The Industrial Giant Reborn - Chapter 630

c621 The coming of the 1987 stock market crash

Not only was the US$920 million cashed out through the IPO this time, many of the previous profits in the United States were partly transferred out after legal tax payments, and some remained in the United States, just waiting for the 87 stock market crash in a few months. Although the U.S. dollar is depreciating today compared to the Japanese yen, pound, German mark and other mainstream currencies, the opportunities created by the stock market crash still have a greater rate of return, and the shares that can be obtained also have longer-term and stable returns, far exceeding RB’s recent years. speculative returns.

Of course, Chen Zhiwen will not do short selling. The first is that history has been interfered with too much. Maybe the 87 stock market crash will still happen, but it may not be on the same day. And short selling requires grasping the correct time. Once it is wrong, then There will be heavy losses. The second is risk. If the scale of short selling is small, the benefits will be low. If the scale of short selling is large, it will be targeted by the US government departments. Although it is not illegal, foreigners doing this kind of thing in the United States are illegal. There will be certain “special treatment”. If you do this, you are just looking for trouble.

The third is that the rate of return will not be ridiculously high. This type of speculative cooperation is suitable for gambling when the capital is small, and you can get several times or even dozens of times of returns. However, if you invest more money, it will not be so high. The rate of return is good. In 1992 in history, Soros fought against the Bank of England, mobilized a huge amount of funds, and only made 1 billion US dollars. The only attractive point was that he earned it in one night, but it also took several months in the early stage. Even longer preparations, the same is true in Southeast Asia from 1997 to 1998. In one year, Soros earned three to five billion US dollars, which seems to be a lot, but for Chen Zhiwen, it is just as much. If you buy some Coca-Cola stocks, you will have so much money in ten years. You don’t need to be so tired, do things that outrage people and gods, and offend so many people.

Speculation is always just for fun. Although there are many hedge funds in later generations that are large in scale, the proportion is still very low compared to the number of people who start businesses and invest to make a fortune. Moreover, the upper limit for making a fortune through speculation is also very low. It is also easy to get a bad name. Therefore, after Chen Zhiwen initially made his fortune, he basically stopped participating in such things. Even if there were any golden opportunities, he would operate them through normal means, such as the RB exchange rate and the real estate market. It would be enough to directly participate, rather than desperately leveraging to go long. However, his capital is large enough, and it is indeed unlikely that he will continue to leverage.

The listing of Costco not only gave Chen Zhiwen an opportunity to cash out, the company itself also received more than 1 billion US dollars in funds. In addition to the financial surplus of the previous ten years, the liquidity has reached a terrifying US$2 billion. Without any debt, such data would explode for listed companies anywhere in the world. Before the birth of the Internet and high-tech companies, this kind of thing would almost never happen in traditional industries. This also made Costco become A large amount of money is still pouring into companies that are basically risk-free on the market, and stock prices are still rising further. Costco itself is focusing on using funds for the expansion of new stores, including the United States, Europe and South America. These are the focus of Costco’s development in the next ten years, and are also the directions set by Pierce and Chen Zhiwen.

Soon, another few months passed. In early October, at Chen Zhiwen’s request, several companies reached cooperation with multiple banks, quickly borrowed a total of more than 30 billion Hong Kong dollars, and raised funds from the U.S. and Hong Kong stock markets. We have raised almost 20 billion Hong Kong dollars. With such a large amount of funds in hand, we are just waiting for the stock market crash to break out.

“It’s strange why Chen Zhiwen has been raising funds everywhere recently, not only HSBC, but also American banks. The same goes for the stock market. He is raising funds in both the Hong Kong and American stock markets.” Li Jiacheng looked at his subordinates at the headquarters of Yangtze River Industries The data collected from everywhere is somewhat strange.

Over the years, in addition to using his various abilities to run businesses, Li Jiacheng has also kept an eye on some successful people in Hong Kong. Whatever they do is definitely very useful. After all, a person’s energy is Limited, it is impossible to keep an eye on so many things and analyze them. Through the actions of these people, we can better find good goals for Yangtze River Industries. Of course, in most cases, just knowing is enough, and it is unlikely that everything will be done. If he gets involved, he will only be able to keep up if the market is large or very rare. Among all entrepreneurs in Hong Kong, Chen Zhiwen is naturally the top priority. It can even be said that one person is worth the sum of the others. However, in recent years, Chen Zhiwen’s main development direction has been overseas. In this area, Yangtze River Holdings obviously does not have the ability at present.

But this time, Chen Zhiwen also borrowed heavily in Hong Kong. The stock market and banks were all involved, and there was a lot of movement. Not only Li Jiacheng, but also other rich people knew about it. Li Jiacheng even went overseas to investigate, and also found out Same operation.

“Is there some big move to acquire some big company?” Zhuang Yueming asked.

“Unlike when acquiring a company purely, money will not be the first issue. Obtaining the other party’s permission is. As long as the other party agrees, there will naturally be investment banks willing to give money. But if it is a hostile acquisition, it must be very low-key. It’s impossible to raise funds in such a high-profile manner.” Li Jiacheng thought for a while and then said: “This kind of operation is a bit like preparing to buy many company stocks or similar assets on a large scale. It is purely an economic acquisition.”

“You mean, he will do large-scale operations in the stock market? Or large-scale acquisitions in real estate?” Zhuang Yueming asked.

“Or mass commodities such as mining and land. These things simply require a lot of funds, but there is still something wrong. If you want to acquire these, you don’t need to raise so much money in such a short time, unless these assets will soon be With great depreciation, opportunities are hard to come by.” Li Jiacheng seemed to have grasped the key point.

“Great depreciation? Economic crisis?” Zhuang Yueming also understood. Once a situation similar to the Hong Kong real estate crisis in 1983 occurs, if large-scale fund-raising had been carried out before, there would be a large amount of funds in hand, which can be used to buy lows, and then wait until the economy rebounds. That is huge profits, but the risk of doing so is still very high, because we don’t know when the economy will pick up, and we don’t know when housing and land prices will reach their lowest point. Even if we know that an economic crisis will occur, these two points are uncertain. Once a prediction error occurs, huge losses will still occur. Therefore, most people do not dare to play like this.

“It can only be explained this way, but looking at Hong Kong’s economy, although it is a bit hot, it is not yet a crisis. On the contrary, the U.S. stock market has doubled several times in recent years.” Li Jiacheng said.

“Is he planning to take advantage of the United States? This makes sense.” Zhuang Yueming nodded and said, “Then what should we do?”

“Do nothing, just tighten funds. If a crisis really comes, it will also be an opportunity for us to expand.” Li Jiacheng said: “Chen Zhiwen’s capital is much larger than ours. He can play what we can’t. Just follow behind and make a little money. And now the global economy is highly interconnected. If there is a problem with the U.S. economy, Hong Kong will also be affected. When the time comes, we will be the same as bargain hunters in Hong Kong.”

“Yes.” Zhuang Yueming agreed.

Chen Zhiwen also knew that the fund-raising action would definitely attract the attention of the Hong Kong consortium, but he did not care about it. As for Li Jiacheng, in the original history, he also raised 10 billion Hong Kong dollars in the Hong Kong stock market before the 1987 stock market crash, but in this life But there was no movement. It is estimated that it was also because Hutchison Whampoa was acquired by himself in the early stage, and the same was true for Hong Kong Electric later, which severely restricted Li Jiacheng’s development. Both his vision and opportunities have changed, and this matter no longer exists.

Historical changes are also normal. From the 1970s to the present, the impact becomes greater as time goes by. One is that the butterfly effect itself is getting bigger and bigger with the passage of time, and the other is that Chen Zhiwen’s net worth and influence are also getting bigger and bigger. , just like the U.S. stock market crash that originally occurred in October, it had not happened by the end of October, which made Chen Zhiwen feel a little uneasy.

However, the existence of Chen Zhiwen had an impact on such a major event, but at most it was at the time level. The event itself was still the same. On November 3, the stock market crash still happened.

When a super disaster breaks out in the stock market, Western countries always like to call it Black Week. In fact, this has no specific meaning. For example, this time it is Black Tuesday.

The Wall Street stock market suddenly experienced an unprecedented selling frenzy. The Dow Jones index fell 525 points in one day, a drop of more than 20%, setting the largest single-day decline since 1929. In just one day, the Dow Jones index fell 525 points, a drop of more than 20%. It has lost more than 500 billion US dollars, equivalent to 1/8 of the GDP of the United States. If this amount of money were a country, its GDP would rank among the top 20 in the world.

Although the Internet has not yet appeared, global markets have long been interconnected. Such a plunge immediately spread to all stock market trading venues such as Europe and Asia. By the way, the global stock market also fell into a panic-like plunge, regardless of the United States. What is the reason for the collapse of the stock market? Is there a similar situation in your country? Theoretically, if not, it will not be greatly affected. But in panic, everyone is worried that this will happen in the stock market, so everyone The rush to sell and cash out, and the large-scale selling caused the stock price to plummet, caused even more panic, leading to more selling. It can be said that this is really a dream come true.

The same is naturally true in Hong Kong. No matter how many people were blindly optimistic about Hong Kong’s future real estate market and stock market, when the world plummeted, they all believed that there would be a serious economic crisis in the world, and even the kind of crisis in 1929. Under this situation, a large number of people are selling stocks and real estate in an attempt to cash out a large amount of cash. There are even many people who go to gold stores to buy gold on a large scale, because if there is an unprecedented global crisis, then gold will It is the safest. Not to mention that a major economic crisis may trigger a war. Even those who know something about economics will know that an economic crisis may also lead to currency devaluation, but the value of gold is eternal.

Seeing that the situation was not right, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange actually made an unprecedented decision to temporarily close the stock exchange for four days, which was equivalent to locking up all transactions. This immediately attracted a lot of criticism, because many people, but prepared Eager to cash out.

The Hong Kong government’s idea is very simple. If this is just a short-term fluctuation, then when foreign markets recover within a few days, or confidence recovers a little first, then the Hong Kong stock market will not need to go through the same thing as other countries. After a sharp drop, although it may eventually return to normal, no one knows how many people will suffer heavy losses in the process, and the negative impact on the economy will still be very large. There may even be a group of people jumping off the building. If it is a long-term crisis, then the stop 4 days won’t have much impact, what is supposed to come will still come.

I have to say that although the trick is a bit stinky, the starting point is still good. However, obviously, even if it is a temporary short-term crisis, it cannot be restored to normal in 4 days. In many places, it can even be restored in 4 days. The panic is not over yet, and the Hong Kong government cannot continue to suspend the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Too many investors are protesting and attacking. They all think that once the stock market can resume trading, they can cash out and leave. But the fact is that they simply cannot escape. Once the stock market reopens, the value of the assets in their hands will immediately plummet. Faced with this situation, the Hong Kong government can only let go.

After four days of accumulation of panic, the Hong Kong stock market fell 460 points in one day after the market reopened, and the Hang Seng Index fell 12.5%. Although it is not as exaggerated as the United States, Hong Kong’s economy cannot be compared to the United States. So resilient, after the stock market plummeted, the housing market immediately stalled. The two complement each other. Most of the listed companies are real estate companies, and ordinary investors will no longer rush to buy houses if they lose money. The entire Hong Kong economy, It has fallen into a short-term dead cycle, and the real estate auction that was originally planned to be held has also been delayed. Otherwise, the transaction price will be very low or the auction will not be successful, which will have a worse impact.

On November 9, the new Hong Kong Governor Wei Yixin, who just took office this year, quickly invited all the heads of major Hong Kong companies, including Chen Zhiwen, Li Jiacheng, Pao Yugang, Lee Shau Kee, etc. In today’s Hong Kong, most of the wealth has been The Chinese are in control, and only a few British companies such as Swire and HSBC can be considered giants.

“Everyone, I think everyone is aware of the recent economic situation, so we hope that everyone can work together to solve the current problems.” Wei Yixin said straight to the point.

“Mr. Governor of Hong Kong, the essence of the economic crisis is that there is a problem in Europe and the United States. How should we solve it?” one person asked.

“Sorry, my Cantonese is not very good. Maybe my wording is not very accurate. What I mean is to alleviate this problem.” Wei Yixin added: “We hope that you can raise funds to buy back your own company’s shares. In this way, in the short term, it can increase the overall stock price and improve the confidence of investors. For everyone here, this is also an opportunity to buy your own stocks at a low price. I don’t think everyone will miss it. ?”

“Mr. Governor of Hong Kong, this is indeed the case, but at present, we do not have enough funds?” Zheng Yutong followed.

“This is not a problem. I have discussed it with Mr. Hong Kong Governor. Anyone who is willing to buy back his company’s stocks can get a preferential loan from HSBC with very low interest rates.” HSBC’s new president Davis said. (End of chapter)