These days, there's a speech clip that catches my eye.
In the video, a man in a suit and combing his back says something carelessly while shaking his body:
"Mr. Li Ka-shing is nothing around us, whether it is rich or the scale of the enterprise, in fact, the market value of the Changhe Department is less than 200 billion, which is nothing, and everyone looks at it."
The first time I heard this, I believe you feel the same as me: What is this big guy, so crazy?
It should be known that Li Ka-shing has been the richest man in Hong Kong for 21 consecutive years and the richest man in China for 15 consecutive years, but he is a veritable "Li Bancheng". Even though he has been frequently surpassed in the rankings in recent years, Li Ka-shing is still a world-class rich man. On the 2020 Forbes rich list, his net worth is still as high as $29.4 billion.
Moreover, compared with some of the "fat" rich people on the list, Li Jia honesty has more than HK$600 billion in assets in Europe alone.
Those who dare to evaluate Li Ka-shing in this way should be few in the world.
What is the origin of this mysterious big man?
1
"Madman" Chen Hongtian
With the help of the internet's powerful search function, I found the name of this big guy -
Chen Hongtian.
I guess many people, like me, are hearing this name for the first time. But in the business world of the Greater Bay Area, this is a man of the art. Let's look at the title on him —
He is a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a justice of the peace in Hong Kong (for life), a recipient of the Silver Bauhinia Star of the Hong Kong SAR Government, a standing member of the 9th CPPCC Guangdong Provincial Committee, the chairman of the Tongxin Club, the executive vice president of the China Overseas Chinese Merchants Association, the president of the Guangdong Provincial Table Tennis Association, the honorary chairman of the Shenzhen Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, and a visiting professor of the University of International Business and Economics...
The list is indeed long. But compared with these false names, Chen Hongtian is more well known for daring to "tell the truth."
A classic example is that in 2016, when the fierce battle of the "Baowan Dispute" was in full swing, Chen Hongtian took the initiative to jump out and openly stand for the "barbarians", and the spearhead was directed at Wang Shi, the "leading big brother" in the Shenzhen real estate industry.
In this article, Chen Hongtian bluntly said that Wang Shi had no basic qualifications as a professional manager and mistook himself for the boss. The words at the end are even sharper:
Professional managers don't like new shareholders, or don't like "bosses", we all know that he has only one way to do it, that is, to resign and seek another high. In northern dialect, it is called "get out of the egg", and in Cantonese it is called "splitting cannon".
Even more explosive is Chen Hongtian's comments on Chinese real estate.
In 2013, he told the media bluntly that there was no bubble in housing prices in Hong Kong and Chinese mainland. The discussion in it still sounds very "thunderous":
The physical nature of the foam is that it bursts when it is touched, and what cannot be beaten is not called a bubble. Real estate has not been suppressed by various tough tactics in the past five or six years. This means that there is no bubble.
According to the Southern Metropolis Daily, in 2008, Chen Hongtian even openly defended the real estate developers under the regulation of the property market:
In fact, there are many people (real estate developers) who already feel unbearable and have been suppressed very unhappy.
Dare to say "the truth", or "crazy" in the eyes of many people, seems to be Chen Hongtian's style all along. From this point of view, it seems not surprising that he commented that Li Ka-shing was "nothing".
2
Shenzhen hidden rich
Chen Hongtian was born in February 1959 in Nanhai, Foshan, with his ancestral home in Liaoyang, Liaoning.
His father, Chen Zongshun, taught at Jiujiang Middle School in Nanhai County after transferring from the army and later became a vice principal.
Chen Hongtian's life experience is very rich. He has experienced going to the mountains and going to the countryside, working as a farmer in a fish hatchery, working as a table tennis coach in an amateur sports school, and a teacher in a vocational middle school.
1984 can be seen as a turning point in Chen Hongtian's life. In that year, he resigned from his teaching position, came to Shenzhen from Foshan to work hard, and after 6 years of part-time work, he founded Cheung Kei Group and started his own entrepreneurial career. From trade to real estate, Chen Hongtian not only earned the first pot of gold, but also made the business bigger and bigger.
Today, Chen Hongtian has built a business empire with Cheung Kei as the core.
▲Source Sky Eye Check
In terms of investment, the Chen Hongtian family mainly has three major sectors: self-sustaining property, equity investment and real estate investment.
In the Greater Bay Area, Chen Hongtian has Cheung Kei Center, Tongxin Building, Cheung Kei Commercial Building, Cheung Kei Hotel, etc. Overseas, Chen Hongtian has spent tens of billions of yuan to acquire properties such as 20 Canada Place in London and the new financial center in Canary Wharf, London, and even S&P and JPMorgan Chase have to pay rent to him.
According to the previous news of Viewpoint Real Estate, Chen Hongtian owns at least 12 skyscrapers in the world, distributed in London, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai and other super first-tier or first-tier cities, which can receive billions of yuan in rent alone every year.
In terms of equity investment, the Chen Hongtian family is one of the main investment shareholders of "South China City". This company, which is mainly based on wholesale market real estate, also engages in logistics warehousing and integrated commerce, and its market value was once as high as 12 billion yuan. In addition, the Chen Hongtian family also holds a large share of equity in a number of capital market enterprises and financial assets such as funds, bonds, and stocks.
Finally, there is real estate investment. In Shenzhen, Foshan and other places, the Chen Hongtian family invested in the development of hot spring resorts, country clubs and other projects, and also entered the property operation.
Moreover, according to the information found, the Chen Hongtian family also has a large area of mineral rich mineral reserves in Southeast Asian countries.
In the 2018 Hurun China Rich List, the wealth of the Chen Hongtian family reached 31 billion yuan.
There are houses, stocks, mines, and proper super-rich people. Chen Hongtian is not a kind of "local tycoon", he has a doctorate title in economics, and he passed the national examination, and his doctoral dissertation "Mainland Real Estate Industry Development and Macro-control Issues" is also collected by the National Library.
Perhaps, this is Chen Hongtian's "wide-eyed" Li Ka-shing's confidence?
3
Top "Circle of Friends"
Compared with Chen Hongtian's wealth, his other identity is probably more remarkable.
Since ancient times, Chinese businessmen have liked to hug together for warmth, and the culture of merchant gangs has lasted for thousands of years. To this day, among China's top business circles, outsiders are known as the Huaxia Alumni Association, the Taishan Association, the China Entrepreneur Club, and the Jiangnan Association. Among them, the "Taishan Society" led by Liu Chuanzhi and Ma Yun is the most famous, which brings together top business leaders such as Duan Yongji, Feng Lun, Lu Zhiqiang, and Shi Yuzhu.
The name of the Taishan Society is like thunder, but few people know that in Shenzhen, on the coast of the South China Sea, there is an organizational strength that is no less than that of the Taishan Society.
This organization is called the "One Heart Club".
In 2012, when the Concentric Club was founded, the then mayor of Shenzhen and some leaders personally went to the platform.
According to incomplete statistics, the club has 149 members, the total assets of the enterprise exceed 4 trillion yuan, and the annual direct and indirect tax payment exceeds 100 billion yuan.
A list compiled according to the official website of the Tongxin Club shows that the executive vice chairman alone has Ma Huateng, Wang Chuanfu, Wang Wei and other bigwigs. The chairman of the club is Chen Hongtian.
The threshold for entry into this club is not low:
Not only is it worth more than 1 billion yuan, but it is also a dynamic entrepreneur with a certain industrial foundation, a benchmarking enterprise, and a driving force leading the progress of the industry.
Because of this, this club has almost brought together the most cattle enterprises in the Greater Bay Area. The power of this group of merchants speaks for itself. A classic case is that when Hong Kong independence was in full swing, 100 members of the One Heart Club stood up and publicly advertised in the Hong Kong media, telling the two traitors to get out of China.
Businessmen flock to seek wealth, and club members are often extremely united. In the "Baowan Controversy" that is famous throughout the country, the reason why Chen Hongtian helped Yao Zhenhua speak is also due to this aspect.
Wang Shi's good brother, Feng Lun, one of the "Six Gentlemen of Wantong", even called the Tongxin Club a "condensed version of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce".
From this point of view, Chen Hongtian's "circle of friends" may also be his feeling that Li Ka-shing is "nothing".
4
End
An important reason why Chen Hongtian's "arrogance" is so eye-catching is that there are not many rich people who dare to be so "high-profile" in recent years.
The reason why the rich choose to keep a low profile is realistic, and security is one of them.
Taking China as an example, China Daily has counted that from 2003 to 2011, in just eight years, a total of 72 billionaires in China died. The causes of death were: 15 murdered, 17 committed suicide, 7 died in accidents, 14 were sentenced to capital punishment by law, and 19 died of illness.
What's more exaggerated is that some people have also done statistics that in China, the death rate of billionaires has exceeded 1.5 per 10,000. You know, at present, the most dangerous professional police in China, the mortality rate is about three in 10,000.
Today, billionaires have become a high-risk profession.
These billionaires, who are worth tens of billions, understand very well the truth that "people are afraid of being famous pigs and afraid of being strong". The motto "Make a fortune in silence" is almost imprinted in their genes.
From this point of view, Chen Hongtian has become a different kind of "warrior".