Mixed in 1980

Chapter 372 HSBC's Dilemma
Listening to Miss Zhao's lecture, Guan Xiaoyu burst out laughing: "Little sister-in-law, let's encourage each other. You should also work hard and save more money for Yancheng and Yanyin."

Upon hearing this, Miss Zhao's cheeks burned, and she immediately became furious and embarrassed: "Guan Xiaoyu, you deserve to be taught a lesson. I'll scratch you to death!"

Guan Xiaoyu tried to run, but it was too late. She was tackled to the snow by Miss Zhao: "Sister-in-law, Sister Yuanyuan, I was wrong, please forgive me this time."

Xu Jinqiu instructed Xie Xiaofang to make ginger soup. After watching the two play around for a while, she stepped forward and pulled them apart, saying, "You're both grown up, yet you're still acting like children. Be careful not to catch a cold."

"My sister-in-law is better than my younger sister-in-law."

Guan Xiaoyu took Xu Jinqiu's arm and walked into the house: "We were just talking about taking the kids to Huangshan to see the snow during winter vacation. What do you think?"

“That’s great. We can also visit Hongcun. Our family owns a few houses there, and we had them renovated a couple of years ago.”

Xu Jinqiu asked her to sit down and brewed her a cup of tea: "Drink it quickly to warm yourself up. You can have a bowl of ginger soup later."

He then added, "Whether we can go to Huangshan depends on your brother. Hong Kong is at a critical juncture in its efforts to cripple the property market, and there may not be enough time."

"You can go, I don't have anything important to do here."

Chen Fan walked in and poured himself a cup of tea: "The situation in Hong Kong is already settled. All that's left is how to short and reap the benefits. I don't need to do that."

Guan Xiaoyu picked up the teapot and refilled his cup: "We've ruined the real estate market and our reputation in Hong Kong is completely tarnished. If we go there in the future, won't people throw rotten eggs at us?"

Chen Fan flicked her on the forehead and said angrily, "What do you mean we crashed the real estate market? It was British capital and other foreign capital. What does it have to do with our family?"

Guan Xiaoyu winced in pain and grimaced!
Chen Fan rolled his eyes: "We're just following orders from above to contain foreign investment. Don't get confused. We've just made a little more money."

Guan Xiaoyu gave a thumbs up, "Shameless!"
Are you only making a little money?

Excluding its own secondhand homes, Spark Investment sold 12 plots of land and 9800 secondhand homes, totaling tens of billions of Hong Kong dollars.

This doesn't even include the new houses that have been sold.

Since 1985, when he started developing real estate with China Construction, Xiangjiang became Chen Fan's ATM. Especially in the last two years, half of the 31 residential communities he developed have been sold.

The amount of money received was astronomical.

After thinking for a while, Guan Xiaoyu added, "Comrade Chen Fan, you should donate more money to charity. Robbing people like this is utterly depraved!"

"..." Chen Fan's face instantly turned black.

For a moment, there was no way to refute it. Whether it's finance or real estate, it's inherently unethical business, like reaching into someone else's pocket.

"Brother, I was just kidding!"

Seeing that Chen Fan was about to get angry, Guan Xiaoyu decisively backed down, grabbed Chen Fan's arm and chuckled, "Our family robs outsiders and comes back to do charity. That's called a family that accumulates good deeds, and it will surely have abundant blessings."

You've said it all, good or bad.

Chen Fan rolled his eyes and gave her a flick on the forehead: "Tell me about going to Huangshan. If you're going to go out and have fun, then go for a few more days and visit more places."

The brother and sister began planning their route.

Time quickly passed to January 13, 1997, when winter vacation officially began in Beijing. Chen Fan took several families to Huangshan.

As for Hong Kong, the property market has already collapsed.

It's not a covert collapse, it's an open one!

Foreign investors tried to prop up the market, but to no avail. The secondary housing market continued to decline in prices, and the Hang Seng Bank shareholders were constantly spreading rumors, which could not be kept secret.

At this point, everyone wants to run away.

With the secondhand housing market plummeting and new home prices following suit, British investors are also frantically cutting prices to escape, officially kicking off a game of who can run the fastest.

The result is that no one can escape!
Anyone who has bought a house and is in debt is being criticized. The verbal attacks cover a very wide range of people, including British people, Chen Fan, and other foreign investors.

Xinghuo Real Estate's sales offices in various projects have been vandalized multiple times, as have those of other real estate companies, but the British-owned enterprises have been the most frequently vandalized.

"The propaganda war is still effective."

At the home of the shipping magnate Dong, Old Huo watched the news with lingering fear: "Fortunately, the British attracted most of the fire, and Chen Fan was at the forefront, so we were able to get less criticism."

"People in Hong Kong should be thanking Chen Fan!"

Tung, the shipping magnate, took a sip of tea and lit a cigarette: "Now the average price of a new house is HK$7000 per square foot, which is higher than the price in 95."

"The peak of house sales was in 95, which drove up prices rapidly in 96, but the actual sales volume was not high, especially among ordinary consumers."

Overall, the losses for everyone were not significant.

"However, the crash has only just begun. Prices will definitely continue to fall to even lower levels. According to Chen Fan's expectations, it will drop by at least 70%." "And this must be completed before May!"

May is not the bottom. Once it starts to fall, it will last for at least two or three years, or even longer, allowing the market to gradually self-adjust.

As for why it was before May, it was partly due to political considerations and partly due to the stock market's reaction; the short-selling contracts were scheduled to settle in May.

There is a buffer period before July.

That was the most important moment!
Old Huo nodded slightly and changed the subject: "After July, congratulations, your eldest son has really made something of himself and has shown us a way forward."

"Haha..." Dong the Shipping King burst into laughter.

Last December, which was just last month, through voting, their eldest son will become the first head of Hong Kong after July.

This is an honor for the Dong family: "And it's all thanks to the support of you old friends!"

The Dong family and the Huo family have a very deep relationship. They have known each other for a long time and have cooperated a lot. In particular, in 1986, the Dong family's business was not doing well and its overseas companies were heavily in debt.

The Fok family stepped in to help, investing HK$11.56 billion to help the Tung family overcome their financial crisis, thus saving the Tung Group from collapse.

Old Huo didn't take credit for it: "That's because your eldest son is capable. In a few months, a little over 100 days, Hong Kong will have nothing to do with Britain anymore."

"We no longer need to be subservient to Britain and be suppressed by them. It's time for us to turn the tables and bite the British in the back."

"It's unbearable that Britain hasn't suffered any losses!"

The bleeding in England was inevitable. Shen Bi lay helplessly on the bed smoking, ignoring the cigarette ash that fell onto the bed. His bloodshot eyes were devoid of any light.

All the plans have failed!
House prices have fallen to the level of 95, which is the level when large-scale purchases were made. If one can cash out, one can leave the market with dignity.

But where will someone come from to take over this mess?
Unless Chen Fan is willing to take over, he has enough funds to push the real estate market to a new high. The problem is, Chen Fan will only kick it again.

One more blow and the real estate market will completely collapse, which would be an unprecedented disaster for HSBC, leaving only huge amounts of bad debts on its books.

Too much money has been lent out!

HSBC and Standard Chartered are the largest banks in Hong Kong. Both developers and ordinary property speculators have borrowed too much money from them.

In contrast, Hang Seng Bank tightened credit from the very beginning, rigorously reviewing every mortgage loan and only disbursing loans to those who were able to repay them after the property market collapsed.

As for corporate property speculation, Hang Seng simply ignores it.

"If we can't get through this, HSBC is finished!"

With a sigh, Shen Bi forced himself to sit up, stubbed out his cigarette, and started cursing again: "It's all because of that good-for-nothing Peng Dingkang!"

"Pushing Chen Fan again and again!"

"If it weren't for this good-for-nothing, things wouldn't be in this situation now. After July, when the Chinese come, we won't have any say at all."

"Whether we live or die, we'll be at someone else's mercy!"

After venting his anger, he forced himself to start working, only to watch as housing prices plummeted day by day. By the time the Chinese New Year was over, the average price had already fallen below 6000.

The stock prices of real estate-related companies plummeted!

Shen Bi worked painfully, but bad news came from the market: Wall Street giants led by Soros began to target Siam, attacking the Thai baht.

The methods used are exactly the same as those used by Chen Fan and Soros when they attacked the British pound and the peso.

However, the attack in February was just a test, and the Central Bank of Siam intervened in the exchange rate market by using $20 billion of its foreign exchange reserves to quickly quell the storm.

However, on March 2, Soros attacked the Siamese foreign exchange market again, and this time it was extremely fierce. Hong Kong capital, led by Chen Fan, also joined the attack.

Originally, only Soros and other Wall Street tycoons participated in this attack, which could only be considered a mid-game attack. However, with the addition of Chen Fan and others, it directly turned into a decisive battle.

One move decides everything!

Hong Kong is also reporting on this extensively, creating a sense of panic that Asia is about to experience a financial crisis, which would be another disaster for Hong Kong's property market.

"It's all over!" Shen Bi covered his face in anguish.

Suddenly, the phone rang, and Chen Fan's voice came through the receiver: "Mr. Shen, it's been a long time. How have you been?"

Shen Bi took a deep breath and slowly said, "Mr. Chen, if you wanted to see a joke, then congratulations, you've got what you wanted."

Chen Fan smiled and said, "How could that be? After all, we have worked together before, and our previous collaborations were always very pleasant. Now is the time for us to strengthen our cooperation."

PS: Second update!
(End of this chapter)