Text: Tong Ying
Since the beginning of this year, Li Ka-shing has been selling British assets and "running away", but recently there has been a deal that has not been negotiated.
On 4 July, a consortium led by KKR and Macquarie failed to acquire Li Ka-shing's asset, the Uk Power Grid (UKPN), which, if successful, could amount to £15 billion. According to people familiar with the matter, the main reason for the failure of the plan was that Li Ka-shing's new offer was not accepted by the consortium led by KKR and Macquarie due to inflation, so negotiations between the two sides were terminated. Admittedly, Li Ka-shing was anxious to cash out his plan to "carry the bucket and run away" and was hit in the first place.
Li Ka-shing once proudly said, "I have been in business for more than 60 years, and I have never lost money for a year, nor have I ever been in a financial crisis or suffered a huge decline in performance." ”
Moreover, his Changshi Group and Changhe Group have always paid dividends particularly steadily. In this regard, Li Ka-shing also said, "For more than 40 years since Changshi's listing, if you reinvest the dividends you get every year in stocks, you can probably get 5,000 times the return in more than 40 years." "I have to say that Li Ka-shing's business vision and judgment of the economic situation are still very strong.
As the richest man in Hong Kong, Li Ka-shing has several strong black bodyguards following him as soon as he goes out, and even the car he rides in is a bulletproof car. It is reported that Li Ka-shing's annual security costs are as high as 1 billion yuan, and the annual salary of the bodyguards around him is more than 10 million.
However, there is a rich man in Hong Kong, no matter when, he dares to go out alone without a bodyguard, this person is Fok Ying Tung. Zhang Ziqiang was in Hong Kong for a while, but he once warned his subordinates not to touch Fok Yingdong, nor to touch Fok Yingdong's family.
He even joked that "I can walk sideways without any bodyguards." The kidnapping of Li Ka-shing's eldest son for extortion Knows the entire Chinese world that the safety of people and property should be the most important concern of the rich. So, where did Huo Yingdong's domineering spirit and confidence in saying these words come from?
Fok Yingdong grew up in Guangdong, and when he was 7 years old, his father, who was engaged in the maritime connection business, died tragically, relying on his mother to work to support the family. Although the life of the orphan and widowed mother was very difficult, the mother who wanted to be strong still insisted on sending Fok Yingdong to school. But just when Fok Yingdong was about to graduate from high school, Hong Kong fell, and the school could not teach normally, so Fok Yingdong could only leave the school with tears.
After dropping out of school, Fok Yingdong worked a lot of work, as a coal burner on a ship, as an apprentice in a sugar factory, and as a coolie in the construction of an airport. After a series of efforts, he finally found that he was not suitable for part-time work, so he began to consider starting a business as a boss, and immediately took action, borrowed money everywhere to open a "youru" grocery store, and began to enter the business sea.
But the grocery store's profits were extremely meager, so he was always looking for more and bigger business opportunities. Opportunities are left to those who are prepared, and Fok Yingdong, who is constantly looking for opportunities to make money, soon found the first pot of gold in his life.
At that time, the Hong Kong government often auctioned wartime surplus supplies, and most Hong Kong people were only immersed in making a living, and few people paid attention to this matter. But Fok Saw Business Opportunities and made a fortune by selling post-war supplies in the Korean War. In this regard, Fok Yingdong is very different from other billionaires. After having sufficient funds, Fok Yingdong founded his own company in 1953 and 1954, seizing the broad development prospects of real estate and driving the rise of the building materials industry with the development of real estate.
If this is all for his own industry, then Fok Yingdong's contribution to China is outstanding.
In 1950, in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Western countries issued an embargo on Hong Kong to prevent Hong Kong patriots from delivering supplies to the front line of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, so as to suppress China in disguise and try to win the war quickly. But Fok Yingdong ignored the ban, and he began to use various connections to continuously deliver supplies to the front line.
But he also paid the price for his actions, because against the will of the Western countries, his business abroad began to be repeatedly frustrated and suppressed everywhere. However, this did not bother Huo Yingdong, under the siege of foreign countries, he still gritted his teeth and persevered, leading the Huo family to break through the layers of blockades and lead the Huo family to a new height.
After the reform and opening up, Huo Yingdong was the first entrepreneur to take money back and invest, and he has invested in many inland economic construction and vigorously supported the country's sports and education undertakings. After learning that the country intended to bid for the Olympic Games, Fok Yingdong's father and son mediated in many ways in the international arena and made great contributions to the success of China's Olympic bid. In addition, before the 2008 Olympic Games, he donated the Water Cube to the country as a swimming venue for the Olympic Games.
Fok Ying Tung donated whatever he saw needed in his homeland, and in 1983, he announced that he would invest HK$1 billion to establish the Fok Ying Tung Foundation. Soon after, he founded the Fok Ying Tung Education Foundation, and continuously donated teaching buildings and experimental buildings of top universities in China, giving high rewards to a large number of outstanding teachers.
Among the rich people in Hong Kong, Fok Yingdong should be the most patriotic, and both roads must give him a thin noodle, which is why even Zhang Ziqiang does not dare to provoke him, and Fok Yingdong never brings bodyguards. After his death in Beijing in 2006, Fok Yingdong was able to cover the coffin with the national flag and enjoy the highest level of funeral in the country. So far, only three people in Hong Kong have received this treatment, which shows how much Fok Yingdong has contributed to the country.
As Fok Yingdong said at that time: "In my life, I am worthy of my nation, worthy of my motherland, and worthy of my career." In my life, I can go south and north, Hong Kong and Macao, I can walk sideways, without any bodyguards. ”
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