Chapter 166 Planning for the Future Telecommunications Field
On June 6, the Legislative Council of Hong Kong formally approved the fare increase for the Star Ferry and Yau Ma Tei Ferry companies from July 24.

The Star Ferry, in particular, is not only the main means of transportation for ordinary Hong Kong citizens to travel between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island, but also one of the symbols of Hong Kong culture.

This British-style ferry, painted in dark green with ivory white, is probably the most frequently appearing movie symbol in Hong Kong movies after the Crown Taxi.

This is not the first time the Star Ferry has increased its fares, but the most recent one was in April 1966.

The Star Ferry caused riots and disturbances in many areas of Kowloon because it raised the fare by five cents.

The Hung Hom ferry service was forced to be interrupted at that time and it did not come to an end until April 4. It was later called the "Star Ferry fare increase incident."

The fare increase on June 1981, 6 certainly aroused criticism from Hong Kong people, but it did not shock the Hong Kong government as it did 24 years ago.

To put it bluntly, when the economy is booming, everyone is full of confidence in their future lives and is not particularly sensitive to possible daily price changes.

If this fare increase is postponed to a year from now, not to mention riots, at least the Hong Kong media will be in an uproar.

Fang Hexuan even called and teased Sir Bao a few times.

"Uncle Bao, you have finally revealed your capitalist face."

Of course, this was definitely a joke between close friends, and Lao Bao also laughed.

But Fang Hexuan didn't believe that he was unaware of the price increase.

The Star Ferry Company has been a subsidiary of Wharf Holdings since it was acquired by Wharf Holdings in 1898 at the end of the last century.

Pao Yue-kong now has complete control over the Wharf Group, and he must be the final decision maker for this price increase.

As for the price increase, it is reasonable.

After all, over the past 15 years, Hong Kong's GDP has indeed increased several times, and the per capita income of Hong Kong people has also increased significantly.

Along with the rapid economic development, there is also alarming inflation. The increase in ferry ticket prices is naturally reasonable. After all, they are not state-owned enterprises.

The next day, Cable & Wireless announced its reorganization and decided to establish the Hong Kong Cable & Wireless on October 10.

This company was originally an old telecommunications company established by the United Kingdom in the Far East, and has always controlled telegraph transmission in Hong Kong and Macau.

During its heyday, it also had a large market share in mainland China.

Later, for well-known reasons, Cable & Wireless withdrew from the mainland and placed its center in Hong Kong.

This reorganization means that it has changed from a purely British company to a Hong Kong-funded company.

Of this, the British government still holds a 50% stake, while the Hong Kong government holds 20%.

Fang Hexuan also acquired 5% of the shares through his connections.

The reason why he was interested in this was because Hong Kong Cable & Wireless would be involved in Internet services after the 90s, which was later Hong Kong Telecom founded with Li Ka-shing.

Cable & Wireless controls more than half of Hong Kong Telecom's shares and can be said to be the largest telecommunications operator in Hong Kong.

Fang Hexuan will definitely develop into manufacturing mobile phones after computers, which of course requires the support of Hong Kong Telecom and Cable & Wireless.

Anyway, if you buy some shares now, it will be worthwhile in a dozen years, even if it is just an investment.

On June 6, the financial edition of the South China Morning Post reported that the price of Hong Kong's 29 gold hit a new low since the second half of the year, closing at HK$2886 per tael.

Converted into US dollars and ounces, it is about 400 US dollars per ounce.

Since Fang Hexuan made tens of billions of Hong Kong dollars from gold futures last year and then went short, he has never set foot in the gold futures field again.

Although he is no longer concerned about the fluctuations in gold prices, the recent drop in gold prices can also prove some of his judgments.

The price of gold is almost inversely proportional to the strength of the U.S. dollar. If the U.S. dollar is strong and the Federal Reserve maintains a high interest rate, the price of gold will not rise.

It has been predicted before that the strength of the US dollar will inevitably cause hot money from other markets to flow back to the United States.

Today, the exchange rate of the US dollar to the Hong Kong dollar has changed from 5:1 last year to nearly 6:1 now.

Fang Hexuan simply exchanged his Hong Kong dollar assets for US dollar assets, which invisibly increased his wealth by 20% when measured in Hong Kong dollars.

But this is not what he is most proud of. He is expecting the Hong Kong stock market to turn from bull to bear, and the Hong Kong housing and land markets to turn from prosperity to decline.

More and more signals are strongly supporting his judgment, although many of his judgments come from memories of his previous life.

But for a person who is hiding such a huge secret, one can't help but feel a little excited.

On the same day, the Hong Kong MTR Corporation signed a multi-billion Hong Kong dollar agreement with two real estate giants to jointly develop a residential area near Taikoo Shing on the Hong Kong Island Line.

These two giants are Wanda Real Estate and Hang Lung Properties.

In the original time and space, Hang Lung Properties had the exclusive right to this cooperation, but in this time and space, Fang Hexuan instructed Wanda to intervene no matter what.

Wanda has already snatched away Taohua Datong from Hang Lung. Logically, Hang Lung would never cooperate with it.

However, Wanda Real Estate turned to MTR, whose strength was enough to gain the trust of this Hong Kong government-controlled company.

The reason why Fang Hexuan wants to get involved is simply because the entire Hong Kong real estate market will be extremely depressed starting next year.

The reason why Hang Lung Properties’ cooperation with MTR has undergone some changes is because it did not pump enough “water” in the stock market.

Eventually, some property development on the Island Line was forced to be suspended.

And this opportunity is a good time for Wanda Real Estate to intervene.

Although he has snatched away many opportunities from Hang Lung, Fang Hexuan still admires its founder Chen Zengxi.

Although this person is also a capitalist, he also has a certain degree of identification with the country.

His son, Chen Qizhuo, later invested heavily in the mainland, and was very determined. He was definitely not the kind of person who would just walk away when faced with a little trouble.

Hang Lung Properties also has many high-quality assets that Wanda Real Estate is interested in.

For example, in 1985, Hang Lung Properties sold half of the development rights of Taikoo Reservoir (later Hong King Garden) and Broadwood Road (later Beverly Hill) to Henderson Land Development.

What does it mean?

In fact, Chen Zengxi's business principles are very flexible and he can bend and stretch.

Fang Hexuan hopes that when Hang Lung Properties encounters problems, he can also make some money from it like Henderson Land Development did.

To this end, he asked Wanda Real Estate to study not only Hang Lung but also other real estate companies.

Taking advantage of the economic storm that began in the second half of this year, we strive to obtain favorable properties and land from our peers.

Since he has suppressed Cheung Kong Holdings, he will definitely not give other real estate peers any chance.

If that happens, wouldn't that be making wedding clothes for others?

Wanda Real Estate can look better when eating, but it must eat the fattest piece of meat.

　Thanks to book friends 20230318044509636, Huanxingchen, and I heard that there will be Aurora in May for their recommendation votes!
　　

(End of this chapter)