People in Hong Kong create super chaebols

As time flies by, we have entered the year 1982 in the blink of an eye.

Hong Kong's real estate market has quietly entered a period of adjustment since mid-last year, and the once booming development momentum seems to have encountered unprecedented resistance.

As we enter the new year, this trend has not eased but has become more pronounced.

Since the end of last year, the transaction activity in the real estate market has declined significantly, and the transaction volume has quietly fallen like autumn leaves.

This change has undoubtedly cast a thin shadow over the entire industry.

Although on the surface the fluctuations in housing prices are not drastic and only show a subtle downward trend, this subtle change is enough to touch the sensitive nerves of the market.

After all, in the huge economic system of real estate, any slight fluctuation may indicate future trends.

However, during this period, most market participants seemed to maintain a certain degree of rationality and patience, taking a wait-and-see attitude towards small price drops, and not triggering large-scale panic or selling.

The reason may be that the market generally believes that this is only a temporary adjustment period, and with the economic recovery and timely policy adjustments, the real estate market will eventually regain vitality.

At the same time, investors and consumers are waiting for clearer signals to make more informed decisions.

Therefore, in this period of uncertainty, staying calm and rational may be the best strategy to deal with market changes.

Originally, according to many predictions, the crisis in Hong Kong's real estate market should have completely erupted in September because of a lady's fall.

However, Su Cheng is keenly aware that this crisis seems to show signs of breaking out ahead of schedule and its possibility is rising sharply.

The basis for this judgment comes from a series of unusual actions taken recently by Cheung Kong Holdings.

Since the end of last year, the group has been quietly selling off a large number of its properties in the market. This behavior was so secretive that it did not attract widespread attention in the early stages.

However, as the properties continued to change hands, Cheung Kong Holdings successfully recovered huge amounts of funds.

It wasn't until the beginning of this year, as the sell-off continued, that the market finally began to notice this anomaly.

The move by Cheung Kong Holdings was like a stone that caused a thousand ripples, quickly triggering widespread discussion and speculation in the industry.

People are speculating whether this large-scale sell-off, coupled with various signs, indicates that the Hong Kong real estate market is about to face an unprecedented storm?
As a result, as the news of Cheung Kong Holdings' property sales was widely reported by the media, housing prices fell sharply, and the effect quickly spread to the entire Hong Kong real estate market like a domino effect.

In January 1982, Hong Kong's housing prices suffered a severe blow, falling by about 1%. This figure was shocking and caught market participants off guard.

At the same time, trading volume fell to a freezing point, buyers and investors held on to their coins and waited and watched, and the market fell into an unprecedented downturn.

The once bustling sales office is now deserted, as both parties to the transaction are waiting for the market to become clearer.

At this moment, the Hong Kong real estate market is in a state of panic, with a sense of uneasiness and anxiety in the air.

Everyone is deeply afraid that this sudden real estate crisis will be like an uncontrollable flood, ruthlessly devouring their hard-earned wealth.

People are beginning to re-examine the risks and opportunities in the real estate market and are full of uncertainty about the future direction.

It is worth noting that looking back at the beginning of last year, the price of industrial land in Hong Kong has actually shown a downward trend. It is only because the price of commercial land is still stubbornly rising that the overall market still looks prosperous.

This apparent prosperity has undoubtedly concealed deep-seated problems within the market, leading many people to mistakenly believe that real estate prices will continue to soar.

However, reality has cruelly proved that any bubble will eventually burst.

In addition to the market panic caused by Cheung Kong Holdings' continued sale of properties, two recent incidents in Hong Kong have further exacerbated public concerns about the real estate industry.

First, two land transactions involving the Governor's Office sent strong signals that the market might collapse.

Among them, the Governor's Office announced that it had reached an agreement with the developer Weicheng Company to reclaim 22.5 hectares of land in Tin Shui Wai, Yuen Long, at a price of up to HK$488 billion.

This move was interpreted by the market as the real estate developer's development plan on the land being blocked or abandoned, further proving that in the current market environment, even large-scale land development projects face huge uncertainties.

Immediately afterwards, the Governor's Office announced the sale of the prime property, Murray Road Car Park in Central, for HK$10 billion.

This decision is even more shocking because the Murray Road car park is located in the core area of ​​Hong Kong and its commercial value is self-evident.

However, the Governor's Office chose to sell it, which undoubtedly revealed the government's financial difficulties and urgent need to recover funds.

The reason why the government is short of money is largely because of the current sluggish land sales and the overall sluggish real estate market, which has led to a significant reduction in the government's income from land transfer.

These two pieces of news were like two bombshells, causing a huge stir in the Hong Kong real estate market.

Land recovery means that real estate developers lack confidence in the future market, while the government's sale of prime properties directly exposes financial pressure.

This series of events are intertwined with each other, making everyone worry.

In addition, the Cheung Kong Commercial Bank, a giant in Hong Kong's real estate industry, is selling off a large number of properties, which makes everyone feel that the wolf is coming and there will be no chance if they don't run away.

As a result, a vicious cycle soon formed, with more people afraid to buy houses for fear that they would hit the ceiling.

However, the previous actions of Tianqi Property Company did not have any impact on this matter.

Because everyone knows that Suzhou owns a lot of properties in Hong Kong, so selling two buildings is nothing.

Therefore, this incident was not caused by Su Cheng, but by Li Jiacheng.

Behind the scenes, I don’t know how many real estate tycoons secretly cursed Li Jiacheng, asking why he had to sell off properties so aggressively instead of doing something else.

Now, the trading volume was already stagnant, and now it has dropped sharply.

As a result, the houses cannot be sold, and the developers cannot recover the funds from the houses they developed.

Ordinary people are fine, but what they are most worried about are those real estate companies that are constantly expanding their scale with big leverage, such as Jardine Matheson, Great East Japan, Hang Lung and other large groups.

In particular, Hang Lung Properties Group, one of the five tigers of Hong Kong real estate, led three consortiums last year to win the development rights of nine subway-covered properties along the Hong Kong subway line.

Originally, if the real estate market in Hong Kong continued to perform well, they would definitely be able to make a lot of money.

Unfortunately, when they entered the market, Hong Kong real estate was already at its peak.

After its failure in Wharf Holdings in recent years, Swire Properties began to expand aggressively in other areas, successively acquiring Hong Kong Telephone Company and several other Hong Kong companies.

Overseas, Swire has also been on a rampage, and its debts now amount to over 10 billion Hong Kong dollars.

If a real estate crisis really happens, it is obvious that they will be the first to bear the brunt and be the most affected. As for these, Su Cheng is not panicked at all.

He himself knew that Hong Kong would face a real estate crisis.

In addition, the most important point is that his company has no debt ratio!

Since its development, Suzhou City has never borrowed money from banks.

For him, he has more cash than he can spend, so why would he need to borrow money from the bank? That would be completely unnecessary.

Therefore, no matter how serious the real estate crisis in Hong Kong is, it will not pose any danger to Suzhou.

Moreover, the real estate industry has never been his main source of income. The technology industry and the oil and energy industry are the ones that contribute the most funds to him.

At the headquarters of Cheung Kong Group, the assistant came to the chairman's office with a wry smile and said, "Mr. Li, hundreds of people have called us today to scold us, thinking that we are accomplices in the real estate crash."

"Don't worry about them. If it's these calls, just hang up." Li Jiacheng said with a smile.

At this moment, he didn't care about the infamy. Running away early was the only way out. After seeing the signs in the past few months, he was more certain that Hong Kong would face a terrible real estate crisis. This real estate crisis would definitely be much more terrible than the one from 1973 to 1974.

Fortunately, he had a premonition in advance and started selling buildings and properties with Su Cheng.

Although it is impossible to sell all of them, nearly one-third of the properties have been sold from last year to now. In this way, their company has recovered a lot of funds. Even in the face of a very terrible real estate crisis, their Yangtze River Commercial Group will be able to get through it safely with this money.

What puzzled Li Jiacheng was why there was no follow-up action after Su Cheng sold the two buildings?

Originally, he thought that after selling these two buildings, Sucheng would continue to sell off properties.

But from now on, it seems that the other party obviously has no such plan.

Li Jiacheng had no idea that Su Cheng didn't care about this small price difference at all, and he didn't intend to bear the blame.

If he sells off in large quantities, people in Hong Kong will definitely think that the real estate crisis was caused by Suzhou.

But now, Su Cheng did not sell off in large quantities. Instead, its Tseung Kwan O headquarters base, several residential communities, and Jiayi Film and Television City on the Clearwater Bay Peninsula have been completed and opened one after another, as if to show that Su Cheng is very confident in Hong Kong's real estate industry.

In this situation, who can still blame Su City for causing this incident?
"Mr. Li, it will be difficult to sell our remaining properties unless we slash the prices," the assistant continued.

"Let's withdraw all these listings. We have sold one-third of the properties, which is enough." Li Jiacheng thought for a moment and replied.

"Okay, Mr. Li, I'll take care of it right away!" The assistant left the office respectfully.

Li Jiacheng stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling glass window in his office, looking at the bustling streets of Central outside, wondering what he was thinking...

Entering February, Hong Kong's real estate market continued to be sluggish.

Not only that, stocks related to the real estate industry have basically entered a downward trend, and this situation has continued for more than a month.

In particular, the stock of Hutchison Whampoa Properties fell by 42% in just over a month.

The reason is very simple. According to media analysis, the current debt of Hong Kong Holdings and its blind expansion in recent years will pose a fatal crisis to Hong Kong Holdings if a serious real estate crisis occurs.

Therefore, many people chose to sell.

This situation is very beneficial to Sucheng.

Su Cheng has been planning to acquire the land for more than two years.

Over the past two years, the trading team of Tianyuan Investment Company has never stopped buying shares of Jardine Matheson and Hutchison Whampoa.

Although the progress is slow in the later stage, it is increasing with the accumulation of time.

Now, the stock price of Jardine Matheson has plummeted, which is definitely a great opportunity for Suzhou.

Su Cheng did not need to remind him. Under the command of Zhang Qizhen, Tianyuan Investment Company had been buying up a large amount of shares of Jardine Matheson for more than a month without being noticed on the stock market.

They will not buy at a fixed price, but will leave a portion of the stocks unsold at each price. In this way, the price will continue to fall because some people's stocks have not been traded.

But everyone is afraid that if Swire Properties collapses due to the real estate crisis, the losses will be huge.

In the office of Tianyuan Investment Company, Zhang Qizhen and his subordinates were very satisfied with today's mission.

It is not yet closing time, but from this morning till now they have absorbed a full 1.3% of Hutchison Whampoa shares.

If this had happened before, it would have taken at least half a month to absorb this much.

Moreover, after absorbing so much, the price did not rise, but instead continued to hover at a low level.

It’s because there are too many sell orders today.

"You guys continue, and be careful not to get discovered. I'll call the boss." Zhang Qizhen reminded.

"Don't worry, Mr. Zhang, we know what to do!" A laughter came from the office.

The trading team led by Zhang Qizhen has basically maintained the same people without any changes.

These people also have enough loyalty.

Today, there are too many secrets within Tianyuan Investment Company, so it is not appropriate to add more staff. If more staff are added, it is necessary to ensure that they are trustworthy.

After all, Su Cheng’s target is too big. He not only targets major British banks such as Hutchison Whampoa and Jardine Matheson, but even HSBC Group.

If this were to be exposed, it would definitely have a huge impact.

The impact on Su Cheng is not a big deal, but it will definitely be difficult for him to continue to acquire shares.

Moreover, it also makes the other party feel wary.

Therefore, Tianyuan Investment Company will not easily recruit more people.

It is also impossible for internal members to resign and work for Su Cheng because the benefits are too good. Anyone here is a multi-millionaire.

If this were put outside, an ordinary trader could make a million or so, which would be pretty good. (End of this chapter)