Wolf of Xiangjiang

Time flies, and another year has passed in the blink of an eye.

In July 2017, Taifook Group announced that it would sell IndCor to Blackstone Group for US$7 billion.

For a time, public opinion was shocked!
IndCor was founded in 2004, but it really started to develop in 2009 (bottom-fishing after the financial crisis). Taifook Group invested nearly US$80 billion in total to acquire the industrial real estate portfolio assets.

Thanks to the development of Internet shopping, shopping websites such as Amazon have become important customers of IndCor; IndCor's assets in the United States alone amount to US$141 billion, and the rest are distributed in North America.

This business has been running for 13 years, so it is only natural to have such a return.

Before public opinion had faded, Taifook Group announced shortly afterwards that it would sell European industrial real estate company Logicor to China Investment Corporation for 122 billion euros (136 billion U.S. dollars).

This company is affiliated to the Canary Wharf Group and is one of its important property investments in Europe. It has invested more than 70 billion US dollars and acquired dozens of companies.

As the 'head office' of Taifook's commercial real estate in Europe, Canary Wharf Group's assets can be said to be only slightly lower than those in North America.

At this point, Taifook Group has cleared out its "industrial real estate" business in Europe and the United States, leaving only the "industrial real estate" in Asia under Wheelock Shipping (logistics assets).

“The two assets were sold for 300 billion U.S. dollars, more than twice the amount of cash raised in the mainland!”

At this time, the media have reported that in the past three years or so, Taifook Development has frequently cashed out its assets. Why is that?
If only mainland assets were being cashed out, then it would be reasonable to call it "capital relocation", but now European and American assets are also being cashed out, so it can't be said to be capital relocation, right?
But if you say that Lin Zhengjie is not optimistic about the global economy, many people will refute it, and almost no one will agree with him!

Since 2013, Chinese capital has frequently acquired overseas assets, becoming the first in Asia. At this juncture, everyone will only think that Lin Zhengjie is a "coward" and "worrying about nothing", so they continue to do their own thing.

Lin Zhengjie even commented in the media: "Real estate prices have been high in a short period of time, so this is the fundamental reason why Taifook Group cashed out!"

Such voices were quickly dispelled by the enthusiasm for investment.

There are even Chinese entrepreneurs who openly criticized in newspapers: "Hong Kong capital used to have strong capital and never talked about high real estate prices; now that Chinese real estate companies are rising, Hong Kong capital cannot compete and naturally began to withdraw."

Such remarks obviously have no market.

A lean camel is bigger than a horse. The asset value of Taifook Group is still nearly HK$2 trillion!
Of course, starting from 2017, Taifook Group entered an era of huge dividends.

In the first half of this year alone, Taifook Group paid out a huge dividend of HK$300 billion, which made shareholders very happy. Especially now that nearly 70% of shareholders are retail investors, it is equivalent to a full HK$200 billion being distributed to shareholders.

Shareholders who have invested in Taifook understand that whenever Taifook cashes out, it may be a time when the market is risky, but they are more willing to believe it.

Taifook Group started bottom-picking in 2009. Eight years have passed now and everyone is happily making money.

Of course, who is right and who is wrong will only be revealed in five or six years!

In late July, in an office building on the first floor of the Hengfeng Financial Group Center, Lin Zhengjie's family office was holding a "board of directors meeting".

The meeting was chaired by Lin Zhengjie and attended by the eldest son of Room 14.

Now, in the second generation of the Lin Zhengjie family, only Monica's youngest son is still young, and the rest are all working. The oldest is 36 years old, and the youngest is 21 years old, of course not including Monica's youngest son.

Among these children, the eldest son of each family is undoubtedly the most valued and has the best development.

"I have called you here today for two reasons: first, to discuss whether to increase the monthly living allowance of family members from 300 million to 400 million; second, now that all of you second-generation people have joined the workforce, I plan to establish a voting system for male family members under the board of directors to serve as a substitute for the 'board of directors'. Okay, everyone, express your opinions!"

The 14 eldest sons took it seriously. After all, it was a major decision related to the family. Of course, everyone looked at Lin Wendong, meaning that you are the eldest and should express your opinion first. Lin Wendong then said, "Regarding the first point, I will not express my opinion, because compared to everyone else, I may not need to speak on this. I would rather hear your opinions."

The other brothers also understood what the eldest brother meant. The business that the eldest brother took over was the largest. To put it bluntly, the assets of Taifook Group were greater than the total assets of the remaining twelve families excluding the other two families.

Zou Kaixuan's eldest son Lin Wenping and Ma Yawen's eldest son Lin Wenyi did not speak either. Their two families also benefited from it.

Subsequently.

Zhao Yazhi's eldest son, Lin Wenji, said, "I don't think it's appropriate to increase the number. Among the second generation of the Lin family, there are 29 men and 7 women. Among these 29 men, 28 have already started working, and most of them have even married and had children. So, it's possible that the third generation of the Lin family will increase by nearly a hundred members, right?"

it goes without saying!

Although Zhao Yazhi was exiled to Australia, her family's business is worth more than 500 billion Hong Kong dollars. First, she holds four US stocks, which are now worth 25 billion US dollars, nearly 200 billion; second, she has acquired a large amount of land, vineyards, properties and other assets in Australia and New Zealand over the years; finally, she spent 2014 billion US dollars in 27 to acquire Australia's largest real estate company Australand, and then integrated all the property assets, all of which were planned and supported by Lin Zhengjie.

So, the two brothers Lin Wenji and Lin Wenrong are doing very well in Australia and New Zealand.

Subsequently.

Lin Qingxia's eldest son, Lin Wenyue, also said: "Fourth brother is right (Lin Wenliang is the third oldest). Although the amount of funds in the family office is huge, considering that it is the family's sustenance for generations, our generation and the next generation should not be too greedy. What's more, future investments may not have such a good rate of return!"

Currently, one person earns 3600 million per year. If there are 100 members, that would be 36 billion per year. This may seem like a small amount for a family office with 1500 billion U.S. dollars, but with more and more members, it will become increasingly difficult to make money.

Lin Wenyue is also doing very well. He has a venture capital company that has invested in Uber and ZOOM. Lin Qingxia's line not only holds four US stocks, but also many Taiwan stocks, including TSMC, which is also listed in the United States. She and Wang Zuxian hold nearly 2% of each Taiwan stock.

Later, Lizhi’s eldest son, Lin Wenhao, also expressed the same view. He now owns a Southeast Asian Internet unicorn company and has become a second-generation technology tycoon of the Lin family.

Afterwards, everyone held the same opinion without hesitation.

This "initiative" proposed by Lin Zhengjie was actually rejected by his 14 "eldest sons"!

"Okay, let's keep this amount. Next, let's move on to the second topic!"

“I agree to increase the number of family meetings”

"I agree"

"I agree. When necessary, the Family Members Assembly can veto the resolution of the Board of Directors, and the Family Members Assembly has the right to elect the Board of Directors. Of course, each of the fourteen branches must have a director!"

The Lin family once again showed extraordinary unity, even "selflessness".

Finally, Lin Zhengjie decided to set up a "family member meeting" and initially formulated some rules. For example, female members were not allowed to join and could only enjoy a fixed monthly dividend.

There is no objection to this!

Lin Zhengjie's daughters, granddaughters, and even great-granddaughters, as long as their surname is "Lin", can receive "living expenses" until they die. However, their husbands and children are naturally not entitled to receive living expenses.

At the same time, the reason why female members were sent out of the family meeting was because they would get married sooner or later, so it would be natural for them to be in charge of their husband’s family and would not need to interfere in the Lin family’s affairs.

After reaching the two resolutions, the board of directors needs to communicate with the management of the "family office" to finally form an internal system with legal effect and pass it on. (End of this chapter)