Rebirth: The Era of Hong Kong Tycoon

Chapter 308 [Fifth Largest Bank]

After the auction of the No. [-] plot of Victoria Bingfang, Wharf Group quickly organized the design and hired Wang Ouyang Architects & Engineers, a well-known design company in Xiangjiang, to design according to Lin Rongheng's initial ideas.

Lin Rongheng's opinion is the most important. As a veteran in the real estate field, Lin Rongheng actually has a draft plan: the first phase of Oriental Plaza is actually composed of: a five-story shopping mall, an office building, and a hotel building.

Office buildings and hotel buildings must be built on top of five-storey shopping malls (a shopping center is equivalent to a base or podium). Wucheng shopping malls are actually composed of two floors underground and three floors above the ground; the second underground floor is a parking lot. The first basement is a collection center for high-end restaurants, and the third floor above ground is a shopping center (mainly world-class famous brands).

The hotel building is a 50-story super building with an area of ​​more than 100 million square feet. It is difficult for a five-star hotel to operate such a super building. It is expected that it can only operate about 27 floors; On the 28th floor, Home Inns, a luxury suite hotel brand of the Wharf Group, provides about 38 luxury suite services; the top 120th to 39th floors can be decorated into hotel-style residences (residences that provide hotel-style services, for rental purposes) ), which can provide 50 hotel-style residences with an area ranging from 136 square feet to 600 square feet.

As for the office buildings, they are naturally all leased out.

On June 6, the Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong government suddenly issued a statement: declaring that Hightower Bank was 'unable to repay its debts' and closed for two days.

The Bank Supervisory Commissioner also issued a statement: the incident will not affect other banks, and the Hong Kong government has taken corresponding measures.

Overseas Trust Bank was established in 1956. It was led by Zhang Mingtian, a wealthy businessman from Malaysia, and invited Hong Kong banker Cao Yao and other Hong Kong businessmen to join forces. It was diverted and listed in 1972.

In 1976, Haito built a 30-story head office building in Wanchai; by the end of the 70s, the company had over 30 employees and assets of nearly HK$[-] billion.

Haito Bank also controls Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Dajie Finance Company, with a total of 43 local branches and 8 overseas branches.

In March 1982, Zhang Mingtian passed away. Huang Changzan, who was outside the family, took over as the chairman, and his son Zhang Chengzhong succeeded as the executive chairman. Soon Huang Changzan was excluded from the board of directors by the Zhang family.Wu Chanrui, wife of Zhang Mingtian, acts as chairman.Before the death of Zhang Mingtian, the top management of Haito Bank made frequent adjustments. This is nothing more than two reasons: first, there are problems in the operation;

In the evening of that day, the police detained at the airport several high-level high-level individuals who were carrying millions of dollars and wanted to flee Hong Kong.Including Zhang Mingtian's wife Wu Chanrui, his son Zhang Chengzhong and others.

The next day, the Hang Seng Index plummeted by 87 points. The drop was so large that it could be seen that the Haito Bank incident had a great impact, and the industry called it the "Haituo Shock".

On the same day, Lin Rongheng took Liang Song and others to rush there at the invitation of the Financial Secretary, and it was expected to discuss the matter of taking over Hightower Bank.

The last time Lam Wing Hang took over the loss-making Hang Lung Bank, he did not cause any panic in Hong Kong's banking industry. He was well received by the public in Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong government was happy to see it.

Financial Secretary.

Director Peng Lizhi directly explained his intentions, and Lin Rongheng was not polite, and asked to check the financial statements of Hightower Bank on the spot.

At this time, the financial information of Haito Bank had arrived at the Financial Secretary, and Lin Rongheng's team began to review it carefully.

It was not until 8 o'clock in the evening that they finally reviewed everything clearly. The result was a bit scary. Haito Bank had lost nearly 25 billion Hong Kong dollars, and it will continue to lose money. It is estimated that it will take more than five years to turn losses into profits (earn back the previous losses); no wonder the Hong Kong government I don't want to take over, but I can't ignore it, because it will cause great social impact, and if I don't intervene in time, it may cause losses of hundreds of billions of Hong Kong dollars.

Of course, Haito Bank is twice the size of Hang Lung, and it also has a subsidiary company - Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and a financial company; if Hang Lung wins it, it can almost rise to the No. 5 local bank in Hong Kong, second only to HSBC Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Hang Seng Bank, Bank of East Asia.

Therefore, Lin Rongheng's team discussed the takeover conditions with the Financial Secretary overnight.

The Hong Kong government has one condition, that is, Hang Lung Bank must inject 20 billion Hong Kong dollars in cash to save Haito Bank.

Hang Lung Bank must not have 20 billion Hong Kong dollars in cash, because Hang Lung Bank has about 40 billion Hong Kong dollars in deposits, but has already lent out 35 billion Hong Kong dollars; There may be a crisis; just like Sun Hung Kai in the previous life, after being 75% owned by Arab Bank, Sun Hung Kai's direct lending rate was as high as 97%, because it was supported by the oil economy.

Lin Rongheng still has 20 billion Hong Kong dollars in pocket money, and he plans to use it to support the expansion of Hang Lung Bank. Even if there is no 20 billion Hong Kong dollars, Lin Rongheng will contact major banks to lend him money, and only one Citicorp Bank will not refuse him.

Moreover, with the recovery of real estate, Lin Rongheng can receive more than 30 billion Hong Kong dollars in rent every year, so raising money is no problem.

That night, Hang Lung Bank reached an agreement with the Hong Kong government.

The next day, Hang Lung Bank and the Hong Kong government announced at the same time: Hang Lung Bank will invest 20 billion Hong Kong dollars into Haito Bank.

People in the industry once again praised Lin Rongheng for taking over the troubled banks twice. Although the cost was high, it effectively curbed the impending domino effect and did not cause a catastrophe.

In the meeting room of Galaxy Financial Group, there are Huayang executives, and Lin Rongheng is holding a group meeting.

Lin Rongheng looked around at the high-level executives, gestured and said in English: "As for the bank, I want to hear your opinions?"

In the conference room, everyone is highly educated. Even the high-level Chinese can speak fluent English. After all, English is the official language of Xiangjiang.

Group director and consultant Brian said: "Hang Lung Bank's loan ratio is as high as 90%. I would like to ask BOSS if there is any countermeasure? It should be noted that this approach is not feasible in our western banking industry!"

It's euphemistic, but not unreasonable.

Lin Rongheng nodded and said: "I have two Hong Kong real estate companies under my umbrella, with properties worth over 10 billion Hong Kong dollars, so I used some of my property assets to reach an agreement with American banks such as Citibank and Chase Bank. I personally About US$[-] billion in loans can be withdrawn at any time, I think this is a real estate economic support point of Hang Lung Bank.”

Brian asked again: "How long does BOSS plan to let Hang Lung Bank continue in this way?"

Lin Rongheng said: "My idea is that in about three years, Hang Lung Bank will start to formalize, focus on loan ratios, introduce new shareholders, go public in five years, and gradually get rid of the influence of the family. The reason for this plan is that Hang Lung Bank is too small. , if you want to grow rapidly, only under my personal influence can you grow rapidly."

A group of banking talents quickly figured out the key point. Without the bank's personal asset support, Hang Lung Bank would not be able to develop in ten years.

After discussing for a while, everyone had a clear understanding of Lin Rongheng's thoughts.

In the end, Lin Rongheng said: "Hightower Bank needs to be reorganized, and after turning losses into profits, it will be merged into Hang Lung Bank; Tian Fan, Douglas, and Liang Song, the three of you are of course the person in charge of the restructuring of Hightower Bank."

(End of this chapter)