In 2023, the Hurun Global Real Estate Rich List will be announced, ranking third as a legendary figure, with a net worth of 115 billion, and is known as "Hong Kong's No. 1 Rental Company".
It is said to be legendary because in Hong Kong, where every inch of land is expensive, he owns tens of thousands of properties, and collects 16 billion yuan in rent every year.
But some people joked that this honor was won by his wife, and this is not groundless, he is indeed the world's top giant.
However, if you really rely on eating soft rice to make a net worth of 100 billion, this person is not simple.
He entered a wealthy family but did not lie down, all the way through the thorns, galloping in the business world for more than 30 years, from an unknown small director gradually transformed into the head of the ship king family.
He single-handedly created Harbour City in Tsim Sha Tsui and Times Square in Causeway Bay, and became a legend of commercial real estate in Hong Kong.
His open life has always been talked about.
He is Wu Guangzheng, the former chairman of Hong Kong's Wharf and the second son-in-law of "World Ship King" Bao Yugang.
Ningbo, Zhejiang, has produced many talents since ancient times, especially in the commercial field, business giants abound, and the ancestral home of the world ship king Bao Yugang is in Ningbo.
Although he was born in turbulent times, Bao Yugang's father had been in business for many years and his family was well-off, so Bao Yugang received a good education since he was a child, and at the age of 13, he was admitted to Shanghai Wusong Merchant Marine College.
Through continuous learning, his dream gradually began to become clear: to revitalize commerce and revitalize shipping.
When he grew up, he really embarked on the road of shipping career after going through ups and downs, and he went all the way.
From the establishment of the global shipping company in 1955 to 1981, in just 30 years, Pao's company has more than 200 ships under its name, and Pao Yugang has also been ranked among the top ten consortia in Hong Kong.
The only regret is that he and his wife gave birth to four daughters in a row, and there are no children under their knees.
However, although the daughters did not like to do business, they all married large merchants who were either rich or expensive, and the 100 billion empire of the ship king was inherited.
It's just that Wu Guangzheng, who was the second child at that time, although he was also from an extraordinary background, had no obvious advantages, but he didn't expect that Wu Guangzheng, who was the least optimistic about it many years later, became the head of the boat king family.
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Coincidentally, Wu Guangzheng's ancestral home is also in Ningbo, and his father is the famous architect Wu Shaolin, who studied in Germany.
In the thirties and forties of the last century, it was no longer an ordinary family to have the opportunity to study, let alone studying abroad, it can be seen that the Wu family is also very wealthy.
But compared to the ship king family, it seems insignificant, of course, this is a later story.
In 1951, for the sake of his favorite career and for Wu Guangzheng to have better learning opportunities, Wu Shaolin moved his family to Hong Kong for development.
Therefore, from the age of five, Wu Guangzheng began to receive an excellent education in Hong Kong, which also laid a solid foundation for his future development.
When he was in college, Wu Guangzheng listened to his father's advice and studied architecture, but over time, he found that he loved finance even more.
So as soon as he graduated from university, Wu Guangzheng was admitted to Columbia Business School for a master's degree.
It was this single-minded choice that pushed him to the man who changed the fate of his life.
At a dance party held by the business school, Wu Guangzheng met Bao Rong, because they are both Chinese and both are from Ningbo, the two talked very well and soon fell in love.
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After graduating from university, Bao accompanied Rong to return to China, and Wu Guangzheng entered Chase Bank in New York to engage in his favorite financial work.
During that time, the two suffered from lovesickness.
It wasn't until 1973 that Bao gave Wu Guangzheng an ultimatum, telling him that there were only two options: either give up his job in the United States, return to China to get married, or break up.
Wu Guangzheng, who was immersed in sweet love, was willing to part with his beloved, and finally happily chose the former.
It wasn't until he was about to get married that Wu Guangzheng learned that his girlfriend was actually the second princess of the "World Boat King".
At that time, the eldest daughter of the ship king had married a foreigner and stayed overseas, so when he learned that the second daughter's boyfriend was willing to return to China for development, Bao Yugang did not object to the marriage.
Wu Guangzheng can be regarded as stepping into a wealthy family without knowing it.
At that time, many people were not optimistic about this marriage, thinking that he relied on women to ascend to the throne, after all, the four daughters of the ship king, any one of whom he married had countless glory and wealth.
But it turns out that his subsequent achievements in the mall are not just based on this luck.
In the late '70s, Pao's shipping business was booming, when a boat could almost afford a skyscraper in Central, Hong Kong.
It's just that Bao Yugang, who is standing at the peak at the moment, sees many crises.
With the changes in the world situation at that time, the supply of oil shipping began to oversupply, and Pao Yugang concluded that the shipping industry was about to usher in a great decline, and a new way out must be sought immediately.
At this time, Wu Guangzheng, who was already the director of Global Shipping Group, put forward a new development idea, and it was the opening of this idea that made him soar in the future.
Wu Guangzheng believes that Hong Kong's onshore population has increased dramatically, and people's demand for real estate is strong, which is a good time to vigorously develop real estate.
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At first, Bao Yugang did not agree, and after years of war, he always believed that all real estate would be wiped out after the war, and there was no guarantee at all.
However, Wu Guangzheng firmly believes that real estate must be the future outlet, and cites Li Ka-shing, Lee Shau Kee and others who have already made a fortune by real estate at that time as cases.
Under Wu Guangzheng's continuous analysis, Bao Yugang finally decided to "abandon the ship and land" and enter the real estate, and the first stop was the acquisition of Wharf.
"Wharf" was the largest wharf in Hong Kong at that time, not only with a huge warehousing business, but also with physical assets such as hotels and buildings in prime locations in Hong Kong.
It can be said that getting the Wharf is equivalent to controlling a gold mine.
At that time, Wharf was still in the hands of Jardine Matheson, the first of the four major British banks, and it was not easy to acquire it.
However, just as Pao Yugang is actively pushing forward with the acquisition plan, Hong Kong's rising star Li Ka-shing has quietly taken a 20% stake in Wharf from retail investors, which is close to the shareholding ratio of Jardine Bank.
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When Jardine Matheson Bank found out, it immediately began to buy shares to protect its control.
At this time, Li Ka-shing's funds were already stretched thin, and he was powerless to compete.
At this time, knowing that the ship king Bao Yugang was also moving to land and was eager to acquire Wharf, he made an appointment with the ship king at the end of July 1978 and successfully reached an equity swap agreement.
Pao Yugang helped Li Ka-shing swallow 90 million shares of Hutchison Whampoa in exchange for 10 million shares of Wharf shares at 36 yuan per share, laying a solid foundation for the acquisition of Wharf.
In September 1978, Pao Yugang officially announced that he owned 20% of Wharf's shares, and pushed Wu Guangzheng to the front of the stage as a director of Wharf.
And the truly thrilling takeover war took place two years later.
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The British capital, which has been in Hong Kong for many years, was unwilling to be acquired, and decided to launch a final battle and began to repurchase a large number of shares, so that the stock price at that time rose directly from more than 60 yuan per share to 100 yuan per share.
When Wu Guangzheng heard the news, he immediately contacted major banks in Hong Kong, and finally successfully won a huge loan of 2.2 billion yuan from HSBC, ensuring the support of follow-up funds for the battle of Wharf.
Two days later, the stock market opened, and retail investors saw Bao Yugang throw out the price of 105 yuan per share, and sold their shares.
At this point, the dust of the shocking acquisition of Hong Kong Wharf has settled, and the ship king has successfully landed and created a land real estate business.
Six years later, Pao Yugang retired, and Wu Guangzheng officially became the chairman of Wharf, and at that time, the era of Wu Guangzheng really came.
There is a saying in Hong Kong: "The city is Li Ka-shing's city, and Hong Kong is Bao Yugang's port", which is enough to get a glimpse of the amazing wealth of the two.
After the death of the ship king, the 100 billion inheritance fell into the hands of his daughter and son-in-law, of which all the controlling stakes in Wharf and half of the family's property were left to Wu Guangzheng and his wife.
This inheritance is the heaviest in the total inheritance, which shows that the boat king has high hopes for the second daughter's family.
Perhaps there is a preference for the second daughter Bao Rongrong, but it is more of a recognition of Wu Guangzheng's business talent.
After taking over Wharf, Wu Guangzheng once again focused on real estate.
Li Ka-shing, who had profited from the Battle of Wharf, was in full swing at the time, and his Hutchison Whampoa Modern Container Terminal had gradually replaced the old Wharf terminal.
Wu Guangzheng saw that there was no room for the wharf business, so he immediately decided to demolish all the old wharves under the Wharf and build modern shopping malls instead, and develop commercial plazas, hotels and office buildings.
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However, the commercial real estate situation at that time was not optimistic, and it was still unknown whether such a rash investment in major renovation would make a profit, and it was even very likely that a huge amount of money would be lost.
Some shareholders stood up against it, but Wu Guangzheng insisted on going his own way.
From 1990 to 2000, he insisted on carrying out the large-scale reconstruction of Harbour City for a whole decade, during which he did not care about being questioned, and he was not persuaded by anyone to change his original intention, which is enough to see his determination and courage to do business, and has the absolute right to speak.
Today, the old pier has long been transformed into the famous Tsim Sha Tsui Harbour City, the world's most profitable shopping mall and a paradise for mainland shoppers, with an annual rental income of more than 10 billion.
Not only that, in April 1994, Times Square in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong was also completed and opened, and later became a landmark in Hong Kong, with an annual rent of more than 2 billion.
The legacy left by the boat king to Wu Guangzheng and his wife, in addition to the most important Wharf, the control of seven other listed companies and six large shopping malls, all of which were well kept, and their profits skyrocketed in a few years.
During this period, Ng Kwong Ching not only made the family business prosperous, but also made great contributions to the urban development and construction of Hong Kong.
In addition to developing in Hong Kong, Wu Guangzheng was also one of the first real estate businessmen to set his sights on the mainland.
When Hong Kong's Times Square opened, Wu Guangzheng's investment in Beijing Times Square was also in full swing, and then a large amount of investment was made in the construction of Shanghai Times Square.
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With the passage of time, Wu Guangzheng's layout and projects in the mainland have become more and more extensive, Chengdu, Suzhou, Changsha and other famous international financial centers are Wu Guangzheng's assets, and even in agriculture, electricity, aviation has investment.
He has proposed to invest half of his assets in the mainland, and by 2019, Wharf Capital alone had invested more than 40% in the mainland.
Hong Kong rent, mainland real estate, the ship king family's business territory in the hands of Wu Guangzheng is getting bigger and bigger, by the time he retired in 2015, the 10 billion family property he inherited has increased to 300 billion.
There is no doubt that Wu Guangzheng did take advantage of his wife's aura to reach the top one step at a time, but since then, his business talent has turned over to the clouds and turned his hands into rain.
Not to mention that in several business wars, with his smart and wise business acumen and the courage to face the unknown, he overcame obstacles and dug out a way to get rich, otherwise, how could the king of the world praise him and entrust his daughter to his life.
It is not so much that Bao Yugang promoted Wu Guangzheng, but it is precisely because the Bao family has this son-in-law that the Bao family has its future prosperity.
Today, Wu Guangzheng has long been free from the influence of the Bao lintel and has become the founder of the Wu family, and Wu Guangzheng's family wealth has also been passed on to the hands of the next generation of Wu Zongquan, and is continuing to carry forward.
From the son-in-law of the boat king but a billionaire, Wu Guangzheng's life is full of legends and extremely inspirational, and it also proves once again:
"At any time, ability can determine the height of life, and everything else is just icing on the cake."
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Resources:
Municipal Investment Conference: "Behind the Mansion in Beijing's East Fourth Ring Road: The Son-in-law of Hong Kong's "Ship King" Develops and Spent More Than 5 Billion on Land"
Focus Finance: "The Most Bullish Chartered Public丨 Financial News in 60 Seconds"
Author: Vishan
Editor: Ichiyigi