Chapter 188 Silver Storm and Gold Storm!
What Li Changhe thought of were the people he had come into contact with.

These people basically knew that he was from the mainland. If they accidentally exposed him one day, his identity would be wasted.

"Uncle, I came to Hong Kong Island this time and met a few people. They basically all knew that I was from the mainland."

"Oh? Are there a lot of people?"

"Not many, just three or four people. One of them is the owner of Ho Tung Dao Jing Ji Dim Sum Shop. The dim sum I brought to you was made by him."

"I was asked by someone in the capital to look for someone."

"I haven't met the other two yet, but they also know my identity because they are the sons of a friend of mine. He asked me to find them through the owner of Jingji Dim Sum Shop."

"These three are fine, but the last one is a bit troublesome."

"She was a girl from Maryknoll Convent School. She was hit by Richard's car last night. We took her to the hospital, and during that time she found out about my background."

"This girl is still in school, but her father is a big shot in the film and television industry."

Although Li Changhe felt somewhat helpless, he could only fill these loopholes now.

"These are all minor matters. Apart from the one in the film and television industry, the others will not intersect with your future circle."

"But just in case, you should write a list and let Wells handle it later. Just keep it secret for a while."

"When these things are settled, this fake identity won't matter anymore."

Bao Yugang said to Li Changhe with a smile.

"Okay, I'll write Wells the address information later. Actually, Richard knows all these places."

Li Changhe nodded gently.

"Who is Richard?"

"Richard is the driver Wells arranged for me, and he is also an employee of Global Shipping."

Li Changhe explained to Bao Yugang.

Bao Yugang nodded. It was normal that he didn't know Richard. He wouldn't arrange such a small matter as a driver himself.

"Changhe, even though our plan is very good, in the final analysis, it all comes down to one thing: money!"

"Hong Kong Land is now the largest real estate company in Hong Kong Island by market value, with a value higher than that of Wharf Holdings."

"Based on the current market value of Hong Kong Land, it is around HK$4 billion, and you must acquire at least 40% of the shares to ensure absolute controlling rights."

"That is to say, at least you need to prepare HK$16 billion in cash."

"But this is just the basis. Once you start a stock war with Jardine Matheson, the stock price may increase several times."

“Even if Jardine Matheson is short of money, if the share price is pushed up, the cost you have to pay is still a lot.”

The current stock market system in Hong Kong is not sound, and the stock price increases can often be described as outrageous.

It’s just like when the Swire Properties and the Dairy Farm Company were fighting each other, stocks worth a few dollars could be pulled up to hundreds of dollars.

The same was true for Hutchison Whampoa. Li Ka-shing raised the stock price of Hutchison Whampoa from 13 yuan per share to 40 yuan, and Pao Yu-kang's fierce battle with Jardine Matheson directly raised the stock price to 100 yuan per share.

In a situation like this, if you want to acquire the land, you cannot do so without more than 2 billion yuan in funds.

This is also the reason why Jardine Matheson boldly continues to distribute Hutchison Whampoa shares.

It’s so big, so big that few people in the entire Hong Kong Island can eat it.

You should know that the company with the highest market value in the entire Hong Kong Island is Swire Properties, and with a market value of several billion Hong Kong dollars, it is a complete behemoth.

Today, the size of most Chinese real estate companies is less than 10 billion.

The market value of Li Jiacheng's Cheung Kong Holdings today is only 700 million yuan.

And these are the company's valuations, not the cash on hand.

Among these real estate companies, it is considered good if they can come up with HK$100 million in cash. With such little money, how can they acquire Swire Properties?
Even with bank loans and new share issuance, the funds raised are limited and cannot have any impact on the property.

This is also the problem that Bao Yugang is worried about.

Li Changhe's plan to acquire land is feasible, but the only drawback is that the amount of funds required is too large.

"Uncle, how many lots of silver futures do we hold now?"

Li Changhe asked seriously at this time.

"I currently hold about 3000 lots. As per your request, I have not sold any."

"The current price of silver futures has risen to $17 an ounce. Your average position price is $11 an ounce, and your current profit is about $ million."

"Even if the price continues to rise, I think you can probably earn more than 100 million US dollars. This is not a small amount of money, but to be honest, it is difficult to acquire the land."

"Hong Kong Island now has a floating exchange rate, with the U.S. dollar to Hong Kong dollar ratio at around 7.6 to 1."

"Even if you make a profit of 200 million U.S. dollars, it would only be around 1.5 billion Hong Kong dollars when converted into Hong Kong dollars."

"This money can indeed leverage the shares of Hong Kong Land, but it is difficult to take it completely."

“After all, although Jardine Matheson’s stake is less than 40%, more than 20% is safe enough for them.”

"The most important thing is that once the war begins, the market value of the land will probably reach about 10 billion. By then, the funds you need will be even more astronomical."

Bao Yugang analyzed the situation to Li Changhe in a deep voice.

He was actually very curious about why Li Changhe was so confident in acquiring the land.

With just this 100 million US dollars, it would be difficult to acquire the land even if the profit from silver futures reached 200 million US dollars.

At this time, Li Changhe sat there and started to calculate.

He is counting his gains.

Initially, Li Changhe used one million US dollars to buy 800 silver futures contracts, but these contracts were sold last month, and then new contracts were absorbed.

Just as Bao Yugang said, we have purchased about 3,000 contracts now.

Futures contract trading in this era is very troublesome. It doesn’t mean that if you put up a purchase order, everyone will sell to you. Because of manual buying, major exchanges need to buy contracts from customers.

So many times you have to keep asking for quotes.

The reason why Li Changhe only allows the team to purchase contracts and not sell them is that once you sell at a low price, although you will have more funds under your control, you will not be able to buy contracts.

Theoretically, contracts on the market are unlimited, but the platform will not sell them to you without limit because it has to take the total amount of physical goods into consideration.

This is also the reason why Li Changhe was unwilling to take action.

Today's futures trading is not done by computers. It's not like you place an order and a group of people will immediately sell to you. The Hunt brothers placed a large number of futures contract purchase orders, which were actually bidding against everyone.

If you bid high, he will bid higher, and then you have to snatch the order from him in advance.

So although Li Changhe already had more than 10 million US dollars in profits in his account, he actually only grabbed 3,000 contracts.

It is estimated that there will be a few hundred more hands in the future.

What Li Changhe needs to consider now is what price he should pay.

It is impossible for him to wait until the highest value before making a move, as he would not be able to sell all the goods. The Hunt brothers would also be broke by then and could not take on so many contracts.

Therefore, he must make a move in advance before the high price is reached. In this way, Li Changhe's profit is actually much more than Bao Yugang expected.

But even so, Li Changhe calculated that it would be very difficult to take over the land company.

It seems that I still have to continue making money.

It is not enough to rely solely on silver futures.

"Uncle, if we only rely on silver futures, I think the funds will be in jeopardy."

"If I'm not mistaken, there should be about 10 million US dollars in profit in the account."

Li Changhe previously sold 6.5 silver futures contracts at an average purchase cost of US$11 per ounce, and sold them at around US$4.5, with a profit of around US$ per ounce.

One contract is for 5,000 ounces of silver, so the profit from these 800 contracts is about 18 million US dollars.

However, the handling fees and subsequent contract funds must be deducted in the process, so Li Changhe estimates that the remaining funds must be tens of millions of US dollars.

"I think so. I haven't paid too much attention to it. Do you have any plans?"

It is impossible for Bao Yugang to keep an eye on Li Changhe's account all the time, he just has a rough impression of it.

Li Changhe thought about it and said, "Well, I would like to ask you for another favor."

"Go ahead and help me build a team and go to London!"

"London?"

"What are you going to do in London?"

Bao Yugang asked in surprise.

"Go open an account at the London Gold Market!"

"I think the gold market may also see huge fluctuations."

Li Changhe hesitated for a moment, but decided to speak out.

The period from 1979 to 1980 was very interesting, as global gold and silver prices experienced crazy increases almost at the same time.

The peak price timelines of the two are almost overlapping.

The difference is that the silver market is jointly controlled by the Hunt brothers and the Saudi royal family.

The gold market, on the other hand, is completely caused by market volatility.

Li Changhe originally only wanted to trade in the silver market, because the silver market has greater volatility, higher multiples, and can trade in futures.

In comparison, dealing with gold is very troublesome.

Because gold was pegged to the U.S. dollar in the past, the U.S. dollar could be directly exchanged for gold, which is also the origin of the name U.S. dollar.

However, with the collapse of the Bretton Woods system and the decoupling of the U.S. dollar from gold, the United States restricted domestic gold trading in order to prevent a massive outflow of gold.

Even though the Gold Futures Exchange was launched in 75, various regulations were still made for gold futures trading.

In addition, the increase in gold prices this time is only half of that of silver, so Li Changhe chose to do silver futures contracts.

However, if he wants to acquire the land now, the income from the silver futures contract alone is obviously not enough. After much deliberation, Li Changhe decided to get involved in gold as well.

However, for this wave of gold, he will no longer play futures, nor will he do it in the United States.

Li Changhe decided to follow the same route as the protagonist of his novel in his previous life and go to London to directly purchase gold spot contracts in the London Gold Market.

There is another advantage of being in London, that is, London now has the world's largest gold trading market. The amount of money traded in gold every day is a huge number, and the investment in the entire gold market is as high as 1.6 trillion US dollars.

When the time comes, the several hundred million U.S. dollars of profit that Li Changhe will invest will not affect the market at all.

Li Changhe estimated the time. If he withdrew from the silver futures market earlier and entered the London gold market in time, then theoretically, he would have about double the profit margin.

A doubling of profit may not seem like much, but its basis is calculated in billions of U.S. dollars.

To be honest, such profits are enough for him to raise funds to acquire the land.

It doesn't even have to double, even an increase of 70 or 80 percent will be fine.

"You mean gold will appreciate, too?"

Bao Yugang asked Li Changhe with some surprise.

Li Changhe nodded: "I paid some attention to it when I was free. The price of gold started to rise last year. This year, it has risen from more than 200 US dollars an ounce to 369 US dollars. This increase is beyond human control."

“I think gold could see a big move higher in volatility.”

“What I mean is, first use the funds to open an account and open a gold account in the London gold market.”

"Then, when the silver earnings come out, we will let the money go through the gold account and circulate the money from London back to Hong Kong Island through gold contract transactions."

"Of course, if the price of gold continues to rise, we can still make a profit."

Li Changhe thought for a moment and said tactfully.

He has no reason to continue analyzing that gold will rise sharply this time, because there are many reasons for this wave.

This includes the market's wait-and-see attitude, the impact of the Iranian hostage crisis in the Middle East, and the United States' instigation, which issued a decree to completely put an end to gold trading.

Therefore, Li Changhe felt that it would be better to use gold to transfer funds. After all, the daily trading volume of the London gold market starts at tens of billions of US dollars.

The little money he put in there was nothing at all.

Bao Yugang looked at Li Changhe deeply at this moment.

This guy wants to use the London gold market to launder his money and then transfer it back to Hong Kong Island.

But even so, can we raise enough funds to acquire the land?
“In fact, it doesn’t matter if I can’t acquire Hong Kong Land, as long as I have enough shares, or Jardine Matheson begs me to buy back the shares from me.”

"Or, we can split up the land then."

Li Changhe then continued speaking to Bao Yugang.

Even if he cannot take over Hutchison Whampoa, he will definitely hold enough shares in Hutchison Whampoa by then.

Jardine Matheson has no money. If it does not want Li Changhe to join the board of directors of Swire Properties, then the best way is to buy back the shares.

They have no money, but they can exchange it for land assets under Jardine Matheson or Hong Kong Land.

This is what Li Changhe said, to demolish the Swire Properties and let them use the best commercial buildings in Central as payment to buy back the shares in Li Changhe's hands.

Anyway, no matter what, Li Changhe will definitely not lose this time.

After listening to Li Changhe, Bao Yugang also nodded.

"That's fine. The Prince's Building and Golden Gate Building in Central are both excellent assets. We won't lose money if we can acquire them."

He was very familiar with the situation of Hong Kong Land and could immediately name several of the best commercial buildings under Hong Kong Land.

"There's no rush. Let's first transfer some of the funds to London, open an account in the London gold market, and make preparations in advance."

Since he had to get a fake identity anyway, Li Changhe decided to go all out this time and just give it a big one.

(End of this chapter)