1977: The beginning of the blind date with the daughter of the king

Chapter 760 Privatize Central!

In mid-July, Li Changhe brought Ah Hu and the others back to Hong Kong Island.

In fact, by now, the outcome of the negotiations between the two countries is no longer a secret. Even the most ordinary citizens of Hong Kong know that the handover is almost a foregone conclusion. The only difference is how much of the British people's interests will be taken into account in the terms of the agreement.

For Li Changhe, his recent second-hand housing transactions and immigration business have improved significantly. After all, with the disclosure of the news, many middle-class people who were still observing and wealthy people who had criticized the mainland have finally made up their minds to leave.

As a result, the number of houses and assets that ended up in Li Changhe's hands gradually increased again.

Li Changhe accepted all comers.

However, what excited him the most was Standard Chartered Bank, which he finally secured.

As the two countries officially entered the final negotiation period, some Standard Chartered Bank shareholders in Europe finally gave up their illusions.

After all, many of Standard Chartered's shareholders are actually based in the UK, not Hong Kong. They don't really consider what impact the opening up of mainland China would have on Standard Chartered. They only think that without the support of the British colony, Standard Chartered's future may not be so bright.

Therefore, this made the acquisition of Standard Chartered Bank much smoother, because there were suddenly more shareholders willing to sell their shares.

"Boss, we just got a call from Europe. We've finalized an agreement with Standard Chartered. We've acquired 38% of Standard Chartered Bank for £580 million."

"£5.8 million?"

After listening, Li Changhe nodded, noting that the price was not much different from the estimated price.

This has also delayed negotiations in Hong Kong, and coupled with the poor economic conditions in the UK over the past two years, Standard Chartered's market value has been declining.

Li Changhe recalled that two years later, when Bao Yugang acted as a white knight and joined forces with Qiu Deba to save Standard Chartered, it took about £13 billion to acquire 37% of the shares.

Of course, that price included a premium due to the acquisition battle, and Standard Chartered's market capitalization increased as the business environment in Hong Kong Island stabilized.

"Ben, arrange a flight to London for me. We'll go there in a few days to sign the contract. Also, help me contact Peter from the Rothschild family and tell him I have something I want to discuss with him."

Li Changhe's new secretary immediately agreed.

As Li Changhe's personal business expands, his secretarial team also grows larger. Following Catherine and Ella, his third secretary, Ben, has also started working.

Since Ella is now also focusing on business connections in mainland China, Li Changhe simply added another secretary.

However, unlike Catherine and Ella before, this time the secretary was a man, a Chinese born in Singapore.

After Ben left, Li Changhe sat in his office and then opened the documents in front of him.

The materials in front of me are about Wheelock's businesses.

Li Changhe is dividing up the various companies under Wheelock here. Some of them are to be sold to Li Ka-shing and China Resources, while Li Changhe has new plans for the rest.

"Ben, send a notification to the finance team. We'll have a meeting in the conference room in an hour."

After reviewing the materials, Li Changhe then called his secretary.

An hour later, Li Changhe arrived at the conference room.

The secretary handed some materials to everyone present, and they saw that they were company information about Wheelock.

"The companies circled in red are Wheelock Properties, which I intend to sell, while those circled in blue are the companies I intend to integrate."

"In addition, I have another task for you: to merge Wheelock and Hongkong Land's real estate companies."

After listening, Li Zhengguang, the head of the finance team, immediately said, "Boss, wouldn't this make Jardine's assets a bit too large?"

Hongkong Land is already Jardine Matheson's core real estate king. If Wheelock Properties is added to the mix, then without a doubt, Hongkong Land's scale will continue to expand, becoming a super behemoth in the entire Hong Kong Island real estate industry.

Li Changhe nodded: "I know, so the second thing I asked you about is that, taking advantage of the company's integration, I want to privatize a portion of the real estate."

"You need to come up with a plan next, to see how to privatize some of the high-quality real estate and come up with a suitable business merger plan."

Li Changhe then spoke earnestly to Li Zhengguang and the others.

Now that Hongkong Land and Wheelock Properties have both fallen into Li Changhe's hands, he will definitely want to integrate these companies.

As Li Zhengguang said, the integrated real estate company will definitely be a behemoth. Li Changhe doesn't need to keep many high-quality properties in the hands of Hongkong Land or Wheelock and Company. They can be turned into non-listed family assets.

In this way, these priceless plots of land in Central can become his personal private assets, and he doesn't need to disclose his financial statements to the public. Every year, he can make a huge profit just from the rent from these high-quality buildings.

Liu Luanxiong later did just that. After he acquired Chinese Estates Holdings, he gradually hollowed it out, turning the entire company into an empty shell, while the real estate actually fell into Liu Luanxiong's own hands.

This is also why Liu's eldest son later abandoned the company's shares like trash; it was just an empty shell company, with all the valuable assets hollowed out. Only a fool would cling to this company.

Upon hearing Li Changhe's words, Li Zhengguang immediately understood Li Changhe's intention: to take advantage of the merger to transfer a portion of Zhidi's real estate to the hands of a private family.

"Understood, boss. In that case, I suggest privatizing Wheelock. After all, Wheelock's market value is much lower than Hongkong Land's, making privatization easier."

"However, this matter needs to be discussed with Landsea, and you will need to inform Mr. Wei Li in the future."

After all, the buildings that Li Changhe wanted were actually in the hands of Hongkong Land. To put it bluntly, privatizing these properties was just taking a piece of flesh from Hongkong Land.

"You guys work on the plan first. Once it's done, I'll communicate with Wei Li's side."

Li Changhe nodded and said.

Li Zhengguang and the others nodded, but then Li Zhengguang spoke up again: "Boss, there's one more thing I think we need to resolve, and that is the issue of the Zhang family's shares in Wheelock."

“According to the securities regulations of Hong Kong Island, if we want to privatize Wheelock, there are certain shareholding restrictions on the shareholders’ opposition resolution. The Zhang family holds more than 30% of the shares. If they are determined to oppose it, it will be difficult for us to privatize Wheelock.”

Li Zhengguang was well aware that the Zhang family's current predicament was largely caused by his own boss, and the Zhang family's inheritance dispute had now entered its final stage.

With Li Changhe's involvement, the other branches of the Zhang family also had backup, making Zhang Yuliang's plan to control everything in the courtroom impossible.

The redistribution of the Zhang family's shares and assets is now a done deal; the only difference lies in how it will be divided and how much each branch will receive. But no matter how it's divided, Li Zhengguang is well aware that Zhang Yuliang will definitely get the lion's share, given that he has managed the Zhang family's assets for many years. And the lion's share also means that Zhang Yuliang is very likely to continue holding 15% or even as much as 20% of Wheelock's shares.

This is a major obstacle to Li Changhe's desired private plan.

After listening, Li Changhe looked at Li Zhengguang.

“Since it’s so troublesome, let’s not privatize Wheelock. You can register a new company, hold shares overseas, and then let Hongkong Land sell the property.”

"You can arrange the operations here as appropriate. By the way, the funds I arranged before were used to acquire a lot of properties that immigrants left. Take out these properties as well, and then make a whole division."

“Part of it will be injected into my private real estate company, and part of it will be packaged and sold to Hongkong Land and Wheelock, thus separating their real estate businesses. In the future, Hongkong Land can focus on commercial real estate, while Wheelock will focus on residential real estate.”

"By the way, before the division, try to squeeze the shares held by the Zhang Yuliang family and push them out of Wheelock as much as possible. If he doesn't leave, turn Wheelock into an empty shell and re-plan the real estate allocation."

At this moment, Li Changhe turned to Li Zhengguang and said that he had many ways to take over those commercial buildings, and he didn't necessarily have to use Wheelock as a shell.

In comparison, he would actually prefer to kill off a portion of the Zhang family.

Especially Zhang Yuliang, who dominated the Western medicine business at the time.

After listening to Li Changhe's words, Li Zhengguang couldn't help but sigh. He wondered how the Zhang family had offended Mr. Bao. Mr. Bao was really trying to ruin them.

However, since it was his boss's order, Li Zhengguang carried it out without hesitation.

After handling some business in Hong Kong, Li Changhe and his team flew to London.

An old aristocratic manor house on the outskirts of London.

After Li Changhe arrived as agreed, he saw Peter.

Beside Peter was another young man in his thirties.

"Hey Vic, let me introduce you. This is Carl, one of my brothers."

After Li Changhe walked over, Peter immediately introduced him to him.

Carl smiled and extended his hand to Li Changhe: "Hello, Mr. Victor, I am Carl."

"Hello, Mr. Carl!"

Unsurprisingly, the man before us, Karl, is a member of the British branch of the Rothschild family.

The Rothschilds, which used to be scattered across the European continent, are now reduced to just the British and French branches. Moreover, Li Changhe knows that the French branch will die out in a few decades.

When Britain and France merge, only Britain will remain.

I wonder if Peter and his family will be the ones to die out of lineage?
The three then went inside the castle and sat down. Peter immediately said to Li Changhe, "Vic, I have to thank you. If it weren't for you buying so much Lafite last year, the family would have suffered a huge loss."

After listening, Li Changhe smiled and shook his head: "I actually think that last year's Lafite was of very good quality."

Interestingly, the 1982 Lafite is now very famous and highly rated, but last year, at the 1983 wine tasting, when the 1982 Lafite was released, Bordeaux wines were not popular and sales were dismal.

Many wine merchants felt that the quality of the wines that year was average and were not enthusiastic about making large-scale purchases. However, this year was a bumper year for Bordeaux's wine production.

Lafite produced a total of 180,000 bottles, while Li Changhe's Château Latour produced nearly 200,000 bottles. Apart from the ones Lafite kept for its own collection and some that were bought up by wine merchants, almost all of the rest were taken by Li Changhe.

“Peter, that’s exactly what I wanted to say.”

"Actually, I had someone do research, and the sunshine hours, rainfall, and other factors in the Bordeaux region in 1982 were the best conditions for grape growing in the Bordeaux region in recent decades."

“I think we can actually join forces to promote this wine. I saw some statistics before, and there was a wine taster named Robert Parker who gave a very high rating to the 82 Bordeaux wine. I think we can join forces to promote him and make him a benchmark in the wine industry.”

"In addition, I think we can also place advertisements in the film and television industry, so that the big shots in the movies can be proud to have 82 Lafite and Latour."

"Then, we can use your Rothschild auction house to boost the value of both wines and raise their price."

"I think that with these promotional strategies combined, whether it's Lafite or Latour, they will become star products in Bordeaux, which will be a great boost to our future sales."

"How about it? Are you interested in joining forces to promote this project?"

At this moment, Li Changhe casually said to Peter.

He didn't know how Lafite became popular 82 years later, but the fact that it was promoted in the movie "God of Gamblers" already showed that it was already popular at that time.

Li Changhe was too lazy to investigate the reason. He could use his own methods to hype up Lafite.

After all, the tactics used in this are no different from those used in later generations to hype up antiques and collectibles.

After listening, Peter looked at Carl and said with a smile, "See, Carl? I told you he didn't just buy so much Lafite for simple collection."

Carl clapped his hands lightly: "Vic, you really are as rumored, possessing an exceptional talent for business."

In fact, the Rothschild family was also researching similar plans and was preparing to come up with a publicity plan to promote Lafite, some of which were exactly the same as what Li Changhe had described.

However, those plans were developed by the Luo family by gathering a large number of people and integrating their many years of business experience. Now, Li Changhe has suddenly put forward a similar but more complete plan.

Regardless of whether the other party was prepared or not, at least in this respect, the business strength they demonstrated was no less than that of the Rothschilds.

“Vic, this collaboration is no problem at all. Your plan is excellent. We can have our people implement it later. Now I’m curious, what brings you to me?”

Peter certainly wouldn't mind such a small collaboration.

Li Changhe smiled slightly and said, "I'm here to ask you for just two things: money!"

(End of this chapter)