Asia's market share will eventually be.

Even if it is impossible to surpass Huifeng Bank, the gap with Huifeng Bank will be narrowed.

After all, whether it is the financial business of the former Hong Kong Land Group, Hong Kong Electric Group, or the companies that rely on Lin Haoran's companies, as well as the funds of his employees, most of them are actually in cooperation with Huifeng Bank. One is plummeting, and the other is soaring.

By that time, Bank of East Asia would have the strength to directly challenge Huifeng Bank.

At this moment, people from Huifeng Bank and all over Hong Kong still thought that Lin Haoran had given up the plan to confront Huifeng Bank head-on, and that Lin Haoran had admitted defeat in this competition.

Little did they know that Huifeng Bank would face the most fierce counterattack next!
They were all elite generals under Lin Haoran, all of them had good strategic vision. Everyone expressed their opinions, and soon all the details were discussed.

Although Burton, Chen Shoulin, Ma Shimin and others have no relationship with the Bank of East Asia.

But they are all Lin Haoran's generals. If the Bank of East Asia develops well, it will also be beneficial to other companies.

What's more, as Lin Haoran's professional managers, even if it is not their job, they should help their boss solve problems and give him advice.

After the discussion, everyone had their own tasks, and everyone divided the work and started to take action.

This time, Lin Haoran was not idle either.

He attaches great importance to Bank of East Asia.

Therefore, he decided to go to the United States in person for a few days to discuss an important cooperation with Mr. Walter Wriston, Chairman of Citibank, so that Citibank would fully support the Bank of East Asia in Hong Kong.

As long as there is interest, there is nothing that cannot be discussed.

The greed and profit-seeking nature of American capital has always been the most powerful engine driving business cooperation.

Lin Haoran knew this very well. His goal in going to the United States was very clear, which was to cooperate with Citibank in other areas. He had already planned this cooperation when Huifeng Bank was dealing with Bank of East Asia.

Lin Haoran and Citibank have had many major collaborations, and both parties are very satisfied with each collaboration. It can be said that Lin Haoran has already become a very important customer of Citibank.

Therefore, it will not be difficult to discuss cooperation.

Although Lin Haoran has now acquired Bank of East Asia, it means that he has entered the banking industry.

But after all, Bank of East Asia is just a regional bank, and its main market is still in Hong Kong.

As for international financial business cooperation, especially in the United States, Lin Haoran will still choose to continue cooperating with Citibank, at least before Bank of East Asia develops into a global bank.

Therefore, it is impossible for Citibank to no longer value Lin Haoran just because he acquired a Hong Kong bank.

Not to mention Bank of East Asia, even if it is Bank of East Asia, Citibank will not regard it as a competitor after it leaves Hong Kong.

In the international financial market, the two are completely not on the same level.

Once Lin Haoran successfully negotiates his planned cooperation with Citibank, then obtaining Citibank's unreserved support for Bank of East Asia in Hong Kong will be just a small matter.

After all, Citibank's market share in Hong Kong is not very high. Although they also attach importance to the Hong Kong market, compared with the Nanyang market, the Japanese market, etc., the Hong Kong market is obviously much less important.

In the blink of an eye, two days passed and it was June 6th.

Early this morning, many Hong Kong citizens habitually bought a copy of Oriental Daily.

As a newspaper that has long maintained the sales top spot, Oriental Daily has daily sales of over 100,000 copies.

If there is some explosive news, it is common to have 300,000 or 400,000 copies.

During this period, Oriental Daily News has been reporting on the unfair competition of Bank of East Asia and its manipulation of former employees of Bank of East Asia. Many people feel sorry for Bank of East Asia, but with other newspapers remaining silent and government agencies making statements, even though everyone knows the truth, they feel that the matter can only be left unresolved.

Even those citizens who were deceived into participating in the demonstrations have gradually lost their anger over time, and the matter has been left unresolved.

However, the front-page headline of today's Oriental Daily News was like a bombshell, causing uproar in Hong Kong's financial circles and even the entire society.

The headline read: "Breaking news, the outrageous scandals of Huifeng Bank are proven!"

The entire title, in bold black font, directly attracted the citizens who went to buy newspapers.

Some citizens who were originally planning to buy other newspapers changed their minds immediately after seeing the enlarged news headlines of Oriental Daily and chose to buy Oriental Daily.

Therefore, the sales of today's Oriental Daily began to increase continuously.

As early as the day before, Cui Zilong had predicted that the publication of these matters by Oriental Daily would surely trigger a sales frenzy.

Therefore, he directly ordered that 50 copies of today's edition of Oriental Daily be printed!

On the front page of the newspaper, three pieces of heavy black material were like three sharp blades piercing the lifeblood of Huifeng Bank, exposing the financial giant's unscrupulous misdeeds of suppressing its peers, manipulating the market, and forcibly acquiring companies over the years.

The first revelation was about the secret operation behind Huifeng Bank's acquisition of Hengsheng Bank by any means necessary, which was uncovered by Cui Zilong's intelligence department after exhausting their efforts and financial resources and going through countless secret visits and negotiations.

In fact, these exposed black materials are just the tip of the iceberg in Cui Zilong's hands.

Due to limited space, the newspaper can only disclose the most important parts first. As for the rest, more shocking evidence chains and inside stories are ready to be disclosed on a daily basis, with the determination to completely tear off the fig leaf of Huifeng Bank.

Moreover, the revelations were all based on solid evidence. Oriental Daily did not fabricate rumors or cause trouble. Even the government could not do anything to them.

It can be said that although Huifeng Bank’s previous actions were all business wars, it is actually normal to use any means to achieve its own interests.

However, every piece of scandal involving Huifeng Bank has crossed the bottom line of the law.

However, every time, Huifeng Bank acted very covertly, making it difficult for everyone to obtain evidence.

In addition, every time there are government agencies that stand up to support it or downplay the matter, and in the end Huifeng Bank always ends up making a profit.

This has enabled Huifeng Bank to remain standing in Hong Kong's financial sector for a long time, and even become more arrogant.

Now, with the intelligence agency controlled by Cui Zilong spending a lot of effort on investigation, a lot of evidence has been turned up one by one.

With the evidence being conclusive, it immediately sparked a lot of discussion among the citizens.

This series of reports by Oriental Daily undoubtedly pushed Huifeng Bank to the forefront of public opinion and ignited the public's desire for fairness and transparency in the financial industry.

As the newspaper spread widely, the dirty laundry of the Bank of Hong Kong was hotly discussed on the streets of Hong Kong.

The citizens' anger surged like a tide, and voices of anger and condemnation against the scandals of this old British bank were heard everywhere.

On the streets, in tea restaurants, and in offices, people's topics all revolve around Huifeng Bank's past scandals.

Hengsheng Bank, Chairman’s Office.

He Shanheng arrived at the company early in the morning, then made a cup of tea and prepared to drink tea while reading today's newspaper news before going to work.

This is a habit he has developed over the years.

When He Shanheng saw the news in Oriental Daily about why there was inexplicable public opinion about Hengsheng Bank, which led to a run on the bank and was eventually acquired by Huifeng Bank, he was obviously stunned.

At that time, Huifeng Bank's manipulation of public opinion was so secretive that until now, He Shanheng did not know that the mastermind behind the incident was actually his current employer, Huifeng Bank.

A letter of acquisition plan signed by the then-CEO of Huifeng Bank was photographed and placed in the Oriental Daily newspaper.

He Shanheng was very familiar with that autograph and he could tell whether it was real or fake at a glance.

At this moment, his trembling hands were enough to show that he was not calm at the moment.

Everything became clear now. It turned out that he thought that what happened that year was caused by natural market fluctuations and that Hengsheng Bank was just unlucky.

But no one expected that all this was actually a conspiracy carefully planned by Huifeng Bank behind the scenes.

He Shanheng felt mixed emotions, most of which was anger at having been deceived.

I didn't expect that for so many years, I have been helping my enemy manage Hengsheng Bank...

At Huifeng Bank near the Hengsheng Bank headquarters building, Shen Bi also knew about this early on.

He didn't expect that Lin Haoran was actually planning to launch a counterattack.

"Everyone, what should we do about this?" Shen Bi frowned.

Although these things happened in the past, the impact they brought to Huifeng Bank after they were made public was definitely not small.

"Mr. Shen Bi, with the support of the government, even if Lin Haoran does this, it will only bring us some bad reputation, and we will not suffer too much loss in the end." Bao John said with a smile.

Apparently, he didn't care much about it.

The same is true for other senior executives.

Just like last time, when they manipulated those former employees of Bank of East Asia, didn’t it also end up in nothing?
Hong Kong is their territory after all.

However, at this time, a subordinate rushed in to report: This news was not only reported in Hong Kong, but also in business newspapers in Japan, the United States, and many European countries.

Suddenly, the originally indifferent atmosphere at the scene changed.

Many senior executives panicked.

Just because Hong Kong is their territory does not mean that the international market is their territory.

And now, they are planning to fully enter the international market.

At this time, the negative impact of their appearance of such scandals on Huifeng Bank is definitely very large. (End of this chapter)