A century-old wealthy family that rose from Shanghai

With the yen poised for appreciation, Chen Guangliang naturally orchestrated a major family move.

The first major move was investing in Japanese real estate and securities in recent years, with investments from all four branches of the family. The total value of these investments is currently close to US$10 billion. The Chen brothers, Chen Wenying and Chen Wensheng alone, invested over US$5 billion (mostly through debt). Next were investments from the three major groups, Cheung Kong Holdings, Global Holdings, and Ping An Insurance, totaling approximately US$3 billion. Finally, the funds from the second and third branches of the family amounted to over US$1 billion. The investments were primarily in real estate, with securities as a secondary focus.

Even disregarding the potential for securities and real estate to appreciate several times over, the mere doubling of the currency's value already yields a considerable return. Therefore, this is a highly worthwhile investment opportunity.

The second move was investing in the international foreign exchange market, albeit on a smaller scale. Chen Guangliang had always been very wary of futures and foreign exchange, as these markets are highly susceptible to manipulation.

For example, in January 1980, gold suddenly plummeted from $700 per ounce to just over $400. This sudden drop was enough to wipe out many futures accounts. But in reality, spot gold was not worth more than $400 per ounce at all, and it had already rebounded to $600 per ounce that same day.

In any case, the Plaza Accord will bring a significant boost to the Chen family's wealth.

In April, the Ping An Bank Headquarters Building, located on Garden Road, was officially opened, with Governor Edward Youde presiding over the opening ceremony.

Of course, Chen Guangliang will still not attend such events, while his eldest son, Chen Wensheng, is well-positioned to control Ping An Financial Group.

Ping An Bank's headquarters building is 72 stories high and three stories underground. The 12 stories above ground are a square building that looks like a suit of armor, heavily fortified. The 60 stories above ground are an octagonal triangular building, but to accommodate its neighbors, the angles of the triangles are not so sharp.

Of course, the Ping An Bank headquarters building also has a special feature: it features the 'Freedom Tower,' symbolizing the spirit of free trade in Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, Ping An Bank Tower is also the tallest skyscraper in Hong Kong and even Asia.

Some media outlets have given extensive coverage to the HSBC building, which is already completed but not yet in use:
"In terms of construction cost, the HSBC Building claimed a construction cost of HK$52 billion, while the Ping An Bank Building's construction cost was HK$31.2 billion, a significant difference."

"In terms of design, Ping An Bank is indeed superior, and its excellent design is world-class. Of course, HSBC wins in terms of interior luxury."

"HSBC is committed to developing a global bank, as evidenced by its acquisition of US-based HSBC; but Ping An Bank has always been the largest Chinese-owned bank in the country, and its business has expanded to Southeast Asia, with Singapore being particularly important."

The media, of course, have no idea that Ping An Investment Bank, which is not publicly listed, has already expanded its business globally and has substantial assets.

Currently, Ping An Investment Bank's business and assets include: equity investments in the vast majority of potential listed companies in Hong Kong, Japanese securities, US securities, and even European securities, and its real estate trusts also involve property investments around the world.

After all, Ping An Financial Group's assets were already in the tens of millions of US dollars in the 1940s, so it has naturally grown dozens of times over.

"The Freedom Tower symbolizes the history of Hong Kong's development, but I don't know if it will still be representative in the future!" After the opening ceremony, Youde said this to Chen Wensheng at the reception.

Chen Wensheng, only 33 years old, was naturally not going to fall for this trick, especially since there were also mainland institutions stationed in Hong Kong among the guests who came this time.

He said with a smile, "We still have confidence in Hong Kong."

A simple sentence may have many meanings, but on the surface it is flawless.

The Chan family's roots are in Hong Kong, and they have always had great confidence in Hong Kong.

However, a wave of emigration did indeed sweep through Hong Kong society at that time. Many Hong Kong residents, after learning that the British government had no intention of granting British passports or residency rights to Hong Kongers following the signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, and worried about new powers governing Hong Kong, experienced a large-scale emigration wave. Many able-bodied citizens chose to apply for immigration to the United States, Canada, and Australia, but the Hong Kong government, fearing it would cause panic, refused to release accurate immigration figures. Furthermore, small countries such as Fiji, Bolivia, and Belize opened offices in Hong Kong, attempting to attract investment immigrants.

Yude did not continue to probe or win them over. He knew that the "Five Tigers of the Chen Family" were all very capable, and the British side did indeed want to win over this family, not to mention that they had deep political connections in Britain.

Afterwards, Chen Wensheng chatted with the heads of mainland institutions in Hong Kong, becoming quite the social butterfly.

In fact, Chen Wensheng has always been the most low-profile and least influential of the "Five Tigers of the Chen Family".

Because Ping An Bank operates under a 'professional management' model, the CEO is always the primary manager and wields considerable power. In contrast, Ping An Investment Bank has maintained a low profile in its investments and is not publicly listed, thus its influence is not as significant.

Chen Wensheng himself rarely appears in the media; he prefers to manipulate everything from behind the scenes.

After the Ping An Bank Building was put into use, Chen Guangliang's family office also moved to the 70th floor, where his office is also located.

His office is a thousand square feet, with a meeting area, a reception area, a rest area, and large floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook Hong Kong, offering an unobstructed view.

More importantly, this office acts as a central brain, directing over a dozen large conglomerates worldwide and impacting the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people.

“Father, the ‘Land King’ painting in Jinzhong is about to be auctioned off.”

Chen Wenjie came to this office and talked with his father.

Even though he is now the head of Cheung Kong Holdings and has a very busy schedule, he still makes time to communicate with his father regularly.

When at home, the father doesn't like to talk about work, so he usually comes to the family office; on the other hand, Chen Wenjie also serves as a 'permanent director' of the family office and participates in the affairs of the family office.

Upon hearing this, Chen Guangliang calmly replied, "Hong Kong commercial real estate is no longer the focus of Cheung Kong Group. Cheung Kong Group is more focused on diversification and globalization."

长实系在香港的商业地产部分，包括：交易广场（200万平方尺楼面）、长江集团中心（120万平方尺在建中）、香格里拉酒店大厦（100万平方尺）、长江广场（30万平方尺）、保利大厦（36万平方尺）、连卡佛大厦（25万平方尺）、环球贸易中心和香格大厦（用原香格里拉酒店大厦3.6万平方尺地盘交换，总计60万平方尺）、和记大厦、金钟海富中心二期（50%股权）、铜锣湾百德新街综合性项目、尖东希尔顿酒店、尖东广场.
Its massive commercial real estate holdings are even more prominent than Hongkong Land's presence in Central.

Therefore, Chen Guangliang was not enthusiastic about this "Admiralty land king" project, even though he understood that Swire Properties was probably determined to win it this time, that is, to build the future "Swire Plaza".

The Cheung Kong Group has now formed a comprehensive industrial chain encompassing real estate, commercial real estate, hotels, food management, infrastructure, retail and manufacturing, ports and terminals, telecommunications, and trade. "Good."

Chen Wenjie understood his father's meaning: British capital should be suppressed, but not completely eradicated.

Strategically speaking, Cheung Kong no longer needs any more commercial real estate projects in Hong Kong;

In terms of capital utilization, Cheung Kong Holdings also has other investment channels, focusing more on industrial projects.

He further reported, "The Hong Kong government is preparing to tender for Terminal 7. Hutchison Whampoa's bid is HK$38 billion, a price that I believe no one can challenge. If we win the bid, we will have 10 berths, and our position will be unshakeable."

The Hong Kong government's decision to put out tenders for Terminal 7 at this time was a reluctant one, as Hong Kong's container terminals were already so busy that queues were frequent. However, during this period, it was extremely difficult to find many companies with the funds and competitiveness to participate in the bidding.

Even those overseas conglomerates, seeing that Hong Kong has just experienced political turmoil, probably lack the resolve to act decisively.

However, the price of 38 billion is indeed very high, and the Hong Kong government will not lose out even if it wins the bid.

Hutchison Whampoa was determined to win, hoping to establish its "dominant position" in the container terminal market. Through several developments, Hutchison Whampoa now owns Container Terminals 4 and 6.

In fact, the Hong Kong government directly allowed Hutchison Whampoa and Modern Terminals to develop Terminal 6 together. However, Hutchison Whampoa independently developed Terminal 6 by exchanging Terminal 2, thus securing a stable presence of six container terminals.

Today, Terminal 7 is a large terminal with four berths, and Hutchison Whampoa is naturally determined to acquire it.

Chen Guangliang said, "Hutchison Whampoa can obtain a large amount of loans from Ping An Bank."

Chen Wenjie nodded and said, "Hutchison Whampoa's profits will increase significantly every year from now on. Whampoa Garden is an important cash cow, so Ma Shimin and I have also formulated a strategy to expand overseas."

Chen Guangliang immediately said, "Let Ma Shimin take charge and step forward to avoid you becoming the center of public opinion."

Chen Wenjie naturally understood his father's meaning: developing overseas could easily be misunderstood as "relocating capital" and could easily offend the mainland authorities.

"I see"

After exchanging ideas, Chen Guangliang was relieved to find out that the 'Cheung Kong Group' was developing according to the model of Li Jiacheng in his previous life.

Of course, Cheung Kong Holdings also has advantages over its predecessor, namely, it has 'new growth points' in many areas. For example, Shangri-La Hotels currently has four locations in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, and Bangkok, all of which are owned by the company; it has a vast commercial real estate portfolio, with significant property assets in Singapore and Japan; and in the food and beverage sector, growth has been consistently steady, including the world's largest instant noodle company, Red Bull, etc.

Finally, Chan Kwong-leung offered a word of advice: "The cosmetics and beauty industry should be given due attention, in line with the development of 'Hong Kong culture,' as it is a very important industry."

When this was brought up, Chen Wenjie opened up, saying, "They do take it seriously. Lane Crawford and Watsons are currently investing a lot of research and development in this area, and I believe they can keep up with the development of 'Hong Kong culture.' Watsons, in particular, has a long history of producing cosmetics."

Hearing this, Chen Guangliang became quite satisfied.

As Hong Kong entered the transition period, the first piece of land auctioned by the government was the Victoria Barracks site on Admiralty Road, a prime piece of land in Admiralty with an area of ​​11.5 square feet.

The site was offered in November 1982, when the property market was sluggish. Only three consortia submitted bids, with Cheung Kong offering HK$650 million and New World Development offering HK$450 million. The Hong Kong government withdrew the bids because they were too low.

On April 18, 1985, the Hong Kong government put the Admiralty site up for auction with a starting price of HK$600 million. This auction was regarded by the real estate industry as a barometer of the market.

During the auction, major Hong Kong real estate conglomerates, including Cheung Kong, New World Development, Sun Hung Kai Properties, Henderson Land Development, Sino Land, and Swire Properties, participated in the bidding.

The land sale attracted over 700 participants, including senior executives from major Hong Kong real estate companies, key figures from major banks, and journalists from major international news agencies stationed in Hong Kong. Among them were Huang Tingfang and his son Huang Zhixiang, Guo Desheng and his son Guo Binglian, Cheng Yu-tung, Li Zhaoji, Chen Zengtao, Chen Tinghua, Wang Dehui, and Ge Daxi. The auctioneer described the scene as "unprecedented" due to its grand scale, fierce bidding, large number of bids, and long duration.

Representing CK Asset Holdings Limited were Lu Xiaoqing, head of real estate, and a young man, Chen Zerui, the eldest grandson of the third generation of the Chen family.

However, it is clear that the buyer that everyone thought was most likely to acquire the land—CK Asset Holdings—was not very interested in it, so they stopped bidding after the price reached HK$7 million.

During the bidding process, when the price approached 7 million, the auctioneer inadvertently dropped his gavel, causing a brief moment of surprise and shock among the audience. When the price reached 8 million Hong Kong dollars, the entire room erupted in enthusiastic applause.
This signals the end of a real estate downturn that has lasted for several years.

Ultimately, Swire Properties won the bid for HK$8.62 million, more than 4% higher than the reserve price.

This move symbolizes that Hong Kong's real estate market has officially emerged from its slump and is ushering in a new cycle.

Although CK Asset Holdings did not win the bid for the Admiralty site, it "snatched" Exchange Square from Hongkong Land. The first and second towers (both 52 stories) have been completed and become a "new benchmark" for office buildings in Hong Kong.

In Central, CK Asset Holdings still owns a vast portfolio of properties, all in prime locations. These include shopping malls; Cheung Kong Plaza, for example, has long been a benchmark for shopping malls in Hong Kong, despite its relatively small size.

Of course, if we include Wharf Holdings, which is also owned by the Chan family, then Harbour City and the soon-to-open Times Square can be considered the 'absolute hegemon' of Hong Kong's retail real estate.

For this reason, given that Cheung Kong Holdings still had the strength and that Chan Kwong-leung knew the prospects of the 'Admiralty land king', he essentially gave Swire Properties a break.

After all, Chen Guangliang was considering the issue from a high-level perspective; he needed to maintain Hong Kong's international business environment and also needed his main branch of the family to expand overseas. (End of Chapter)