Started from Hong Kong Island

Chapter 223 [Economic Situation]

He Zefeng looked at Li Wendi coldly. As a man, he was naturally well aware of the bad qualities of men. Although there was no evidence, he already believed that Li Wendi had indeed cheated as the rumors said.

However, Li Wendi has grown up at this time, and the He family is of less and less use to her. It is not impossible for her to get rid of the He family. He Zefeng cannot just consider his granddaughter, but must weigh the interests of the family more. However, as an elder, He Zefeng believes that he can still give Li Wendi a warning.

"Whether you did it or not, you know it in your heart." He Zefeng said seriously, "No one in the He family has to marry you. Qijun should know this, right? What did she say?"

"Come to think of it, Qijun also knows those two women. They are Qijun's secretaries at Junfu Jewelry Company. That's why we have dinner together." Li Wendi must of course 'hold on to the green mountain and not let go'. Once he lets go, all the previous efforts will be in vain.

"Qi Jun doesn't believe in these rumors, otherwise she wouldn't have gone to a Central restaurant with me for dinner and met that reporter."

He Zefeng looked at Li Wendi deeply. Since his granddaughter didn't care, what else could he, an old man, do?

"Be good to Qijun. It's a good thing for you to have a virtuous wife. You'd better avoid those women out there. How many heroes and heroes have fallen into the hands of women throughout history." He Zefeng gave Li Wendi a lot of cultural output, taking the opportunity to teach Li Wendi a lesson not to create any more scandals.

Li Wendi naturally agreed with his mouth, but he didn't agree in his heart. Although He Zefeng was able to "discipline himself", the things his sons did in private proved that his education had failed. Besides, he made so much money, what else could he do but do these things?

After leaving the He family villa, Li Wendi came to the Qinian Newspaper again. He Qijun, the "cooked duck", could not fly away. Besides, Guo Cuiting was very satisfied with He Qijun, and he didn't want his family to have any opinions about him.

He Qijun's attitude was still lukewarm. She treated Li Wendi like an ordinary friend, which made Li Wendi a little confused. He didn't want to force He Qijun with a tough approach at this time, so he decided to give her some buffer time.

The beginning of April

Banks have successively announced increases in deposit interest rates. Today's annual interest rate has increased from a little over one point at the beginning of 73 to more than three points, with a growth rate of more than 100%. This is to attract citizens to deposit their money into banks. It can be seen that banks' funds are also beginning to be stretched.

This is because the stock market was too crazy in the early stage and the bank's loan policy was too loose (it was a strange phenomenon that banks were calling for cautious investment while desperately lending money to stock investors). Now banks have a lot of "bad debts". As for losses, banks have no losses for the time being (generally speaking), but banks have accumulated a large amount of collateral, including gold, silver, jewelry, land and properties, and residential houses.

These things are all hard currency, but banks are institutions that focus on cash flow and are worried about bank runs, so banks still need to convert these things into cash to be safe.

Even with the stock market being like this, fake stocks are still circulating in major exchanges, still undermining investors' confidence.

Fortunately, the Hong Kong government was "powerful" and finally arrested a large number of counterfeiting teams in September. Among them, more than 9 million worth of Jardine Matheson shares, including Wheelock and Company, were seized from a gang that printed stocks in Causeway Bay, with a total value of about 300 million yuan.

Unfortunately, this news did not save the stock market from its decline. The stock market's activity and trading volume are still declining. The Hang Seng Index has fallen to 600 points and the decline continues.

Li Wendi stood in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling window, gazing at the busy Victoria Harbour. His mind was not filled with thoughts of appreciating the beautiful scenery, but rather with a myriad of thoughts.

He just received news that the dollar has depreciated again, and the gold exchange rate has reached 68 US dollars per ounce. The gold worth 800 million yuan he bought from Chow Tai Fook Jewelry Company was 43 US dollars per ounce on average, while the gold he got from Jingfu Jewelry Company was 48 US dollars per ounce. Therefore, Li Wendi still made a profit of nearly 50% from the gold market, that is, a profit of about 650 million yuan. This is really a huge profit, almost the same as a bull market.

According to his memories of his previous life, Li Wendi knew that $68 would not be the end, but the starting point. Before the appreciation of the US dollar, the price of gold would continue to soar, perhaps even breaking through $200 per ounce.

Gold is very difficult to buy now. Everyone can see that investing in gold can make a lot of money. Fortunately, Li Wendi took action in advance, otherwise he would not get a penny.

Yang Zhiyun was sulking at this time. In just half a month, the price of gold had risen by nearly 6%. It was really hard for him to accept it. He could not accept his own misjudgment.

The depreciation of the US dollar naturally exacerbated Hong Kong's economic crisis. A large number of citizens went to banks to exchange other currencies, such as British pounds and Japanese yen. Anyway, citizens did not want to hold US dollars anymore.

At the same time, in order to rectify the stock market, the Hong Kong government began to clean up unqualified listed companies on a large scale, especially those companies that exaggerated the value of their assets when they went public, suspecting that they had engaged in favoritism and fraud in transactions with the exchange.

As a result, many companies with bad assets began to fall into trouble, allowing law enforcement agencies to uncover more tricks. Even some operators were detained according to law, and what awaits them may be a "few years of travel in Stanley Prison."

Li Wendi would certainly not be so stupid as to sit back and watch law enforcement officers come to his door. He had already made up for the hidden dangers in the accounts by issuing new shares. As for private illegal transactions, he certainly would not do it, as some of them were the responsibility of the previous operators.

Zhang Wentao sent a batch of information, which contained companies that were about to be liquidated. Li Wendi looked through it carefully and found that most of the companies were in a terrible state. Changxin Real Estate Company could indeed take over one of them, but Changxin Real Estate Company would no longer have the possibility of expansion and might even face the crisis of falling into operational difficulties.

"Don't send me these things anymore. Now is not a good time to make an acquisition. These companies are not good things either." Li Wendi glanced at Zhang Wentao.

"Understood!" Zhang Wentao had no other intentions. He just wanted Li Wendi to understand the current market situation and the situation of his peers so that he could make a better judgment.

"The economy is getting worse and worse. There are some problems with the leasing of our properties. The vacancy rate has exceeded 20%. The situation of the Central property is better, with a vacancy rate of 11%, but it will not affect our loan repayment for the time being." Zhang Wentao took out some documents and asked, "Should we start lowering the rent like other companies?"

The original Hong Kong economic crisis did not have a big impact on property rents, and most of the properties of Changxin Real Estate Company were in the Central area. However, the oil embargo crisis has now had a great impact on all walks of life in Hong Kong, including the real estate industry, so some companies have proactively lowered rents in order to retain tenants.

Li Wendi thought about it again and again, and felt that if the rent was not lowered, a large number of tenants would leave, and the loss would be considerable. It would be better to lower it proactively. Although there would still be losses, it would be relatively more credible.

"Lower it, a little lower than our peers, but require those tenants to sign long-term contracts, no longer than two years." Li Wendi predicts that the local market will recover around 76, which will be just enough to replace a group of tenants.

"Yes! I'll do it right away!" Zhang Wentao finally did something serious.

(End of this chapter)