As major British banks were acquired one after another, Li Ka-shing knew that his chances were running out.
He did not dare to think about Jardine Matheson and Swire Matheson, because the current strength of these two major banks was much stronger than that of Hutchison Whampoa, and the consortium behind them had strong financial strength. He, Li Ka-shing, can covet it.
Among the remaining British-funded foreign banks, Huifeng Bank was even more unthinkable to him. Among such large British-funded foreign banks, Wheelock was the only choice.
Although Wheelock has a large business, it is obvious that the people behind it are much weaker than the consortium behind other major British banks.
So, as long as Li Ka-shing seizes the opportunity, maybe he can covet Wheelock, one of the four traditional foreign banks in Hong Kong.
"I wonder if Mr. Su can talk well?" Li Chaoren suddenly had such an idea.
Since we can’t compete with Su City, we can only show good will.
To put it harshly, it means kneeling and licking.
If he gets the support of Sioux City, he might really have a chance to control Wheelock Group!
As soon as the idea came up, he felt more and more that it was very feasible.
"It seems that I have a chance to meet with Mr. Su to see if I can get his support in this matter." Li Chaoren thought to himself.
Since you can’t be the boss, being the second child is a good idea.
As for the chartered ship king, Li Chaoren is considered a friend with him and knows the situation of the chartered ship king very well.
With the current age of the chartered king and his four sons-in-law, the Global Shipping Group is destined to be separated eventually. When the time comes, he will naturally be able to surpass the Bao family.
Of course Su Cheng didn’t know what Li Chaoren was thinking.
At this time, he was concerned about the situation of Melis taking office at China Bus.
After all, although he has great confidence in Mailis, there is no guarantee that Mailis is really 100% suitable for managing Chunghwa Bus.
Time soon came to September.
Hong Kong in September has just weathered a typhoon and rain. After the rain, the weather in Xiangjiang was fine and the weather was very good.
Merris has been in office for a few days and has gradually adapted to the management of Chunghwa Bus.
After all, although the market value of China Bus is much larger than that of Haw Par Company, in fact, in terms of business, Haw Par Company's business is much more complicated than that of China Bus.
Before China Bus developed the real estate industry, their business was mainly bus operations.
Mailis became familiar with these tasks easily and got started quickly.
However, Chunghwa Bus is currently undergoing large-scale reforms.
Not only does it want to enter the real estate industry, the bus industry itself has also undergone great changes.
Among them, replacing the buses that are about to be phased out is the first problem that Melis faced after taking office.
This problem was discussed by Zhang Qizheng and Su Cheng before.
However, at that time, Sioux City planned to wait until Melis took office before handling it.
Now that Melis has successfully taken office, he naturally begins to face this problem.
Rear-engine buses are obviously not suitable for Hong Kong. As for front-engine buses, bus companies around the world have given up production again.
Purchasing a second-hand front-engine bus does not necessarily mean you have the quantity. Even if you do, it will become a scrapped bus in a few years.
So, buying a new car is the best.
But obviously, front-engine buses are almost impossible to buy new.
It is impossible for others to specially retain the original production line just for your order of more than 100 vehicles.
It is rare in the world for a city with a topography like Xiangjiang to become an international city.
Therefore, only Xiangjiang is like this.
It is naturally impossible for these export-oriented bus manufacturing companies to change their designs for a city in Hong Kong, because the cost is not small.
But there are so many mountain roads in Xiangjiang that if you buy a rear-engine bus, plus the subsequent maintenance costs, the price-performance ratio is too low.
There are always repairs. Maybe in the end the money earned from the bus will not be enough to repair the car.
From this point of view, it is naturally impossible to buy the popular rear-engine buses.
Although the boss has said that the purpose of acquiring China Bus is not to make money mainly from the bus industry, but it must still achieve profitability. Who will do the loss-making business?
If China Bus can still lose money under his management, it is because of his incompetence.
In desperation, he could only ask Zhang Qizheng to see what he could do.
"Mr. Mailis, I suggest you discuss this matter with your boss." Zhang Qizheng suggested after seeing what Mailis was thinking.
Then, he also told Melis the scene when he discussed this matter with Su Cheng.
“I have an idea that can solve the problem of China Bus not knowing how to buy buses. I just don’t know if the boss will support it.” Melis shook his head and said with a bitter smile.
He actually felt that his idea was not very reliable, so he did not report the matter to Su Cheng, but instead came to talk to Zhang Qizheng.
"Oh? Mr. Melis, if you have any ideas, you might as well tell me and let me take a look?" Zhang Qizheng suddenly became curious.
After all, he also served as the president of China Bus for a period of time. Although he has resigned now, he is still more concerned about the development of China Bus.
What's more, the nominal major shareholder of China Bus is Tianyuan Investment Company, and Zhang Qizheng is the general manager of Tianyuan Investment Company.
Of course, although China Bus is nominally under the jurisdiction of Tianyuan Investment Company, in fact Zhang Qizheng does not have the right to manage China Bus now. Instead, Melis directly deals with the boss of Su City.
“I heard that in the British automobile industry, sales have been declining since the Japanese automobile industry entered Europe, and many automobile brands are facing bankruptcy. The British automobile industry has experienced a wave of mergers before. It is because many car brands cannot continue to operate due to the sharp decline in sales, and they can only stay together to keep warm.
But even so, the operating situation of British car companies has not improved, so my suggestion is, Directly purchase a bus manufacturing company that is on the verge of bankruptcy at a low price. In Hong Kong, the annual demand for Zhonghua Bus and Kowloon Bus reaches hundreds of buses.
If the bus manufacturing company only relies on orders of a few hundred buses per year, the bus manufacturing company will not be able to survive. It’s true that we can’t make much money, but we can only keep one production line for front-engine buses. Nanyang is also a big market. If we can open up the bus market in Nanyang and even other markets, we can still produce what they have. There is no conflict between the two needs of rear-engine buses.”
Melis quickly expressed his thoughts.
Enter the automotive industry in one step.
However, he also knew that this idea was a bit naive. Purchasing a car manufacturing company specifically for a bus operating company was not reliable at all. (End of this chapter)