Hong Kong, a drunken fan of paper and gold, has created one Asian miracle after another, and a number of world-class rich people who have attracted attention have come into being. The Li Ka Shing family, the Lee Shau Kee family, the Kwok Tak Shing family and the Cheng Yu Tong family are all known as the "Four Great Families of Hong Kong", and their founders are well-known entrepreneurs who started from scratch, fought steadily and took advantage of the wind.
Behind every family, there is a legendary life story.
Late season is not guaranteed? Li Ka-shing family smoke cloud picture
On March 16, 2018, Changjiang Hutchison Industrial Co., Ltd. announced that its group founder Li Ka-shing officially retired, stepped down as the chairman of the company, and resigned as an executive director of the company.
Li Ka-shing himself stated that at the request of the Company's Board of Directors, he would serve as a senior adviser to the Company in order to continue to participate in the Company's major matters and provide advice. At this point, the era of "Li Chaoren", which lasted for nearly 70 years, officially came to an end.
Li Ka-shing's life can not be described as ups and downs, hard work and inspiration.
In 1939, due to the impact of the Japanese invasion of China, Li Ka-shing's family moved to Hong Kong and lived in his uncle's house. There is no need to say much about the taste, but the weather is unpredictable, and in 1943, Li Ka-shing's father died of overwork. Since then, the burden of supporting the family has fallen on the shoulders of Li Ka-shing, who was under the age of 15 that year.
He ran through the tea shop, and should have learned to look at people's eyes and act alertly at an ignorant and naïve age; and then he also worked as an apprentice in his uncle's company, which was also a job of serving tea and water, running errands;
After that, the salesman of the hardware factory, the "street boy" on the road, the general manager of the plastic company, etc. The life experience of the hardware factory has accumulated courage and broadened his horizons in the future.
In 1950, the 22-year-old Li Mezzanine founded the Yangtze River Plastic Factory, and the initial stage of entrepreneurship was full of difficulties, but fortunately he never gave up the idea.
In 1957, Li Ka-shing, who has a keen sense of business smell, accidentally found that an Italian company uses plastic raw materials to make plastic flowers, he thought carefully, plastic flowers are not more delicate and lush than flowers, but they are fresh in age, not dry and undefeated and cost-effective, and now plastic flowers are a big blank in the whole of Asia, and even in the world...
Thinking of this, Li Ka-shing took the lead in launching plastic flowers in Hong Kong, and sure enough, plastic flowers successfully seized the market for the first time on stage, low prices and realistic flower buds made it a hot product, and the Italian company's plan to fully dump the European and American markets also fell short, and Li Ka-shing has since won the name of "Plastic Flower King".
Li Ka-shing's business journey since then has been smooth sailing, and the Yangtze River Plastic Factory has truly confirmed the deep meaning of the name "The Yangtze River does not choose a thin stream, so it can be vast".
Li Ka-shing, who made a lot of money, began to enter the real estate business, first cautiously purchasing the North Point and Chai Wan Jian Industrial Building in Hong Kong, and then purchasing a large amount of land in one fell swoop in the Hong Kong real estate riots in 1967, seizing the opportunity for the low tide of Jiang Real Estate to copy the bottom of the sky, and is laying the initial layout for the listing of Cheung Kong Industrial Group's bull riding.
Not to mention that since then, Li Ka-shing has purchased a 22.4% stake in the established British-funded trading house Hutchison Whampoa, purchased a controlling stake in the Hong Kong Electric Company, and entered overseas to obtain a 95% stake in the Canadian-based energy company Husky Petroleum, and a series of "superhuman" operations, and in 1986 Cheung Kong Industrial ranked first among the top ten chaebols in Hong Kong in just over thirty years.
However, Li Ka-shing's series of operations since then have surprised people. 2010 became a landmark year for the Li Ka Shing family, and during this year, Li Ka Shing received all the praises, insults, questions, and amazes.
At the beginning of 10 years, Li Ka-shing began to sell assets in Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, which according to later statistics exceeded 70% of the total assets of the Li Ka-shing family. Just as everyone was marveling at Li Ka-shing's big move, Li Ka-shing's eldest son, Li Zeju, sped up the pace of bottoming out Europe.
In 2010, Li Ka-shing spent £5.8 billion to buy Britain's power grid business from EDF by beating a phalanx of groups made up of Australia's Macquarie, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Canada's pensions. When the investment market patted his chest and said that "Li Ka-shing probably did not want to put eggs in a basket" to reassure himself, Li Ka-shing took another shot.
Less than a year after inheriting the heroic hand of the UK power grid business, Yangtze River Infrastructure successfully acquired the British water company at a cost of 2.41 billion pounds.
In 10 months, Changjiang Infrastructure was not satisfied with the existing acquisition endgame, and bought the British gas distribution network Walles for 645 million pounds. This undoubtedly declares that from now on, a quarter of the uk's population will use the Lee family's natural gas, and the Hong Kong Li Ka-shing family will also control nearly 30% of the UK's natural gas market.
Seeing that Li Ka-shing actually used 44.40% of his value to acquire the British water and electricity infrastructure industry, the major British media could not help but say: "He bought half of the Uk." ”
What to do after buying half of the UK? Li Ka-shing's ambitions do not stop there.
On the one hand, the second son Li Zekai sold Chinese mainland property, and on the other hand, Li Ka-shing bought and built the London property. In the name of Hutchison Whampoa, Li Ka-shing invested £1 billion to win a mixed-use real estate project covering about 41.2 acres in Detford, which officially sounded the clarion call to enter British real estate.
Located on the site of the former British Navy Yard in London, Less than 3.2 kilometres from Canary Wharf, the commercial centre of London, Detford is home to HSBC, Standard Chartered, Reuters, Citi Deng Bank headquarters and business magnates, making it the London CBD.
Li Ka-shing's plan to develop up to 3,500 units of land shows Li Ka-shing's preference for the RISK-off market in the UK.
According to incomplete statistics, 99% of Li Ka-shing's assets are spread across 53 countries around the world, and the Li family can be seen in the United Kingdom, Israel, the Netherlands, Austria, Canada and other countries.
The strong entrant to the British market is a precursor to the sale of assets in Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, and more and more investors who follow the trend are following the pace of the Li family, whether it is Hong Kong or the mainland, they are complaining about Li Ka-shing.
Cheung Kong Industrial has slowed down the purchase of land in Hong Kong very early, in large part because as the Li family's business territory has become more and more vast, the Hong Kong people's "opposition to real estate hegemony" has become more and more intense, and in recent years, more and more people have realized that Li Ka-shing's real estate acquisitions have made huge profits, but the life of Hong Kong people has become more and more difficult.
As a result, the saying that "for every dollar spent in Hong Kong, fifty cents goes into Li Ka-shing's pocket" has intensified, and he has long been dwarfed from a self-made inspirational entrepreneur to a capitalist who exploits the interests of the Hong Kong people, and the Hong Kong Competition Law points to the monopolistic behavior of commercial giants, and if you are not careful, you will become the object of complaint.
Although Li Ka-shing has repeatedly assured that he has not abandoned Chinese mainland and the Hong Kong market, the movement of his assets has still attracted countless insults for his elderly, and the outside world has been active in the National Committee and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference for many years.
Investment is scolded, divestment must also be scolded, from the widely praised conscientious entrepreneur of the year to today's negative news-ridden old decay, Hong Kong media joked that Li Ka-shing "late festival is not guaranteed" can not be described as inappropriate.
The "fourth uncle" who chases after sun-heartedness - Lee Shau Kee
In the Hurun Rich List released in 2018, Lee Shau Kee was elected as the richest man in Hong Kong for the first time with a net worth of 215 billion, and Li Ka-shing, who was worth 190 billion yuan for the first time, was elected as the richest man in Hong Kong for many years, and the "Asian stock god" once again smiled at everyone with a bright posture.
Born in 1928, Lee Shau Kee is the same age as Li Ka-shing and travels in his family for four years, known as "Four Uncles". "Letter fourth uncle or letter superman" is the two major choices of Hong Kong shareholders, the two have fought for a lifetime, Lee Shau Kee even named his young son "Lee Ka Shing", homophone different words, saying out is "Lee Ka Shing is my son", can't help but amuse the two people's grudges.
Li Zhaoji was born in Shunde, Guangdong Province, a family of gold and silver, since he was a child in the shop to touch the gold abacus, he showed extraordinary mental arithmetic and business talent at the age of 6, at the age of 12 he was proficient in seeing gold, gold, melting gold a full set of craftsmanship, at a young age to follow his father to take care of the family shop, is a famous business wizard in the area.
For example, in 1948, Lee Shau Kee came to Hong Kong with a 1,000 yuan, and a few years later, 1,000 yuan became a legend of 200 billion yuan, and there are countless stories of such a genius-like figure, and it is surprising that the "fourth uncle" is an old antique who hates to hug his grandson.
Lee Shau Kee's emphasis on succession is well known throughout Hong Kong, which is related to Lee Shau Kee's birth in Shunde and the local emphasis on heirs.
His eldest daughter Li Peiwen had already had three daughters earlier, and Li Shaoji, who wanted to hold a male grandchild, did not care that her daughter did not plan to have children again, but only said solemnly: "If you give birth to a son, I will give you 10 million as a reward." ”
Such a naked preference for sons and daughters is lamentable, and what is even more surprising is that Li Peiwen risked the risk of an older mother to get pregnant again, and in 1997, she successfully gave birth to Li Jianzhong, completed the old father's expectation of holding her male grandson, and the reward of 10 million yuan also arrived as promised.
His eldest son, Li Jiajie, has not yet been married, but in order to meet the old father's wish to hold the eldest grandson, he borrowed a surrogate abroad, lianzhong sanyuan, in 2010 he brought three children back to the Li family, and confessed the history of the children with Li Shaoji.
Li Jiajie, who was not married and had no lover, brought him three male grandchildren! Lee Shau Kee was overjoyed, and now he can still see Lee Shau Kee smiling with a wrinkled face stretched out, holding one in one hand, and a happy photo of an eldest grandson lying in his arms.
On the same day, Lee Shau Kee named the three grandsons Zhi Xin, Zhi Ren and Zhi Yong, and Li Shau Kee, who was pleased with the high-tech Linsun, donated 33 million yuan to the Ren'an Hospital where the three children were born, and sent a red envelope of 10,000 yuan to each of Henderson's employees. In the face of ridicule from the outside world, Lee Shau Kee spoke happily and publicly: "The more grandchildren the better, the more you have, the better." ”
And the second son Li Jiacheng married actress Xu Ziqi into the rich was rumored to be a good story, Li Shaoji is also very satisfied with this daughter-in-law, the fly in the ointment is that Xu Ziqi married into the Li family, gave birth to two children are girls, Li Shau kee Although there are many kinds of diamond ring mansions, it is still difficult to hide the loss.
When Xu Ziqi was pregnant for the third time, Lee Shau Kee couldn't help but complain to the Hong Kong media: "If my daughter-in-law is still a girl this time, I will really be disappointed in her." This word sounds heavy, said light is not light, as a female star married into the rich, bitter, cold and warm self-knowledge.
In order to win the man in one fell swoop, Xu Ziqi soaked in a jar of Chinese medicine all day long, known as nourishing the body, while Li Jiacheng gave full play to the so-called metaphysics of Hong Kong people and invited various masters to put on the feng shui treasure array. Fortunately, this time finally fulfilled his wish, Xu Ziqi gave birth to a baby boy in 2011.
Li Shaoji swept away Xu Ziqi's sarcasm in front of the media this time, smiled and closed his mouth, and rewarded Xu Ziqi with a big wave of his hand for 1 billion yuan. The same old thing was repeated, and a large red envelope totaling 15 million yuan was distributed to Henderson employees.
In October 2015, Xu Ziqi gave birth to a baby boy again, and it is clear that Lee Shau Kee did not feel "tired of receiving his grandson" because of the successive arrivals of his grandson, but was overjoyed to personally give the name "Li Jianxi" to his young grandson, and even spent 1.8 billion yuan to buy land, just to build a new mansion so that the family can enjoy the happiness of the world.
The Hong Kong media's criticism of Lee Shau Kee's "preference for sons over daughters" and "chasing after grandchildren" did not make Lee Siu Kee feel the slightest fear, but on the contrary, he repeatedly "educated" media friends and the vast number of Hong Kong citizens in front of the camera, telling that he had friends who had a wealth but no children and no daughters, and that he was depressed, and when some friends were destitute, they were happy to run from time to time and turn the tables in one fell swoop.
Between the words, it is obvious that the son and the male grandson have become the foundation of the Li family's life.
The abandoned son of the ill-fated family - Guo Bingxiang
On October 20, 2018, Guo Bingxiang, chairman of the Imperial Group and son of Guo's parents, died of illness at the age of 68. As early as August of the same year, Guo Bingxiang passed out due to a stroke and was immediately pushed into the hospital for rescue.
During the period of hospital observation, Guo Bingxiang's condition not only did not improve, but there was subarachnoid hemorrhage, seeing Guo Bingxiang lying on the hospital bed, the pain was increasing day by day, and the treatment team finally chose to terminate the treatment after consulting with Guo Bingxiang's family.
As the eldest son of Sun Hung Kai Properties Development Limited founder Kwok Tak-shing, Kwok Ping-hsiang served as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer after the death of his father, with his second brother Kwok Ping-giang and third brother Kwok Ping-lin as Deputy General Managers.
When Guo Desheng died, he bundled the family members into a community of interests, and the family assets were managed by the family trust fund, while the Guo brothers did not have the right to dispose of the equity of the family fund privately, and could only manage the family business in the form of professional managers and enjoy the equity income of the family fund.
This trick made the three Kwok brothers a famous brother entrepreneur in Hong Kong for a long time, and the three of them lived in harmony, worked together, and the brothers worked together, and their profits were cut off, and they were regarded as the most promising family heirs in Hong Kong at that time. However, such a warm scene was ruthlessly broken by the arrival of an uninvited guest.
Zhang Ziqiang, as the "Thief King of the Century", had earlier kidnapped Li Ka-shing's eldest son, Li Zeju, and demanded a ransom of 1 billion yuan, and despite his indignation and panic, Li Ka-shing still offered it as much as he wanted, just so that the eldest son could return safely. But the daring thief king, after squandering the ransom in his hand, set his sights on the Kwok family, which was then ranked second in Hong Kong on the Forbes rich list.
On September 29, 1997, Guo Bingxiang drove home alone, and Zhang Ziqiang and his accomplices had already ambushed and kidnapped Guo Bingxiang in an ambush in the Victoria Peak Tunnel in Hong Kong.
However, Guo Bingxiang, who had never experienced being kidnapped, scorned Zhang Ziqiang's gang of lawless bandits, and immediately did not cooperate with Zhang Ziqiang to ask for ransom from his family, and also threatened Zhang Ziqiang that if he did not let him go, he would die a very ugly death at that time. Zhang Ziqiang had never seen such an arrogant and naïve rich second generation since he fell into the grass, and was determined to teach Guo Bingxiang a lesson.
Hong Kong in September and October was still sweltering, and Zhang Ziqiang stripped Guo Bingxiang of his clothes and stuffed them into a small wooden box with air holes. Guo Bingxiang curled up in a small wooden box for six days and six nights, eating and picking up the roast chicken that Zhang Ziqiang threw on the ground, and defecating was only allowed to be solved in the box.
Rumor has it that Zhang Ziqiang asked for 2 billion Hong Kong dollars, but the Guo family bargained with Zhang Ziqiang when Guo Bingxiang was naked and suffering in a small wooden box.
In this regard, Guo Bingjiang's mother, Kwong Xiaoqing, and his two younger brothers said that it was "difficult to bargain with Zhang Ziqiang", and also said that they had constantly begged Zhang Ziqiang to release Guo Bingxiang, but Zhang Ziqiang repeatedly delayed until the two sides finally reached an agreement and paid a ransom of 600 million Hong Kong dollars before agreeing to release Guo Bingxiang.
The 600 million Hong Kong dollars were still paid by Guo Bingxiang's wife Li Tianying, until Guo Bingxiang was released and depressed, no longer trusting anyone around him, and his mother Kwong Xiaoqing praised Guo Bingxiang as a "substitute family to suffer" and repaid the 600 million Hong Kong dollars to Li Tianying.
After Guo Bingxiang's incident, he was depressed, and even his wife Li Tianying, who had been in love with the past, was more than suspicious, while his mother, Kwong Xiaoqing, still blindly accused his eldest son of "only knowing to sleep all day" after Guo Bingxiang was found to have mania.
Guo Bingxiang felt even more deeply that he was an outcast of the family. Just when his life was at a low ebb, his confidant Tang Jinxin appeared.
As the daughter of Tang Naiquan, the king of Hong Kong machines, Tang Jinxin is gentle and intellectual, and is three years older than Guo Bingxiang. She was very sympathetic and pity for this man's suffering, and at the same time could not bear to see more and more people and horses of Guo Bingxiang's second and third brothers in Xindi shuffling the group, and it was under her persuasion that Guo Bingxiang cheered up again.
But the resentment and anger of being regarded as an "outcast" has always accompanied Guo Bingxiang, who returned to Xindi, only to find that many of his business in Hong Kong had been taken over by his two younger brothers, plus the thought that he had been kidnapped and even his younger brothers had not been rescued in time, and his dissatisfaction with his brother's intention to seize power was increasing day by day.
Guo Bingxiang began to enter the mainland real estate market at the suggestion of Tang Jinxin. Under the auspices of Guo Bingxiang, who is fully capable of fighting power, SHKP's land area in the interior has expanded sharply, and the total investment in the mainland has jumped from 17% to 30% of the total value of the new land, but the two younger brothers still disdain Guo Bingxiang's blueprint for development, calling the brother a "good and great achievement".
When the brothers fought and fought for a long time, as Guo Bingxiang passed away, the second brother and the third brother could not help but sigh: "He is too anxious to fry." "But can the smoke cloud of the giants really dissipate without a trace?"
Guo Bingxiang's assets were about HK$53.8 billion, but due to his sudden death, no detailed distribution was made of his property division, and as early as after Guo Bingxiang fell ill and was hospitalized, Li Tianying, his wife Li Tianying, who had fallen out with tang Jinxin, a confidant with a red face, quickly returned to Hong Kong with her three children.
In addition to the eye-catching distribution of estate within the family, Tang Jinxin, Guo Bingxiang's confidante, claimed that he would seek legal advice to determine whether he had the legal right to distribute Guo Bingxiang's estate. The life of a generation of real estate kings has come to an end, abandoning his son? Man is being possessed and abandoned every minute and every second.
The second generation is worried? One said "jewelry family" Zheng Yutong family
"Buy jewelry, Chow Tai Fook." It has almost become a mantra. Whether it is the brilliant Chow Tai Fook jewelry store or the birth of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, it has benefited from a far-sighted "jewelry tycoon" - Zheng Yutong.
Zheng Yutong was the first gold jeweller to create the "Four Nine" full gold – at that time, the gold color in Hong Kong was always "three nine", that is, 99.9%, and the "four nine" full gold content created by Zheng Yutong was as high as 99.99%.
Chow Tai Fook was full of customers for a while, and everyone said: "Chow Tai Fook's gold is not 'boiled water' (adulterated). ”
Although Chow Tai Fook's guys were very resistant to Zheng Yutong's kind of trading, because for every one or two gold sold, he would lose dozens of yuan. But Zheng Yutong has a strong market control ability, saying "willing, unwilling, how to get?" Now I am doing free advertising, and losing is making. ”
Sure enough, within two years, Chow Tai Fook's foot gold jewelry became famous in Hong Kong, and even became popular in the mainland, and various gold stores rushed to Chow Tai Fook to buy goods.
The three words "Chow Tai Fook" have since become a symbol of quality and credibility. Cheng Yu Tong took advantage of the profits brought by this gust of east wind, took advantage of the victory to chase, and completely reformed Chow Tai Fook into the first limited company in Hong Kong's gold jewelry industry - "Chow Tai Fook Jewelry Gold Co., Ltd."
After the name of gold jewelry was launched, Zheng Yutong seized the opportunity of innovation, he found that many Western women with identity did not like to wear gold jewelry, but preferred diamond jewelry, Hong Kong fashionable and trendy women also followed suit, so Zheng Yutong in the gold jewelry business gradually saturated canning, and then attack women's favorite - diamonds.
However, at that time, the international need to enjoy the "De Beers" license to operate the diamond business, and the number of diamond dealers with such licenses did not exceed 500 in the world. In order to obtain the qualification of formally operating diamonds, Zheng Yutong went to South Africa and bought a company holding a "De Beers" license, thus opening the life of Zheng Yutong's "jewelry king".
Since then, the development trajectory has been much the same as that of the other three major families, and if you want to become bigger and stronger in the business world, it is obviously unrealistic not to get involved in the real estate industry. In the same way, Zheng Yutong also aimed at the opportunity, in the largest bull market since the opening of Hong Kong in 1972, the new world was officially listed, and the price of zheng Yutong's purchase of more than 20 lands also skyrocketed, making a lot of money.
The time when Zheng Yutong announced his withdrawal from the jianghu can be said to be "early departure" compared to Li Ka-shing, Li Shau-kee and other bigwigs. In early 1989, at the age of 65, Zheng Yutong announced that he was going to travel the world, and the affairs of the New World Group would be handed over to the eldest son, Zheng Jiachun.
Obviously, Zheng Yutong did not count his own wise life, and when he was young, he often showed people with an optimistic and open-minded, sunshine image without a city, but his eldest son really learned a piece of skin - really a lord with a big heart.
At the beginning of the burden, Cheng Jiachun used a LOAN of HK$6 billion in a few months, all of which was used to acquire four Hong Kong listed companies - Keel-Lite, Hkrider, Shui On Group and Wing On Group, while also enthralling the two grand hotels of New World Sea Boundary and Wan Chai Grand Hyatt.
Most shamefully, it also spent $540 million to win the interests of The United States Ramada Hotel Group.
Apparently, Cheng Yu Tong wanted to match his own largest hotel group industry in Hong Kong, and then sold and spun off Ramada's subsidiary properties to recover US$400 million, which not only alleviated the debt of the acquisition of listed companies at that time, but also obtained Ramada's body, network and gold signboard with a low price of US$100 million.
With this line of thinking, Cheng's acquisition plan is indeed feasible, but he did not consider one point, that is, the economic situation in the United States at that time. At that time, the U.S. economy was in a slump, the hotel management industry was not doing well, and the plan to cash out and sell Ramada properties was not only unrealized, but New World also had to bear a high interest rate of $47 million a year for the acquisition of debt.
For a time, shareholders heard that New World's borrowings had risen from HK$3 billion to HK$9 billion, and they sold their shares. Zheng Yutong, who was originally idle outside, had to return to the jianghu and try to turn the tide.
In order to reduce debt and stabilize the stock price in the fastest time, Zheng Yutong vigorously sold some assets that were appreciating, such as selling the equity of Yongan Group, selling the Mid-Levels Meidao industry, changing hands on Mobil Mall, and the most unbelievable thing is that Zheng Yutong even sold the office building of the Wan Chai Convention and Exhibition Center and 74 sets of luxury apartments in Huijing Pavilion.
Zheng Yutong's operation was down, and the debt finally fell to a stable state of HK$2 billion. Then, he did not give up his ambition to invest in the United States, perhaps the firstborn chose the wrong time, but where the new world fell, it must rise from where.
The U.S. economy began to bottom out, and Zheng Yutong spent HK$2.7 billion to acquire the United States Ramada Hotel Management Group, which owns 825 hotels, which was really majestic, sweeping away the debt-ridden and dangerous buildings when Zheng Jiachun was in charge. In contrast, the public opinion of the second generation of the Zheng family, which is far inferior to that of their father, is spreading more and more.
On September 29, 2016, Zheng Yutong passed away at the age of 91.
The four major families in Hong Kong are rooted in the home of the commercial rich in Hong Kong, the entrepreneurial experience of the major families also has many similarities, the development process is even more divided and integrated, in the twilight years of the four major leaders in Hong Kong, how should the second generation of these four major families bear the burden of the family? Whether the entrepreneurial foundation of the previous generation can be further improved in this generation remains to be seen.
bibliography:
(1) "Li Ka-shing's 'Conspiracy' to Choose Britain"
(2) "The Troubles of the Lee Shau Kee Family"
(3) "Fateful Guo Bingxiang"
(4) "Zheng Yutong: From "Jewelry King" to "Real Estate Predator""