Chapter 167 A big tree attracts the wind
On June 6, Tang Xiangqian, chairman of the General Federation of Hong Kong Industries, published an article in Ming Pao.

He pointed out with great concern that the manufacturing industry is difficult to maintain due to the current investment boom in Hong Kong's capital market.

Finally, he strongly called on the Hong Kong government to take action to save the manufacturing industry.

In the article, Tang Xiangqian also implicated Fang Hexuan, saying that his building a factory in Shenzhen to manufacture cars was a harbinger of the hollowing out of the local manufacturing industry.

After reading this article, Mr. Fang felt a little unhappy.

Don’t I have factories producing toys, sporting goods, batteries, computers, etc. in Hong Kong?
How did it become the leading culprit for the relocation of Hong Kong's manufacturing industry?

Fang Hexuan and Chairman Tang had met before at a gathering of fellow townsmen from Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, but they were not familiar with each other.

I haven't offended him, why is he making insinuations about me?

Moreover, the rise and fall of Hong Kong's manufacturing industry is itself a decision made by the Hong Kong government long ago to change its economic structure.
What does it have to do with him, the richest man?
Fang Hexuan called the boat charterer to find out the situation.

Lao Bao also saw the news in Ming Pao and had already figured out the situation before Fang Hexuan contacted him.

There is no grudge here, it's just that a tall tree attracts the wind.

Tang Xiangqian comes from a textile family in Wuxi. His grandfather founded a textile factory in the late Qing Dynasty.

Later, he himself became one of the textile kings in Hong Kong and a very visionary industrialist.

Unlike other financial capitals, he has always been deeply engaged and persistent in the manufacturing field.

In addition, as a mainland immigrant who has already settled in Hong Kong, he attaches great importance to the improvement and upgrading of Hong Kong's manufacturing industry.

However, since two years ago, speculation has begun to emerge in Hong Kong's real estate, land and stock markets.

Many factory owners who earn their hard-earned money in the manufacturing industry have transferred their funds to these "three markets".

It’s especially like how many manufacturing bosses in the mainland later found that they worked hard for a whole year but did not earn as much as their wives earned from real estate speculation.

As a result, more and more struggling manufacturing business owners have joined the ranks of real estate speculators.

In addition to the reduction in investment, the global economic recession caused by rising oil prices has also indirectly dragged down Hong Kong's manufacturing exports in recent years.

What worries Old Tang even more is that the Industrial Cooperation Committee established with the mainland 10 days ago has cleared the first obstacle for local factory owners to relocate their factories to the mainland.

So, he is very worried about the prospects of Hong Kong's manufacturing industry.

The purpose of using Fang Hexuan as an example is to make Hong Kong citizens realize that if they do not attach importance to local manufacturing, hollowing out will be inevitable.

After listening to Pao Yue-Kong's explanation, Fang Hexuan felt helpless and depressed, as if he had no place to vent his anger.

But he was not in a good mood, so the next day he wrote an article in his own South China Morning Post to refute Tang Xiangqian.

The whole text has only one meaning - you, old Tang Tai, have no sense of the overall situation and are only focused on the little piece of land under your management.

The Hong Kong government has made a strategic plan to move its economy away from the real economy and towards the virtual economy, from entrepot trade and manufacturing to finance, tourism and other industries.

Also, Hong Kong is a capitalist free market economy. The government cannot spend taxpayers' money to rescue the market just because one industry has problems.

Anyway, his goal is to promote the deindustrialization of Hong Kong as soon as possible. If it can speed up the process, he doesn't mind flattering the Hong Kong government.

Economically, the British Hong Kong authorities are definitely a small government. Even if Fang Hexuan did not remind them, the Hong Kong government would most likely not take action.

Although Lao Tang is a businessman, he does not understand politics, and his enthusiasm for the future of Hong Kong is in vain.

He also thought that Hong Kong was the mainland of the future, and that the government should take care of any problems that arise. This is a typical giant baby mentality.

In fact, many knowledgeable people in Hong Kong understand the pros and cons of the debate between the two of them.

But politics leads everything, and the movement of Hong Kong's manufacturing industry to the north is an unstoppable trend.

7月2日，香港九九金的价格再次大幅下跌。从6月29日收盘的2886港币/两降到了2743港币/两。

In three days, the decline reached 5%.

On the 2nd alone, the amount of the decline exceeded HK$80 billion, setting a record for the highest price drop in 18 months.

This is not the only signal that Hong Kong stocks are turning bearish.

On July 7, the Hong Kong Union of Bankers announced that the local interest rate would be increased by one percentage point, and the prime rate reached 17%, a record high.

In fact, the Hong Kong government has asked the bank union to raise interest rates more than once in the past two years.

But it still cannot stop the trend of speculation and speculation.

Now, as the US dollar strengthens, hot money swimming in Hong Kong, a quasi-financial center, has begun to flow back to the United States in large quantities. This is like drawing water from the fish pond.

As interest rates rise, speculators who originally borrowed money from banks or private financial companies to buy pre-sale properties for speculation, as well as small and medium-sized real estate companies that took out loans to develop properties, will face greater financial pressure and repayment risks.

However, even with all these measures, there are still some idiots in Hong Kong who cannot see the situation clearly. It can only be said that these people really have no brains to make some money.

Ironically, as soon as the bank union announced the interest rate increase, Hong Kong stocks rose against the trend on the same day.

The Hang Seng Index broke through the 6 mark, rising from 12 points on June 1780.55 to 1810.20 points.

Not only did it set a new historical high, the single-day trading volume also reached HK$8.76 million.

According to Fang Hexuan's memory and judgment, 1810.20 points is the highest point.

Next, the Hong Kong stock market will turn bearish, and the downward trend will continue.

Many real estate companies that rely on the stock market to raise funds are at risk of having their capital chain broken at any time.

In the second half of the year, with the stock market falling and the panic caused by the uncertain future of Hong Kong in the negotiations between the two countries,
A major collapse in the real estate market would be a bloody and horrific scene.

Fang Hexuan instructed his investment manager to liquidate all the dozens of stocks he had bought on July 7, and then immediately switch to short selling on the 12th.

He believed that through these two rounds of operations, he could earn at least 20 to 30 billion Hong Kong dollars, which could be regarded as a little reserve fund for harvesting real estate and land whose prices would plummet in the second half of the year.

With a fortune like his, twenty or three billion Hong Kong dollars is really not a big deal.

What he likes is the sense of accomplishment that comes from having everything under control and the satisfaction that “everything is mine”.

The reason why Fang Hexuan wanted to become the king of Hong Kong buildings was not only because it was a symbol of identity and status,

It is simply because the huge and stable rent in the next 23 years will be a major cash cow for his business.

This is the foundation. As long as you can protect your capital, you won’t be panicked.

In this way, he will have the confidence to invest heavily in the high-tech field.

Unlike the two Mas, he is still relatively conservative when it comes to shares.

If you can avoid selling the company's shares at a low price, try not to raise funds and rely on rent to support it. Isn't that great?

In later generations, each of the five major real estate companies in Hong Kong collected tens of billions of Hong Kong dollars in property rent each year, making them true landlords.

Fang Hexuan is determined to surpass them and become the largest landlord in Hong Kong.

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(End of this chapter)