Hong Kong's new giants

Chapter 730 [The King of European and American Commercial Real Estate]

Manhattan, Futura Group Building.

After the 911 incident broke out, Lin Zuhui let New Times Group's 'Amazon Shopping Center', 'Fuli Real Estate Investment Company', 'Canary Wharf Group' and other European and American real estate business departments carry out asset merger and reorganization.

Thus, a giant group with an asset value of up to 350 billion US dollars was born, that is the 'Futura Group'.

After the reorganization, Fuli Group has two business divisions: retail real estate and investment real estate.

The retail real estate sector, of course, continues to develop retail commercial real estate with the brand 'Amazon Shopping Center' as its flagship; at present, there are as many as 96 shopping malls in Amazon Shopping Center (including those under contract), with a value of more than 200 billion US dollars.

Investing in real estate includes the original "Futura Real Estate Investment" and "Canary Wharf Group", whose main business is office building investment; among them, "Futura Real Estate Investment" quickly purchased several office buildings in the United States after the September 911 incident , currently manages North American office assets worth more than US$50 billion; Among them, the 'Canary Wharf Group' not only manages 1600 million square feet of rental properties in Canary Wharf, but also invests in commercial real estate throughout Europe, with a total value of Up to more than 80 billion US dollars.

The entire Futura Group manages about 350 billion US dollars of commercial real estate, which undoubtedly shocked the whole of Europe and the United States. It is not unreasonable for the media to regard Lin Zuhui as a "world real estate tycoon".

In the conference room of the Futura Group.

Lin Zuhui looked at a group of executives who were 80% foreigners, and he was still proud in his heart. It takes skill to convince foreigners.

Undoubtedly, Lin Zuhui, a 'real estate tycoon', is very capable of managing and operating the entire industry. He has worked in many industries, but if it is said that he is the most powerful in that industry, it is undoubtedly real estate.

This is due to the fact that he started his career in real estate, and his well-developed brain allows him to learn quickly.

Of course, although foreigners "admire the strong", they more or less have the idea that "people who are not of my race must have different hearts"; at this time, Lin Zuhui has a magical charm, maybe it is the charm of personality, maybe it is the golden finger , in short, he gets along very well with these executives, and everyone trusts each other.

In order to impress these foreign management, Lin Zuhui often personally participated in meetings and organized some gatherings.

"President Duer, you are here to give a speech on the work of the new group!" Lin Zuhui clicked on a senior executive on the left.

Only Lin Zuhui and Chen Bin were present at the Futura Group's meeting. Chen Bin was the president of the group, and it was impossible for him to ignore Futura Group, so he sat on Lin Zuhui's right hand side.

Of course, in order to 'control barbarians with barbarians', Chen Bin also delegated power to the management of Futura Group, just as a supervisor, and occasionally gave some suggestions of his own.

On the contrary, although Lin Zuhui has delegated power, he often puts forward his own opinions and discusses with senior management. This is not only a kind of participation in management, but also a kind of establishment of relationship with senior management.

Duer is the president of Futura Group. He joined the "New Era Commercial Management" in 2000 as the vice president. After two years of investigation, he won the trust of Lin Zuhui and became the president after the Futura Group reorganized.

After the reorganization of Futura Group, it no longer belongs to the "New Era Commercial Management", but directly belongs to the leadership of the New Era Group, which is at the same level as the "New Era Commercial Management".

Doerr is in his 40s this year, an American Jew. He is in the prime of life. From the eyes he looks at Lin Zuhui, there is respect and admiration.

He nodded and began to report to work.

"The completion of the Futura Group's reorganization is equivalent to embarking on a new journey. At this time, the Futura Group has 96 Amazon shopping malls. These huge assets currently only have 12 billion US dollars in liabilities (in terms of projects), which is undoubtedly A very healthy group enterprise. Next, Futura Group will obtain an independent financial system, and will no longer receive funds from the headquarters. At the same time, Futura Group will expand its scale again, and the funds will come from the income of Futura Group , and loans.”

Everyone's blood boiled when they heard this. This group is too huge. If it goes public, it will definitely become the largest IPO in the history of real estate.

Of course, everyone also understands that the boss will not list Futura Group.

At most, it is to spin off the brand and go public.

In fact, it is impossible for Lin Zuhui to list Fuli Group, and his brands have no idea of ​​listing.

After all, there is no shortage of money, so why go public.

The reason for asset restructuring is just for better development.

After listening to Duer's detailed work report, Lin Zuhui nodded. He then named Steven, who was in charge of the 'retail real estate' business, who was the former president of 'Amazon Shopping Center' and now the vice president of Futura Group.

He has been with Lin Zuhui for a long time, and the two have established a trusting relationship, which is very solid.

"Steven, do you have a plan for the task of building a 'second growth curve' for the retail real estate business?"

Steven nodded and said: "The second growth curve of Futura Group's retail business, I think it can enter 'Outlets' and 'Metropolitan Shopping Center'."

Outlets is not a brand name. Outlets is the Chinese literal translation of English Outlets. It refers to a shopping center composed of stores selling out-of-season, off-shelf, and out-of-stock products of famous brands. Therefore, it is also called "brand direct sales". shopping center".It was first born in the United States and has a history of more than 100 years.In the early days, in order to deal with commodity inventory, some factories sent some surplus commodities and damaged commodities to employees, and opened warehouses for local sales. This was the earliest single-store outlet model.The role played by real estate developers is still "rent collectors", building [-] million outlets, renting the shops inside to factories for rent collection and management; therefore, outlets are also called "factory outlet centers" in the United States '.

In other words, the well-known "Outlets" in the mainland is not the brand of a certain company, but may be many real estate developers sniffing out the business opportunities of outlets, copying the Outlets in many cities across the country. Sri Lanka this exotic.

At present, Huaxia does not have an outlet, not even a single store; as for when it existed in the previous life, it is unknown, it seems that there should be a long time before it will appear.

After all, the mainland is now the era of retail real estate in which 'shopping centers' seize the 'traditional department stores'.

In the same way, the Metropolitan Shopping Center is not a brand, but a fashion shopping mall with the core value concept of "fast, popular, affordable and limited", where entertainment and fashion make up a large proportion.

Lin Zuhui nodded and said, "I think your idea is very good, but do you have a specific plan?"

Steven immediately said: "Yes! We have already set our eyes on 'Chelsea Real Estate Company', which is a 'big Internet celebrity (translation)' enterprise in outlets. In New York, Los Angeles, Orlando, Las Vegas There are 31 brand discount villages around tourist cities such as Japan and Mexico, as for metropolitan shopping malls, they are temporarily reserved.”

Lin Zuhui said with satisfaction: "Well, after collecting the detailed information on this Chelsea property, we will discuss the acquisition plan. If the acquisition is finally reached and we have digested the 'Chelsea property', then we must continue to develop outlets in North America. Stores. I remember that there are no outlets in Huaxia, and Futura Group can cooperate with New Era Commercial Management to enter Huaxia Outlets together.”

Steven admired the boss's long-term vision, and immediately said, "No problem, boss!"

Next, Lin Zuhui said: "The European and American economies have been adjusted, and the next five years will be an explosive period. I hope you can come up with an efficient expansion plan."

"Yes, boss"

Lin Zuhui nodded in satisfaction. He is naturally the best at real estate, and real estate is almost immune to political influence, unless it involves the residential sector.

Therefore, he plans to increase the net assets of Futura Group to more than 2007 billion US dollars in the middle of 1000 in this wave.

As for whether it will be easy to cash out "partial assets" at that time, Lin Zuhui is not worried at all.

Because he knows that in his previous life, Blackstone acquired a real estate company worth more than 2007 billion US dollars in 300, and then felt financial pressure or a sense of crisis, and sold more than 200 billion US dollars of properties in just two months; because most people have no crisis Consciously, after Blackstone released the news, the major real estate developers were like mad dogs, picking their favorite bones one after another.

A week later, Steven and others were ready to acquire the 'Chelsea Real Estate' program and materials.

The Chelsea property is a REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) which means it has no 'owners' and as long as the price is right they will sell.

At this time, the ownership structure of American factory outlet centers has undergone dramatic changes. REITs dominate the outlet center market. Chelsea Properties, Tangle Factory Outlet Center, First Retail and Horizon Group own about 75% of the total leased area of ​​this market. %.

Among them, Chelsea Real Estate has a total rental area of ​​122 million square feet, and a total of 46 outlets around the world, with an average area of ​​2.65 square feet.

Lin Zuhui personally participated in this acquisition. After all, the value is in the range of 35 to 45 billion US dollars, and it is a new field. He also wants to take the opportunity to learn.

Before the acquisition, he said: "For this acquisition, we will adopt the loan model as much as possible. Although Futura Group still has a lot of cash flow in its accounts, after all, it still needs to develop in the future."

Doerr and Steven nodded. The next step was to adopt the loan model.

Steven said: "Okay, I will lead the team to negotiate the acquisition immediately."

For business negotiations, Steven feels that his side still has an advantage. After all, the United States has just recovered from the September 911 incident. If the price is reasonable, the REIT side will not hesitate.

And under the influence of his boss, he is very optimistic about the future European and American economies and the real estate industry, and he has an advantage in his heart.

Steven led the team and met with the REIT side of Chelsea Real Estate and the management of Chelsea Real Estate, and the two sides started the second negotiation in the conference room.

Judging from the previous negotiation, the REIT side intends to sell, just to see if the price can be higher.

As for the management of Chelsea Real Estate, they do not have the right to choose and decide, but they are also keen on the transaction, after all, it is good to enjoy the shade under the big tree.

Futura Group is well-known in the European and American real estate circles, but it is a star giant real estate group. Although it is backed by Chinese capital, its management is almost entirely composed of European and American talents.It is precisely because of this that this group has not been "acclimatized", and because of this, Lin Zuhui was named the best manager of the century.

"Mr. Will, we are very sincere about the acquisition of Chelsea real estate. This time we have brought a new offer, which is worth 42 billion US dollars (including debt). According to the market's valuation of Chelsea real estate, this has produced more than 10% premium."

Will, the person in charge of the REIT, was still dissatisfied with the offer, and said: "You seem to have not calculated the additional price of the enterprise. Chelsea Real Estate is currently the No. 1 outlet in the world and is still expanding. If the price is too cheap, we will Why not continue to develop and sell at a higher price!"

Steven smiled and said: "We can't buy the current assets at the future price!"

After a confrontation between the two parties, they were more sincere, but in the end they could not reach an agreement on the price.

After Lin Zuhui learned the result of the second negotiation, he thought about it and said to Steven: "Although Chelsea Real Estate is the No.1 outlet, the No.2 Tangle Factory Outlet Center is very close to his premises , even No.3's 'First Retail' is not far behind."

As a general who has followed him for many years, Steven is not only loyal (sourced from the mysterious charisma of personality), but more importantly, has outstanding abilities. He quickly understood what Lin Zuhui wanted to express.

"Boss means that we will try to contact the Tangle Factory Outlet Center before releasing the news?"

"It can be like this, but we have to negotiate with Chelsea Real Estate at the same time. After all, public opinion will not make a decisive contribution, but can only be used as a boost. As for the price, we can continue to make concessions."

Sometimes buying assets is like this, you can't miss a good asset because of its tiny value.

Steven understood Lin Zuhui's meaning and said, "No problem, this time the negotiation is actually making progress."

Lin Zuhui nodded and said, "I won't participate in the follow-up, the power is in your hands!"

"OK, BOSS"

Whether it is expensive to buy or not, in fact, he, the boss, can't decide. After all, he wants to buy it, but he is not directly involved in the acquisition.Therefore, the price is controlled by executives such as Steven.

All these years of working together have established enough trust.

Of course, things like this are also somewhat unpleasant, but not in Lin Zuhui's company, but in Li Chaoren's company; it is said that before Ma Shimin left, Li Chaoren was somewhat dissatisfied with Ma Shimin's high price for Husky back then, of course this is the media's fault reports.

As for whether Lin Zuhui was dissatisfied with his subordinates during the negotiations, he can tell himself that he has never been dissatisfied or even cared about it; what's more, he feels that his subordinates have saved him a lot of money. The premium will be more, after all, with a long-term vision, on the contrary, it will not save the current point.

Sure enough, in the third negotiation between Futura Group and Chelsea Real Estate REIT, the two sides quickly reached a transaction intention.

The reason why it went so smoothly was that Futura Group agreed to purchase at US$43.8 (including debts). Although this price is still [-] to [-] million US dollars away from the REIT side, they are not unacceptable;
Secondly, I heard that Futura Group was in contact with the Tanger factory direct sales center, and the REIT side was also worried that the deal would be completely void;

Finally, of course, the European and American economies are not particularly clear at this time, and the price can be sold if the price is profitable.

Futura Group's 'high-profile' entry into the Outlets was quickly reported by the US media. Some media once again described Lin Zuhui as the 'American real estate tycoon'.

Of course, it is not Lin Zuhui's original wish to be high-profile, but as the leader of the outlets industry, 'Chelsea Properties' naturally attracts attention; and Futura Group is also the overlord of the industry, and its every move has attracted attention.

Fortunately, the commercial real estate sector is almost immune to political influence, unless the relationship between the two countries is particularly hostile.In the previous life, during the period from 2015 to 2017, Z-funded enterprises spent 100 billion US dollars a year to purchase commercial real estate in the United States.At present, American real estate investment companies such as Lehman are also investing heavily in China's real estate industry.

In Lin Zuhui's mind, real estate is the core of New Era Group's core, as long as the group's debt ratio is low, it is a safe rent collector.

As for before 2020, Lin Zuhui will only cash out part of the real estate, and will not clear it out on a large scale.

(End of this chapter)