In Hong Kong in the 1980s, real estate development was in full swing, and asia's tallest building, "Central Plaza", was erected, and behind it was the powerful "Sun Hung Kai Properties".
For most of the nearly 30 years from the 1990s to the present, the Kwok family has occupied the second largest place in Hong Kong on the Forbes Rich List, after Li Ka-shing, and for a long time, the second richest man in Asia.
At that time, Sun Hung Kai, built by Kwok Tak Seng, was one of the five tigers in Hong Kong's real estate industry, and the Kwok family was already the leading giant in Hong Kong.
In 1990, 79-year-old Guo Desheng died of a heart attack, and at the funeral, Li Ka-shing, Bao Yugang, Fok Ying-tung, Zheng Yutong, Li Shau-ki and other bigwigs supported him. It can be seen that Kwok Tak-sheng's position in the Hong Kong business community is not ordinary.
After Kwok Tak-shing's death, the eldest son, Kwok Ping-hsiang, became Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Sun Hung Kai Properties Group, while the second son, Kwok Ping-giang, and the third son, Kwok Ping-yeung, became Vice Chairman and Managing Director.
Under Kwok's leadership, in just two years, Sun Hung Kai Properties' market capitalization surpassed Li Ka-shing's Cheung Shing Properties to become the largest property company in Hong Kong.
His two younger brothers became his right and left arms, and Guo Bingxiang once said: "My luckiest thing is that I have two brothers, no matter what happens, they are negotiable." ”
The youngest brother, Guo Binglian, once said to the outside world:
"Fortunately, there are three brothers, and the most important thing is for everyone to decide, because our three brothers are about the same age, a difference of one or two years, and everyone has been in the same school since childhood, so everyone has a good relationship, and it can be said that they are close comrades-in-arms and eternal comrades-in-arms."
At this time, the family is harmonious and works together, and in the eyes of outsiders, it is also a look of brotherly affection and pity for each other.
However, this state of the world has only been quiet for less than 7 years.
In 1997, a prince was kidnapped, so that the three brothers had a disagreement, there was a deep rift, decades of brotherly feelings were burned to the ground, the sense of trust was no longer, and they turned against each other.
One
Born in 1911, Guo Desheng graduated from elementary school and ran a wholesale department store with his father. He was bright and comprehensible from an early age, and soon learned to do business.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he fled with his family to Hong Kong. Later, a grocery store was opened in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong, dealing in the wholesale of groceries and industrial raw materials; in 1952, the Hung Cheong Import and Export Company was established.
Later, Guo Desheng obtained the exclusive agency right of the Japanese YKK zipper, which was at the time of the booming Garment Industry in Hong Kong, the business was continuous, and he was known as the king of foreign miscellaneous goods and accumulated the first bucket of gold.
In 1958, Guo Desheng and his friend Lee Shau Kee entered the real estate industry.
Lee Shau Kee, born in 1928, spent his early years as an apprentice at a silver trumpet opened by his father in Guangzhou.
In 1948, at the age of 20, Lee Shau Kee came to Hong Kong from Guangzhou south with 1,000 Hong Kong dollars to buy and sell foreign exchange gold in gold shops.
Since 1958, Lee Shau Kee has been engaged in real estate development in partnership with Kwok Tak Shing Shing and Fung King Hee, and in 1963, sun hung kai company was founded. Kwok Tak Seng is the Chairman of the Board, and Lee Shau Kee and Fung King Hee are the Vice Chairmen.
In 1958, the 47-year-old Guo Desheng co-founded Yongye Co., Ltd. with his friends Feng Jingxi, Lee Shau Kee and others, thus setting foot in the real estate industry. In 1963, the three invested HK$1 million each and Wing Ye was restructured into Sun Hung Kai Enterprises Limited.
Sun Hung Kai Properties Development Limited was incorporated in July 1972 and listed on 23 August with a market capitalisation of HK$400 million.
After the three separated, Feng and Li became independent, and Guo Desheng continued to stick to Sun Hung Kai.
After Guo Desheng became rich, he disciplined his three sons very strictly, and in order not to let his sons get contaminated with stupid habits, the three sons took the bus from school by themselves.
Like the average family, pocket money is very little for a week. Sometimes after playing, the three brothers want to buy a bottle of soda, and they don't have enough money.
However, Guo Desheng is also very willing to spend money on the education of his children.
After graduating from high school in Hong Kong, all three brothers were sent to study abroad, and all were required to complete a master's degree.
The eldest son, Guo Bingxiang, received a master's degree in civil engineering from Imperial College London, University of London.
The second eldest, Guo Bingjiang, obtained a master's degree in business administration from the University of London;
The third brother, Guo Binglian, is even more powerful, a double master's degree in Cambridge and Harvard, he took a master's degree in law at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, and a master's degree in business administration at Harvard University in the United States.
Compared with his two younger brothers, Guo Bingxiang studied a science and engineering department like Civil Engineering, while both younger brothers received a master's degree in business administration.
Therefore, among the bosses of the real estate industry, the second generation of the Guo family has a high degree of education.
According to the rules of the Hong Kong giants, Guo Bingxiang is the eldest son, and if there is no moth, he will inherit the family property left by his father. He was raised by his father as an heir from an early age.
Two
As the eldest son, Guo Bingxiang's first marriage was arranged by his father Guo Desheng, and his wife was Gu Zhirong, the daughter of Hong Kong entrepreneur Gu Linqing.
Gu Zhirong graduated from the prestigious Stanford University and returned to Hong Kong to take up the position of Kowloon District Manager of HSBC. However, the appearance is more ordinary.
Walter
In 1982, the 32-year-old Guo Bingxiang and Gu Zhirong held a grand and grand wedding, and the wedding was publicly announced through a Hong Kong newspaper, and the wedding was held in California, usa, costing a huge amount of money, and Hong Kong entrepreneur tycoons all came to congratulate them.
At that time, Guo Bingxiang was extremely reluctant, because Guo Bingxiang met Li Tianying when he was studying in The United Kingdom and fell in love with him. Li Tianying comes from a medical family and looks very beautiful.
Guo Bingxiang and Li Tianying
After returning to Hong Kong, his father did not care that he had a favorite person and arranged a marriage between the giants.
In fact, it can be seen from here that Guo Desheng at that time was very hopeful that the helmsmanship of the family property would be handed over to this prince in the future.
At the beginning, the gambling king He Hongshen intended to train he Chaoqiong, the eldest daughter of the second house, as a successor, so he arranged for her to marry Xu Jinheng. But the other children below, the gambling king did not arrange a marriage between the giants.
But the dog's blood is that only half a year after marriage, Guo Bingxiang publicly announced his divorce, so that Guo Desheng's face was suddenly completely gone.
Not only that, in order to marry his former lover Li Tianying, Guo Bingxiang also ran away from home, typically not loving to see the mountain and loving the beauty.
Guo Desheng was annoyed, so he decided to depose the prince and began to carefully cultivate two other sons.
It is said that after Guo Bingxiang ran away from home, he built another love nest with Li Tianying and gave birth to three children in a row.
Later, the old man was not in good health in the late 80s, Guo Bingxiang returned to the family with his wife and children, saw his grandchildren, and the old man's anger also subsided, recognizing Li Tianying, and Guo Bingxiang was able to re-enter the family business.
However, he did not expect that in the future he would lose the status of prince again.
Three
In 1996, Zhang Ziqiang and his accomplices kidnapped Li Ka-shing's eldest son, Li Zeju, asked for 2 billion yuan, and finally negotiated the ransom to 1.038 billion Hong Kong dollars.
This huge amount of money was quickly squandered by Zhang Ziqiang's gang, and most of it was donated to Macau and American casinos, and Zhang Ziqiang had no money. He and his friends decided to vote one more time.
In September 1997, 47-year-old Guo Bingxiang drove home as usual, and at a bend in the Victoria Peak Tunnel, he was surrounded by vehicles in front of and behind him, and then hijacked to a village house. Behind it is Zhang Ziqiang's gang that did it.
The kidnappers offered 2 billion.
Guo Bingxiang was very stubborn, at first he did not cooperate with Zhang Ziqiang to call the family to ask for ransom, and also told the kidnappers to release people quickly, otherwise the consequences would be at their own risk, but the kidnappers had the experience of the last success, would they give up without authorization?
After the threat failed, the kidnappers beat him badly, and then Guo Bingxiang was stripped naked and stuffed into a small wooden box with only air holes.
Due to the Guo family's constant bargaining, the naked Guo Bingxiang was locked in a small wooden box for six days and six nights, and even the defecation was solved inside, during which he only relied on the leftover food given by Zhang Ziqiang and his gang to save his life.
When the news of his abduction reached home, the old mother, Kwong Xiaoqing, sat down to hold an emergency family meeting. A group of relatives gathered together, each playing their own little calculations.
As an old lady Guo, she definitely hopes to rescue her eldest son as soon as possible, and can do whatever it takes.
Just like the previous year, When Li Zeju was kidnapped by these gangs, Li Ka-shing was reluctant to call the police and would rather pay a huge ransom to redeem his son.
However, the Li family's affairs were much simpler at that time, Li Ka-shing was still at the helm, and he had the right to speak.
However, the Guo family is much more complicated within. The old father had died at the time, the family fund was managed by the mother, and the three sons all worked for Sun Hung Kai Company, holding different important positions.
The two younger brothers do not seem to be very enthusiastic about taking huge sums of money to save their brothers.
Li Tianying was not involved in the business and was not on the list of beneficiaries of the family fund at that time, so she had no say.
The Guo family's business is so big that 2 billion yuan can also be taken, and when it was proposed to embezzle money from the family fund to save people, the two younger brothers believed that the ransom was so high that it should not be allocated from the family fund. Therefore, the discussion came and went, resulting in the prince living in the wooden box for 6 days, and the ransom had not yet been sent.
When did the prince of the grand family, who had lived in a mansion compound since birth, suffer such a sin? Even defecation can only be solved in a wooden box, and it is estimated that you will live in it for many years.
Finally, on the seventh day, Li Tianying scraped together 600 million yuan and single-handedly found Zhang Ziqiang to negotiate and let the kidnappers release.
To tell the truth, such a big thing, the richest family in Hong Kong, actually let a housewife face the tough kidnappers, it is a bit strange.
Since then, Guo Bingxiang's psychology has been severely damaged, and the shadow is certainly inevitable. What's worse is that he has since become suspicious of his brothers and no longer trusts them. Guo Bingxiang's relationship with the two brothers became increasingly strained.
What is even more bizarre is that when his wife went alone to negotiate with the kidnappers and rescue him, even the Hong Kong citizens admired the bravery of this weak woman.
However, after Guo Bingxiang was rescued, his temperament also changed greatly, he became suspicious, and his relationship with his wife Li Tianying also began to be estranged.
You know, in order to marry Li Tianying, he did not hesitate to tear his face with his father, did not hesitate to end the marriage arranged by his father, and did not hesitate to elope, but also to walk with Li Tianying, whom he loved.
He began to have a red face confidant Tang Jinxin, the two are business relationship acquaintance, Tang Jinxin in 1982, and Liu Guolin ended 11 years of marriage life, became a single mother, she is 3 years older than Guo Bingxiang.
In short, the relationship between the two is delicate, and Li Tianying has adopted a dismissive attitude towards it.
Kwong Xiaoqing strongly opposed Guo Bingxiang's intimate relationship with Tang Jinxin, and even set "eleven family rules" for this purpose in 2002:
Can not divorce Tang Jinxin and his current wife Li Tianying,
Prohibiting Tang Kam-xin and his children from joining Sun Hung Kai Company and participating in the affairs and management of the company,
Tang Jinxin was also not allowed to enter the Imperial Garden Hotel and two offices, etc.
After this family rule was established, it was also witnessed and signed by the three brothers. The rich old lady has never been a vegetarian.
Four
In 2007, 57-year-old Kwok Insisted on letting 60-year-old Tang Jinxin join the board of sun hung kai. His intentions were clear.
This led to strong opposition from the second brother Guo Bingjiang and the third brother Guo Binglian, and even Guo Bingxiang's mother, Kuang Xiaoqing, was on the side of her brothers at this time.
Guo Binglian
In February 2008, Guo Bingjiang and Guo Binglian invited doctors from the United States and asked the American doctor to issue an appraisal document, which read in black and white: Guo Bingxiang suffers from "manic depression."
On this reason, they forced the eldest brother Guo Bingxiang to take a "vacation", and then Guo Bingjiang and Guo Binglian joined hands with their mother Kwong Xiaoqing to convene a board of directors to remove Guo Bingxiang from his post.
In February 2008, Sun Hung Kai Properties issued an announcement to the outside world, saying that the chairman and chief executive officer of the company, Guo Bingxiang, was temporarily on leave for personal reasons, and that the duties and responsibilities were shared by Guo Bingjiang and Guo Binglian...
Unwilling to be expelled from Sun Hung Kai, Kwok Ping-xiang immediately found an authoritative doctor in Hong Kong, applied to the Hong Kong court for a "no change order" at the first time, and sued the two younger brothers for defamation, but was rejected by the Hong Kong court.
In 2010, the 81-year-old Mrs. Guo felt that she was old and could not bear to see such a confrontation between her brothers, so she divided the family property into four, and the old lady, Guo Bingjiang, Guo Binglian, and Li Tianying each took a copy, and Guo Bingxiang was excluded.
He was originally the eldest son, that is, the "prince", but he was swept out of the house, why should he be embarrassed? Not only are interests restricted, but even face can't be saved, right? Therefore, Guo Bingxiang planned to draw his sword and fight back.
Kwok Ping-xiang, using his own internal information, subsequently appealed to the Hong Kong court, pointing out that his younger brothers Kwok Ping-giang and Kwok Ping-lian were suspected of bribing Hui Shiren, the former chief administrative officer of the Hong Kong Provident Fund Authority, in a real estate transaction.
The result is:
Retired Hong Kong Financial Secretary Hui Shi Yan, sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison,
Former senior vice president of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Kwan Hung Sang, was sentenced to five years.
Kwok was sentenced to five years in prison and could not serve as a director of Sun Hung Kai for five years.
In addition, Sun Hung Kai also had two other executive directors sentenced to prison, and after the verdict was pronounced, the public was in an uproar, and the infighting, mutual tearing and internal friction of the giants were clearly revealed.
In order to fight this lawsuit, nearly HK$1 billion was spent, setting a new high for Hong Kong's legal fees, which simply refreshed the cognition of ordinary people.
Sun Hung Kai Properties' public image plummeted, and its stock price plummeted. This gave Li Ka-shing and others the opportunity to kick in the air and thus catch up later.
What you can't get, you don't want others to be better. As the eldest son of a rich man, Guo Bingxiang also got a master's degree in the Uk, and he is still not exempt from vulgarity.
At this point, he was still not satisfied, and on the issue of the distribution of family property, he also sued his old mother, Kwong Xiaoqing, in court.
Why did he take his old mother, who had raised him, to court? This should start from Guo Desheng's arrangement of family property before his death.
Before Guo Desheng's death that year, in order not to weaken the strength of Sun Hung Kai Properties, he packaged the family assets into a fund, and the family members were tied into a community of interests, and the agent was Guo Desheng's wife, Kwong Xiaoqing.
At this time, Mrs. Guo was only 61 years old, not too old.
After being sued by her own son, in 2012, mrs. Guo, 83, had to redistribute the family fund. The three brothers received the same number of shares.
On 27 January 2014, Kwong reduced her shareholding in SHKP by 173 million shares, reducing her shareholding from 31.32% to 24.93%. On the same day, Guo Bingxiang increased his shareholding by 173 million shares, increasing his shareholding ratio from 0.82% to 7.21%.
Kwong Xiaoqing kept 150 billion yuan for himself, and then divided the remaining 150 billion yuan to the three Guo Binglian brothers.
In fact, in addition to the 300 billion allocated, their trust funds have at least 300 billion or more assets.
Kwok received the same stake but was excluded from The Power Center of Sun Hung Kai. This giant drama has finally come to an end.
With Li Ka-shing in Hong Kong as an example, his inheritance was very successful, allowing the eldest son Of Cheng to inherit Cheung Kong Industries and Hutchison Whampoa, while handing over the investment business and new business to the younger son Li Zekai, and also establishing a Li Ka Shing Foundation focusing on the field of public welfare and charity.
Five
Guo Bingxiang, who got the same shares, restarted his business at the age of 62 and founded the "Imperial Group". As can be seen from the name, he is ambitious and intends to build an empire.
In 2010, he first accepted an invitation from Lee Chak Ju, vice chairman of Cheung Kong Industries, to jointly develop a residential project in Argyle Street, Hong Kong, and later invested in a residential land plot with Lai Sun Development Chairman Lam Kin Yue for HK$2.868 billion.
Tang Jinxin has become his right-hand man again at this time, targeting the mainland real estate market.
Later, however, for some reason, he drifted away from this red-faced confidant, and on the contrary, his relationship with his wife and children became closer and closer, and he often traveled abroad together.
In 2016, his younger brother Guo Bingjiang was granted bail, perhaps time can cure everything, perhaps as he grew older, Guo Bingxiang felt some regret for his original righteous act of killing relatives, perhaps he felt that it was not easy to start a business alone, in short, he met with Guo Bingjiang, iced the previous suspicions, shook hands and made peace.
This move is probably for the sake of several of his own children. After all, in the business field, especially in the real estate industry, huddled together for heating is the usual means. Even Fok Yingdong has the strength to join hands with other Hong Kong tycoons in some real estate projects.
On August 7, 2018, 68-year-old Guo Bingxiang suddenly fainted at his home in Hong Kong and was in a coma in the hospital for more than 50 days, without even having time to make a will, leaving more than 50 billion yuan in assets and dying.
At that time, the old mother was still alive and sober, and the old lady instructed: Guo Bingxiang's wife Li Tianying received 30 billion yuan, and the remaining more than 2 million yuan was divided by three children. His eldest son, Guo Jijun, began to serve as a director of the Imperial Group and Imperial Development.
Because the second brother was imprisoned for 5 years, the crown prince was deposed, and Guo Binglian later became the actual helmsman of Sun Hung Kai.
Up to now, Sun Hung Kai's total assets are as high as 796.4 billion, the total liabilities are only 196.7 billion, the net assets are about 600 billion, and the debt ratio is only about 30%. Many people say that Sun Hung Kai is the world's largest real estate company.
Guo Binglian has 20 buildings and 15 shopping malls in Hong Kong, of which the two tallest buildings in Hong Kong, the World Commerce Centre and the International Finance Centre, are jointly joined by Guo Binglian. Sun Hung Kai's properties in Hong Kong have an annual rent of about $20 billion, and in the Mainland, they also have about $5 billion in rental income per year. Sun Hung Kai's annual profit is between 30 billion and 50 billion.
The three brothers of the Guo family
Guo Desheng started from scratch and built a business empire, but in terms of the inheritance of family property, he put his three sons in the same company to hold management positions, which laid the groundwork for future family infighting and internal friction in the enterprise.
The three brothers, who were once brothers and sisters, later fell for power and fell for each other, and there was a series of infighting, fortunately, Sun Hung Kai Company was not seriously injured and still developed strongly.
Human feelings are like thin sheets of paper, and the world is like a new chess game.
However, the three brothers lost a lot of things in the protracted infighting, the second brother ate two years in prison, the eldest brother was expelled from the family business, and the most beneficial was the youngest brother.
In the face of interests, sometimes family affection also needs to take a back seat.
The things inside the giants have always been superficial scenery, and the internal undercurrents are turbulent.
The picture comes from the Internet, invaded and deleted.
Reference: Bi Yajun: "Sorrow Guo Bingxiang: The Grievances of the Giants and the Fate of the Family"
More highlights from previous issues:
He Chaoqiong: The gambling king chose her as his successor, which is related to a fatal car accident in Portugal
The richest man in France is several times richer than Li Ka-shing, relying not on real estate, but on psychological needs