Started from Hong Kong Island

Chapter 258 [Kowloon Bus]

The business world and the workplace are full of right and wrong, and wherever there are people, there are underworld.

It is impossible to suppress news like this. Even for someone like Li Jiacheng who does not have many emotional entanglements, the Hong Kong media can still make up some stories for him. You can imagine how keen Hong Kong citizens are on gossip news.

However, Li Wendi still needs to care about Huang Lixin's emotions, after all, she is pregnant with a baby, so she comforted the two girls, "All the gossip comes from envy of other people's lives. They can't get it, so they want you who get these things to live uncomfortable, so that they can live well."

"So, the best way to deal with them is to ignore them. As long as you ignore them, they will stop naturally when they say they are tired. On the contrary, if we keep arguing with them, they will become more excited."

Zhao Yazhi and Huang Lixin nodded vaguely, still a little angry in their hearts, but they were just giving face to Li Wendi.

After leaving Hefeng Enterprise, Li Wendi took Huang Lixin to a private restaurant in Sai Wan, not to eat specifically, but because they were summoned by Guo Cuiting.

Although Guo Cuiting scolded Li Wendi harshly, the grandmother's love for her grandson was unstoppable. Considering He Qijun's feelings, Guo Cuiting could only secretly meet Huang Lixin, the mistress.

"Hello, Aunt Guo, I'm Huang Lixin!" Huang Lixin certainly knew Guo Cuiting, the queen mother of the Li family. She was very humble when they met for the first time, and was a little worried that Guo Cuiting would dislike her and thus affect Li Wendi.

"Please sit down. You're more than a month pregnant. Don't stand or sit for too long." Guo Cuiting smiled and pulled Huang Lixin to sit down.

"Yes, I will pay attention next time." Huang Lixin felt relieved after hearing the tone of Guo Cuiting's voice.

As for Li Xiaonan, it was also her first time meeting Huang Lixin. She looked pretty, but her preconceived impression had a great influence on her. She couldn't like this sister-in-law for the time being. She felt that this woman's temperament and demeanor were not as good as Sister-in-law Qijun's.

Guo Cuiting is a good person and cannot bear to be cruel to her daughter-in-law, so the atmosphere at the dinner table is harmonious.

However, Guo Cuiting never mentioned anything about meeting her in-laws. Perhaps in her opinion, He Qijun's parents' family are the real in-laws.

Li Xiaonan's expression was shy the whole time. Li Wendi could see that she was speaking up for He Qijun and wanted to teach her brother a lesson.

Early September
The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission announced the adoption of the "Code on Takeovers and Mergers", hoping to establish basic rules for corporate mergers and acquisitions.

According to the Code, when a company plans to acquire another company, it needs to publish a takeover proposal and send it to the shareholders of both companies for review. Secondly, if the acquisition exceeds 50% of the shares, it must propose a full takeover to other shareholders.

However, this code is merely a suggestion and has no legal force, making it somewhat like a 'toothless tiger'.

Businessmen are well aware that there is no need to comply with documents that are not legally binding. After all, this will hinder the progress of the acquisition and may even cause the acquisition to fail.

Therefore, this code caused quite a stir in Hong Kong's business community, and many businessmen laughed at the SFC for "taking off its pants to fart."

Zhang Wentao even came to ask Li Wendi whether future acquisitions should comply with this code. After Li Wendi ridiculed the code as useless, Zhang Wentao also became resentful of the code.

“Boss, Li Zhaoji exchanged a large number of properties under his personal name for 1900 million new shares of Yongtai Development Co., Ltd., accounting for 42.9% of the total share capital, becoming the largest shareholder of Yongtai Development. Most of the properties exchanged are warehouses and old buildings in Sheung Wan.” Zhang Wentao reported.

Li Wendi looked at Zhang Wentao, not understanding what Zhang Wentao meant by reporting this news?
Zhang Wentao continued to explain, "There is a rumor that Li Zhaoji of Yongtai Construction is planning to build a commercial building with us, mainly in the Sheung Wan area. It is close to Central and should be a good choice."

Li Wendi felt that Zhang Wentao still believed that Sheung Wan would become the next Wan Chai, so he wanted to promote the project of jointly building a building. However, Li Wendi, who was well aware of the direction of history, knew that Sheung Wan had many shortcomings, otherwise how could the Hong Kong government not vigorously develop Sheung Wan.

However, the joint construction of a shopping mall mentioned by Zhang Wentao is beneficial to both parties, because the larger the floor area, the greater the effect of one plus one, and both parties can obtain more profits.

"Let's wait for Wing Tai Construction's opinion. We are not in a hurry." Li Wendi waved his hand. Changxin Real Estate Company is currently carrying out many projects. Whether it is Sai Sai Lake in North Point or the commercial buildings in Tsim Sha Tsui, Changxin Real Estate Company is busy for a while. "Yes!" Zhang Wentao opened another document, "Swire Pacific is planning to sell the land of Taikoo Dockyard in Quarry Bay. It is about 26 square feet and the asking price is only 3500 million. Do we want to participate in the bidding?"

Quarry Bay was a wasteland at that time. Except for some buildings in the Taikoo Dockyard, the rest was basically overgrown with weeds, so the price was so cheap.

This piece of land is somewhat inferior to the West Lake land. If it is acquired by Changxin Real Estate Company, it will certainly not be developed at this point in time, because Changxin Real Estate Company does not have such strong strength.

However, this land is very cheap and can be purchased as a company reserve.

In the previous life, this piece of land was acquired by Nan Fung Development Co., Ltd. for more than 4000 million yuan. The project was divided into four phases and 4 residential buildings with 12 to 28 floors were built, with a total of more than 32 units, all of which were small units ranging from 2800 to 474 square feet.

In Hong Kong, luxury homes of over a thousand square feet (houses of hundreds of square meters) are very popular among the upper class. As for ordinary people, the houses they buy are small houses of a few hundred square feet. Quarry Bay is geographically remote (for the time being) and is not favored by the upper class. In addition, the Taikoo Dockyard land near the sea is also being developed, so the target audience for this piece of land on King's Road can only be ordinary people.

Even if Li Wendi bought the land, he could only follow the strategy of Nan Fung Development Company and change the target group so as to quickly recover the funds.

"Of course we have to participate. We should set the price a bit higher, say 4600 million," Li Wendi made the decision immediately.

There is no bad piece of land in Hong Kong Island. Even if it cannot be developed now, it can be developed at the appropriate time.

Zhang Wentao showed a hint of hesitation on his face, and said to Li Wendi, "The company's funds are already a bit problematic. If we mobilize more funds, I'm afraid it will affect other projects."

Li Wendi understood what Zhang Wentao meant, so he smiled and said, "Do you mean you want other companies under your umbrella to carry the banner?"

Zhang Wentao replied, "Can we bid together with Ducheng Real Estate Company? After Changxin Real Estate Company's funds are turned around, we can buy those interests from Ducheng Real Estate?"

The abacus made a crackling sound.

Although they hold 68% of the shares of Capital Real Estate Company, they cannot do whatever they want. No matter which company does it, Li Wendi will not be able to get all the profits. In this case, there is no need to do anything shameful.

“We can merge, but there is no need to repurchase again. They are all subsidiaries and the profits can be recycled.” Li Wendi rejected the second half of Zhang Wentao’s proposal.

Seeing that Li Wendi had made up his mind, Zhang Wentao didn't know what to say, so he nodded, "Yes! Then I will prepare the bid first, and then discuss it with the senior director of Metropolitan Real Estate Company."

If the Taikoo Dockyard site on King's Road is acquired, the company's land reserves will reach 100 million square feet, and this is the land reserves on Hong Kong Island.

Speaking of land reserves, Li Wendi thought of the Kowloon Motor Bus Company. As long as this company was under control, the land reserves in the New Territories would be raised to a higher level, saving a lot of effort.

Sun Hung Kai Properties is very far-sighted. They have seen that the population of Hong Kong Island is overcrowded and that land development will sooner or later expand to the New Territories. Taking advantage of the current cheap land, they began to buy large amounts of cheap land in Tsuen Wan, Sha Tin, Tuen Mun and other places. The reserves have already exceeded 200 million square feet.

Li Wendi remembers that in the late 70s, Sun Hung Kai Properties claimed to have a land reserve of 1000 million square feet, a number that naturally ranked first among all real estate companies in Hong Kong.

Of course he wanted to usurp this position, but his current funds were limited and there were many things to do, but taking over the Kowloon Motor Bus Company could be included in his daily plans.

In fact, Kowloon Motor Bus Company has multiple shareholders. Even the Lei family only controls 25% of the shares. However, the shareholders of Kowloon Motor Bus Company have close ties and may not necessarily support outsiders.

Therefore, Li Wendi needs to control enough shares and involve the alliance.

(End of this chapter)