Chapter 257 Untitled Chapter

On Saturday morning, Liu Zhicheng convened a meeting with senior executives of ATV and senior staff of the program production department.

“How is the performance of The Voice of China?”

Hearing Liu Zhicheng's question, Zhou Liangshuyi immediately reported: "The Voice of China received a total of 6000 million Hong Kong dollars in advertising fees, and the net profit is expected to reach 2000 million Hong Kong dollars;
Since the launch of The Voice of China, Asia Television’s overall ratings have accounted for 1500% of Hong Kong’s share, completely suppressing TVB; Asia Satellite TV currently has million viewers, nearly double the number when it was first aired.

Great job!

It is normal that profits are low because the costs are too high.

The most critical thing is that it drives the growth of the number of viewers of satellite TV, which is the biggest investment for the long-term advertising revenue of satellite TV.

Liu Zhicheng remembered that in his previous life, Li Chaoren's satellite TV station had six channels and had 4500 million viewers two years after its launch.

If the current situation continues, Asia Satellite TV may be able to reach more than 4000 million viewers.

Because compared to Li Chaoren’s satellite TV station, Asia TV has more advantages in programming.

Liu Zhicheng nodded and said, "The Voice of China is the originator of talent shows, but it is obviously not enough for us to be the world's best variety show.

Next, you will prepare a program called "Pop Idol". The idea of ​​the program is: this program is designed for those children who want to become pop stars, and it is to select a superstar and pop idol from Chinese children around 20 years old in Asia.

It achieves three goals at once: it is a shortcut for these young people's dreams to come true, it is a way for record companies and managers to discover new singing stars, and it is also a "reality TV" that lasts for several months for television stations to attract audiences.

The program is as follows: each group of 4 judges will go to Asian Chinese gathering places to select talents! First register, and then select 100 people from tens of thousands of people.

Then, 100 are selected from these 50, and finally it is reduced to 10 candidates. At this point, the judges already have a bottom line in their minds, although there can only be one winner in the end.

But what stood before them was no longer just a future star. "

After Liu Zhicheng finished speaking, not everyone had the same vision. A senior executive questioned, "Boss, will this show overlap with The Voice of China?"

Liu Zhicheng did not feel disgusted, but explained: "There are definitely some repetitive aspects in talent shows, but there are also many differences, that is, the model and the target audience.

The target audience of "Pop Idol" is 16 to 24 years old. Singing voice is very important, but appearance also plays a certain role.

Pop idols, also known as super idols, are our ambitious work, to create a new superstar idol!"

Zhou Liang Shuyi immediately agreed: "This program has a very good idea, and more importantly, it is in line with the copyright requirements of European and American TV stations.

If we do it well, we can sell a copyright for tens of millions of dollars.”

Liu Zhicheng nodded in satisfaction and said, "Yes, at least 2000 million US dollars for one copyright. We sold it too cheaply last time. Look at how much money ABC is making now with How to Become a Millionaire!"

Everyone nodded!
Then, Liu Zhicheng discussed some details of the design. For example, during the auditions, each contestant only has 1 minute, which is more efficient.

Because as long as you sing well, you can pass the audition even if you perform poorly.

Secondly, we can also add special sessions in cities such as San Francisco, Vancouver, and London, and advertise in local Chinese newspapers.

The costs may be much higher, and a program that could have made a profit of HK$5000 million may end up breaking even.

But Liu Zhicheng was originally interested in the copyright income and the growth in the number of satellite TV viewers, so he wanted to do the program even if it was unprofitable.

After the meeting, Liu Zhicheng smiled. There were too many programs that could be copied from his previous life. In addition to the talent show, he could also copy the "Wild Survival" program.

Liu Zhicheng remembered that there were similar programs in his previous life around 2000. So, it has been launched in the last few years.

Today, the success of Asia Satellite TV has meant that the audience of Asian television stations is no longer limited to Hong Kong, but covers the whole of Asia.

Therefore, many advertisers are no longer from Hong Kong, but from the whole of Asia.

The market is big, so there is no pressure to produce these programs.

…………

Sail Building
Liu Zhicheng found Huang Zuxu alone and planned to arrange a secret matter.

"Do you know the Bank of Credit and Commerce International?"

Huang Zuxu thought for a moment and then asked, "Boss, are you referring to the parent company of the Hong Kong Guoshang Bank?"

Liu Zhicheng nodded!

Huang Zuxu immediately said, "I know a little bit. It seems that the headquarters is in London. It is very large and has branches in dozens of countries around the world."

Liu Zhicheng said seriously: "You go and form a team and study it carefully."

At this time, Huang Zuxu finally understood his boss's intention. He wanted Hongli Investment to enter the banking industry.

Thinking of this, Huang Zuxu said seriously: "Boss, rest assured, I will definitely get this done."

After Long Jingchang left, Liu Zhicheng began to think seriously.

Assuming everything goes well, when the "Guo Shang Incident" breaks out in April, he needs to immediately prepare his own acquisition team so that he will not be unprepared when negotiating with the Hong Kong government.

There is no need to rush to acquire funds, because although he will have competitors, none of his competitors will accept the clause that "Hong Kong foreign exchange funds cannot guarantee Guoshang's bad debts", and even if a competitor considers taking over.

The fact that China Merchants Bank suddenly had 25 billion (maybe not that much) of unrecorded overseas debts was also discouraging.

But Liu Zhicheng is different. In his opinion, a huge banking network is very cost-effective for a novice like him.

In 1993, the Hong Kong government sold the Overseas Trust Bank, which had a loss of 18 billion, for a high price of 44 billion.

As you can imagine, investment banks cannot look at the financial situation of the bank itself, but need to look at the bank's financial network.

Even if the cost of acquiring China Merchants Bank (Hong Kong) was as high as HK$50 billion to HK$60 billion, Liu Zhicheng would not hesitate.

The bank was too profitable and too important to him.

Moreover, if he intervenes in the China Merchants Bank (Hong Kong) as a white knight this time, his prestige in Hong Kong will be raised to a higher level.

Just imagine, when 45000 depositors were at their wits' end, Lin Zuhui stepped in. Shouldn't these people be grateful!

Of course, Liu Zhicheng also wanted to retain these depositors as much as possible and make the Hong Kong government promise to him that if he could deal with the China Merchants Bank (Hong Kong), the Overseas Trust Bank must be sold to him first and at a low price.

Friday, September 4st.

The Bank of England took decisive action and, together with relevant authorities in Luxembourg, the Cayman Islands and other countries, sealed off the China Merchants Bank on the same day and froze its assets around the world.

The news spread to Hong Kong, triggering a bank run at China Merchants Bank (Hong Kong), with deposits decreasing by HK$3.2 million that day!
That evening, the Hong Kong Banking Regulatory officials held a press conference and said that the root cause of the "Guo Shang incident" was not in Hong Kong but overseas, and that Hong Kong's "Guo Shang" was "operating" independently and its business was "perfect and feasible" and did not need to be suspended. For a time, many media outlets did not doubt it and planned to follow the words of the banking regulatory officials in the layout of the news for the next day.

The next day, Saturday.

When all media reported positive news, Hong Kong's authoritative Economic Times published "negative news".

Its professional economists and critics pointed out three rebuttals:

First, the official statement that Xiangjiang Guoshang is "independently operated" and "not influenced by the parent company" is completely irresponsible.

This shows that banking regulatory officials lack proper understanding of international financial operations. How can a subsidiary company remain unscathed when problems arise at the parent company?

Second, if Hong Kong government officials agree with the CBRC's statement, why not issue a "foreign exchange guarantee" statement to dispel depositors' concerns.

Third, the Hong Kong Commercial Bank should be sealed immediately to prevent its assets from being transferred overseas.

The Hong Kong government held a press conference yesterday in the hope of using the media to reassure domestic depositors and the entire Hong Kong financial community.

Logically speaking, the media only needs to pass on the Hong Kong government's words.

Now, unexpectedly, the Economic Daily directly questioned the Hong Kong government, as if to hold it accountable.

morning.

Li Bingqiang is a big customer of China Merchants Bank and has deposited 200 million Hong Kong dollars in the bank.

Because he was in the catering business. Originally, he did not consider cooperating with Guoshang Bank, but the interest rate of Guoshang Bank was a little higher than others.

But he didn't expect that he would learn from the news last night that there was a bank run at China Merchants Bank, which shocked him.

His business was not big, and HK$200 million was almost a large part of his cash. He was also counting on using the money to buy properties after it matured!
"Boss, can you give me a copy of the Hong Kong Economic Journal?" Li Bingqiang said urgently.

"Sing Tao Daily" is the number one financial magazine in Hong Kong, so Li Bingqiang wanted to learn more from it.

"It's in front of you, take it yourself!" The newsstand owner pointed in front of Li Bingqiang.

Li Bingqiang took a look and saw that it was indeed right in front of him, but he was so nervous that he didn't see it!

After paying the money, Li Bingqiang started reading it immediately. When he saw the Hong Kong Economic Journal relaying the Hong Kong government's words, Li Bingqiang suddenly realized that it was a false alarm.

"Let's go to the entrance of Guoshang Bank!" Li Bingqiang became more cautious. After all, he was a businessman and did not need to ask for leave.

When he arrived at a China Merchants Bank in Central, he was shocked to see a long queue.

"Brother, the Hong Kong government said that everything is fine at the Guoshang Bank. Why do you still want to withdraw money? Aren't you afraid of losing the interest?"

The person in the queue said unhappily: “You believe what the Hong Kong government says. Look at the Economic Daily News. They say that Hong Kong’s state-owned enterprises cannot remain immune!
Besides, I just want to keep my capital, I don’t care about the interest or anything like that! "

"Ah, let me see!"

The person in the queue thought that since he was in the front, he was not afraid of having multiple competitors. Moreover, in this kind of matter, everyone must work together, so he handed the newspaper to Li Bingqiang.

This was not a big deal, but Li Bingqiang was so scared that he broke out in a cold sweat and quickly joined the queue.

"The Hong Kong Economic Journal is not reliable at all, not professional at all, and almost caused me great trouble. I'll just read the Economic Times from now on!" Li Bingqiang said to himself.

Two flowers bloom, one branch each.

Officials from the Department of Finance and the Banking Regulatory Department also began to hold urgent meetings. They had originally planned to use the weekend to conduct urgent communication and contact with the UAE government.

Let the UAE government, as a major shareholder of China Merchants Bank, provide financial guarantees and capital injections, so that China Merchants Bank in Hong Kong will not face any crisis.

The reason they did not shut down the Bank of China is that they hope to avoid a bank run in Hong Kong.

Of course, misjudgment by these officials is also a big part of the reason.

The Director of the Financial Secretary, Zhai Kecheng, was a British man. He didn't understand anything and only heard from his assistant that a large number of depositors had gathered in front of the China Merchants Bank, preparing to withdraw money.

"What's going on? We have already issued a notice and suggestions, so why is the bank run still happening?"

Zhuo Shengcai, the commissioner of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, relayed all the articles published in the Economic Daily to Cui Kecheng.

Cui Kecheng's expression suddenly changed, and he said unhappily, "What's wrong with them? Don't they know that this will cause a bank run in Hong Kong?"

Although he was angry, he could do nothing about the Economic Daily's actions because it was a matter of press freedom.

Especially in Hong Kong, it is impossible for the Economic Daily to be targeted, as that would lead to confrontation among the entire media, and even overseas media would express their support.

However, the Economic Daily's comments also serve as a reminder to some finance and banking regulatory officials.

The deputy director said: "I think we should still pay attention to it and immediately send another team to the headquarters of China Merchants Bank to prevent them from transferring funds overseas.

At the same time, we must step up our contact with the UAE government and make sure they give us a clear explanation. Whether they inject capital or provide a guarantee will determine the fate of the China Merchants Bank this time!"

Cui Kecheng also reacted, nodded and said, "Okay! Everyone, cheer up. We must not let this matter spread to other banks and affect the entire Hong Kong banking industry and the exchange rate of the Hong Kong dollar!"

After the arrangements were made, the Financial Secretary and the Banking Regulatory Authority worked overtime to handle the matter.

As a result, the banking industry in Hong Kong spent the weekend in fear, fearing that the bank run would continue to affect them.

There was always a long queue in front of the Guoshang Bank, and the bank's cash was quickly emptied.

April 4nd, Monday.

In the morning, all major media in Hong Kong published the news that the Hong Kong government ordered the Bank of China to cease operations and be closed down.

The reason is that the major shareholder, the Abu Dhabi government, does not agree to financial support and the International Credit Card Corporation has deactivated all credit cards issued by the China Merchants Bank Group.

For a time, Hong Kong public opinion was in an uproar.

Because most people still believed the Hong Kong government and did not go to the Bank of China to withdraw their deposits. Moreover, the Hong Kong government stated that the Exchange Fund was not prepared to guarantee the Bank of China.

Suddenly, they were angry!

A large number of Guoshang depositors collectively petitioned at the Government House, sat in and protested at the Guoshang Bank, and even marched on the streets and blocked traffic.

(End of this chapter)