Started from Hong Kong Island

Chapter 432 430 [There are still banks going bankrupt]

"8.5 million yuan!" Li Wendi raised the price all at once.

Seeing this, Simon Keswick raised his placard and shouted "8.51 million yuan!" before the auctioneer even dropped the hammer.

Li Wendi sneered, "9 million yuan!"

Huang Tingfang shook his head and put down the sign after hearing this. "Li Wendi is really determined to get this piece of land. He won't leave any chances for anyone else. If you continue bidding, it will be malicious. It's not a good thing to offend Li Wendi."

His son Huang Zhixiang said, "Yes, Li Wendi has attacked two British families in Hong Kong one after another. He doesn't care about either the Kadoorie family or the Keswick family. He will not show mercy to us who are regarded as outsiders."

"Fortunately, we have just acquired a lot of land, otherwise this trip would have been in vain." Huang Tingfang said to comfort himself. It is not shameful to admit that he cannot afford to offend Li Wendi, but Huang Tingfang also has his own pride.

Simon Keswick on the other side had a grim look on his face. The 9 million yuan piece of land in Admiralty Section was really too expensive. The crisis of Jardine Matheson and Hong Kong Land Development had not yet been completely resolved. Spending so much money rashly would make the crisis worse.

But if he didn't take the opportunity to retaliate, Simon was worried that he would never find such a good opportunity in the future.

After much hesitation, Ximen finally held up the sign "9.01 million yuan!"

Li Wendi stopped raising his placard and pretended to think about it. After the auctioneer dropped the hammer for the second time, he suddenly shouted, "9.02 million yuan!"

A mere increase of 100 million yuan surprised many real estate developers. It was 5000 million yuan just now, but now it has become one-fiftieth of it. Is this almost the highest price of Li Wendi?
Simon had the same idea. He certainly didn't want to pay a high price for the land.

But he still raised the price, and Ximen shouted, "9.03 million yuan!"

Li Wendi did not wait this time. After the first drop of the hammer, he shouted "9.04 million yuan!"

When the bidding price rose to 9.11 million yuan, Simon Keswick finally gave up. He felt that this was the highest price Li Wendi had ever paid.

"Congratulations to Changxin Group for winning the land king price of 9.11 million yuan!" The auctioneer spoke loudly into the microphone and was the first to clap his hands.

Other real estate developers followed suit. Some of them who knew Li Wendi even stepped forward to shake hands with him and congratulated him personally, also to make their presence felt.

In fact, buying the land king at such a high price also means announcing to the outside world that the real estate market has begun to fully recover. The real estate crisis that has lasted for more than two years has finally brought some sunshine.

By acquiring this piece of land, the Cheung Kong Group can add more than 100 million square feet of floor area in the Central and Admiralty areas. Once these buildings are completed, the Landmark Group's status as a landlord in Central will disappear, and Cheung Kong Properties will become the new landlord in Central.

After the Changxin Group acquires another piece of land in Admiralty, it will not acquire any land or property in the Central and Admiralty areas, let alone hold these properties for a long time.

After all, we have to leave some opportunities for other real estate developers. It is not so fun for one company to dominate the market. If one of them becomes the "most dazzling one", we really have to be careful again.

A few days later, Michael Kadoorie sent a message saying that a bet agreement could be signed, but the profit amount had to be increased to 18 billion yuan, and China Power Group would only provide the land, with other matters left to Li Wendi to handle.

Li Wendi agreed without giving it much thought. By the 90s, the value of this piece of land was no longer comparable to the current price. According to Li Wendi's thinking, by the 90s, the development of the Hung Hom and Whampoa lands would be basically completed. With such a large business district next to it, the profit of the residential building in Tai Wan Shan might be half of that of the Hung Hom land, that is, 40 to 50 billion yuan, and that was not counting the profits of the shops and shopping malls inside the residential building.

This is certainly not something that an outsider like the Kadoorie family could have imagined, and ordinary real estate developers do not have such a long-term vision.

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye it is June 85.

Overseas Trust Bank was established in 56 by Malaysian tycoon Zhang Mingtian, who invited Hong Kong banker Cao Yao and other businessmen to form a joint venture. It was listed in 72. By the end of the 70s, its assets had reached nearly 30 billion yuan. It controlled Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Dajie Financial Company, and had 43 local branches and 8 overseas branches.

However, in March 82, the founder Zhang Mingtian passed away and was succeeded by Huang Changzan, an outsider of the family, as chairman of the board. His son Zhang Chengzhong succeeded him as executive vice chairman. However, Huang Changzan was always an outsider and soon had the Zhang family squeezed out of the board of directors. His wife Wu Chanrui took over as chairman.

In fact, during Zhang Mingtian's period, problems had already arisen in the bank's operations. Zhang Mingtian frequently transferred senior management of the Overseas Trust Bank in an attempt to arrange the situation before his death.

However, his plans were completely disrupted by his family, and he was unable to save the Overseas Trust Bank, so he could only let it rot.

On June 6, the Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong government suddenly issued a statement announcing that the Overseas Trust Bank was "unable to repay its debts" and would suspend operations for two days.

At the same time, the Commissioner of Banking also issued a statement that the incident would not affect other banks and the Hong Kong government has taken corresponding measures.

That night, the police detained Zhang Mingtian’s wife, Zhang Chengzhong and others at the airport, all of whom were members of the Zhang family.

The next morning, before the stock market opened, Li Wendi convened a small-scale senior management meeting in advance.

“We thought the crisis was over and financial problems would not arise again, but even the Overseas Trust Bank went bankrupt.” Gao Yi didn’t know much about finance, but the Overseas Trust Bank was not small in size and was currently the largest bank to go bankrupt in Hong Kong.

"I'm worried that the collapse of overseas trust banks will affect the Hang Seng Index. If it falls, will it affect investors' confidence in the stock market?" Bai Hui said with a grim expression.

Li Wendi really forgot about this matter, otherwise he would have asked Bai Hui to sell the stocks of some small and medium-sized companies to avoid suffering losses.

Li Wendi glanced at the crowd and sighed, "It will definitely affect the Hang Seng Index, and it may drop by quite a few points."

Bai Hui knew her boss's vision very well, so she asked, "Should we sell the stocks of small and medium-sized companies as soon as the market opens? How much money can be recovered?"

Li Wendi shook his head and said, "If I sell it, there may not be anyone to take it. It is better to hold it and let some shareholders see hope."

"The boss is right. I was too reckless." Bai Hui admitted her mistake.

"There is no right or wrong. We are in a meeting to discuss. There is no need to be too harsh." Li Wendi added, "Although the collapse of the Overseas Trust Bank will have a great impact, the Hong Kong government has the experience of the last time and will be particularly calm in handling it. The impact will not last too long."

"How much funds does the company have? Perhaps we can take this opportunity to buy at the bottom again and help boost the confidence of investors at the same time," Li Wendi added.

(End of this chapter)