Hong Kong's new giants

Chapter 561 [To be the top three hotel groups in the world]

Hong Kong.

The executives of New Era Hotel Group Holdings gathered together, and Lin Zuhui presided over the meeting.In the entire meeting room, foreigners occupied more than half, which made Lin Zuhui a little astonished.

Of course, this is his policy, because he wants to let the "Hong Kong-owned hotels" go out. With the strong development momentum of Hong Kong-branded hotels, everyone can see the vigorous vitality and strong competitiveness of national brands overseas.

In the previous life, it was difficult for mainland enterprises to go global. Apart from the reasons of visibility and ability, there was another reason that it was inconvenient for funds to go overseas:
First of all, let’s talk about ability. Most of them only know how to buy, buy, buy, but do not really integrate resources and strengthen management. In the end, they sell things again, and losses are inevitable;

Secondly, seeing that they always like to chase high, and Westerners can see this, they are very happy to sell you at a high price when the market is good, anyway, there is hope to get it back in the future, such as Manhattan office buildings, People, or Huaxia people, have suffered a lot.

Finally, let’s talk about funds. It is very convenient for Heung Kong’s funds to go overseas without any supervision. If an overseas acquisition is negotiated today, the funds can reach the world the next day.

In summary, Lin Zuhui thinks that it is time for New Times Group to strengthen investment in the hotel field, and quickly create a Chinese-owned "Marriott Group" through global mergers and acquisitions, integration and other means.

Originally, even without Lin Zuhui, Xiangjiang's Hong Kong hotels would have developed very well abroad. In the previous life, Hutchison Whampoa, New World Hotel Group, Great Eagle Group, Hang Lung Group, and Shangri-La Hotel Group were all world-class hotel groups. The strength cannot be underestimated.

Of course, once Lin Zuhui is gone, he will either not do it, or he will do his best to build a truly international hotel group.

There is no need to worry about funds. In the late 90s, there was a full non-recurring profit of 2000 billion; there is no need to worry about management experience. After these years of development, New Times Hotel Group Holdings already has world-class management experience.

Lin Zuhui said: "London Hotel is acquired at a price of 1.05 million pounds. I agree to this project. But what preparations do you have for the subsequent development of this hotel?"

As the first luxury hotel in Europe, The Langham Hotel in London was displayed in front of everyone with a magnificent gesture in 1865.The huge castle-like building can feel its profound history at a glance.

President Corbett said: "After our investigation and planning, after the acquisition of this hotel, we plan to spend 8000 million pounds on a comprehensive renovation and upgrade. Of course, if we want to fully expand the hotel industry in Europe and the United States, we must ensure that the local customs and culture are concentrated. It has become a master of international culture and combines modern atmosphere, ancient and modern, retro and innovation”

Reasonably, the acquisition of such a hotel with historical significance and a landmark building in London must dig out its own value and combine it with a modern atmosphere, so as to achieve the two words of "luxury and luxury".

Lin Zuhui said, "How many years will it take to renovate?"

First, it is London, which is very inefficient; second, it is a historical landmark building, which is difficult to renovate.

Corbett said: "It is expected to be 2 to 3 years"

Lin Zuhui nodded, this answer is acceptable.But he immediately said: "The acquisition of Langting Hotel in London is because I hope to own a chain of luxury hotel brands, so I suggest that you continue to expand Langting Hotel, and don't stop."

Corbett nodded and said: "Okay. But now the company is starting to vigorously develop the hotel group, but the group's business is scattered. I suggest to learn from the integration of Marriott Hotel last year and divide the hotel business into two parts, heavy assets and light assets. Operation. Then the heavy assets will be unified under the Langting Hospitality Group, and the name of New Times Hotel Group Holdings will be abandoned, after all, this name does not match the truth.”

Lin Zuhui thought for a while, then said: "Yes, the group's assets reorganization is a major event, you all sort out the plan and give it to me."

"Okay, boss."

The hotel's light assets are "hotel management services". New Times Group acquired an American hotel management group very early, and has been developing continuously. Currently, it has managed tens of thousands of hotel rooms.

Of course, taking Furama Hotel as an example, although there is also a management party, they only need to pay a 3% management fee; and this management does not involve the management of the entire hotel. Some management suggestions and reservation system; the actual management still belongs to the hotel itself.

Assuming that the hotel business of New Era Group is divided into: Langham Hospitality Group (heavy assets), New Era Hotel Management (light assets), it is a very good plan.

New Era Hotel Management can cooperate with owners around the world to provide management services, charge 3~10% management fee, and enhance hotel management experience.

Langham Hospitality Group has two luxury brands: Langham Hotel and Atlantis Hotel
It has two mid-to-high-end brands: Miramar Hotel Group and Constellation Hotel (Canada)
In addition, there are some franchised hotels (the owner is Langham Hospitality Group): Manila Hilton, Beijing Hilton (unopened).

There are also some participating hotels: Peninsula Hotel (major shareholder), seven joint venture hotels in Beijing (Great Wall Hotel, etc.).

Lin Zuhui continued: "The Atlantis hotel project will be officially launched next year. You go to Dubai to find opportunities, and you can cooperate with the locals to start this project. It must be built into the world's top luxury hotel."

The Burj Al Arab is already under construction in Dubai, so Atlantis must be very attractive to locals.

In the past year, New Era Hotel has been planning this project, and has hired dozens of designers from all over the world to build the Atlantis Hotel, especially hired Disney architects to build the water world.

Of course, the Atlantis hotel has also been successfully registered, and there is another Atlantis resort in Panama, so they almost met.

Corbett nodded and said: "No problem, we will arrange a visit to Dubai immediately." He knew that the boss originally hoped to build the first Atlantis hotel in Sentosa, Singapore, but the planning efficiency in Singapore was really slow. .

As a result, the Atlantis Hotel has identified two locations - Dubai and Singapore, and the third location is of course Sanya, but it will be the 21st century.

This brand is a top luxury hotel brand, and it is almost enough to build three.

The Langting Hotel is a high-end brand, and if it does not open 30 hotels in the world, it will be inferior to the strength of the New Times Group.

Back in his office, Lin Zuhui was still thinking about the hotel field.

It is recognized that the hotel industry does not make money. With a turnover of 100 yuan, the profit is only 6 to 8 yuan.Moreover, the market value of the hotel group going public will not be high. In the previous life, the Marriott Group was so powerful, and its market value was only more than 500 billion US dollars.

The most lucrative is the development of real estate in Xiangjiang. In the past two years, the turnover of 100 billion will earn 60 billion to 70 billion (before tax). Of course, the prices of various real estate companies are different; assuming that your land is the former reserve land, then the land cost If it is low, the gross profit will naturally be large; if it is the official land auction in recent years, the cost will naturally be much higher.

Although Heung Kong Real Estate has huge profits, Lin Zuhui must consider the group's integration, globalization, and planning for the future.

He called Liang Zhenxun and said, "Arrange some funds and prepare to sell short next year's Nikkei futures in March, May, and June."

According to history, the Great Kanto Earthquake will occur in Japan in January next year, which will cause the Japanese stock market to fall, so it is just for New Era Group to make some money.

Liang Zhenxun immediately asked: "Do you want to liquidate some of the Sony stocks you bought?"

New Era Group bought a total of 50 billion Hong Kong dollars in Sony stock (converted market value is about 1600 billion Hong Kong dollars), and it has incurred a lot of losses so far!

It's just a long-term investment, and Lin Zuhui didn't care.But now that I think about it, Sony only released PS this month, and short-term sales will not affect the market value at all. Coupled with the impact of the earthquake on the Japanese stock market, a decline in the first half of next year is inevitable.

"Okay, all withdrawals, don't transfer the funds back, stay in Japan, and wait for the opportunity to enter! The funds that are about to be withdrawn are used to short-sell the Nikkei in Singapore, the United States, and Japan, but don't affect too much. Large, so as not to be mistaken for malicious short selling." Lin Zuhui said decisively.

"Ok"

It's not that you can't sell short, but you can't sell short maliciously.Although Lin Zuhui hated Little Japan, he still wanted to do their business in the future, so naturally he would not offend others. It was the last word to enter the village quietly and not shoot anyone.

When Liang Zhenxun left Lin Zuhui's office, he thought to himself that the boss had finally 'suffered' once. It turned out that New Era Group had lost [-] to [-] million yuan in Sony's stock.Of course, Liang Zhenxun believes that this is the normal performance of a stock god, and he can adjust his strategy in time.

In early December, Lin Zuhui urgently led Corbett and his party to the United States, intending to acquire the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.

After the hotel group meeting was held last time, Lin Zuhui made a comprehensive consideration and felt that Langham Hotel is not enough to support the development of high-end hotels. Langham Hotel Group still needs a high-end brand. In the end, he chose the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.

This hotel brand developed very well in Asia in its previous life, with as many as 100 stores worldwide, and its hotel concept enjoys a high status in the world hotel industry.

Therefore, Lin Zuhui decided to act before Marriott, and did not wait for the reorganization of New Era Hotel. After all, he seems to remember that Marriott bought a 1995% stake in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in 49. The two hotel groups first worked together for three years , and then the Marriott Hotel Group acquired the remaining 1998% for US$10 billion in 51, thereby becoming a wholly-owned holding.

On Lin Zuhui's private jet, he and Corbett and his team were having a meeting to discuss. Everyone was holding a piece of information about Ritz-Carlton, which had just been sent to Xiangjiang.

New Era Hotel Group already has a team dedicated to managing the global hotel business. Especially in the past year, it has recruited many hotel elites.

Lin Zuhui looked at the information and gradually realized that the acquisition was not difficult. At this time, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel only had 24 stores. Expansion is slow.

The current president of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel is called Horst Schulz, who is also the co-founder. As far as Lin Zuhui knows, the later Capella Hotel was also founded by him.Presumably after selling the Ritz-Carlton, he re-founded the Capella.

"Regardless of whether the acquisition is successful or not, we will move the hotel business headquarters to New York, USA, and then set up Asian and European business divisions. You must prepare for new challenges."

Corbett nodded, he knew that his boss would either not do it, or expand it crazily.Generally speaking, capital is the biggest obstacle to expansion, but there is no pressure in front of the stock gods. New Times Group itself has strong profitability, and this boss often brings huge non-recurring profits to the company.

"In this way, we have two high-end hotel brands that need rapid expansion, and our hotel group is not listed, so we need a lot of financial support from the group."

Lin Zuhui immediately said: "Funds have never been the company's pressure. Even if Langham Hospitality Group goes public, it will be a 'return of the king' instead of raising funds for development. It can only be said to raise funds for expansion. In short, Langham Hospitality Group will go public. , but not these years.”

Corbett and the others immediately understood, and said, "Yes."

Lin Zuhui has already said that in the past few years, high-end hotels will be opened on a global scale, especially in the Mainland.

In Washington, the headquarters of Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co., Ltd., Chairman Holmes, President Horst Schulz and others met Lin Zuhui and his party.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Lin Zuhui got straight to the point: "We want to take a stake in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and learn the business philosophy of your hotel. I wonder if Holmes and Schultz intend to cooperate?"

Before the meeting between the two parties, there has already been a contact, otherwise there would not be this meeting.

Holmes said: "Mr. Lin, although your company is very large and is the world's top real estate company, we discussed it and found that your company's hotel business is not very strong, so inviting you to invest in shares will be a great benefit for Ritz. What did Carlton bring?"

Lin Zuhui said calmly: "It's money! If we buy 49% of the shares in your hands, you can guarantee that your life will be very happy. After all, your aggressive expansion in the past few years has caused the Ritz-Carlton's debt to be huge. growth and cash flow drying up."

One word hit the nail on the head!
In 1983, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel LLC was established.Led by President and Founder Colgate Holmes, along with Horst Schultz, Joe Flaney, Ed Stalos, and Herve Harmüller, the company expanded to locations across the U.S. Create new hotel projects separately.Within two years, five properties opened, including The Ritz-Carlton Buckhead, The Ritz-Carlton Atlanta, The Ritz-Carlton Laguna, and The Ritz-Carlton Naples.Maintaining this rate of expansion, by the end of 1993, the number of Ritz-Carlton's outstanding luxury hotels had grown to 24, helping it win the Macomb Bridge National Quality Award for the first time.They also opened their first hotel in Asia that year, the Ritz-Carlton, Hong Kong.

Behind the crazy expansion is the increase in debt and risk. After all, Ritz-Carlton is not listed, and the funds for expansion are almost all through bank loans.Coupled with the sluggish economies in Europe and the United States in the past few years, Ritz-Carlton's financial situation is not optimistic, at least it has been unable to expand.

President Schultz immediately asked: "You just bought shares in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, and the management is still in our hands, is that so?"

The implication is that it has been loosened.After all, the company has more than $8 million in debt, which is very worrying.

Corbett said at this time: "We hope to have a running-in period of two or three years, because we are integrating the hotel assets of the group recently and will establish a new hotel group. In the following two years, we will Spending billions of dollars to develop the global hotel business. Therefore, if we have a happy cooperation, of course we hope that the Ritz-Carlton Hotel will be completely owned by our Langham Hospitality Group in two or three years. Because only in this way, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel will come It can have a steady stream of funds to expand globally.”

Ambition, Colgate Holmes and Horst Schulz and others saw the ambition of Lin Zuhui and others.

That being the case, they glanced at each other, and Holmes said: "We can sell you 49% of the shares, but whether we cooperate in the future or not, the initiative is still in our hands, because we don't want to sell the Ritz-Carlton The hotel is handed over to a hotel group with no strength."

It is certain that they want to cash out, but they will not hand over the Ritz-Carlton Hotel to a hotel group without strength.

Lin Zuhui said with a smile: "No problem, you can make a price!"

After Holmes and others exchanged in a low voice, he said: "8 million dollars"

It is a bit more expensive. Although there are 24 five-star Ritz-Carlton hotels, not all of them are heavy assets, and some properties are leased.

Of course, the situation is pressing. The Ritz-Carlton signboard is worth a lot of money, and Lin Zuhui hopes to win them all, so the initial cooperation should be more pleasant.

After a few words of probing, seeing that Holmes and the others did not let go, Lin Zuhui finalized the deal.

As for money, knowing how to spend it is the skill, and you can earn it from other places later.

Now he wants to grab the money from the Marriott Hotel, get the cooperation between the two parties settled, and then reorganize the hotel assets in the first half of next year, and then use Langting as the flagship to start conquering cities around the world.

In the previous life, among the top ten hotel groups in the world, Huazi only had one or two seats, or even the last place, which is undoubtedly a pity.Now that Lin Zuhui has come to invest, he has to be in the top five, or even the top three.

Lin Zuhui intends to borrow all the funds for this acquisition. Since he wants to develop hotel assets in the past few years, even if the group's debt is 300 billion Hong Kong dollars, it is okay to double it.

New Times Group has money, but now it needs to ensure the cash flow in the account, so there is no need to use it.

Before Jiuqi, he had a way to reduce the debt.

(End of this chapter)