Recently, Hong Kong's traditional giants have suddenly changed. Li Ka-shing just sold Century Plaza in Shanghai's Jing'an district for $3.5 billion. The project was won by Li Ka-shing in 2005, has not been opened for the past 16 years, and now Li Ka-shing has sold 3.5 billion yuan as soon as he changed hands.
Since 2012, Li Ka-shing has cashed out 120 billion yuan in China's real estate market, which is not a profit from normal property sales, which is calculated as cash-out of large transactions. At the same time, Li Ka-shing invested 400 billion yuan in the Uk, continuously reducing the proportion of revenue in China and increasing the proportion of revenue in the European market.
After 2012, many Hong Kong businessmen have sold their assets in the mainland, and Zheng Yutong, Liu Luanxiong, Zhang Songqiao, Huang Zhixiang and others have sold many projects in the mainland to Xu Jiayin's Evergrande, and the assets sold by these big men to Evergrande alone are as high as more than 60 billion yuan.
But now that nearly 10 years have passed, it can be said that feng shui takes turns. Li Ka-shing continues to sell and sell, but other giants are returning one after another.
The Shanghai property sold by Li Ka-shing this time was taken over by the Li Hysan family, an old Hong Kong real estate tycoon. This time, they took over Li Ka-shing's project through hysan Xingye, a listed company controlled by the family. Known as the king of Causeway Bay, the Lihesan family owns a lot of properties in Causeway Bay, with a total market capitalization of more than 80 billion yuan and a rental income of more than 2 billion yuan a year.
In the past, the Lihesan family was not to say that it was the mainland, that is, there was little investment outside Causeway Bay. This time they took over Li Ka-shing's property, and it was also their return to the mainland market after many years. The Li Xishen family came, and Zheng Yutong also came. After entering the Zheng family's era, the Zheng Yutong family became very active and enterprising in the mainland market. Zheng Jiachun has increased its investment in Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Shanghai and other places, and its investment has exceeded 100 billion yuan in just a few years.
In 2015, Zheng Yutong cashed out more than 30 billion yuan, and now Zheng Jiachun has returned to invest more. In addition to Zheng Yutong, Lee Shau Kee has also recently returned. Among the four richest people in Hong Kong, Lee Shau Kee actually has the least investment in the mainland. Most of Lee's business is in China.
Lee Shau Kee also controls 6 listed companies, and the business seems to be very much, but the main business is real estate and gas. Lee shabu kee controls the entire Hong Kong gas market, which is his biggest source of profit, even more than the income from the property.
In terms of real estate development, in fact, the scale and speed of Henderson Real Estate today are not as good as the other three giants. In his later years, Lee Shau Kee spent more time on the capital market.
This time, Lee Shau Kee's son Lee Ka Kit spent 400 million yuan to subscribe for shares in Aoyuan China. At the same time, Li Jiajie also spent more than 5 billion yuan to get land in Beijing, which is the second time that Henderson has obtained land in Beijing more than 20 years later.
In addition, Lee Shau Kee also cooperated with Aoyuan in Guangzhou on a real estate project. Zheng Yutong is back, and So is Lee Shau Kee. The Guo Desheng family has always been firmly located in the mainland, and there has not been much change. Now Li Ka-shing has become a loner. The Ho family is also increasing their investment in the mainland. After He Chaoqiong took over, he became more active in investing in the mainland.
Many people say that life is a besieged city, and the people inside the besieged city want to go out, and the people outside the besieged city want to come in. Now Li Ka-shing is the person in the siege, and he has always wanted to go out.
So why does Li Ka-shing go against everyone else? In fact, for Li Ka-shing, he is very likely to gradually abandon the real estate development business, or it will reduce the amount of this business to a very small scale.
Hong Kong real estate billionaire Chen Qizong also said that it is not that this industry will be absent, but that the golden period of making money in this industry has passed, and it will be very difficult to make money in the future. Real estate developers must transform.
Li Ka-shing still has hundreds of billions of property assets in his hands, he keeps these assets to collect rent, and the annual rental income is also seven or eight billion, and in terms of property development, he will definitely make profits decline and risks will increase, which is the key to his choice to gradually give up.
So don't other giants know this problem? Money is definitely going to flow to the places where the risks are the least and the profits are greatest. But not every giant is like Li Ka-shing, who can run so many businesses around the world. Li Ka-shing's funds have a better destination, and naturally he can choose to flee. Others have huge amounts of cash in their hands and can't find a better investment destination, so it is also a good choice to continue to develop real estate.
The golden age of this industry has passed, and it does not mean that this industry is gone. The need for housing will be there for decades and centuries to come. Some people need a house, and someone needs a house and there is a need for a developer to exist. However, Wang Shi also said that the developer will be there, which does not mean that Vanke will.
In the future, everyone will continue to compete in services, management capabilities, and development capabilities. In the past, it was a process from scratch, and now it is from existence to refinement, and in the future, there is almost no investment in the industry, and most people are not buying a house for the first time, but the demand for improvement, and the demand for living is higher. The requirements for developers are naturally higher.
In fact, Li Ka-shing cashed out to invest in foreign countries, and other giants returned to the mainland to invest, all based on the premise of making more money. Of course, opening a company is for money, and Wang Jianlin also said that it is immoral if a company does not make money. Development should also make money, as long as it is reasonable and legal, making money is to make reasonable profits, should be supported.
In fact, these Hong Kong businessmen have always been masters of playing the cycle, and they come and go freely in the cycle. In the past 10 years, many mainland real estate companies have looked down on these Hong Kong companies, believing that they have run too slowly and have been eliminated by the times. In fact, nowadays, mainland real estate companies play with high turnover and high leverage, which are also the remainder of Hong Kong businessmen playing in that year.
Chen Qizong said that several major real estate companies in Hong Kong have survived decades. They have today's results are not simple. These Hong Kong real estate companies have survived countless cycles, and they have more experience in real estate development, and dealing with risks in this industry is always the first.
In fact, we don't need to link these business actions with character, and the Hong Kong businessmen who come back now may still leave in the future, and those who leave may still come back. This is nothing more than their normal business practice. At least they won't be like Jia Yueting, who put on a lot of money and then run to the United States and not come back.