Chapter 138 Ocean Center Opening

To develop a property, one usually needs to take out a bank loan and use the sale of pre-sale properties to repatriate funds. However, Weicheng Company encountered many difficulties in its first step.

Due to the lack of extensive connections in Hong Kong and incomplete understanding of the characteristics of the Hong Kong government's operations, few banks were willing to lend money.

Without loan funding support, it is impossible to start construction of a real estate project, let alone recover funds by selling the properties.

This is not a political reason, but rather that no bank is optimistic about Tin Shui Wai. No one expects such a large project here to be successful.

Moreover, Huarun Company, which owns 51% of Weicheng Company's shares, has no experience in real estate development at all.

Moreover, many Hong Kong citizens believe that even if they buy it now, the New Territories will have to be returned in a dozen years and become state-owned assets.

Although it is not far from the Yuen Long new town, Tin Shui Wai is now a cesspool and transportation is very inconvenient.

Under such circumstances, Huarun Company was caught in a dilemma and could only find Li Chaoren of Changjiang Company.

In his previous life, Li Chaoren also wanted to help, but because Tin Shui Wai was indeed too poor, he was powerless to save the situation.

What's more, Li Chaoren was busy negotiating with HSBC to acquire Hutchison Whampoa and had no time to deal with this matter, and Weicheng Company had to stop this huge plan.

Currently, the shares of Weicheng Company are: Huarun 51%, Dabao Real Estate 25%, and Cheung Kong Holdings 24%. It owns a total of 488 hectares of land in Tin Shui Wai.

It is almost 5 square kilometers. You should know that the whole of Hong Kong is only a little over 1000 square kilometers. Even if it is remote, such a large piece of land is extremely important.

In the past, there was a real estate crisis in the early 80s. In 82, in order to show goodwill to the mainland government, the Hong Kong government used HK$22.58 billion to reclaim the land, which was a huge sum of money.

After the Hong Kong government reclaimed the land, it sold 38.5 hectares of the land with a better location to Weicheng Company for HK$8 million.

Later, Hua Run did not have the ability to develop the project, so Li Jiacheng took over the project and developed Kingswood Villa, one of the ten largest walled villages in Hong Kong, making a profit of billions of Hong Kong dollars.

This is because Li Chaoren just wants to make a quick buck and leave. If he can manage it well, it will definitely not be much worse than Yuen Long.

Moreover, the area developed by Li Chaoren in the later period was only one tenth of the original area.

If Liu Zhicheng takes over and builds this place into a new low-cost commercial center and opens the Dalan Tunnel in advance, transportation will become more convenient.

If we had been able to take over the development during the two years of the Hong Kong real estate crisis while the land prices were cheap, and start selling the property after 84, we would have made a fortune.

Moreover, this place is closer to the mainland and more suitable for foreign trade companies to contact the mainland, but these must be done in advance.

I believe that in the future, the entire 5 square kilometers of Tin Shui Wai will bring endless profits to Liu Zhicheng.

However, at the moment, if Liu Zhicheng wants to obtain controlling rights, Huarun Company will definitely not agree. If their shareholding will be less than 51%, the ZZ meaning to them will be completely different.

Therefore, Liu Zhicheng's plan was to obtain shares of Dabao Company first and then obtain controlling rights in two years.

Alternatively, using Li Chaoren's model to obtain the development rights of the project is also a good choice.

Liu Zhicheng thought again of the huge infrastructure market in the mainland. In his previous life, Hu Yingxiang had invested in the Guangzhou-Shenzhen Expressway and the Shajiao Power Plant, which had made him billions of profits.

Although it takes a long time, the advantage is that the income is stable and there is basically no risk. If you want to get a piece of the pie, it is best to have a platform.

China Power, which is being planned to be acquired, is a very good platform. Once we have a controlling stake in it, we can transform it into an infrastructure company and move forward along the history of Mr. Hu and China Power in his previous life.

At present, China Light and Power has a controlling family, and Liu Zhicheng has not yet obtained a veto power. The real offensive will have to wait for another two years.

…………

Time quickly came to March.

A major event happened in Hong Kong: Ocean Centre, which had been under construction for nearly ten years, finally opened for business. The Harbour City shopping mall system was officially formed.

On the fourth day after the opening of Harbour City (Ocean Terminal, Ocean Centre), Hao Qingwen, general manager of Whampoa Group, came to Federal Building to report as soon as he obtained the relevant data.

The Ocean Center, which was once slowly built by Jardine Matheson, was immediately revitalized after being acquired by Liu Zhicheng.

It was later taken over by Huangpu Group. With the capital injection from Huangpu, it was completed in less than a year after working overnight.

At the same time, the investment promotion work is also going smoothly. Not only many local commercial brands from Hong Kong, but also many big foreign brands represented by local merchants have settled in.

"Mr. Liu, the average passenger flow of Harbour City (Ocean Centre, Ocean Terminal) over the past three days is about 800 million."

The entire Whampoa Group has invested a lot of resources into Harbour City. The entire Harbour City has a shopping mall area of ​​200 million square feet, and the hotel and office building above have a total area of ​​400 million square feet.

This project alone is enough to make the Whampoa Group one of the largest landlords in Hong Kong, but landlords also come in different grades.

Although Harbour City has a good location, its actual value will ultimately be determined by the flow of people.

"800 million? What was the average turnover for that day?" Liu Zhicheng asked.

Traffic flow is a theoretical thing, while turnover is a practical thing. For example, if a person enters and exits the door ten times, it is counted as ten times of traffic flow. Therefore, turnover is the most tangible thing for a commercial center.

"The first day was 1300 million Hong Kong dollars, the second day was 1100 million Hong Kong dollars, and the third day was almost 1100 million Hong Kong dollars. This is the result of our vigorous publicity and cannot be used as a daily reference," said Hao Qingwen.

"Not bad, 3500 million Hong Kong dollars in three days." Liu Zhicheng nodded and said.

"According to current estimates, based on this data, Harbour City can account for 3 percentage points of Hong Kong's total retail sales," Hao Qingwen continued to report.

In the past, Harbour City alone accounted for about 7 percentage points of Hong Kong’s total retail sales, but this was a figure obtained only after decades of hard work and subsequent large-scale investment by the descendants of the shipping tycoon.

The current Harbour City has just opened, so it is naturally incomparable. I believe that under the guidance of Liu Zhicheng, it will definitely be better.

"Have you found any problems now?" Liu Zhicheng nodded and asked.

"Mr. Liu, there is a new problem. Judging from the number of passengers on the Star Ferry recently, many people from Hong Kong Island are willing to come to Harbour City for sightseeing, which means that the number of ferries is not enough."

Hao Qingwen glanced at his boss and continued, "In recent days, I have been coordinating with Yuan Tianfan. He borrowed a few ferries from other places to solve this problem."

Liu Zhicheng also glanced at Hao Qingwen and asked, "What do you mean?"

"Mr. Liu, the Whampoa Group wants to acquire the Star Ferry under Hutchison Whampoa." Hao Qingwen said cautiously.

Because the look Liu Zhicheng gave him just now seemed to have seen through his thoughts.

"Yes, no problem. Besides, many ferries are very old. After you acquire them, you can add new ferries as appropriate and manage them well." Liu Zhicheng nodded and said.

Although the Hung Hom Cross-Harbour Tunnel has been opened to traffic, the rapid population and economic development of Hong Kong means that ferry is still the main way to cross Victoria Harbour.

After all, if you take tunnels to many places, there will be a lot of inconveniences and you have to take a long detour. Besides, Huangpu City will also need ferry services in the future.

Liu Zhicheng had actually heard about some of the ferry's outdated facilities. It would be nice to have newer ships. If the ferry's environment was better, it would be a pleasure to take a boat across the harbor.

Moreover, in the past life, the Star Ferry was also a good tourist resource.

"Mr. Liu, in addition to attracting citizens from Hong Kong Island, we plan to attract citizens from the entire Kowloon Peninsula at the same time, and the best way is to get Kowloon Motor Bus to cooperate."

Hao Qingwen looked at his boss, paused and continued, "Mr. Liu, I think it would be very beneficial for the Whampoa Group to acquire Kowloon Motor Bus."

"You still want to acquire Kowloon Motor Bus?" Liu Zhicheng asked in surprise.

"Yes, KMB owns some good land. Buses are also a public service. Although they don't make a lot of money, their income is relatively stable."

Seeing Liu Zhicheng nodding, Hao Qingwen continued his analysis, "And this is also beneficial to the development of the entire group. In the future, we can build bus stops at the entrances of our newly developed properties, and the commercial center can open more bus routes."

"Your idea is correct. I agree with this. You should discuss with Han Chunxi and others to see how to acquire KMB at the lowest cost." Liu Zhicheng nodded and said.

"As for the acquisition method, we will first talk to the major shareholders and try to avoid using cash. Instead, we will use stock swaps or asset placement to obtain controlling rights."

There have been many acquisitions in Hong Kong's history, dozens of them large and small. Kowloon Motor Bus was one of them, and it was acquired by Sun Hung Kai.

Liu Zhicheng actually doesn't care much about this kind of small Chinese company now, and is not willing to use blocking methods to acquire it.

Of course, for disobedient small businesses, we don’t mind being the barbarian again.

But it is impossible for him to let go of all of them. He will only carry out mergers and acquisitions that are beneficial to his own development.

Furthermore, when the real estate companies they own expand, they will naturally want to acquire some companies.

Because this is an inevitable development, the rise of Hong Kong's Chinese financial groups is a process of making money and acquiring companies at the same time.

If a subsidiary feels that it is necessary to take action against a certain company, Liu Zhicheng will naturally support it, but he will not participate personally.

As the company grows bigger, small matters like these can be decided by the subordinates themselves.

"Okay, I'll go find them later." Hao Qingwen said happily.

For any professional manager, being able to acquire two Hong Kong listed companies at one time is a very happy and exciting thing.

In particular, for the development of Huangpu Group, this strategic merger and acquisition has only benefits and no harm.

"What is the current situation in Huangpu City?" Liu Zhicheng became concerned about Huangpu City again.

Huangpu City is much larger than Harbour City, and most of its space is shopping malls and office buildings, so attracting investment is a big problem.

"Mr. Liu, Huangpu City will be fully developed next year, and the preliminary work of attracting investment and renting has already begun. However, the results are not very good, with 4% of the space being vacant," Hao Qingwen reported.

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(End of this chapter)