Chapter 490 Land's 3 Central Buildings
At 10 o'clock the next morning, Yang Wendong came to the Four Seasons Hotel;
"Hello, Mr. Keswick." Yang Wendong said with a smile and shook hands.
"Yang Sheng, please call me John." John said: "The surname Keswick is too common in Yihe."
"Okay, John." Yang Wendong nodded. He raised his head and said: "Please sit down."
After a few people sat down, a waiter served tea and left. John said directly: "Yang Sheng, you also know my purpose. Please tell me a price. If it is suitable, we can make a deal directly."< br>
He must be reluctant to give up, but now that the situation is unclear, Jardine Group must shrink strategically. The first thing to sell is the business that has been losing money.
Yang Wendong smiled and said: "You can quote your own price for your property."
John thought for a while and said, "Okay, my quote here is HK$46 million."
>
"Including the properties below these supermarkets?" Yang Wendong asked rhetorically.
John shook his head and said: "Of course this is not included, it is just a simple supermarket business."
"Then we don't need to talk about it." Yang Wendong smiled lightly and said: "It's just a supermarket, although I don't know the operating data very well. , but you are losing at least hundreds of thousands a month, right? In this case, you may not be willing to give it to others for free, but you still want to sell it? More than 40 million?
And my request is very simple, the property and the business must be sold together, unless the property on the land is not yours.”
If the property is included, it may be negotiable. Although house prices have plummeted, the property position of Yi Feng Supermarket is better than Carrefour to a certain extent. After all, it is backed by Land.
As for the supermarket business itself, it will indeed be more convenient if Carrefour acquires it, but it is impossible to pay a high price. And if it acquires the other party's business at a low price, but the property is not in its own hands, then wouldn't it be like working for Land Land in the future?
"You also want property?" John thought for a while and said, "That's okay, but the price needs to be discussed again. We only need to negotiate the supermarket price today."
"Okay, let's talk about the supermarket price first. " Yang Wendong said: "Don't even think about 40 million, I can do it. I’ll give you 4 million, provided that the property is settled and traded together.”
“Four million?” John’s face changed slightly: “Yang Sheng, are you sending beggars away from us in Yihe a few years ago? The investment in Yifeng is more than 80 million, and now it has I have sold it to you in half."
Yang Wendong smiled lightly and said: "It's useless if you invest 800 million. I only look at the current value. I can give you 4 million now because I have the property. Otherwise, You give it to me for free, but I don’t want it.”
John said. Said: "Yang Sheng, once you acquire Yifeng, you will completely monopolize the supermarket retail market in Hong Kong. If I, Yifeng, continue to operate, you may need to invest 40 million to compete with us in the future. This is not acceptable. Okay?”
"Your idea is quite interesting." Yang Wendong shook his head and said: "But this is not how business is done in the world. According to your logic, if I spend 40 million, then you Yihe will do the same, even in terms of cost control. You are not as good as me for one dollar, maybe 50 million, so do you still have to pay me 10 million?”
Historically, humans have acquired opponents based on their possible future losses, but that was also in the Internet era, a critical period of fighting for the limelight. In order to defeat the opponent and achieve strategic goals, even spending more money is worth it. For example, Alibaba’s acquisition of AutoNavi beat Baidu at almost double the premium.
But in traditional industries before the Internet, there was no such thing. How could there be such a take advantage of?
John smiled and said: "Yang Sheng is joking."
"John, I know what you mean by Yihe." Yang Wendong added: "The only people in Hong Kong who can take over Yifeng are Even if I and others believe in the future of Hong Kong, if they take over such a company, they will start a price war with me in the future. No one will be that stupid.
If you really want to complete this transaction, then show a cooperative attitude, package your property and business together, negotiate a suitable price, and then we can really negotiate. "
"Okay. "John thought for a while and then said.
Yang Wendong added: "I hope we can reach an agreement within half a month. Otherwise, this cooperation will be closed, and I don't want to waste time. "
By December, the economic crisis will be over. At that time, even if Jardine is sold, it will probably be sold at a price, so we must put some pressure on them.
"So soon? " John Keswick said in surprise.
Yang Wendong smiled and said: "Soldiers are very quick. If you can't do it here, I will also buy other properties. Carrefour will continue to expand in the future. Maybe starting next year, we can continue to fight on price wars like this?"
"Okay, then I'll push this matter as soon as possible." Seeing that Yang Wendong didn't look like he was joking, John could only agree, and then asked: "Yang Sheng, we also have a construction company under Yihe that we want to sell. , why don’t you think about it?”
“No, I already have a Kinmen building.” Yang Wendong shook his head, and then said: “But if you have a property for sale, the location is okay. Discuss."
John thought for a while and said, "Yang Sheng, let me tell you another news about the Central Building." "Is Land planning to sell the Central Building?" Yang Wendong asked calmly.
In the past few months, there have indeed been buildings launched in Central, but they are all in peripheral locations. Although they are all in Central, there is a big difference between the core and the periphery, similar to the future Shanghai Central Building in Lujiazui and the ordinary buildings on the edge.
Cheung Hing Real Estate Road has acquired 5 Central buildings so far, all of which are marginal or slightly better, but not in the real core location; while the buildings in Land's hands are basically in prime locations.
John smiled and said: "Yes, but if I tell you, I will need a certain introduction fee."
"Okay." Yang Wendong thought for a while and said: "But this matter may If it is illegal, I will not arrange for anyone to give it to you directly. In this way, as long as the transaction is completed, you can invest in a regular company. company, and then become a supplier to my industry, so that we can make money stably in the long term.”
This is the benefit of having a large-scale manufacturing industry. Even if we are currently trying to build a full industry chain, it is impossible to really do so. We do everything ourselves, but we still need to rely on suppliers;
Choosing suppliers is legal freedom. Even if the Independent Commission Against Corruption encounters this kind of thing in 2024, I am afraid there will be nothing to do.
"Factory? I've never done it before. How about I open a trading company?" John suggested: "You always have some things that need to be imported from overseas, right?"
"Alright." Yang Wendong thought for a while and agreed.
Give part of the benefits to others, as long as you can get higher returns;
Although Jardine belongs to the Keswick family, this kind of family has existed for hundreds of years, and there are many branches. Knowing how many there are, and there is only one Taipan, it is hard to say what the other Keswick family members will think.
If you can win over these insiders, that would be good, as it will more or less help you in many things.
John said: "Landmark is preparing to sell the Duke Building and Murray Building. In addition, the Prince's Building may be sold. The details will depend on the price or the opinion of the board of directors."
"Okay, I understand." Yang Wendong nodded.
These three buildings are all in excellent locations, and each one is much better than the Changxing Building where I am now.
In the original history, Jardine was not sold in 1967. It may have been affected by its own butterfly effect, or Jardine was also preparing to sell, but the price was too high and no one took it. Li Jiacheng and Li Shauji Although those people are optimistic about the future, they do not have the financial resources.
If he can acquire these three buildings, it will be a qualitative leap for him in the Hong Kong real estate market;
Although he is also planning to make the opposite move in the future, he is not sure until he succeeds, and There is no guarantee that Land will sell the building to other people in the future, so it is better to get it at a low price now and worry about the future later. Focus on the present first.
John said: "Okay, I will go back and inform William and the Land Board of Directors about this."
"Thank you very much." Yang Wendong nodded and said: "I will let Changxing Industrial People come to you to see how to cooperate.”
That afternoon, Jardine headquarters.
After hearing his brother's report, William Keswick said: "The Yifeng Supermarket property of Landmark can be sold together, and we can seriously discuss the price."
"Okay." John asked again: "What about the building? Yang Wendong wants to buy it, and with his worth he can afford it. If we don’t find him, I’m afraid it won’t be sold in a short time.”
“Do you think we should sell it to him? William asked rhetorically.
John said: "Yes, Yang Wendong is probably one of the few people in Hong Kong who can directly trade with us, or even the only one. The cost of several buildings is not low;
In addition, I What we have to consider is that Jardine Land and Wharf are both listed companies. If Hong Kong remains as it is in the future, will Yang Wendong target Whampoa before and will he target us next time? ”
"As long as the Hong Kong government is here, Yang Wendong will at most become a director of a large British-funded consortium. Any dilution can reduce his shares," William smiled and added: "But no matter what, it can make it easier for us to cash out. Okay,
In that case, I will let the Land Land people work with you to negotiate these two things. In addition, if possible, ask Yang Wendong directly for US dollars or pounds, otherwise we will get too many Hong Kong dollars and it will be troublesome for us to cash out. "
The Hong Kong government is free to exchange currencies, but that is. It refers to a small amount. If it is really too much, there will definitely be some procedures, and even an excuse will be found to not exchange it.
"Understood." John smiled and said: "Yang Wendong has invested more overseas during this period, and he probably has a lot of foreign exchange on hand."
Land and Changxing Real Estate were quickly combined The negotiation team was formed, and the two parties behind it, whether it was Yang Wendong or the Keswick family, also hoped to conclude the deal as soon as possible.
So half a month later, the two parties reached a deal. Changxing Group invested HK$236 million to acquire three buildings from Land Group, namely Duke Building, Prince's Building and Murray Building, with a total area of 1.17 million square feet.
In addition to Yi Fung Supermarket and its 31 buildings totaling about 120,000 square feet of land, the transaction price was HK$37.8 million.
Restricted by the fact that Jardine Matheson and Land are listed companies, such a large transaction must be announced. As soon as the news came out, the whole Hong Kong was shocked. No one expected that Yang Wendong had just announced a total value of about 400 million. Two large-scale infrastructure projects, this time invested nearly 300 million to acquire Jardine's properties.
Affected by this, the Hong Kong real estate market rarely rose a little, but the stock price fell.
PS: Please give me a monthly pass
(End of this chapter)