We are all reborn, who wants to be the richest man?

Chapter 608 Development of the Far East Finance Department
Ever since the Exchange Square, a natural complex of three towering buildings complementing each other, rose from the ground, it has stood proudly at the top of Hong Kong Island.

It has not only become a shining pearl in the financial industry, but also been given the reputation of being the financial heart of Hong Kong Island, leading the financial pulse and prosperity of the entire region.

This is a place where capital converges. Every brick and tile is engraved with the glorious mark of financial innovation and development, demonstrating the unshakable status and influence of Hong Kong Island as an international financial center.

In the bustling area of ​​Exchange Square, whether deep inside the buildings in its heart or extending to the open squares and streets outside, there are scattered figures of successful people in neat suits and shiny leather shoes.

They seem to be the leaping notes of this city, and every figure contains an extraordinary aura.

Walking in such an environment, you might inadvertently pass by a Hong Kong billionaire.

The low-key and luxurious existence allows every passerby to become a witness of a legend. No one knows for sure who is silently writing his own wealth legend.

Yuanhang Asset Management Group, a financial giant standing here, is not only one of the largest institutions in the world's asset management field, but also the preferred place for asset management trusted by high-net-worth individuals in Asia.

Its outstanding global vision and profound industry accumulation have enabled Yuanhang to stand out in the complex financial market and become the preferred partner for many Asian wealthy people to manage huge assets and realize wealth appreciation and inheritance.

However, as Yuanhang Asset Management Group grew larger and larger, the floors leased in the trading square were obviously no longer sufficient for its own use and status, and a headquarters building became inevitable.

In 1990, the Hong Kong government decided to build an Airport Express branch line from Hong Kong International Airport to Kowloon, allowing Hong Kong International Airport to directly connect to Central.

Therefore, it is necessary to reclaim land and build a subway station in Victoria Harbour outside Central.

It is planned to build several commercial buildings, hotels and shopping malls on top of the subway station, namely the international financial center.

At that time, this place and the Exchange Square across the street will form a whole, which will take Hong Kong's financial industry to a higher level.

The two companies that won the land of the International Financial Center are IFC Development Limited, a joint company formed by MTR, Sun Hung Kai Properties, Bank of China (Hong Kong) and Island Property.

The company took over the vast majority of the land, with a total area of ​​43.6 square kilometers, of which 32.2 square kilometers belonged to IFC.

The remaining company is Yuanhang Asset Management Group, which acquired 11.4 square kilometers of land to build its headquarters building.

As the largest asset management company in Hong Kong and the most well-known financial industry leader in the world, Far Eastern Asset Management Group requested a location to build its headquarters, and the Hong Kong government had no way of refusing.

Central is the financial centre of Hong Kong Island. Apart from this reclaimed land, there is no land left to give to the other party. If we don’t give it to them, they will definitely build their headquarters somewhere else, which will be detrimental to the financial development of Hong Kong Island.

Even if Yuanhang Asset Management Group builds its headquarters in the New Territories, the status of Central as a financial center will be shaken, affecting many areas including its rent.

In the CEO office of Yuanhang Asset Management Group, Far Eastern Bank CEO Du Huilian, Yuanhang Asset Management Group's current CEO Priss and Luo Nianzhong gathered together.

"I never thought that Yuanhang Asset Management Group now manages so many assets. However, most of our individual clients are in Asia, and Europe and the United States account for less than 27%. We can do something about this and strengthen it.

Although personal business accounts for a small proportion of the total business now, I am very optimistic about the future of personal business.

With the globalization of the economy, the Federal Reserve will inevitably print money like crazy. Coupled with the intensifying new technological revolution of the Internet, the number of billionaires will see a qualitative increase in the future.

Family trusts will become the main repository of personal wealth, and we can vigorously develop this aspect."

The full-year financial statements of Yuanhang Asset Management Group for 1992 came out two months ago, but this was the first time Luo Nianzhong had seen them.

In 1992, the total assets managed by China Shipping Asset Management Group reached US$1747 billion, lagging behind Morgan Stanley's US$2013 billion and higher than Goldman Sachs' US$1468 billion and Nomura's US$1379 billion.

However, Nomura will eventually fall behind as their global planning is not good and their business is completely dependent on the current economy of the island nation.

After the island nation bubble burst, business will inevitably shrink significantly and there will be a lack of follow-up.

In terms of profits, the four companies were US$100.1 billion, US$98 billion, US$42 billion and US$57.9 billion, respectively.

It can be seen that the profit margins of China Shipping Asset Management Group and Nomura are significantly higher than those of the two companies in the United States, which is due to the high market share of the two companies in Asia.

This also shows the economic situation of the United States last year, otherwise Zipperton would not have stood out because of its economy.

“I have also seen this. There is still a lot of potential to be tapped not only among individual customers in Europe and America, but also among our customer base in Asia.

The rapid development of the rabbit economy will inevitably create a group of people who get rich first. These are our development goals.

Seventy percent of the assets we manage come from groups such as funds and pensions, which is somewhat abnormal for an asset management company.

Therefore, our focus this year is to tap into individual customers, which will be our group’s top strategy this year."

Seeing that Priss knew what was going on, Luo Nianzhong felt relieved. He did not express his opinion and continued to read the financial reports of various companies.

"Did the Far East Group make so much money in the foreign exchange market last year?"

Looking at the information of each company, Luo Nianzhong made a rough estimate that the entire Far East Financial Department's various companies together earned more than 10 billion US dollars in the foreign exchange market, and this did not include family offices.

"You can take a look at this information, it's very interesting."

Watching Du Huilian take out one of the copies, Luo Nianzhong took it curiously, opened it and started reading.

After a long time, Luo Nianzhong muttered with a smile on his face, "Mrs. Watanabe?"

"Whose wife?"

Du Huilian didn't hear clearly. How could he suddenly think of someone else's wife when he was talking about company matters? He didn't know which lucky woman this romantic boss favored last night.

It is true that there is a red flag flying high at home and colorful flags fluttering outside. Having five at home is not enough.

Luo Nianzhong didn't know what he was thinking, otherwise he would have thrown the information in his face.

"It's okay," Luo Nianzhong replied.

The Mrs. Watanabe he mentioned was not anyone's wife, but a general term for a group of people.

Does negative interest rate mean that banks can no longer be fleeced? That is not the case.

The island country's bubble burst and the economy collapsed overnight. In order to stimulate the economy, the island country's central bank began to lower interest rates, which was to encourage spending to get the economy flowing.

But even so, the island nation's economy still showed no signs of improvement, which caused bank deposit interest rates to become lower and lower, leading to the emergence of Mrs. Watanabe.

Mrs. Watanabe is not a person, but a group. Watanabe is one of the largest surnames in the island country, which means ordinary people, referring to ordinary housewives in the island country. In the island society, women are usually responsible for managing the family's finances, so they were the first to notice that the returns on bank savings began to decline.

In addition to savings, Mrs. Watanabe also found that almost all major investment categories, including the real estate, stock, and bond markets, could no longer make any money.

In this situation, in order to prevent the depreciation of their money and also for investment and financial management, Mrs. Watanabe turned their attention to overseas.

But they didn't understand the professional knowledge, so they turned their attention to the world's largest financial market, the foreign exchange market.

Think about it, for an island housewife who is very careful with her budget every day, the possibility of seeing the bank's interest rate increase is lower than that of her suddenly losing everything.

But it is also found that the same is true for borrowing money, so why not borrow money in the island country and then put the money in a country where it can earn higher interest? This is a typical carry trade in the capital market.

Simply put, if you borrow money at an interest rate of 1% in one country and then deposit it in another country at an interest rate of 4%, you will earn a 3% price difference. It is very stable and simple.

However, there is also a risk, which is that the Japanese yen cannot appreciate.

In addition to the United States, the island country is also one of the global capital safe havens. As long as a crisis occurs, a large amount of foreign assets will begin to buy yen, and the yen will appreciate.

However, it is impossible for the yen to appreciate in recent years, and whether these Mrs. Watanabes will be able to escape after the appreciation is another matter.

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"54%? Can the proportion be so high?"

“Yes, our survey results show that 54% of housewives in the island country are doing this kind of arbitrage trading.

So we also made a lot of money in the foreign exchange market last year, mainly due to the effect of leverage.

Didn't you say that the island nation's economy would be hard to recover in the next ten years? We all think this is a great opportunity.

Moreover, the U.S. economy is recovering, and it is unlikely that an economic crisis will occur in the short term. The situation in various regions around the world is also relatively stable, which is all good news."

This is true. Although the development of the Internet has been changed and no one can say when the original Internet stock market crash will come, one thing is certain, that is, there will be absolutely no signs of collapse within five years.

Luo Nianzhong believes that the Internet stock market crash is likely to break out at the same time as the Asian financial crisis.
The Internet, which had already developed ahead of schedule, encountered the Asian financial crisis. A large amount of global funds needed to be hedged, and the Internet industry reached the level before the previous stock market crash ahead of schedule.

There is not much hope for 98, but 99 may be a critical year.

This will definitely be a huge economic crisis rarely seen in history. The Asian economy has not yet fully emerged from its difficulties, and the new Internet industry is experiencing a bloodbath. The consequences can be imagined.

However, the greater the crisis, the greater the opportunity, mainly because the Far East Group will have huge amounts of funds at that time, and the United States will have no choice but to ask the Far East Group to invest.

“By the way, I heard that both of you have invested heavily in Amazon?
Not only did he participate in two rounds of financing, he also coordinated a lot of resources for this shopping website.

We have invested in many websites in this field, and even HEA has never patronized us like this. How come you are so optimistic about this company this time?"

Du Huilian and Priss smiled at each other, and in the end it was Du Huilian who gave Luo Nianzhong the answer.

“Yes, we are both very optimistic about this company. We have held a total of 26.4% of the shares in the two rounds of financing, and we also plan to invest in the C round.

We have an agreement with Amazon, and we have priority in Amazon financing. We both believe that if there can only be one winner in the e-commerce field, it will inevitably be Amazon."

"Tell me about it." Luo Nianzhong became interested.

He knew that Bezos would definitely succeed in the e-commerce field, but Luo Nianzhong really wanted to know why he and Du Huilian were so optimistic about this company that had already shown its potential.

Judging from the help they provide to Amazon, it is obvious that they take better care of it than they do to HEA, the current leader in online shopping.

There are many resources that Hea has never enjoyed, but Amazon has them all.

"Actually, it's all because of you."

"Me?" Luo Nianzhong didn't remember telling anyone that he was optimistic about this company.

"What we invest in is not Amazon, but Bezos as a person. Don't you often say that investing in a company is sometimes investing in people?"

Well, this is what I always say, and it has now become one of the golden sayings in the investment world.

"Do you know how much monthly turnover Bezos' Amazon has already achieved, even though it has only been established for less than a year?"

Luo Nianzhong shook his head, and Du Huilian didn't let him guess any more.

"It reached 1.28 million US dollars last month, and is continuing to grow at a crazy high speed of more than 10% per month. It is estimated that it may reach 1.5 million US dollars this month."

"So exaggerated?" Luo Nianzhong widened his eyes in surprise.

It’s one thing to know that Bezos is amazing, but it’s another to experience him firsthand.

"Now even many physical bookstore owners purchase goods from his website, and he makes money. This is real talent."

"Interesting, what tricks did he use?"

“It’s very simple, but many people don’t understand the truth, that is, there is a discount for a minimum order of three books.

If the quantity is large, it is cheaper to buy from Amazon than from book suppliers, so many bookstores have become his customers."

I see. Anyone who has studied economics thirty years later will know this, but it is still a very new thing in this era.

If the cost price of a book you buy from me is two dollars, and I have to charge you another two dollars for shipping, the cost of buying a book is four dollars.

But now I tell you, if you buy three books I will give you a 10% discount, and if you buy five books I will give you an 20% discount. Isn’t my price very cheap?
But don't forget one thing, the shipping cost to the post office is the same if I send you one book or five books, but the cost calculated when I sell them to you is the shipping cost of each book separately.

That is to say, my actual cost for the five books is 10+2, and even if I give you a 16% discount, I can still charge you .

Of course, a lot of this is carefully designed, but the logic is that Bezos is taking advantage of the shipping costs to pass on profits to customers.

All I can say is that none of these tycoons who have proven themselves in another time and space are easy to deal with.

(End of this chapter)