Chapter 371 Hong Kong Island's Identity Exposed
13th Floor, Connaught Building, Central, Hong Kong Island.

This was originally the office of a company under Jardine Matheson, but the other party later withdrew from the Kangle Building.

Today, it has become the office of Global Textiles, a subsidiary of China National Textile Corporation.

The reason why it is called Global Textiles is actually to piggyback on the reputation of Bao Yugang's Global Shipping. After all, Bao Yugang has many friends in Europe. Li Changhe's company is piggybacking on his name, so at least it has some popularity.

"I really didn't expect that you, boss, would cause such a big incident after I was only away for a month."

"Island Land, a giant in the eyes of many people, was actually taken over by you."

"You know how shocked I was when I first came back and heard the news."

In the office, Weiss said to Li Changhe in amazement.

Even though he had known the news for some time, he still found it hard to believe.

"At first, we were preparing to deal with Jardine Matheson's move on Wharf Holdings, but in the end, we suddenly realized that Jardine Matheson's situation seemed too bad, so we tricked Jardine Matheson, but we didn't expect that they would actually let go."

"It can only be called coincidence."

Li Changhe said to Weiersi with a smile.

Of course he couldn't say that he had coveted the opposite land for a long time and had made plans early on, as that would seem too deliberate.

Wei Ersi on the opposite side just listened to it. If he really believed what Li Changhe said, then he would be a fool.

If you say this kind of fund mobilization and serial layout was a spur-of-the-moment decision, it would be a humiliation to Jardine Matheson.

If Jardine Matheson surrendered so easily, how could it be called the king of foreign firms in Hong Kong?

But Wells would not ask in detail, after all, he was just an assistant.

Li Changhe's acquisition of the land also gave Weiers a sense of urgency, because his importance to Li Changhe was greatly reduced.

After all, Hutchison Whampoa is not just a company, but also a platform with a resounding name. He can discover many talents through the platform of Hutchison Whampoa, just like he discovered William Waley, the boss of Hutchison Whampoa.

Similarly, he can also transfer talents from the company to other companies and quickly fill in the skeleton of a company.

Therefore, in this situation, Wells is forced to achieve results faster and consolidate his position.

"Speaking of which, we were lucky this time and acted quickly, otherwise the Bosak Group would have been more uncertain."

Wells spoke again at this time.

"What's the specific situation?"

Li Changhe asked curiously.

"It's the general election over there. This year is the last year that the right-wing party will be in power in France. There will be a new general election next spring, but because of the economic situation in recent years, their support rate is very low now."

"The left-wing parties are very popular. According to their estimates, there is a high chance that Mitterrand, a left-wing figure, will take office in the French general election next year."

"Their governing philosophy is actually very similar to socialism, advocating nationalization of enterprises, eliminating social divisions, and suppressing the bourgeoisie. The Velot Group is worried that once a left-wing government comes to power, it will be very difficult for them to deal with Bosak."

"At the same time, if we acquired the company at that time, it would also be troublesome for us, because the government would impose restrictions on us in many aspects such as employment and employee protection, such as not being allowed to relocate factories or lay off employees."

"So we took advantage of the fact that the right-wing government was still in power and completed the deal as soon as possible."

"Oh, Boss, what should we do next? Should we move all production capacity back to Asia?"

Wells asked seriously at this time.

Li Changhe shook his head: "I looked at the other party's information. They have a large cotton planting area in Africa, and the factory is in Europe, right?"

“That place is still very important to us.”

“The Bosak Group actually has a certain market there, and we cannot give up the European market.”

Today's European market has not been fully liberalized, but with the influence of neoliberalism in the United States and Britain, people's consumption concepts and markets have gradually opened up, and the market actually shows a partial recovery trend.

"The Bosak Group is heavily indebted, and the interest on the debt has swallowed up most of its profits."

"Secondly, the production cost is too high. Although their raw materials are produced in Africa, which is still under the economic colonization of France, their textile factories are in Europe and the labor cost cannot be reduced, so they have been losing money year after year."

"We will first pay off the debts of Bosak, and then transfer some of the production capacity. After all, the French government will not allow it if all is transferred at once."

"Look, if we move some of our production capacity and equipment to Asia, we can reduce production costs in Europe. Bosak's European factory capacity will only need to supply the European continent in the future."

"The remaining part will be transferred to Asia. When the time comes, you will form a team and go to the mainland to connect with them. We will not only enable them to produce, but also provide the best quality cotton seeds and textile technology to help them upgrade."

"But in this case, what will happen to our production capacity in Asia?"

Welsh asked thoughtfully.

Li Changhe smiled and said, "Just expand the Asian market. In fact, you can pay attention to it. The political situation in East Asia and Southeast Asia has tended to be stable in the past two years. After the political situation is relatively stable, the next step is bound to be economic development."

"For us, the production capacity in Asia is used to develop markets in Southeast Asia and to sell to the United States."

"You have to know that shipping from us to Los Angeles is cheaper than shipping from Europe to the United States!"

"By then, we will have cost advantages, plus freight advantages, which will allow us to further expand our market in the United States. I think this will be enough to absorb our production capacity."

Li Changhe said to Wei Er Si seriously.

Others may not know, but he knows that the 1980s was the era of the Asian market explosion.

The economies of the so-called Four Asian Dragons and Four Asian Tigers began to explode, which also meant the maturity of the consumer market.

Plus the US market across the Pacific Ocean.

With the mainland's production costs and freight advantages, profits can still be guaranteed even with Li Changhe's design of a low-price concept.

"This is equivalent to expanding into the global market at the same time. In this case, we will have to recruit a lot more people."

Wells said seriously at this moment.

"It's not really global expansion. In Europe, our business is actually shrinking."

"We will dispatch some of our French personnel to the United States. Of course, nominally we are expanding globally, so we need to explore the U.S. and Asian markets."

"In short, for some of the people in Bosak, we will give them two choices: either come to Hong Kong Island or go to the United States. If they don't want to go anywhere, they will be fired."

“We only need to keep a portion of our business in Europe.”

"By the way, have you contacted the designer Karl Lagerfeld at Dior?"

At this time, Li Changhe asked Wei Ersi with a smile.

Weiers nodded: "I have contacted him, and the deal has been reached. He is willing to join!"

"In fact, your conditions are so generous that it is equivalent to making him the direct controller of Dio in disguise. I think it will be difficult for anyone to refuse."

"But I have to tell you one thing. Dior now only has its fashion business. Its perfume business is not in Dior's hands. It was sold to Louis Vuitton a long time ago."

"What do you think? Should we buy back the perfume business from Louis Vuitton?"

"Don't worry. The main markets for perfume are still Europe and the United States. The Asian market is not big and will not have much impact on us for the time being."

Europeans and Americans, whether white or black, have well-developed sweat glands and strong body odor, so they need to spray perfume to cover up the odor on their bodies.

In comparison, the yellow race does not have this defect, so in the early days, perfume was only a high-end consumer market for wealthy ladies in Asia, and the market was relatively narrow.

Moreover, Li Changhe remembered that the performance of LV Group was not very good in the end, so he might have the opportunity to acquire it at that time.

"I estimate that the European economy will continue to decline for a few years, especially for high-end products like this. You can keep an eye on it and look for opportunities to acquire LV."

Li Changhe smiled and said that he remembered that it was through a series of acquisitions in the 1980s that Alnobel created the future famous luxury empire LVMH Group.

Of course, Li Changhe does not have such big ambitions. It is enough to acquire a few luxury brands to create a sense of style for his shopping mall.

That's right, for Li Changhe, the biggest use of acquiring some luxury brands is to create a high-end shopping complex for him. The most high-end shopping complex, of course, needs the most high-end brands to settle in. Taking advantage of the global economic depression in the 1980s, Li Changhe was too lazy to wait until then to negotiate cooperation with brands, so he directly acquired a few and then cooperated with the left and right hands.

Anyway, the entire world economy will be in a state of overall expansion in the future. Especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the large emerging market of hundreds of millions of people in Eastern Europe will be given up, which will be enough to feed the world for at least ten years.

"dong dong dong"

Just as Li Changhe was chatting with Weiersi, there was a knock on the office door.

"Come in"

Then, a beautiful woman gently pushed open the door.

"Boss, the candidates you selected for today's interview have arrived. Shall we start the interview now?"

The person who came was Li Changhe's new secretary Catherine, whose Chinese name was Liang Meiling. She graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong Island and worked in Hang Seng Bank for three years after graduation. She had a good resume.

After reading it, Li Changhe decided to make him his secretary at Global Textiles.

"Come on, Wells, let's go take a look at today's interviewees and see if there are any particularly outstanding talents."

At this time, Li Changhe invited Wei Ersi.

"Ok!"

The two men stood up and walked towards the interview meeting room.

While Li Changhe and Wei Ersi were selecting talents for their subordinates, on the other side, at the Ming Pao's office base.

"Editor-in-chief, big news, we got a big news."

Young Ming Pao reporter Ren Tianming quickly ran to the editor-in-chief's office and said excitedly.

"Hey, Siyanming, stay calm and don't shout."

"Tell me, what's the big news?"

In the office, Ming Pao's editor-in-chief Zhao Hongfa spoke slowly.

"Editor-in-chief, we have found the information of the person behind the acquisition of Hong Kong Land."

Siyanming said excitedly at this time.

After hearing the other party's words, editor-in-chief Zhao Hongfa was speechless.

After a moment, he slammed the table and cursed loudly at Siyanming.

"You are crazy. The acquisition of Hong Kong Land has been completed for more than a month. Who will read your news about Hong Kong Land now?"

"You call this big news, but do you even know what news is?"

Seeing this, Siyanming quickly explained, "No, editor-in-chief, this news is really shocking."

"Because the person behind the scenes has a very special identity."

"What the hell, is he the Governor of Hong Kong?"

Zhao Hongfa was still very angry and said viciously.

"Editor-in-chief, it's the Bao family!"

"It was the Bao family that acquired the land."

Siyanming saw that the editor was really angry, so he didn't dare to keep it a secret any longer and spoke hurriedly.

"What's wrong with the Bao family? What's the big deal about the Bao family buying a piece of land?"

Zhao Hong was stunned when he was halfway through his words.

"Four Eyes Ming, which Bao family are you talking about?"

"Editor-in-chief, which Bao family is there in Hong Kong? It's the Bao family of shipping magnate Bao Yugang."

Four Eyes said hurriedly.

"The charter king who acquired Wharf?"

Zhao Hongfa asked hesitantly again.

Siyanming nodded affirmatively: "Yes!"

"You said that the shipping tycoon was the mastermind behind the acquisition of Hong Kong Land?"

Zhao Hongfa continued to ask in surprise.

Siyanming continued to nod.

"Quick, tell me what you know. What is going on?"

Zhao Hongfa asked anxiously at this moment.

Oh my god, shipping tycoon Pao Yue-kong first acquired Wharf Holdings and then acquired Hong Kong Holdings?
What kind of magical operation is this?
"Editor-in-chief, I have a classmate who is a senior executive at Landmark, and he told me about it."

"The person who controls Hong Kong Holdings today is not the Rockefeller family, but a young man named Bao Zeyang, who is the nephew of the shipping magnate Bao Sheng."

"He also poached William, the boss of Hong Kong Land, from Hutchison Whampoa."

"This has already been circulated among the management of Landmark."

"Editor-in-chief, we have to send out this news quickly, otherwise we will miss it when other people get the news from Landmark and expose it."

Siyanming said anxiously at this time.

It is true that he has classmates in Jardine Matheson, but it is also possible that other newspapers have spies in Jardine Matheson.

Once this kind of news spreads to the middle level of the company, it will be very difficult to conceal it any longer.

"Are you sure this news is true?"

Zhao Hongfa asked excitedly at this time.

Siyanming nodded decisively: "Editor-in-chief, it is absolutely true. I did not make this up. Many people in the land saw Wei Li welcoming a young man in."

"They said he looked very young, in his twenties, and very handsome. Many female employees were curious about his identity."

"Then only recently did it slowly come out from the mouths of the foreign management. He is the big boss of the company and even Wei Li was selected by him."

Siyanming said quickly at this time.

Zhao Hongfa took a deep breath.

"The Bao family took over Wharf Holdings and Hong Kong Land at the same time. Oh my God, the real estate industry in Hong Kong is about to change."

"Siyanming, can you get a photo of Bao Zeyang?"

Zhao Hongfa asked seriously again at this time.

Siyanming shook his head: "Boss, there is nothing we can do about this. People in their company rarely see him, and they don't even know what he looks like. There is no way to get a photo of him."

"I think it doesn't matter whether we have photos or not, we should publish this news first, otherwise we will be at a big loss if we fall behind."

Siyanming said anxiously at this time.

Zhao Hongfa nodded: "That's right, whether there are photos or not, just publish it first. Hurry up and write the article. It will be on the front page tomorrow morning!"

"Yes!"

After getting the editor-in-chief's approval, Siyanming immediately ran back to his workstation excitedly. This time, he was going to become famous!
(End of this chapter)