Hong Kong Island's New Rich Era

Chapter 294 'Relocation Faction'

After the Hang Seng Index climbed to 8100 points, it did not stop and broke through 9000 points in seven trading days.

Based on the closing price of 10 points on October 18, the Hang Seng Index rose rapidly by about 9050% in less than a month.

The stock market skyrocketed, and as a result, the real estate market began to flourish again. Market purchasing power gathered, and luxury homes, ordinary residences, office buildings, shops, etc. all began to rise in price.

The harvest season for investors has arrived!

When the index reached 7500 points, Whampoa Group began buying HK$10 billion worth of stocks and futures as short- to medium-term investments.

This was not Liu Zhicheng's idea. After all, he had no intention of allowing the Whampoa Group to continue to make non-recurring profits.

After all, large real estate companies in Hong Kong all have the habit of investing in Hong Kong securities, and Liu Zhicheng did not stop them.

However, this investment by Huangpu Group also reminded Liu Zhicheng that the company should not keep too much cash in its accounts, as this would be detrimental to its development.

After all, cash left in the account is equivalent to assets that have not appreciated in value.

Houses in Hong Kong are in short supply. If there are 10 new residents each year, there are only 6 residential units available for occupancy.

This conflict between the Hong Kong government, citizens and real estate developers may be brought to the surface in the first half of next year.

Liu Zhicheng was very worried that he would become the most eye-catching real estate developer, which made him helpless because he was the largest real estate developer in Hong Kong.

In fact, in terms of real estate development (residential), Huangpu Real Estate ranks only third in annual supply.

The investment properties (office buildings and shopping malls) of the Whampoa Group are the real giants;

Coupled with the good development of its comprehensive business, its market value is far ahead of other real estate companies.

Therefore, if Liu Zhicheng does not want to be the real estate boss, he can just let other real estate developers take the lead.

After thinking for a while, Liu Zhicheng decided to transfer part of the Huangpu Group's funds abroad next year, mainly to invest in the banking industry in the United States.

The US stock market is very large, 16 times that of Hong Kong, at almost 5 trillion US dollars, so it is the best place for funds.

In fact, making money is not challenging at all for Liu Zhicheng. Any securities investment project will generate greater profits than real estate.

Starting in 1994, information technology stocks (the Internet) enjoyed a six-year bull run (the real explosion probably started in 1996);

From 1995 to 1998, the American bank exploded. The bank index rose by more than 220%, Citibank rose five or six times, and Wells Fargo rose five times.
Thinking of this, Liu Zhicheng has decided to let Hongli Investment invest an additional HK$50 billion in US stocks next year.

Late October, Manhattan, New York.

In the office of Hongli Investment, Liu Zhicheng listened to the "100 billion" plan.

Moreover, as his wealth grows, Liu Zhicheng will have more and more means to hide and protect it.

The most direct and best way is the "feudal system", which distributes rich wealth to each concubine; at the same time, manage Hong Kong as the base.

Therefore, Liu Zhicheng still won't have the feeling of "not being able to sleep because of too much money".

Smith from Hongli Investment reported: "Boss, all the stocks have been bought and there is no unusual movement."

Liu Zhicheng nodded. A large part of the 100 billion yuan worth of stocks purchased this time would be used in healthcare and banking stocks.

Less funds were invested in the Internet because many of the Internet stocks that Liu Zhicheng was familiar with were not listed at all and might still be in their infancy.

For example, Yahoo, Amazon (which has been registered as a shopping mall), eBay, etc., and the only listed companies are: America Online, Cisco, etc.

After listening to the report, Liu Zhicheng said: "After buying these stocks, there is no need to operate them. This is a long-term investment, so you don't need to worry about it.

The price of oil has recently hit a low point, and I plan to buy crude oil futures. Can you help me do it? "

Smith immediately asked, "How much money does the boss plan to buy and how much leverage will he use?"

Liu Zhicheng said: "Just 5 million Hong Kong dollars, with ten times leverage, and just report to me on the operation at any time!"

"Ok!"

Futures have a delivery date, so they are much more difficult to operate than foreign exchange. Once the delivery is completed, the advantage of the trend that Liu Zhicheng knows will disappear.

For example, if you buy New York crude oil futures at US$14, and the price is US$15 per barrel on the next day, you have indeed made money, but it will be difficult for you to operate next.

After all, if you continue to buy, crude oil futures may fall temporarily. If it hits US$13.6, you may be liquidated.

Of course, if it drops to US$13.6 per barrel, then you must continue to buy; after all, you think it is bullish, so such a decline is also an opportunity.

Of course, overall, Liu Zhicheng was just making a small move in this wave of oil price increases and did not intend to make much money.

If you really want to speculate in crude oil futures, you have to open a position for short selling before January 1997. Because of the Asian financial crisis, crude oil futures plummeted from 1 to 1997.

After all, the Asian financial crisis meant a decrease in demand for oil, so it is understandable that the price of crude oil was cut in half.

Wall Street.

Liu Zhicheng came to Goldman Sachs Investment Bank and was warmly received by its CEO Whited.

Almost everyone in the capital world knows Liu Zhicheng, the world's richest man, but more people know him about his legendary experience and mysterious aura.

Although his wealth is mainly distributed in Hong Kong, Liu Zhicheng's methods of building the Mountain Investment Group have always been regarded as a textbook example by Wall Street.

It is hard to imagine that in less than ten years, Liu Zhicheng developed a small real estate company into a huge empire with a market value of US$230 billion.

In addition, in the past one or two years, Liu Zhicheng’s two major projects in Manhattan and London have attracted even more attention.

After a brief greeting, Whited said with a smile: "Mr. Liu's achievements in the past two years are remarkable and worth learning from!"

Liu Zhicheng has heard a lot of such flattery and has long been indifferent to it.

So he modestly said: "Those two investments have not changed yet, so they can't be considered achievements. On the contrary, a century-old company like Goldman Sachs is worthy of our learning and reference."

Whited naturally would not underestimate Liu Zhicheng. Although the two investment projects did not make any profit on paper, they had undoubtedly seen a "turnaround";
For example, the eight skyscrapers in Manhattan turned around because the economy of the United States began to recover this year;
As for the Canary Wharf project in London, the turning point comes from the fact that the London subway extension project has been approved and is preparing to start construction.

"Mr. Liu came to us for cooperation this time. Could it be that he has set his eyes on a new project?" Whited asked.

Liu Zhicheng smiled and nodded, saying, "Goldman Sachs is an investment bank with a good reputation, so this time I come here, I really hope to cooperate with you.

We want to enter the retail commercial real estate in the United States, and hope that Goldman Sachs will serve as an investment consulting and advisory company. I think this does not violate the "anti-hostile takeover" strategy that Goldman Sachs has always established, right? "

There are two extreme investment banks on Wall Street, one is Morgan Stanley, which specialized in hostile takeovers in the 1970s and 1980s and then achieved record-breaking revenues;

Another is Goldman Sachs, which has adopted a completely different policy and refuses to provide services to hostile acquirers. Instead, Goldman Sachs will protect the victims.

This brought great influence to Goldman Sachs during this period and made it famous on Wall Street.

Goldman Sachs' so-called protection is not to not make money, but to make the "hostile acquirer" pay more;

For example, if Company A intends to maliciously acquire Company B, and Company B seeks help from Goldman Sachs, then Goldman Sachs will find a "white knight" for Company B and raise the stock price.

There are two results. The first is that the White Knight joins forces with Company B to defeat Company A. The second is that due to the price increase by the White Knight and Goldman Sachs, Company B is sold to Company A at a sky-high price, and all shareholders are happy.

Whited smiled and said, "Mr. Liu, you are joking. I can definitely imagine that you would not maliciously acquire a company in the United States.

So, does Mr. Liu want to acquire a few shopping malls or a retail business company? "

Liu Zhicheng said: "We want to build a retail business brand in Europe and the United States, so we want to quickly establish this brand by acquiring existing shopping malls, remodeling, packaging, and attracting investment.

However, we hope to enter the market quickly, so we hope to purchase 10 to 20 shopping malls.”

Whited couldn't help but admire Liu Zhicheng for being so young but able to make such a big investment. This was a huge investment!
"So Mr. Liu, do you have any requirements for these shopping malls? For example, the location, the city, etc.!"

Liu Zhicheng said as a matter of course: "Of course there are, they have to be located on the east and west coasts of the United States, preferably the kind that are sold as a package by one or two companies.

As for the location of the shopping mall, this needs specific consideration, but our shopping mall takes regional clustering into consideration rather than opening a shopping mall in a clustering area.

That’s why parking is so important.”

Whited nodded. In his opinion, Liu Zhicheng was a real estate expert and the most legendary figure in this field.

"No problem, we will quickly find a suitable match for you."

"arrow"

Liu Zhicheng was only there to take the lead, and then he would let his subordinates communicate with Goldman Sachs. He would come to review only after a suitable target was found.

Over the years, Liu Zhiben has gained considerable experience in understanding and operating shopping malls.

In Liu Zhicheng's opinion, newly-incubated shopping malls will have many advantages and will be highly competitive in the beautiful country.

In general, Liu Zhicheng attaches great importance to five points:

First, it has well-developed transportation and convenient parking;

Second, introduce information and intelligent management;

Third, a unified brand enhances brand influence;

Fourth, understand the local consumption level and then attract investment in a targeted manner;

Fifth, establish deep cooperative relationships with a few specific brands, sign long-term cooperation agreements (low rent), and even sign a rent refund system with higher business. Of course, this kind of discount is only available to a few brands, and it is mainly considered to attract traffic.

Of course, the above is just theory, and the details still depend on the team. Hong Kong's retail commercial real estate team is naturally rich in experience, but not all of them are suitable for the European and American models; therefore, the follow-up can only be used as a reference.

The most important thing is to incubate the new shopping center brand and start again.

But then again, the most important factor for the success of a shopping mall is 'timing';
If it is the period when Internet shopping is developed (after 2015), then everything is just a dream, including shopping malls in Europe and the United States will be affected; the timing of bottom fishing is also very important.

That is why Liu Zhicheng will spend about 10 billion US dollars at one time this time, trying to establish the important position of retail commercial real estate in the United States in one fell swoop.

For a time, Liu Zhicheng became a real "capital relocation faction" in Hong Kong, with eight skyscrapers in Manhattan and the Canary Wharf project;

There were certainly voices of criticism, but Liu Zhicheng was not moved at all. He only explained it once, describing the situation faced by the Whampoa Group as "Hong Kong is too small."

.........

Hong Kong, Whampoa Group.

Liu Zhicheng was moving around casually in the office. He had just returned to Hong Kong yesterday and found that there was not much work to do. He had a brief communication with the senior management in the morning and everything was sorted out.

When he first started working in real estate, he liked to make unannounced visits to every property project, as he did not trust the contractors and sub-contractors.

Nowadays, builders are all self-owned enterprises, and various management systems have been improved, so he doesn’t go to the construction site as often.

In recent years, the construction sector of Huangpu Group has developed very smoothly. Many of its buildings were built by them, and they have gained a lot of experience.

Liu Zhicheng came to Tseung Kwan O Asia Television City. Every time he came here, he would feel a spiritual shock.
ATV City covers an area of ​​10 square feet larger than Taikoo Shing, and considering the 6 people living in Taikoo Shing, you can imagine how grand ATV City is.

The Asia Television Building is not only tall, but also large, with a total floor area of ​​80 square feet, which can accommodate 4000 people working at the same time;
The other three video buildings, each covering more than 30 square feet, are also quite large;

The last one is 'ATV City', where the ancient-style buildings also represent a large investment.

It is so large in scale that even people from large television stations like ABC in the United States couldn't help but show incredible expressions when they came to visit.

In fact, an ATV City of this size is a long-term plan, and the current utilization rate is probably only a little over 50%;

According to Liu Zhicheng's plan, the number of employees and artists of ATV Group may reach more than 6000.

The Hong Kong government has counted this year that the total labor force in Hong Kong is 284.8 million (non-public institution employees aged 15 and above and below 65), the number of employed people is 279 million, and the number of unemployed people is 5.8.

Asia Television Group currently has more than 4000 employees, which may make it a small company, but its overall revenue is still higher than that of other companies.

Because of this, Liu Zhicheng is under a lot of pressure. ATV must develop, otherwise it will either advance or regress.

Fortunately, there are many directions for development. For Liu Zhicheng, developing ATV is extremely easy, which is to copy, copy, copy.

When passing through the lobby of the Asia Television Building, Liu Zhicheng saw many "new faces of celebrities". With Liu Zhicheng's "interference", many celebrities who were unknown or non-existent in their previous lives emerged in Hong Kong.

More importantly, Hong Kong citizens are proud of being stars, which is a sign of the unprecedented development of Hong Kong's entertainment industry.

Hong Kong does not have any advantages in technology and manufacturing. If we say that the government's strategy of developing trade, finance and services is a very correct general policy,

Then the "culture-based port" proposed by Liu Zhicheng is a pillar industry injected into Hong Kong's economy out of thin air.

If real estate gave Liu Zhicheng wealth, then media communication gave him honor.

"boss!"

"Hi boss!"

Artists and staff who met Liu Zhicheng greeted him one after another. ATV Group has signed contracts with about 800 artists, which can be called a star-making machine;

The fierce competition has also promoted everyone's progress. There are many opportunities, but on average they are fewer.

Liu Zhicheng nodded frequently along the way, responded with a smile, and then came to his office.

He is always in a good mood when he comes to ATV, mainly because it is a TV station.

After a while, program director Zhao Zhenqiang came to Lin Zuhui's office.

"boss!"

"Well, sit down."

Then, Liu Zhicheng asked, "How are the preparations for the three year-end programs, the Acting Awards, the Entertainment Awards, and the Song Contest, going?"

Because Liu Zhicheng was addicted to the Korean Wave for a period of time in his previous life, ATV has the shadow of South Korea's SBS and other TV stations in its previous life. Of course, he learned from the excellent parts.

"Music Bank" completely defeated TVB's "Jingge Jinqu", but TVB also has "Top Ten Golden Songs", which is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people in Hong Kong.

The "Song Battle" was aimed at the "Top Ten Golden Songs". Given ATV's status at the time, no singer in Hong Kong would refuse ATV's program.

Having said that, although Hong Kong idols have achieved great success, they still cannot shake the status of the Four Heavenly Kings. Just like some powerful solos from South Korea in the past, they were not something the groups could resist.

However, despite this, Hong Kong idols are popular among a large number of people and are more easily accepted overseas.

How long does it take for one of the Four Heavenly Kings to appear, but there are many Hong Kong idols in a year.

Zhao Zhenqiang reported seriously: "Boss, don't worry, we are preparing carefully, there will be no problems. All the stars invited to the Song Contest have agreed to attend."

In Zhao Zhenqiang's view, Liu Zhicheng is like a great planner who has planned ATV's major policies in the best way.

The Acting Award and the Performing Arts Award are respectively given to recognize ATV's actors (TV drama actors) and variety show stars (who can also be part-time actors).

Through this kind of internal rewards and honors, everyone can have a stronger sense of belonging to ATV and work harder.

Of course, the most important thing is ratings and advertising fees.

Liu Zhicheng said with satisfaction: "These are our first year-end events, but we are facing 7000 million viewers, so we must be well prepared and cannot make any mistakes."

At this time, ATV can still be received in the mainland, especially in coastal areas.

With the spread of television stations and VCDs, Hong Kong Asia Television Group's business in the mainland has developed very well, and Hong Kong's stars are very popular in the mainland.

"Okay, don't worry, boss."

Liu Zhicheng then asked, "How is the preparation for Journey to the West going?"

Zhao Zhenqiang immediately took out a script and gave it to Liu Zhicheng. This was something he had prepared in advance. After all, he would pay attention to these details in any program that his boss approved.

Liu Zhicheng glanced at it casually. He didn't care much about it. After all, he had told Zhao Zhenqiang about the overall situation, and he was not an expert in the rest.

Of course, Liu Zhicheng is not an amateur. After so many years in the industry, he has achieved good accomplishments in dramas, programs, etc.

Just like how Uncle Six always watched many movies from other companies back then, Liu Zhicheng would occasionally learn from them, which can be considered as entertainment.

"Have you finished the discussion with Dicky Cheung?"

Zhao Zhenqiang smiled and said, "We have negotiated it. The price is not expensive. He hasn't received any new work for several months, and his contract expires at the end of the year. Therefore, we plan to start filming Journey to the West in March."

Liu Zhicheng nodded. He had indeed seen the Monkey King in Journey to the West, played by Dicky Cheung, but he had almost forgotten the plot.

But we definitely know why this "Journey to the West" is so popular, and that's because this "Journey to the West" is "unorthodox" and the characters have become flesh and blood.

Coincidentally, the lead actor of Tang Monk is Jiang Hua from ATV, who is still in ATV.

After a brief discussion on Journey to the West, Liu Zhicheng also gave some information to Zhao Zhenqiang.

"This is the idea of ​​a TV series. I hope you can make a big production that will be popular across Taiwan, Mainland China and Hong Kong."

Zhao Zhenqiang became excited. In his opinion, any drama or program nominated by the boss would be very popular.

"My Fair Princess"?
Zhao Zhenqiang read it very carefully, since there weren't many words anyway.

After a long while, Zhao Zhenqiang said, "It's a costume drama similar to 'Tan Yunxian'? It can be considered a Hong Kong drama, right?"

For a moment, Liu Zhicheng hesitated. Is it because My Fair Princess is so good because it is a Qiong Yao drama?

If the company's Hong Kong female screenwriter were to write the script, would the effect be greatly reduced?

Liu Zhicheng still has a lot of memories about "My Fair Princess". He has memorized a lot of the characters' personalities and main plot lines, so theoretically there should be no problem.

After all, in my previous life, the mainland had been broadcasting the same Spring Festival programs over and over again for many years, which made me sick of watching them.

"I guess so! Arrange a female screenwriter in the company to complete it, and then give it to me for review." Liu Zhicheng finally said.

In fact, he could choose to let the company ask Qiong Yao to write the script. It was just a matter of money.

However, Liu Zhicheng did not like Qiong Yao dramas, so he decided to film "My Fair Princess" in a more "Hong Kong style".

Of course, the theme and character personalities still stick to the previous life.

"Okay! There are a lot of notes on it, I believe it can provide a good reference for the screenwriter." Zhao Zhenqiang said.

Liu Zhicheng nodded and said, "After the script is finished, you can let the female screenwriter publish a book first. This is a big drama. I hope the actors will be from both sides of the Taiwan Strait and Hong Kong, and the filming will be in the mainland. So, don't rush to shoot, get the copyright first!"

"Ok!"

The actors must also mostly abide by the teams from their previous lives, and the first step in publishing a book is to grab the copyright first, so this drama may not be filmed in the last few years.

By then, Liu Zhicheng also wants to find Jinsuo and Ziwei to chat!

(End of this chapter)