Hong Kong 1980: The Savage Era

Chapter 475 477 [Another Big Project]

According to Luo Qihong's idea, TVB still has an advantage over Asia Television today. Although the advantage has weakened a little, it still needs to "fight a price war", otherwise all previous efforts and investments will be wasted.

Obviously, Lin Baixin and his son did not think so, but Luo Qihong could understand their thoughts.

In the past two years, the Li & Fung Group spent HK$16 billion to acquire the crocodile shirt brand owned by the Chen Jun family. Now it is expanding its business scale and is in urgent need of a large amount of funds. Of course, it wants to make back its costs from Asia Television, but it does not want to abandon the TV station it has operated for a long time. So it subconsciously thinks that it can compete with TVB.

Cheng Yutong and his son looked at Luo Qihong, as if asking for his opinion.

"I agree! However, the reduction of production costs needs to be discussed. I suggest a 15% reduction instead of 3%. " Luo Qihong made this intentional substitution.

He agreed to the request of Lin Baixin and his son, so the father and son should give him face.

Lin Baixin was slightly stunned. He didn't expect Luo Qihong to care so much about cost cutting. Was he afraid of weakening his position in the TV station?

"Okay, I think what Luo Sheng said makes sense. Then let's cut the cost investment by 15%. What do you think, Tong?" Lin Baixin turned his head to look at Cheng Yutong, actually asking a routine question.

Both Luo Qihong and he agreed, and Cheng Yutong was unlikely to refuse, after all, Cheng Yutong never offended anyone.

"Of course I agree." Cheng Yutong smiled faintly.

After the meeting, Cheng Yutong and his son followed to Luo Qihong's office.

The office supplies are neatly arranged, without much luxury, but the area is a bit larger, at 400 square feet.

"Ah Hong, raising the advertising fee is clearly a temporary solution. Why did you agree? Is it just to increase the production fee?" Zheng Jiachun asked bluntly.

Luo Qihong smiled and said, "Disagreeing will only hurt the relationship. We can't stop it. Lin Baixin and his son just acquired the crocodile shirts of Chen Jun's family and want to run it into a luxury brand to compete with European luxury brands. Naturally, they have to raise funds from other places."

Cheng Yutong replied, "Ah Hong is right. It takes a huge amount of money to build a luxury brand. It is understandable that Ah Xin did this."

The Cheng Yu-tung family no longer has many shares in Asia Television, and Luo Qihong doesn't care about that little bit of profit anymore. Why should he step forward? He doesn't want to do anything that will offend others.

Luo Qihong said tacitly, "It doesn't matter. Our main business is not on TV anyway. If it is irreparable, we can make money by selling it directly."

Luo Qihong has no time to take care of the TV station at the moment. His focus has shifted there, and he needs to concentrate on it. As long as the quality of TV dramas and variety shows is maintained, Asia Television will not collapse too quickly.

"I heard that you have been making great strides in the mainland recently, and even brought in Liu Liu's Chinese Estates Holdings. How about we join forces?" Zheng Jiachun stared at Luo Qihong and asked.

The Zheng family suffered heavy losses in the process of acquiring hotels, with the Guanghua Hotel alone causing a loss of over 1 billion yuan. However, with the support of New World Development and Wheelock, there will not be any major problems for the time being.

"Okay, but if you want to attack in the name of Wheelock or New World Development, I just need to take some rights and interests." Luo Qihong said with a smile, "People are afraid of being famous, just like pigs are afraid of being fat! I have to keep a low profile now."

Cheng Yutong and his son immediately recalled the previous charity event in the mainland, which made Luo Qihong a little embarrassed. It is understandable that he is worried now.

"We understand." Cheng Yutong raised his hand. "You are really capable. You got it done in a few steps. If it were me, it would probably take a month or two, and by then the stock price would have been seriously affected."

"Uncle Tong, thank you for the compliment. I spent a lot of money to settle this trouble." Luo Qihong said with a wry smile.

It can be considered as spending money to ward off disaster. If this money is not spent, I am afraid there will be big trouble.

"Right now, only Beijing and Shanghai have more expensive housing prices in the mainland. Let's start in these two places." Zheng Jiachun said, "Ah Hong, what do you think?" Luo Qihong pondered for a moment and said, "I already have quite a few projects in Beijing. Why not go to Shanghai? I haven't done any commercial buildings or residential buildings yet, so I can fill in the gaps here."

As an old veteran, Cheng Yutong has witnessed the prosperity of the old Shanghai and believes that Shanghai has greater potential than Yanjing.

"Okay, then we'll settle for the Magic City, and we'll each take half of the rights. How do you think?"

Luo Qihong shook his head and said, "I only want 40%. Since Uncle Tong is in charge, you should have more rights and interests."

Too many cooperative projects will tie up the company's idle funds.

Maintaining a certain cash flow is the rule of running a company. After all, no one knows when money-making projects and crises will come.

Although Luo Qihong knew some of the trends in historical events, he didn't dare to bet it all on it. Now that he had a large family and a large business, it was not the time to be penniless. Even if he could make a comeback, he didn't have that mentality.

Luo Qihong adopted precise positioning in the mainland, hoarding land in some core areas in advance and waiting for the completion of construction to collect rent.

The two sides continued to discuss some details and also had some small talk in the middle.

With Cheng Yu-tung in charge, there would be no major problems for New World Development and Henderson Land Development. However, Cheng Jiachun is a prodigal son who likes to acquire large projects. Otherwise, how could the retired Cheng Yu-tung make a comeback?

Therefore, Luo Qihong believed that he could get some good things from the Zheng family, such as the Wan Chai Convention and Exhibition Centre and the New World Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui.

The office of Central Dehe Real Estate Company.

Luo Qihong squinted his eyes and leaned back in his leather office chair. A document was spread out on his desk. The content was all in English, and the words "Manhattan Central Business District" appeared frequently.

That's right, this is an acquisition document for a commercial building in Manhattan's central business district.

Since Luo Qihong's private investment funds in the United States have been used up, he can only hand over the task of acquiring the shopping mall to a private company. He cannot waste such a good opportunity.

Luo Qihong did not dare to let Dehe Real Estate Company stand out too much, so he asked CITIC Bank to help acquire three commercial buildings with a total floor area of ​​3 square feet.

The funds involved were US$6.53 million, and Luo Qihong originally wanted to borrow from Citibank. Unfortunately, all the funds of Citibank were used to solve bad debts. Luo Qihong could only turn to other banks, including the Bank of New York, and borrowed US$2 million.

"Boss, we are already in debt of more than 4 million US dollars in the project of acquiring properties on Wall Street in the United States. Isn't this debt a bit too high? Do we need to sell some Hong Kong properties to repay the debt?" Su Qishan persuaded with some concern.

Luo Qihong still squinted his eyes and said calmly, "Don't worry. I've seen the company's financial report. We can still afford this interest. Besides, the US economy is recovering, and the rent of the commercial building will also rise. We still have money to make."

"The rent in Central has been adjusted to HK$50 per square foot. Should we keep up? Or should we exceed this price directly?" asked Su Qishan.

"Is 50 yuan the price of the real estate company, or the price of a Grade A commercial building in the core area?" Luo Qihong asked.

"This is the rental price of Grade A commercial buildings in the core area. The rental price of the International Financial Center Building of Swire Properties is 53 yuan per square foot, which is more expensive than the general Grade A commercial buildings." Su Qishan reported.

"Just raise the rent for new tenants directly to 51 yuan," said Luo Qihong.

(End of this chapter)