Hong Kong's new giants

Chapter 621 [Invest in London]

On Monday, Lin Zuhui came to Canary Wharf.

"Mr. Lin, welcome to Canary Wharf!" Richman, the president of the Canary Wharf Group, received him warmly.

Lin Zuhui said with a smile: "Haha, Mr. Richman, every time I come to London, I always have an office here. I have always watched the development of Canary Wharf, and I am very satisfied with your leadership for so many years. I I believe that under your management, Canary Wharf will become the 'Wall Street' of Europe."

Richman is a good project planner. If he hadn't expanded wildly back then, he would have been a giant in the real estate industry.

The Canary Wharf project, under his development in recent years, has achieved great success:
In 1995, the status of London's new financial business district was determined.

In 1996, Citibank signed a pre-lease agreement for an office building of 5.6 square meters (canary wharf currently has a total office building area of ​​110 million square meters, and some land has not yet been developed).

In 1997, the Anglo-French summit was held in Canary Wharf.

This year, HSBC signed an agreement for a headquarters office building of 11 square meters.

Meanwhile, the Canary Wharf project already has 80 shops and restaurants and 20000 people working again.

At this time, Canary Wharf has the 'DLR Wharf Light Rail Line' and the 'Airport Line'; by next year (1999), there will be three railway lines, namely: Jubilee Metro Line (Canary Wharf Station), DLR Extension cords and Jubilee extension cords are available.

The leasing rate of the entire Canary Wharf is already 60% (including pre-leasing). It is believed that once the subway is opened, the leasing rate will soon reach more than 90%.

Because of this, the acquisition of another 50% stake by New Era Group will cost nearly 130 billion Hong Kong dollars (about 13 billion pounds); the other 50% stake is mainly in the hands of Citigroup, HSBC, Richman and others.

Citigroup and HSBC are also major tenants of Canary Wharf. Of course, their rents are very low and the lease term is as high as 10 years. Because of the introduction of such financial giants, Canary Wharf's "European Wall Street" has only lived up to its name.

Barings Bank under Lin Zuhui also moved its headquarters here and leased a building of 3 square meters.Barings Bank can't use so much office space, but Lin Zuhui's other companies have settled in this building one after another, so there will be no waste.

Everyone was investigating and talking at Canary Wharf.

Looking at Canary Wharf, which is already on the right track, Lin Zuhui is more determined about the idea of ​​a wholly-owned acquisition. Of course, Canary Wharf will still be listed, otherwise how will it continue to expand.

You know, Canary Wharf can still build a commercial area of ​​50 square meters; at the same time, because the commercial status of this area has been determined, there is still a large amount of land around it, which is dozens of times larger than Canary CBD. Residential apartments, commercial buildings, etc. can be developed.

In fact, it is equivalent to creating a "new city" in this area. Now that the business is close to success, Lin Zuhui will naturally participate in the subsequent projects.

"Mr. Richman, assuming that New Era Group and various consortiums reach an equity purchase agreement, I hope you will continue to lead this project. As a reward, when Canary Group goes public, you will get 2% of the equity."

Canary is now worth 26 billion pounds, and a 2% stake is at least 5000 million pounds, which is obviously a very big reward.This is also Lin Zuhui's consistent style, which is to use 'local talents' to avoid acclimatization.As Canary Wharf will continue to have important developments such as investment promotion and the second phase of the project, it is very important to retain Richman.

"Thank you for Mr. Lin's trust, I am willing to continue to manage this project!" Richman said without hesitation.

Had it not been for Lin Zuhui's help back then, he would not have obtained 10% of the shares of the Canary Wharf project. In addition, he also hoped to complete the entire project of Canary Wharf, which is considered a complete explanation for himself.

Lin Zuhui nodded and said, "Okay, after we sign agreements with various consortiums, we will sign a specific agreement with you. By the way, I plan to start the second phase of the project after the acquisition, especially the remaining two high-rises. It needs to be built in succession.”

整个金丝雀码头一共有三幢摩天大厦，目前只建设竣工一幢；而整个金丝雀码头规划的是：超过9万平方米的大厦6幢、3~6万平方米的12幢、3万平方米以下的10幢。

A total of about 160 million square meters of real estate is about 1200% larger than the [-] million square feet of Manhattan property that Lin Zuhui won back then.

Richman was taken aback, and immediately said: "Should we wait a little longer? The current occupancy rate is only 60%. Although many financial giants are interested in leasing, it is estimated that it will be after the millennium. Everyone is waiting for the subway line to open."

Lin Zuhui said: "If we buy the equity in your hands with 13 billion pounds, then the entire Canary Wharf Group is equivalent to no debt, and can completely use debt to complete the rest of the project. At the same time, we are all very interested in this project. Confidence, since this is the case, it will naturally be completed ahead of schedule, which is more conducive to leasing. Moreover, once it is listed, the group will have a lot of funds available, and then it can acquire land in the surrounding area and enter the field of real estate development.”

Richman listened very seriously and admired Lin Zuhui. To put it bluntly, Lin Zuhui used the Canary Wharf Group to carry out real estate activities in London and build a British real estate giant.

In fact, New Era Group has developed several residential projects in London, providing almost 1300 residential units.Moreover, because housing prices in London have risen well in recent years, these projects have a very good rate of return.

"I see, Mr. Lin's idea is very good!"

Lin Zuhui nodded. He could not interfere with Richman's specific work, but he had to follow his own direction.According to the three-year construction period, the second phase will be completed in 2001. I believe full rent is not a problem.

three days later.

New Era Group, Citigroup, HSBC and other consortiums have reached an agreement to acquire the shares of Canary Wharf in their hands at a total price of 135 billion Hong Kong dollars.These consortiums invest in this project, and the annual rate of return is about 16%, which is obviously very cost-effective.They are not real estate developers themselves, and they will not always hold Canary Group shares, so they want to cash out through listing.

For a time, there was a lot of public opinion in Europe.

In the UK, major newspapers have reported that the overall public opinion is very positive for New Era Group's large-scale investment in the UK; what's more, the British still miss Xiangjiang. Now that New Era Group is investing heavily in the UK, these people have something to say.

As for Lin Zuhui's large-scale investment overseas, whether the mainland officials are jealous or not is of course non-existent.

Lin Zuhui is already a world businessman. Global investment is his hallmark, and he will not be limited to a certain country.

What's more, the mainland officials also understand that Lin Zuhui's investment in the mainland is huge, and the New Times Group alone has about 700 billion; not to mention the investment of Xiaomi Technology, LEIT Group and other companies.

In an office building in London, Lin Zuhui was having a meeting with Yuan Tianfan, Morris, the president of Times Shipping, and Wang Tianming, the vice president.

Morris is the CEO dug from the shipping giant 'Mediterranean Shipping Company'. He has 20 years of rich management experience in this industry, which is exactly what 'Time Shipping' needs.Wang Tianming was the former president of Xiangjiang Shipping, and he belonged to the middle-aged and returnees of the New Era Group.

The predecessor of Times Shipping was "Xiangjiang Shipping". After reorganization, it will start again and strive to become a world shipping giant.At present, its business includes shipping and container terminals, among which the container terminal is the Asia Container Terminal Company, and of course it can only be regarded as an associate company.

"How is the acquisition of Thames Port going?" Lin Zuhui asked.

Morris quickly said: "The British side said that they will consider leasing it to us under the conditions. The lease period is 25 years. There are specific conditions."

Lin Zuhui listened for a while and felt that there was no problem, so he said: "Promise them, complete the contract as soon as possible!"

Morris nodded and said, "Okay, BOSS."

The current New Era Group is a high-roller wielding a "money stick" and what they want is the effect of "buy, buy, buy".

The acquisition of Thames Port this time is due to Times Shipping as the acquirer. In the future, Times Shipping will develop port business and will no longer use the name of Asia Containers. After all, Asia Containers has too many shareholders.

Times Shipping has formed an overall plan with three core businesses: sea/air freight, port/tugboat, and logistics/transportation. The three sectors complement each other and develop in a coordinated manner.

In terms of ports, in addition to the joint venture company - Asia Containers, it will also wholly acquire global ports in the future to form a port network in Europe, America, Asia and Africa.

Lin Zuhui said: "Then the Rotterdam port in the Netherlands, the port business in South Korea, and the port business in the Americas must be carried out as soon as possible. There is an old Chinese saying that 'the three armies do not use food and grass first'. Since we want to develop shipping and logistics, the port business is naturally To go first."

Morris said seriously: "Okay, the port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands is not a big problem. As for the ports in South Korea and South America, affected by the Asian financial crisis, they are also good opportunities. Considering some factors, if you can hold shares first , and then consider a full shareholding later.”

Lin Zuhui said with satisfaction: "That's right. Times Shipping takes shipping as its core, and port flow and logistics are auxiliary effects. In terms of shipping, it also involves route channels, so it has to adopt the method of acquisition. At the same time, Asia Finance The impact of the storm will continue to affect the shipping situation. I predict that 1999-2001 will be the trough of world shipping. If we build a huge fleet during this period, once the shipping price rises, we will become one of the top ten shipping giants in the world."

Everyone was very proud to hear that the shipping giants in the world have not been developed for decades or hundreds of years, but their own boss seems to have built a shipping giant in a few years, which is obviously a different kind.

Of course, New Era Group has this strength.

The acquisition of Thames Port is more or less related to Lin Zuhui's influence.

(End of this chapter)