dkrc Chapter 29 Anti-takeover, Cheung Kong Holdings!
Chapter 29 Anti-takeover, Cheung Kong Holdings!
"Dad, our family isn't short of money. Even if I lose this 100 million, we still have over a billion. Why are you worried about this?"
Gu Yuhan smiled and said, "I have a way out. Taking a gamble is no problem at all!" Gu Zhenguo was stunned. He thought about how Gu Yuhan had already helped him earn 800 million. Now, he thought about how Gu Yuhan was going to take out 100 million to gamble. Was that really a big deal?
"War breaks out, oil prices skyrocket!" Gu Yuhan said with a smile, "I won my bet!" Gu Zhenguo said, "Wait a minute, didn't you say 4.5 billion?"
"That's right!" Gu Yuhan said with a smile, "I'm collaborating with the Morgan Group, and they're making even more money, a full 30 billion US dollars. For this, they've signed a long-term cooperation agreement with me, and I get 5% of their profits, which is 1.5 billion!"
"What? You also have a partnership with the Morgan Group?" Gu Zhenguo was dumbfounded.
"Yes!" Gu Yuhan smiled and continued, "I've established a long-term cooperative relationship with the Morgan Group, mainly in finance, of course. I'll provide them with some analysis!"
Gu Zhen felt his head was spinning. "Why would they be willing to cooperate with you?" "Because cooperating with me is really profitable!" Gu Yuhan said with a smile, "This time they cooperated with me for 30 billion US dollars, what about next time? And the time after that? Maybe my predictions might fail once, twice, three times, but for Morgan, as long as my analysis is right once out of ten times, no, even once out of a hundred times, they'll make a killing!"
Gu Zhen felt his brain wasn't quite working properly. What Gu Yuhan had told him tonight was truly beyond his imagination. However, he quickly became excited.
What is this?
Is your son richer and more successful than you? What's so great about chartering a shipping magnate? Can a chartering a shipping magnate be richer than you?
Besides, what are these wealthy people most worried about? Isn't it their heirs?
He feared his heir would be a good-for-nothing, but now he had an exceptionally talented son. The excitement deep within Gu Zhen's heart was indescribable.
Gu Yuhan continued, "Currently, I left 1.5 billion in the US, partly to acquire some American technology equipment, and I brought back the remaining 3 billion!"
Gu Zhenguo quickly calculated and asked, "Then, converted to Hong Kong dollars, is that 36 billion?" "About that, the capital I brought back is about 24 billion!" Gu Yuhan said with a smile. "You brat, why didn't you say so earlier?" Gu Zhenguo suddenly felt very confident. "Dad, you didn't ask me!" Gu Yuhan said with a smile.
Gu Zhenguo pondered for a moment: "You just said not to alert the enemy, what did you mean by that?"
Gu Yuhan laughed: "Li Ka-shing couldn't possibly come up with 1 billion in one go. I bet he borrowed a lot, not just from himself, but also from his father-in-law, Zhuang Jing'an. This sum of money can only be held in his Cheung Kong Holdings!"
"If we borrow from HSBC, we can't hide it from Li Ka-shing!" Gu Yuhan analyzed. "Either Li Ka-shing speeds up the acquisition, and we'll need to spend more money. But what if we change our approach?"
"Huh?" Gu Zhenguo reacted, "You mean acquiring Cheung Kong Holdings?" "That's right!" Gu Yuhan said with a smile, "We won't borrow from HSBC, we'll act as if we're completely under Li Ka-shing's thumb, and then we'll secretly acquire Cheung Kong Holdings' shares!"
At this point, Gu Yuhan clenched his fist and said with a smile, "He's acquiring Hutchison Whampoa, the more shares the better. We'll just take over Cheung Kong Holdings directly. In the end, Hutchison Whampoa will still be ours. We should even thank Li Ka-shing for helping us acquire Hutchison Whampoa!"
Gu Zhenguo laughed: "Okay!"
At this point, Gu Zhenguo paused slightly, then continued, "However, we still need to confirm whether Li Jiacheng was indeed behind this!"
Two days later
At first, Gu Zhenguo was still skeptical, but when the five billion Hong Kong dollars actually arrived in his account, he truly believed it.
My son has really made a fortune.
Looking at the five billion in his account, he couldn't help but swallow hard. His son, on the other hand, had nearly four billion US dollars. Gu Yuhan was writing furiously, translating the professional books he had bought from the United States into Chinese. He had recruited a group of science and engineering talents in China, but some domestic technologies still lagged behind those abroad, which required Gu Yuhan to put in some effort to translate them.
Simply being a landlord isn't Gu Yuhan's goal. He wants to pursue a technology-driven path, and at the very least, he, as the boss, needs to understand some theoretical knowledge. Otherwise, he'll easily be fooled by his subordinates. At the same time, he also needs to improve the technical skills of the domestic talent pool.
Gu Zhenguo looked at his son and couldn't help but sigh; his son seemed to be becoming more and more diligent and eager to learn. Just then, a knock came at the door, and Tang Ning quickly came to Gu Zhenguo's side: "Boss, we've investigated and found out. In the past two days, Hutchison's stock trading on the exchange has increased by 1.4 times compared to two days ago. In addition, two Hutchison shareholders have sold their shares!"
"Sold?"
Gu Yuhan, who was in charge of translation, raised his eyebrows slightly and asked, "Who did you sell it to?" "Li Jiacheng!" Tang Fei quickly replied.
"It really was him!" Gu Yuhan laughed. It seemed he still hadn't given up on Huang Zei. Gu Zhenguo nodded, "Okay, I understand. You can go now!"
Tang Ning turned and left. Then, Gu Zhenguo looked at Gu Yuhan and said, "Son, tell me, what should we do next?"
Gu Yuhan hesitated for a moment, then decisively shook his head: "No need. If Li Jiacheng wants to acquire it, then let him acquire it!"
At this point, Gu Yuhan smiled and said, "Not only do we need to get him to acquire it, but we also need to make some noise. For example, we could say that we've allocated a lot of funds to the Tseung Kwan O project, or that you gave me a lot of money to continue investing in movies. In short, we need to create the illusion that our family is spending money everywhere!"
Gu Zhenguo was slightly taken aback, but reacted quickly: "Is this a feigned weakness?"
Gu Yuhan smiled: "Yes, that's right. Li Ka-shing likes Hutchison so much, good, very good. Then let him acquire it. Dad, since they want to acquire it, then no matter what, we must give them this opportunity. If we don't give him the chance to acquire it, he won't give up easily!"
As he spoke, Gu Yuhan smiled and said unhurriedly, "I'm planning to make a big splash here and acquire Rediffusion Television. It won't be a small amount of money. In short, I'm going to establish this image of a spendthrift!"
"If you're such a spendthrift, then everyone in Hong Kong is a waste!" Gu Zhen couldn't help but laugh. To be honest, he really enjoyed the feeling of scheming behind people's backs.
Having ample capital at our disposal, the feeling of completely manipulating our enemies is incredibly satisfying. "Dad, don't rush. From today onwards, we'll establish our authority. Whatever the Gu family sets its sights on, no one else should dare to covet it!"
At this point, Gu Yuhan paused slightly: "If he tries to steal from our Gu family, then we shouldn't hold back. Beat him, beat him hard, make him hurt, hurt him to the point of collapse. If he wants to play, then go all the way, play to his heart's content!" Gu Zhenguo laughed and said, "That's right!"
Gu Yuhan looked at Gu Zhenguo and said, "Dad, you still need to keep an eye on Cheung Kong Holdings' stock. Remember, don't alert them. The later we expose ourselves, the better!"
"You don't need to tell me, I definitely know!" Gu Zhen smiled slightly and said calmly, "Would I let the Gu family suffer a loss?" Gu Yuhan also smiled slightly, but in his heart, he was calculating how to give Li Jiacheng a ruthless blow. Thinking about it, he was actually quite looking forward to it.
The acquisition of Rediffusion Television was definitely not a spur-of-the-moment decision by Gu Yuhan; it was a well-thought-out plan.
As a time traveler, no one understood the importance of media better than him. Before the advent of the Internet age, the largest platform was television. As long as he controlled the television platform, he could completely shape the public opinion most favorable to him for at least the next thirty years.
Perhaps it wouldn't work elsewhere, but in Hong Kong, it certainly wouldn't be a problem. Of course, Gu Yuhan also had his own ideas; he wanted to make his television station available throughout Southeast Asia, gradually expanding and increasing his influence.
He wants to build his own media empire.
Television is only one part; there are also newspapers and other media outlets, which he needs to form his own matrix. As for providing filming locations for his actors, that's somewhat secondary. Gu Yuhan arranged for his team to frequently contact RTV (Rediffusion Television). Ultimately, the negotiated price was 500 million yuan. This is no small sum.
However, Gu Yuhan readily took out 500 million yuan. On the one hand, the parent company of Rediffusion Television had indeed suffered a huge loss, and on the other hand, 500 million yuan was not a small amount.
Thus, they easily and directly acquired Rediffusion Television. For Gu Yuhan, this was an incredible windfall. A few years later, he sold it to several Australian conglomerates, starting at a billion dollars. Later, when he sold it to Southeast Asian tycoon Qiu Deba, it doubled in value to two billion dollars.
Five hundred million—that's an absolute steal! Gu Yuhan then renamed Rediffusion Television to Guangming Television.
The TV station's logo was initially a rising sun, but it looked like the flag of an island nation, so Gu Yuhan rejected it outright. They then redesigned it, initially adding a phoenix on top of the sun.
Gu Yuhan complained that it looked too complicated. In the end, after round after round of revisions, what was finally presented was a simple line drawing of a phoenix spreading its wings and taking flight.
After thinking for a moment, Gu Yuhan changed the name of Guangming TV to Phoenix TV. This was after he acquired Rediffusion Television.
Gu Yuhan immediately convened an internal meeting.
On the one hand, all the senior executives of Phoenix TV stayed to carry out an internal optimization. Basically, all the white-collar workers were driven away by Gu Yuhan.
Those who stayed were all from Hong Kong.
A purge was conducted targeting non-Chinese individuals, while a review of senior Chinese personnel was carried out to clarify the tasks of each department. Gu Yuhan's consistent approach was: I will design the top-level institutional framework to increase efficiency, reduce internal corruption, and strengthen supervision. I've designed the framework; you can then create whatever you want within it.
Part of it involves personnel arrangements, followed by clarifying the production model of television programs, as well as the design of variety shows, the filming of TV dramas, and revenue from advertising, etc.
The general manager of Asia Television was Wong Sai-chiu. This guy was capable; even after taking over RTV, Gu Yuhan didn't replace him. Historically, Wong Sai-chiu launched three long-running drama series during prime time, completely destroying TVB's diversified programming, forcing TVB to start producing its own series.
A sequel is needed.
The rural drama "The Land of Love," which premiered in September 1980, quickly gained a significant market share and its ratings soared. Meanwhile, TVB's "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" suffered dismal ratings, becoming the first drama to be canceled before its premiere. However, RTV's parent company continued to suffer losses and was eventually sold. This person is capable. Huang Xizhao initially prepared for a change of leadership, but suddenly found himself doing well and being promoted directly to general manager.
That's fine...
Gu Yuhan actually managed to drive all the white people away. Suddenly, he was second only to the president at Phoenix TV. Huang Xizhao suddenly realized that he seemed to be able to carry out sweeping reforms and put his ideas into practice.
Huang Xizhao was dumbfounded by this situation.
It's like, I don't know what happened, but suddenly my boss, that awful white guy, just disappeared and got promoted all of a sudden.
Then, Gu Yuhan asked Huang Xizhao to arrange the manpower while he selected the team himself. Huang Xizhao was immediately excited; this happiness had come too suddenly. Gu Yuhan's intervention mainly focused on reforming the system. Phoenix TV was divided into three parts by Gu Yuhan.
One aspect is television drama production. Gu Yuhan combined Sun Moon Film and Television to form Phoenix Film and Television, which produces both movies and television dramas. Artists are still handled by Oriental Entertainment. Phoenix TV mainly handles procurement, which can be done through Phoenix Film and Television or other film and television companies.