In Hong Kong, we build a global business empire

Chapter 698 The Anti-Lin Alliance
In the conference room, none of the four spoke; instead, their eyes were fixed on the screen.

On the screen, David, the general manager of Hong Kong Telephone Company, stood on the stage, solemnly announcing information about the first batch of mobile phones, including the limited initial release, price, and reservation rules.

"The first batch of mobile phones launched will consist of 3,000 units, each priced at HK$50,000. The network access fee is HK$10,000, the monthly basic service fee is HK$500, and the call rate is HK$2 per minute..."

"Wow, making money here is easier than robbing a bank!" Brown stared intently at the TV screen, which was broadcasting David's announcement live. Looking at the exorbitant prices, his envy was palpable, and he couldn't help but mutter to himself.

Once these first batch of 3,000 mobile phones are sold out, they will directly bring in HK$180 million.

Moreover, this only includes the sales revenue of the device, and does not include the basic service fee and call charges that are collected every month.

Keep in mind that this is just the revenue generated by the first batch of users!
Li Jiacheng stared at the screen on the television, remaining silent, yet he vaguely sensed that a crucial piece of the puzzle was quietly slipping away from his life's trajectory.

In fact, Li Jiacheng is indeed missing out on a very important part of his life.

If Lin Haoran hadn't preemptively entered the mobile communications industry and established Hong Kong Mobile Communications Company as a joint venture with Motorola, Hutchison Whampoa would have acted swiftly to form a company called Hutchison Telecom after Motorola released its first commercial mobile phone in 1983.

Immediately afterwards, they would reach a cooperation agreement with Motorola and begin providing mobile communication services to markets such as Hong Kong and Australia. This was originally an excellent start for Hutchison Whampoa to enter the communications industry.

A few years later, Hutchison Whampoa, which was doing well in the mobile communications industry, would also set its sights on British telecommunications company Rabbit, and then repackage its business, launch the Orange brand, and start GSM mobile phone services.

Orange, the company, went on to grow and eventually became the third largest mobile phone operator in the UK.

In 1999, facing fierce competition from the UK's first and second largest telecommunications companies, Hutchison Whampoa made a major decision to transfer its 49.01% stake in Orange to the German company Mannesmann.

This massive deal includes HK$264 billion in cash, three-year euro floating-rate notes worth HK$214 billion, and a 10.2% stake in Mannesmann, bringing the total value of the transaction to approximately HK$1680 billion.

Hutchison Whampoa's annual report at the time showed that this single transaction brought the company a net profit of HK$1180 billion.

This transaction not only brought Hutchison Whampoa huge profits, but also provided strong support to Hutchison Telecom in terms of funding and other aspects, helping it to expand its 3G business in nine major market regions including Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

This is the classic story of Li Ka-shing's "selling oranges for hundreds of billions" in his business career.

However, thanks to Lin Haoran's appearance in this life, the landscape of Hong Kong's telecommunications industry has changed dramatically.

Not only was Hong Kong Telephone Company acquired by Lin Haoran ahead of time, but he also snatched away the promising mobile communications business in advance.

Li Ka-shing's future "Hutchison Telecom empire" was stillborn before it could even begin construction, leaving him with a vague feeling that he had lost something important.

Henry Keswick keenly caught the fleeting glimpse of something unusual in Li Jiacheng's expression, and with a slight upturn of his lips, he said with a hint of mockery, "What's wrong, Mr. Li? Are you perhaps intimidated by Lin Haoran's outrageously high price and feeling hesitant?"

Li Jiacheng suddenly snapped back to reality, shook his head slightly, forced a smile, and said, "Mr. Henry, you're overthinking it. It's just that I feel a strange sense of resentment welling up inside me, like watching a piece of meat that was right in my mouth fall to the ground and be picked up and eaten by someone else."

I've been wondering why it wasn't Hutchison Whampoa that partnered with Motorola. Now we can only watch helplessly as Lin Haoran rakes in another huge profit on a major project, and I'm truly filled with regret.

Of the three thousand mobile phones, none of the people present thought they would be unsold or go unsold.

Even though the price is astonishingly high, the four people present at this moment have a clear understanding of the current wealth situation of Hong Kong's richest people.

Brown, in particular, as the head of Standard Chartered Bank's Hong Kong market, gained access to a vast amount of detailed customer information after Standard Chartered Bank's successful acquisition of Huafeng Bank.

It's worth noting that at its peak, Huifeng Bank held a dominant 60% market share in Hong Kong's banking industry, making it a powerful and influential force in Hong Kong's financial world.

In addition, with Standard Chartered Bank holding nearly 10% of the market share, Brown could potentially obtain customer data from up to 70% of the Hong Kong market.

That's why Brown knew exactly how many wealthy people and well-off individuals there were in Hong Kong.

In his view, let alone three thousand units, even if five thousand units were released in the first batch, they would definitely be snapped up.

The reason is simple: he was all too aware of the sheer number of wealthy people in Hong Kong—far beyond imagination.

Tens of thousands of Hong Kong dollars is just a drop in the ocean for many high-income families in Hong Kong; it's not a large sum at all.

Not to mention the truly wealthy class, this amount of money is as commonplace to them as a few dollars for an ordinary person.

Putting everything else aside, no matter how unhappy they are with Lin Haoran now, they will still arrange for someone to buy them an office mobile phone.

After all, Hong Kong Mobile had previously published numerous articles on mobile phone test results through various media outlets.

As Lin Haoran stated: For the business sector, the commercialization of mobile communications will bring unprecedented opportunities, allowing companies to communicate with customers more promptly, understand market demands, and adjust their business strategies.

Remote work will become more convenient, breaking the limitations of traditional office models, saving companies a lot of time and costs, further stimulating Hong Kong's business vitality through mobile communication, and bringing new growth points to our economy.

Everyone present agreed with these words.

The advent of mobile phones was incredibly important to these people.

Therefore, no matter what, even if they fall out with Lin Haoran, they will not refuse to use the revolutionary communication technology of mobile phones.

At this moment, Roland Kadoorie, the head of CLP Power who had been silent until now, spoke up: "Let's discuss how to deal with the challenge from Lin Haoran's company and regain our market share. Otherwise, in the long run, our market share will only decrease. I think everyone here understands the principle that the strong get stronger!"

Of the four people present, apart from Henry Keswick, the head of Jardine Matheson, Laurence Kadoorie was the least afraid of Lin Haoran.

The reason is naturally that his CLP Power is a monopolistic industry. Although Lin Haoran's HK Electric Group is also an electricity supply company, the two cannot encroach on each other's market because the areas for electricity supply have long been clearly defined by the Hong Kong government, and each has its own fixed power supply area.

In fact, in terms of electricity supply, CLP Power is far superior to Island Group.

Today, CLP Power accounts for about 70% of Hong Kong's total electricity consumption. This is due to its population advantage and the fact that a large number of factories are concentrated in the Kowloon Peninsula, all of which are industries that consume huge amounts of electricity.

As for Lam Ho-yin's Hong Kong Electric Group, the electricity sector only accounts for about 30% of the market.

This is the disadvantage of Hong Kong Island: although there are more elites and more wealthy people, the population is much smaller.

It is also thanks to the very successful diversification of Hong Kong Electric Group that its market value far exceeds that of CLP Power.

Otherwise, based solely on its electricity sales business, Hong Kong Electric Group really couldn't compete with CLP Power.

The reason why Lin Haoran chose to acquire Hong Kong Electric Holdings Limited instead of CLP Power Holdings Limited was quite simple.

At the time, Hong Kong Electric Group did not have a powerful holding family; the entire group was managed by a professional management team, which allowed Lin Haoran to easily gain control of Hong Kong Electric Group.

As for CLP Power, the Kadoorie family holds more than 40% of the shares and has been operating CLP Power for decades, which is almost enough to give them absolute control. Lin Haoran has virtually no hope of taking control of CLP Power from the Kadoorie family.

This is also why Lin Haoran ultimately chose to acquire Hong Kong Electric Holdings Limited.

In fact, Lin Haoran also holds 8.23% of CLP Power's shares, which he bought when the share prices of major Hong Kong companies collectively plummeted last time.

Although CLP Power's stock price did not fall as severely as other companies due to its own reasons, it still dropped by nearly half due to the impact of Hui Fung Bank.

Therefore, Galaxy Securities also absorbed a lot of them at that time.

Today, the share price of CLP Power has long since returned to its peak.

In other words, the Kadoorie family can obtain huge amounts of wealth every year through CLP Power.

They have a lot of confidence in this area and hardly need to worry about anyone else's opinion when doing things.

This is also why Laurence Kadoorie had almost no dealings with Lin Haoran before.

Therefore, when the number of guests at the hotel business his family was in decreased significantly, he felt that he had to take countermeasures.

When Li Jiacheng contacted him, it was exactly what he wanted.

For the Kadoorie family, with CLP Power as their fixed cash cow, they don't need to give face to anyone in the business world, not even the currently powerful Lin Haoran. If he doesn't want to give face, they have no psychological burden whatsoever.

While Laurence Kadoorie is generally low-key in the business world, his actual strength is in no way inferior to other top conglomerates, except for Lin Haoran.

CLP Power provided his family with a stable source of income, allowing Laurence Kadoorie to focus more of his energy on the Hong Kong Grand Hotel Company.

The Hong Kong Electric Group has achieved such success in diversification that even Laurence Kadoorie is quite envious.

It's not that they haven't diversified; in addition to their two main core industries, power and hotels, they've also ventured into real estate, textiles and carpets, and finance.

However, other businesses haven't been able to grow very large.

On the contrary, both CLP Power Hong Kong Limited and Hong Kong Grand Hotel Company are among the top 20 listed companies in Hong Kong, with CLP Power Hong Kong Limited consistently ranking in the top ten. Therefore, although they have attempted diversification, it has not been very successful.

However, the electricity sector is not something they can develop to a higher level simply by wanting to; it is constrained by various factors such as population, industry, and land area.

Given this, he could only focus more of his energy on another company controlled by the Kadoorie family—the Hong Kong Shanghai Hotel Company.

Therefore, Laurence Kadoorie's current goal is to get Hong Kong Grand Hotel Company into the top ten of Hong Kong's listed companies by market value.

In this way, he would effectively control two top-ten listed companies.

This is a crucial step for him to further enhance his status in Hong Kong's business community.

Laurence Kadoorie slowly put down his teacup, glanced at the three people present, and said in a deep voice, "Gentlemen, let's continue to discuss what to do. Lin Haoran's expansion in business is too fast. If we don't join forces to curb it, I'm afraid he will dominate the business landscape of all industries in Hong Kong in the future, and our established companies will be marginalized."

Upon hearing this, everyone immediately turned their attention back to the television.

Mr. Brown, the taipan of Standard Chartered Bank, simply grabbed the TV remote and turned off the TV.

After that, there was nothing left for them to see.

All they saw was Lin Haoran's triumphant appearance, which only made them feel worse.

After all, the stronger the enemy, the more passive they become.

Brown, his face grim, echoed Laurence Kadoorie's words, saying, "Gentlemen, we must take action. Lin Haoran is like a greedy shark, devouring the entire business landscape of Hong Kong, encompassing almost every lucrative industry. Let's share our opinions and see how we should respond to the challenge posed by Lin Haoran."

Henry Keswick remained unmoved, as his Jardine Matheson firm was currently unaffected.

After all, they no longer have any businesses in Hong Kong, only a few valuable commercial buildings in Central that they use for rent.

However, despite not being affected, Lin Haoran and the entire senior management of Jardine Matheson hated him to the core.

Therefore, even without any conflict of interest, Henry Keswick was happy to see Lin Haoran stumble, and was even willing to do this thankless task.

Henry Keswick was content as long as he could see Lin Haoran suffer heavy business losses.

"Gentlemen, the only help I can offer you is to join forces with other companies to block the overseas market expansion of Lin Haoran's companies. As for the Hong Kong market, as you know, Jardine Matheson has completely withdrawn from the Hong Kong market, so there's nothing I can do to help!" Henry Keswick said.

Laurence Kadoorie pondered for a moment, then suddenly slammed his hand on the table and stood up: "Naturally, since Mr. Henry is in charge of the overseas market, then we'll concentrate our efforts on Hong Kong!"

Li Jiacheng nodded and smiled, saying, "Of course. The reason we invited Mr. Henry is to use Jardine Matheson's international influence to restrain Lin Haoran. As for the Hong Kong local market, we three will handle it."

Jardine Matheson & Co. wielded considerable influence in Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, South Africa, and Australia, a power that neither Li Ka-shing nor the Kadoorie family possessed.

“Standard Chartered Bank can put pressure on Lin Haoran in both Hong Kong and overseas markets. However, our role is mainly to provide financial assistance to Mr. Li and Mr. Kadoorie. As for other things, we may not be able to offer much help,” Brown continued.

Although Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC's market share has gradually stabilized, they are still losing customers every day.

Many Hong Kong residents now have more faith in Hengsheng Group, which is under the control of Lin Haoran.

After all, if even Huifeng Bank could collapse, they were worried that Standard Chartered Bank might also collapse.

On the contrary, Lin Haoran, who owns industrial giants such as Hong Kong Electric Holdings, Hongkong Land Group, Kowloon Motor Bus, Hong Kong and China Gas, Hong Kong Telephone, and Wan Qing Group, has a more trustworthy Heng Sheng Group.

Therefore, Standard Chartered Bank is also very anxious now. They do not want their hard-earned market share to continue to be siphoned off by Hengsheng Group, which is under Lin Haoran's control.

The feeling of watching market share slip away before he could even fully grasp it made Brown extremely uneasy.

After all, he is the top leader in Hong Kong, so if the market share cannot be stabilized, he will naturally bear the greatest responsibility.

Therefore, Brown is now in dire need of causing Lin Haoran to suffer a business setback in order to reverse Standard Chartered Bank's decline.

However, Standard Chartered's business is mainly in the financial industry, where they are at a disadvantage.

Therefore, in this alliance against Lin Haoran, Standard Chartered Bank can only temporarily play a role in providing sufficient financial assistance to its allies, so that the allies have no worries.

Therefore, both Henry Keswick and Brown turned their attention to Li Jiacheng and Laurence Kadoorie.

In other words, the main battleground for business in Hong Kong is still between Li Ka-shing and Laurence Kadoorie.

As for Henry Keswick and Brown, they were more of an assistant to the two.

"Mr. Kadoorie, what are your thoughts?" Li Jiacheng asked, looking at Lawrence Kadoorie.

Laurence Kadoorie fell silent, clearly deep in thought.

The other three remained silent and also fell into deep thought.

Dealing with Lin Haoran is extremely difficult.

After a long while, Laurence Kadoorie raised his head and looked at the three of them.

Immediately, all three of them turned their attention to him.

"Gentlemen, in my opinion, if we want to launch a full-scale business war against Lin Haoran, our chances of winning are really not high. Now Lin Haoran has Hengsheng Group as a solid backer, which can provide him with a continuous stream of financial support."

If we resort to conventional business tactics like price wars, we may not be able to defeat our opponent. The likely outcome is that we will suffer heavy losses that we cannot afford, while our opponent can fully bear them.

So I'm thinking, could we focus our efforts on dealing with him by targeting a specific industry, such as the hotel industry?

As far as I know, among our four groups, besides Standard Chartered Bank, our Kadoorie family, Mr. Li's Hutchison Whampoa, and Jardine Matheson's hotel business are all important sectors of their respective groups.

While Standard Chartered Bank is not directly involved in the day-to-day operations of the hotel industry, as far as I know, your bank has business dealings with some international hotel chains, mainly through providing financing services for hotel projects and offering hotel-related benefits to customers.

Just like the IFA Hotels, an international luxury hotel company founded in Kuwait, which maintains a close cooperative relationship with your company, Mr. Brown, I wonder if what I said is true?" Roland Kadoorie said, glancing at Mr. Brown.

"Mr. Kadoorie is indeed well-informed. That's right, Standard Chartered Bank does have very good cooperative relationships with many hotel chains, even in Hong Kong."

However, the hotel partners in Hong Kong are generally not very strong, while the hotel partners in Australia, the Middle East, and South Africa are quite impressive. Brown looked at Laurence Keswick with some surprise.

Unexpectedly, the other party knew even these things.

At this moment, Li Jiacheng also began to ponder the idea of ​​Laurence Kadoorie.

Should we concentrate our efforts on a specific industry to deal with Lin Haoran?
This idea might actually work.

His Hilton Central hotel has always been a luxury brand hotel in the Central area.

Since Cheung Kong Holdings acquired Wing Ko Company, Li Ka-shing has indirectly controlled the Hilton Hotel in Central.

As one of the most well-known luxury hotels in Hong Kong, the Hilton Central Hotel has brought considerable profits to Cheung Kong Holdings in recent years.

The future renowned Cheung Kong Center, the new headquarters of Cheung Kong Holdings, will be built on the site of the current Hilton Hotel in Central.

Having tasted success with the Hilton Hotel in Central, Li Ka-shing plans to build several more Harbour Plaza Hotels in Hong Kong, making the hotel industry one of Cheung Kong's key businesses.

As a renowned luxury hotel in Central, and located in Hong Kong's most bustling business district, the Hilton Central Hotel has always enjoyed a very high occupancy rate, consistently above 90%, resulting in extremely high profits.

However, in the past two weeks, the occupancy rate of the Hilton Central Hotel has dropped sharply. At this rate, let alone making a lot of money, it may not even be able to break even.

Fortunately, the Hilton Central Hotel owns both the building and the land; otherwise, the operating costs would be even higher.

Therefore, when Li Jiacheng learned that the occupancy rate of the Hilton Hotel in Central had plummeted, he was furious and believed that Lin Haoran was targeting him.

Now, Laurence Kadoorie's suggestion has struck a chord with Li Ka-shing.

. . . . . . . . . . .

P.S.: As promised, thank you all for your support. I'll update 10,000 words on the 1st, and I'll start writing a portion tonight. I also have to work during the day, so I'll post two 5,000-word chapters together later.
Also, it's a new month, please vote for me!

(End of this chapter)