Chapter 394 Land Holdings Group's 10.78 Billion Hong Kong Dollars in Cash
Besides Li Jiacheng, other real estate tycoons of Hong Kong such as Kwok Tak-seng, Lee Shau Kee, Cheng Yu-tung, and Chen Songqing also called Lin Haoran. Their objective was clear: they hoped to acquire some of the premium real estate projects. After all, Land Holdings Group's projects were famous for their quality in Hong Kong. Even the plots considered less prime by Land Holdings Group were seen by many other real estate companies as very high-quality projects.
However, Lin Haoran uniformly instructed them to contact Ma Shiming for negotiations. Even Robert Kuok called to inquire about the situation and proactively offered financial support, but Lin Haoran politely declined. Their proactive outreach was within Lin Haoran's expectations. After all, the whole point of spreading the rumors was to attract these Hong Kong real estate giants to come to him.
The thirty or so projects intended for sale involved over 4.8 billion Hong Kong dollars, which seemed like a huge amount. Yet, when divided among the major real estate companies, it wasn't overwhelming at all.
After spending more than an hour next to the phone, Lin Haoran finally left the study. By then, the breakfast on the table had long been cleared away by the maids, but he had eaten enough already, so he didn't mind.
At this moment, Lin Haoran's face was full of smiles. Cui Zilong had truly not let him down. In less than 24 hours, the first task he had assigned was already completed perfectly. Next, without any surprises, many journalists would surely want to interview him. But given that this was based on a rumor, speaking too much could easily lead to mistakes. The best approach was to refuse all interviews.
Thus, Lin Haoran decided not to leave his house for the next few days. He would stay at home, waiting for the bank information to be collected and properly analyze which bank would be the best acquisition target.
To stave off boredom, Lin Haoran called Guan Jiahui and asked her to come over and accompany him for a few days. Half an hour later, Guan Jiahui drove up to the Lin family villa on Stubbs Road.
Over the next two to three days, the rumors about Lin Haoran's financial crisis grew even more intense. After all, Lin Haoran was now recognized as the richest man in Hong Kong. That title was no small matter. So when such rumors broke out, it naturally caused widespread disbelief and shock.
Just as Lin Haoran had predicted, many media outlets contacted Ma Shiming, Chen Shoulin, and Burton through intermediaries, hoping to interview Lin Haoran. All these requests were refused. Lin Haoran had no intention of accepting any interviews, not even from his own Oriental Daily News or TVB.
Every day, Ma Shiming would report in detail the progress of the real estate sales.
On the first day, Land Holdings Group successfully sold 8 real estate projects, recovering 1.768 billion Hong Kong dollars.
On the second day, they did even better: 12 projects were sold, bringing in 1.997 billion Hong Kong dollars.
On the third day, 7 more projects were sold, recovering 785 million Hong Kong dollars.
On the fourth day, another 9 projects were sold, bringing in 1.05 billion Hong Kong dollars.
Even Lin Haoran hadn't expected that in just four days, all the targeted projects would be completely snapped up by more than twenty major Hong Kong real estate giants! Some took on projects individually, others teamed up to acquire them together.
Moreover, these real estate firms went crazy over certain projects located in relatively prime areas. Some projects had multiple companies bidding, resulting in competitive price surges.
In the end, the 36 real estate projects, originally estimated to sell for about 4.8 billion Hong Kong dollars, ended up selling for a whopping 5.6 billion Hong Kong dollars, exceeding expectations by 800 million Hong Kong dollars!
Including the previously sold five major projects, which brought in another 1.2 billion Hong Kong dollars, Land Holdings Group, ahead of the looming real estate crisis, managed to sell a large volume of assets. After taxes, they recovered a total of 6.8 billion Hong Kong dollars!
Considering Land Holdings Group had invested only about 3.2 billion Hong Kong dollars in these projects initially, they effectively made more than 3 billion Hong Kong dollars in pure profit!
The plan to spread rumors had succeeded brilliantly—it allowed rapid sales, high prices, and no adverse effect on the real estate market's general outlook. It was an incredibly successful strategy.
"Boss, if we had known earlier, we wouldn't have sold those five major projects so soon! Those could have fetched another two or three hundred million Hong Kong dollars more. Your strategy is honestly the simplest yet most dazzling one I've seen in all my years in the business world!" Ma Shiming said emotionally during a report to Lin Haoran.
"How much cash does the group have now?" Lin Haoran asked with a smile.
"Boss, if we include the 6.8 billion Hong Kong dollars just recovered, then we have a total of about 10.78 billion Hong Kong dollars. However, not all funds from the recent sales have been received yet; over 2 billion Hong Kong dollars are pending and will be settled within a month. The contracts state that projects can be handed over first, but ownership rights will only transfer once full payment is made," Ma Shiming reported quickly.
10.78 billion Hong Kong dollars—this amount was higher than the entire market capitalization of Land Holdings Group before privatization...
Hearing this, Lin Haoran felt like he was dreaming. If Land Holdings Group had remained a publicly listed company with this kind of massive cash reserve, its market cap could have easily surged past 20 billion Hong Kong dollars.
And now, the company was already deep into the privatization process. From the latest updates received from Watertory, the progress was extremely smooth. Every day, a large number of shareholders were coming forward to sell their shares.
Especially over the past few days, news from Watertory indicated that the number of shareholders voluntarily selling shares had surged. Lin Haoran now effectively controlled 96.8% of Land Holdings Group's shares, meaning only about 3.2% remained in the hands of minority shareholders. He could already declare the privatization successful but was deliberately delaying the announcement.
Lin Haoran planned to officially announce it after he returned from the United States.
Moreover, the increase in shareholders selling their shares could also be attributed to the spread of the rumor. Shareholders feared Lin Haoran might genuinely face financial trouble and could act against their interests.
Besides, with Lin Haoran holding such an overwhelming majority, even if they kept their shares, they would have no say in the group's future. Thus, more and more shareholders rushed to sell.
Once privatization was completed, the more than 10 billion Hong Kong dollars would essentially become Lin Haoran's own funds.
Although a significant portion would eventually go toward debt repayment, none of those debts were due yet, giving Lin Haoran full flexibility to use the funds in the meantime.
Indeed, business was a world of both opportunities and risks. Their ability to seize this opportunity stemmed largely from precise market judgment and swift action.
"Good. Now that these projects have been sold off and the funds are coming back, the group's next priority is to accelerate construction of the remaining thirty or so projects. We must ensure quality!" Lin Haoran instructed with a smile.
"Boss, right now, Land Holdings Group is focusing on these remaining projects. After selling off those 41 projects, we are left with about 30 key projects. Quality control is our top priority. You can rest assured! Several of these projects are critical to Land Holdings Group's century-long vision, so we've increased manpower at the sites. Although our construction teams still have excess capacity, we are addressing that too.
Now, our construction company under Land Holdings Group is aggressively taking external projects. With Hong Kong's real estate market booming and a general shortage of construction workers, we're not worried about having no work. For example, CK Hutchison Holdings doesn't have enough manpower, so they've subcontracted parts of their projects to us. Sun Hung Kai Properties, Henderson Land Development, Hutchison Whampoa, and Jianning Group have all given us work packages due to tight schedules.
This not only reduces our burden but also keeps our skilled workers employed. I really don't want to lay them off just because we have fewer internal projects," Ma Shiming reported.
Lin Haoran nodded approvingly. "You've handled this very well. Skilled workers like these shouldn't be fired lightly. Even if a real estate crisis does hit Hong Kong, it won't last long. When the market rebounds, we'll be able to acquire more premium projects, and labor demand will naturally rise again."
From memory, the upcoming Hong Kong real estate bubble would last only about two years. After that, the market would recover rapidly and develop even faster.
Moreover, a real estate crisis didn't mean construction projects needed to halt altogether. Normally, a project would take two to three years to complete, sometimes even longer.
After chatting with Ma Shiming for a while longer, Lin Haoran finally ended the call.
10.78 billion Hong Kong dollars—such a massive sum made Lin Haoran extremely happy.
Land Holdings Group itself had debts totaling 4.8 billion Hong Kong dollars, some due within a year, others within two to three years.
Meanwhile, Lin Haoran's personal debts—33 billion Hong Kong dollars with Citibank and 22 billion with HSBC—still had plenty of time before repayment deadlines.
Thus, once privatization succeeded, this 10.78 billion Hong Kong dollars would be at Lin Haoran's complete disposal for quite some time.
An overwhelming sense of security and confidence filled Lin Haoran.
This money would be enough to cover all his debts and still leave him with substantial funds for future operations.
Besides, the thirty or so remaining projects had already received significant early-stage investment; the upcoming expenses would be relatively modest compared to the overall project budgets.
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