Hong Kong Island's New Rich Era

Chapter 94 Everyone gets what they need
The Federal Building and the International Building are located in Central, close to Victoria Harbour. They are among Wheelock's most valuable assets.

In fact, almost everyone knew in the previous life that since the northern government began to cooperate with the West, many British companies in Hong Kong began to prepare to withdraw, especially after the formal negotiations began.

In the previous life, after Jardine Matheson’s acquisition of Wheelock’s business behavior was indirectly disrupted by HSBC, Wheelock saw the rising trend of real estate and began to vigorously develop the real estate industry.

However, he is very conservative and never invests a penny. He cooperates with Chinese real estate companies in a model where he provides the land.

After making a lot of money in real estate in 77, John MacArthur invested all the money in the shipping industry, turning it into viable assets.

Because in his opinion, even if something unexpected happens, these assets are floating in the ocean and will not suffer any losses.

What he didn't expect was that his decision would plunge Wheelock into a quagmire again.

When the oil crisis broke out again in the 80s, Wheelock was once again forced to the brink of liquidation until it was acquired by the shipping king.

During the shipping development in the late 70s, John MacArthur also sold the Federal and International buildings.

Wheelock's main investment direction is the shipping industry. In John Madden's eyes, as long as the price is right, there is no reason not to sell.

After a moment, John Madden smiled and said, "Mr. Liu, I need to discuss this with my shareholders before I can give you an answer."

Liu Zhicheng nodded to show his understanding.

A few days later, good news came that Jardine Matheson had stopped its acquisition plan of Wheelock. Liu Zhicheng didn't know how HSBC had stopped it, nor did he want to know.

Of course, John MacDeng was already preparing to negotiate with Liu Zhicheng on the sale of the Federal and International buildings.

One day in late August, The Peninsula Hotel.

"Hello, Mr. Ma Deng, and hello, Mr. Zhang." Liu Zhicheng greeted the guests with a smile.

In a presidential suite at the Peninsula Hotel, Liu Zhicheng was welcoming guests, including John MacArthur, the head of Wheelock Properties, who had come to meet him.

However, John MacArthur did not come alone today, he also brought with him a director of Wheelock, Zhang Yuliang.

As soon as Liu Zhicheng heard Zhang Yuliang's name, he knew who he was. He came from a Western medicine background and was a well-known counterfeit drug dealer.

In order to achieve the intended goal, Liu Zhicheng smiled on the phone and agreed.

There are still many hidden rich people in Hong Kong, most of whom came from the north in the 1950s. Zhang Yuliang is one of them.

If the Wheelock takeover war had not broken out in the 80s, most Hong Kong people would never have imagined that the largest shareholder of Wheelock, one of the four major British trading companies, was actually a Chinese family.

The Zhang family has been doing business in Hong Kong since the early 20th century. They started out by selling Western medicine and became wealthy through real estate.

In the early 70s, when Hong Kong real estate was booming, he exchanged a large number of properties for shares in Wheelock and gradually became the largest shareholder.

Although Wheelock is a listed company, the Zhang Yuliang family invested through non-listed companies, and the Zhang family deliberately spent some money to control the media. Ordinary people at the time had no idea of ​​their existence.

It can be said that the Zhang Yuliang family was the first Chinese capital in Hong Kong history to acquire the four major foreign companies. However, because the Zhang Yuliang family has always kept a low profile, ordinary citizens do not know about it.

John Macedon is very interested in developing mobile assets and wants to expand the size of his fleet by selling land assets.

If the deal is to be done, the consent of Zhang Yuliang's family must be obtained and they must not be allowed to object at the board meeting.

At present, Zhang Yuliang's family, like John MacArthur, lacks confidence in the future of Hong Kong and is preparing to transfer its assets overseas.

The two hit it off immediately, and today they went to the Peninsula Hotel together to meet with Liu Zhicheng to negotiate the transfer of relevant assets.

When Liu Zhicheng learned that Zhang Yuliang was also coming for a meeting, he knew that the acquisition of the Federal and International Buildings was halfway to success.

"Hello, Mr. Liu." John MacDeng said.

Zhang Yuliang also shook hands and said, "Mr. Liu, I have heard of your name for a long time. Your acquisition of the Huangpu Group has really increased the prestige of us Chinese. You are indeed a leader among Chinese businessmen."

"You're too kind. If Mr. Zhang hadn't been so low-key, the Zhang family would have become a well-known family in Hong Kong long ago." Liu Zhicheng said with a faint smile.

"I know myself well and have limited abilities. I am not as good as my parents in business skills. In order to protect the family business, I mainly rely on investment. I am not as good as Mr. Liu." Zhang Yuliang said with a smile.

In fact, under the circumstances at that time, Zhang Yuliang's investment in Wheelock and keeping a low profile was a way to protect himself and also a manifestation of wisdom.

"As the saying goes: It is harder to defend a country than to conquer it. Mr. Zhang's ability to recognize talent and invest in capable people is itself a remarkable ability," said Liu Zhicheng.

There is an old saying: Wealth does not last for more than three generations. The fundamental reason is that the second generation of rich people lack management ability, and the wealth is inherited by them, but they squander the family fortune in the future.

Therefore, the reason why family trust funds existed in the previous life was that the rich second generation only cared about eating, drinking and having fun.

If the family wealth is handed over to professionals, it can ensure the longevity of the family. We are not afraid of the second generation squandering the family wealth, but we are afraid of the second generation working hard. In the end, they struggle until they have nothing. Like Mr. Xu, no matter how he eats, drinks and has fun, he still has inexhaustible wealth.

"Hahaha, just self-consolation." Zhang Yuliang said with a smile.

Seeing that the atmosphere was about right, Liu Zhicheng said directly: "Since you two are here together, it means that you are interested in selling the Federal and International buildings."

"My investment team has received the financial data of the two buildings and made our offer after team research."

After Liu Zhicheng finished speaking, he handed the two envelopes to John MacArthur and Zhang Yuliang respectively, without saying anything else.

John MacDeng and Zhang Yuliang took the envelope, opened it and saw that the offer price was only 5.2 million, which was far from their expectations, and they frowned immediately.

In buying and selling, people start with a price and bargain on the spot. Similarly, if John Madden and his team are not satisfied with Liu Zhicheng's offer, they can set their own price.

John MacDeng thought for a moment and then tentatively said, "Mr. Liu, the Federal Building and the International Building are both located in Central and close to Victoria Harbour. Isn't this price too low?"

“The two buildings are in good locations, but there is an unavoidable reality: they were built a long time ago, their utilization efficiency is too low, and the interior decoration is also outdated.”

Liu Zhicheng shook his head and continued, "I want to use it as the headquarters of Shanfeng Investment. It will definitely need to be demolished and rebuilt before we can officially move in."

In fact, the Federal Building is the Wing On Building in its previous life. It is 71 stories high and is located at Des Voeux Road, Central. It is suitable as Liu Zhicheng’s temporary headquarters office.

This price is considered normal market price at present and has been evaluated by a professional team. However, the increase in property prices in Hong Kong is far less than the increase in rents.

In the past, in 1980, Wheelock sold these two buildings to a consortium led by Cheung Kong Holdings for HK$11 billion.

There are still more than three years from now, and during this period, the average price of Hong Kong real estate has more than doubled, so this price is about the same.

“Even if Central is not rebuilt, you can still rent it at a very good price,” Zhang Yuliang said with a smile.

“It was possible in the past, but Swire’s Central District reconstruction plan has already begun. If we don’t rebuild, how can we compete in a few years?” Liu Zhicheng said with a faint smile.

Swire Properties is a long-term property holding business that collects rental income. It announced the Central redevelopment plan in 74 and it took ten years to rebuild a large number of high-quality rental properties.

Most people only care about the rental price. Only by rebuilding like Swire Properties can a company be invincible in the future.

If Liu Zhicheng acquires the two buildings, they will definitely be demolished and rebuilt in the future.

But John MacDeng and Zhang Yuliang don't know this. In their opinion, the amount of money that can be rented out has a great impact on the price of the office building.

They don’t know how to retain tenants if there are no high-quality properties because in the future, many companies will move out of Central due to the high rent in Central and the construction of a large number of high-quality properties in Kowloon and other places.

"This price is still a bit too low." Zhang Yuliang said with a frown.

Liu Zhicheng didn't want to cause any trouble, so he said, "There is another suggestion. In the future, Lane Crawford can offer preferential treatment to enter Huangpu City."

Huangpu City is a super large commercial center. In the future, it will definitely need a large number of high-end department stores to move in. Lower rent does not matter.

There will definitely be few tourists in the early stages, and we need big brands like Lane Crawford to boost popularity.

"Mr. Liu, are you really so optimistic about the future of Hong Kong?" Zhang Yuliang asked.

"Everyone has his own opinion. I am optimistic about the future of Hong Kong, just like you two are optimistic about the global shipping industry."

"Our transaction this time is just a mutual gain. I get the real estate, and you get a lot of money." Liu Zhicheng said with a smile.

Finally, Zhang Yuliang nodded in agreement, and John Madden also agreed to the deal.

Next, it was the turn of the negotiation teams of both sides. After receiving the order, Han Chunxi immediately led the investment team to start communicating with Henderson Land Development.

As both parties were eager to close the deal as soon as possible, after half a month of negotiations and discussions, the two sides finally reached an agreement: Shanfeng Investment acquired the Federal and International buildings under Wheelock for HK$5.2 million.

As soon as the news was announced, Hong Kong newspapers reported extensively that Liu Zhicheng's related companies had just become popular in Tsim Sha Tsui East some time ago.

Now, Liu Zhicheng's companies have purchased two more Central buildings, and this is the first Central building transaction since the real estate crisis.

It is hard not to imagine that these two events happened so close together, could it be Liu Zhicheng's move to launch a large-scale attack on real estate?

Liu Zhicheng is indeed optimistic about Hong Kong's future real estate market. It will still be dominated by industry, but he will definitely not miss any opportunity to make money.

Its real estate-related companies will take advantage of the British capital's large-scale withdrawal to acquire high-quality properties and make a fortune.

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(End of this chapter)