Started from Hong Kong Island

Chapter 293 291 [Backdoor Listing]

The business of China Gas Company is very simple, which is to provide gas to Hong Kong residents. Many shop owners and workers also rely on the gas from China Gas Company to work and maintain their basic lives.

In the densely populated Hong Kong Island and Kowloon urban areas, gas and electricity are indispensable to people's lives, so the earning ability of this franchise company is no worse than that of the Hong Kong Electric Company and the China Light and Power Company. After all, Hong Kong's electricity business is divided among the two companies, while the only company engaged in the gas franchise business is the China Gas Company.

Even if the consumption of gas is not as much as that of electricity, it can still make up for the loss in terms of competitive intensity. The importance of China Gas Company is immediately apparent and will be one of Li Wendi's trump cards in the future.

Li Wendi is a member of the board of directors of China Gas Company and has been in this position for quite some time. The membership of the board of directors of China Gas Company is relatively simple. After Hutchison Group and Wheelock Holdings were eliminated, the remaining members are Li Wendi, Chairman of Kwan Yik Wah Holdings Group, Li Mingze of the Li family in Causeway Bay, and Li Fushu of the Li family in Chinese Estates Holdings.

Under such circumstances, the balance between Britain and China took a sharp turn for the worse. Kou Cha considered withdrawing from the China Gas Company, but he was reluctant to give up the dividends and profits from the company, so he was torn between the two choices.

Li Wendi already holds enough shares, and the funds he earned from the plan have been exhausted accordingly. He is powerless to stop Kou Cha's intentions. Li Fushu and Li Mingze are obviously not interested in this, otherwise the two families would have carried out a series of mergers and acquisitions of China Gas Company long ago.

However, in order to prevent Kou Cha from having the idea of ​​"aiding the enemy", Li Wendi always respected Kou Cha when convening board meetings, and would carefully consider the ideas of the directors and would not act on his own.

At the same time, Li Wendi asked the China Gas Company to send someone to contact Swire Group to discuss the project of laying gas pipelines in Taikoo Shing, Quarry Bay, which was a huge business.

Taikoo Shing is expected to accommodate tens of thousands of people. Although the initial investment will be huge, once Taikoo Shing is completed in the late 70s and early 80s, the residents will need a huge amount of gas, and China Gas Company will have a huge and stable income.

Since most gas now uses gas cylinders as containers, the profits will naturally be shared with the merchants, and the cost of using gas will be greatly increased. Residents will not use it lavishly. If the price is lowered, the profits will fall into the hands of China Gas Company, which is still a long-term profit.

Originally, the three directors were a little hesitant. After all, this was an investment lasting several years and they were merely directors. It was still unknown whether they could enjoy the profits in the future. However, when they heard that Li Wendi would include the Sai Sai Lake residential area under Chang Xin Real Estate Company and the Chang Xin New Village residential area on King's Road in Quarry Bay into this project, they realized that this would be a super large project with more than 100,000 people.

The profits were so attractive that Kou Cha, chairman of Jun Yi Cang, gave up his plan to withdraw from China Gas Company.

Although this is a large project, you don't need to invest the entire amount immediately. You only need to set aside a few million yuan each year and slowly lay it out along with the real estate projects.

Therefore, the three directors' impression of Li Wendi increased significantly. Even Li Mingze from the Li family, who had some conflicts with Changxin Real Estate Company, recognized Li Wendi's abilities.

In fact, Li Wendi also wanted to propose to focus on entering the gas business in the New Territories, but considering that taking a big step could easily lead to mistakes, he wanted to put it on hold for some time and hold a board meeting to discuss it after the major project was on track.

After paying the balance to Wheelock, Li Wendi's cash flow situation returned to the 'pre-liberation' situation, which made him want to find another strong company to snipe at him. Unfortunately, no one would be as 'generous' as Ma Jincan.

The Ma Jincan family probably lost more than 5000 million in that sniper war. The annual profit of Dasheng Real Estate Company at its peak in 72 was only 4830 million, which caused the Ma Jincan family to lose nearly one and a half years of company profits. This made Ma Jincan hate Li Wendi with a vengeance and without the slightest remorse.

In fact, Li Wendi was coveting the large tract of cheap land in the New Territories held by Dasheng Real Estate Company. However, knowing that he could not take over the company, Li Wendi knew how to restrain himself and how to make the most profit.

Li Wendi is racking his brains on how to earn 2 million yuan in loans in a short period of time. Unfortunately, there are many opportunities to make money, but they all require an equal amount of capital to generate big profits. Currently, Li Wendi only has a few million yuan in his hands, and it is difficult for him to make a profit of nearly times.

The monthly interest on a 2 million yuan loan is as high as more than 100 million yuan, which makes Li Wendi feel uncomfortable. If he doesn't pay it off early, he will have to pay more than million yuan in interest. Li Wendi feels distressed just thinking about it.

So Li Wendi came to Sun Hung Kai Securities to see if there were other opportunities.

"Mr. Hu, how are the share prices of Swire Group and Hutchison Group?" Li Wendi asked Hu Jinyan.

Hu Jinyan found the relevant report from the information in his hand, handed it to Li Wendi, and said, "The share price of Swire Pacific has risen to 2.6 yuan, and it has been at this price for two days. Therefore, analysts estimate that the rise of Swire Pacific has reached a plateau this year, and there will not be much increase by the end of the year. As for Hutchison Group, its share price is still rising, and its growth trend is the best among the four major foreign companies. I suggest that Mr. Li continue to hold it. In addition, Willis, the boss of Hutchison Group, is discussing a merger with Huangpu Dock Company, and the share price will not stop for the time being."

Li Wendi nodded and looked at the analysis in the report. "In that case, help him sell the shares of Taikoo Foreign Trade Company."

"Sell all?" Hu Jinyan asked respectfully.

"Yes, all of them, not a single share left." Li Wendi didn't want to tie up his funds in the stock market. Since he couldn't make money, he would sell them off and fill the loan first, which would also earn interest.

"Okay, since Mr. Li holds tens of millions of shares, it will take some time to sell them off. I estimate that a week will be enough," said Hu Jinyan.

"Let it go slowly. I'm not in a hurry. Keep selling it at 2.6 yuan." Li Wendi was of course worried that it would cause the stock price to fall. After all, there were too many stocks.

"Yes, I will pay attention to it." Hu Jinyan nodded.

Li Wendi closed the report and asked with a smile, "Are there any good investment projects recently? It would be best if the funds can be recovered in a short time."

Hearing this, Hu Jinyan fell into deep thought, searched his head, and shook his head, "No, most stocks and currencies don't have any good news. They all need a period of sedimentation before they can make some profits."

Li Wendi changed the subject and asked, "How is the secret purchase of Qingzhou Yingni Company's stocks going?"

"We are purchasing slowly and have secretly bought about 8% of the shares, without causing any fluctuations in the stock price," Hu Jinyan replied.

The largest shareholder of Qingzhou Yingni Company only holds 13%. In another week, Li Wendi will become the largest shareholder of Qingzhou Yingni Company. However, it is not the best time to take over Qingzhou Yingni Company. After all, Li Wendi has too many enemies.

The market value of Qingzhou Yingmu Company is not high and it is easy to be successfully sniped. If it loses the 90 square feet of land in Hok Garden, Hung Hom, Li Wendi feels that he will lose tens of billions of profits.

In his previous life, Li Jiacheng made a profit of 10 billion yuan from this project. Li Wendi didn't think that Li Huanggua could do it, so he couldn't do it. "Well, let's take it slowly. Many people are watching me now. Be careful about the information in your hands being leaked. This is what I don't want to see the most." Li Wendi reminded seriously. He had been "sneak-attacked" by Jardine Matheson Company once, and he didn't want such a problem to happen again, which would seriously disrupt his plan.

"Yes, I will definitely keep it confidential and will never let the news leak." Hu Jinyan vowed.

Qi Nian Newspaper
He Qijun adopted Li Wendi's suggestion (to buy some high-quality properties at a low price as investment for the newspaper). Today, the asset value of Qinian Newspaper has greatly expanded. It has acquired 5 shops in Central alone, spending nearly 10 million yuan, with monthly rent exceeding yuan. Other properties have also been acquired, such as industrial buildings and offices.

"Qinian Newspaper has made good profits recently." Li Wendi said with emotion, smiling.

He Qijun said somewhat arrogantly, "We earned 1000 million just from the agency rights of two comic books. We expect to make a good profit next quarter. Add in the agency rights of Handsome magazine, and we've made a small fortune."

"It's really good!" Li Wendi took out another document from his briefcase and handed it to He Qijun, "Take a look at this."

He Qijun took it with some doubt, and when he saw the cover, he muttered to himself, "Feng Yun?! Is this a comic book?"

Judging from the name, it was unlikely to be a magazine, so He Qijun guessed it was a comic book.

Li Wendi didn’t know how to draw comics, so he simply wrote the story, even giving a detailed description of the protagonist’s appearance, clothing, and personality, making it very clear to the reader.

"Yes, it is a comic! But it is a short comic, not a long comic like "Pirate King"." Li Wendi explained.

“Looking at the storyline, there should only be a dozen issues left.” He Qijun said, suppressing her smile.

"This kind of comic can be made into a movie (live-action movie), and we can receive some copyright fees to make up for the shortcomings of the short stories." Li Wendi said with a faint smile. The "Feng Yun" comic in the previous life was very popular, and the potential profits of the comic can be explored from other aspects.

He Qijun nodded, and seemed not very optimistic about "Feng Yun". She changed the subject and said, "I have some bad news to tell you. Sanqianchi Printing Company has poached many of our customers. The method they use is to give back rebates, which is similar to lowering prices to attract customers, but the recipients of these rebates can be changed."

"Many companies turned a blind eye to this. The reporting measures we took in the early stage were not very effective, so now we have suffered considerable losses in the printing business."

Li Wendi thought this was a small matter. "How much has our printing business decreased?"

"About 4%. The most serious thing is that business is still being lost. If this continues, the consequences will be disastrous." He Qijun believes that the situation is not objective. The Three Thousand Feet Printing Company has hit the weak spot of the printing business of the Qinian Newspaper.

"Okay, then let's follow them in lowering prices. You go and find out how much profit they are making, and then we can try to make smaller profits but quick turnover. Our printing business is not our main business anyway. Let's see how long their 3,000-foot printing company can last." Li Wendi said with a sneer.

In fact, from the very beginning when he took over the printing business of Legu Real Estate Company, Li Wendi's idea was to assist the Qinian Newspaper in printing newspapers, magazines and comics. The other businesses were just part-time jobs and he didn't care much whether there was big profit or not.

On the other hand, the main business of the Sanqianchi Printing Company is printing agency, which earns a meager profit. Now they dare to steal its business. The Qinian Newspaper can give up the profit and must defeat the invading enemy.

In this "malicious competition", the loser will definitely be the Sanqianchi Printing Company.

"Okay!" He Qijun certainly thought of this common method, but considering the friendship between the He and Liu families, she had some concerns. Now that Li Wendi said so, she had no reason to "back off".

"Last time, the Three Thousand Feet Real Estate Company took advantage of my acquisition of Wharf Holdings to attack the business of my subsidiaries. I almost forgot to give them a big gift. Now they are coming towards me fearlessly." The smile on Li Wendi's lips became even colder.

He Qijun's eyes flickered a little, and she said, "Let's save some face. Grandpa Liu and my grandfather are old acquaintances. If we have a complete falling out, it will be difficult for us to meet again."

Li Wendi pinched He Qijun's rosy cheeks and said with a smile, "Okay! I'll listen to you. I'll be careful."

"That Liu Jingqi hasn't come to harass you again, right?" Li Wendi stared at He Qijun and asked. He Qijun was a lady from a wealthy family and would not do anything unfaithful, but Liu Jingqi was a hard person to say, as he seemed a bit unpredictable.

He Qijun shook her head. "I haven't seen him since you warned me last time."

"Hmm!" Li Wendi said again, "What do you think about the listing of the Qinian Newspaper?"

Last time, Li Wendi rejected He Qijun's request to list the Qinian Newspaper. This time, he took the initiative to bring it up because he could make some money from the listing of the Qinian Newspaper, and Li Wendi needed that money as capital.

Hearing this, He Qijun's eyes widened, "Should we start preparing for the listing now?"

Li Wendi smiled and said, "We can start preparing now. We should go public through a backdoor listing. The procedures for direct listing are too complicated and there are many uncertainties. The Hong Kong government has made the process stricter. It's not like in 72 and 73 when any company could go public."

"Okay! I'll go and prepare the funds for the acquisition right away." He Qijun calmed down. "Since we have purchased a lot of real estate assets, there is not much money left in the company's account. I think it is more cost-effective to acquire a small listed company."

"Then let's choose a small company. We don't really need a big company." Li Wendi replied casually.

As for the target company, they don’t have any for now and it will take some time to find one.

Li Wendi does not plan to participate in the entire process, but will only give some opinions when the company goes public, because he believes that He Qijun is capable of doing this well.

(End of this chapter)