Chapter 300 Inspection of Hong Kong Industries

After the boasting, the cocktail party began. Many people came to communicate with Hardy, including people from the four major trading companies. The four major trading companies own a large number of industries in Hong Kong, including power companies, water supply companies, construction, real estate, shipping, airports, retail, banks, hotels, insurance, etc. They can be said to be deeply rooted.

In the past two years, the Hardy Group has made large investments in Hong Kong, which has made them very worried about whether their business will be taken away.

But they don't have the courage to use dirty tricks to stop it.

There is no other way now. The Hardy Group acquired HSBC, which is the most important bank in Hong Kong. The four major foreign banks also have shares in HSBC. They can only seek cooperation now.

Moreover, many people are worried about the future of Hong Kong. When the president of Jardine Matheson & Co. was chatting with Hardy, he asked: "Mr. Hardy, the current situation is unstable. Aren't you afraid of major changes if you invest heavily in Hong Kong at this time?"

The major change he was referring to was naturally the attack from the north and the recovery of Hong Kong.

Hardy smiled faintly, "No one can be 100% sure about investment. I know that people in Hong Kong are not stable right now, and many investors have left Hong Kong."

"But this is also a good time to invest, isn't it? I can acquire high-quality assets at a lower price. If I win, my income will increase several times. If I lose, I will accept the loss and leave Hong Kong."

Hardy, the boss of a large American group, has invested heavily in Hong Kong. Some people speculate that the United States will interfere in Hong Kong affairs, so he dares to invest here.

Now Hardy told them he was just gambling.

This answer disappointed many people.

Hardy has money.

Investment failure may not be a big deal, but other businesses may not be so sure, as they dare not take such a big risk.

Hadi smiled secretly.

The purpose is to scare you so that you will sell your assets and I can receive large amounts at the lowest price.

And on the other side.

Han Ye-jin was surrounded by a group of noble ladies. As the female companion of the guest of honor tonight, Han Ye-jin also received much attention. No matter what her current status is, the fact that she was brought to a cocktail party of this scale by Mr. Hardy meant that her status was recognized.

These people intentionally or unintentionally inquired about Han Yezhen's identity.

Later I learned that Han Ye-jin grew up in the United States and her parents are both university professors. No one here dares to look down on such a family.

As for her current position, she is the head of the Hardy Group Auction Company and came to Hong Kong to build a museum.

Of course,

Han Ye-jin’s biggest identity is Hardy’s woman.

The women gathered around Han Ye-jin, chatting about what's popular now, how to wear clothes, makeup brands, etc.

This is the circle of women.

When Hardy was chatting with someone, a middle-aged Chinese man came over and waited for Hardy to finish chatting with the person opposite him. The man immediately said, "I have met Mr. Hardy."

"Is it Mr. Tung Chao-Yun?"

"Ah, Mr. Hardy, you know me?" Tung Hao Yung was very surprised.

Hardy smiled and said, "I have read your information. We are partners. The Global Shipping Company you own is now the largest shipping company in East Asia. I hope you will work hard to develop it."

Calling it a partner is actually a face-giving gesture by Hardy, as Hardy holds 70% of the shares of Global Shipping and has absolute controlling rights.

"I will definitely work hard to develop and expand global shipping," Tung Chao-Yen responded quickly.

"Hardy Shipping now has six shipping companies with routes all over the world. In the future, I hope to cooperate with more of them. I am confident that the shipping group will develop into the world's largest shipping consortium in the future," said Hardy.

Dong Haoyun was very excited when he heard this.

The party was halfway through.

Grantham invited Hardy to smoke a cigar, and the two came to the courtyard and chatted while watching the night view. "Mr. Hardy, the government welcomes you to invest in Hong Kong. If you are interested in any industry in Hong Kong and need help, please tell me."

Hardy smiled.

"Mr. Governor, do I really need your help?"

"Oh, what is it?"

"Buy land. The group wants to build and needs to buy more land. I know the government still has a large amount of land and hopes to buy some for construction." Hardy said.

"I remember Victor has already bought a lot of land. Isn't that enough?" Grantham asked in surprise.

"To be honest, I am very optimistic about Hong Kong's geographical location. I want to build more factories here so that the products produced can cover half of Asia. According to my plan, that little land is not enough. You know, Mr. Governor, sometimes a large enterprise needs thousands of acres of land."

Hardy bluffed.

In fact, Hong Kong’s location is not suitable for industry at all. Without any resources, industrial costs will increase significantly.

The reason why Hong Kong became an industrial production base for a period of time was entirely due to domestic factors. Once the country began to reform and open up, the favorable factors disappeared and it immediately shrank rapidly.

Hadi's purpose is to hoard land.

People are not so enthusiastic about hoarding land now, mainly because the real estate industry in Hong Kong has not yet developed. The real real estate boom in Hong Kong did not come until the 1960s and 1970s, so Grantham did not think that Hardy wanted the land just for hoarding.

Although a lot of land in Hong Kong is privately owned, most of it is still in the hands of the government. Hardy hopes to acquire more land from Grantham.

"I can promise you this. Let the director of the land management department contact Victor, and you can see if there are any suitable plots of land." said Grantham.

He would naturally support investment in the development of Hong Kong.

"There is one more thing. I want to build a new racecourse and hope to cooperate with the Hong Kong Jockey Club," said Hardy.

"You want to run a horse racing business?" Grantham frowned slightly.

Today, there is only one racecourse in Hong Kong, Happy Valley, which holds many horse racing events every year. Horse racing today is very different from that of later generations. The current Jockey Club is mainly composed of Europeans, who implement a membership system. It was not until the 1920s that two Chinese were admitted.

As for horse racing betting, it was not as developed as in later generations. There were only some horse racing tickets that people played occasionally, and they were mainly concentrated in the upper circles. It was not yet the era when people were crazy about buying horses.

There are many scenes of horse racing in Hong Kong movies. It can be said that horse racing has become a part of Hong Kong life. But it was not until the late 1970s when the Sha Tin Racecourse was built and the number of races increased that ordinary people were allowed to start playing horse racing.

Grantham knew that Hardy was not only a wealthy man, but also a gambling tycoon who ran the largest casino in the United States.

Is this an attempt to extend the gambling industry to Hong Kong?

The British government and Hong Kong are both quite cautious about the gambling industry. They know the dangers of gambling and that it will allow many people to gain something for nothing, and they don't want that to happen.

"I have no plans to let the racecourse get involved in the gambling industry for the time being. I just want to open a racecourse so that I can have fun with my friends. Even if the racecourse is built, it will comply with the regulations of the Hong Kong Island government," Hardy said with a smile.

Only then did Grantham breathe a sigh of relief.

"That's no problem. On behalf of the Hong Kong Island government, I can agree to Mr. Hardy's racecourse joining the Jockey Club," said Grantham.

Hadi expressed his gratitude.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t agree now. The world is changing. After the racecourse is built, I can slowly promote the development of the horse racing industry.

As for the real gambling industry, Hardy plans to go back to Macau, which is the focus of his gambling industry development.

The straight-line distance between Macau and Hong Kong is only 62 kilometers, and it only takes one hour by ferry to get there. Macau is not one of the four major casinos now, and there are no super-large casinos. If Hardy had invested in building a casino comparable to Hardy's Hotel, it could have been called a benchmark for Macau.

After the welcome reception, Hardy and Han Ye-jin returned to the villa.

night.

Han Ye-jin is very proactive.

I guess that's why Hardy brought her to the cocktail party.

Even opened his little mouth.

The next day.

Accompanied by Victor, Hardy inspected the situation in the Kowloon Tong Industrial Zone. Now the Kowloon Tong Industrial Zone has access to water, electricity and roads, dozens of factories have moved in, and even more than a dozen factories have started production.

All the factories here were jointly established by the Hardy Group and others, and the factory land they used also belongs to the Hardy Group.

Therefore, these factories have to pay a rent to Hardy Hong Kong Real Estate Company every year, but overall it is not expensive.

Hardy did this primarily to keep the land in his hands.

Rubber shoe factory.

Boss Chen Xiangsheng accompanied Hardy on the inspection, and Victor followed behind. Chen Xiangsheng was cautious and respectful. Although he was the boss here, he only had 30% of the shares. The other person was the big boss, and he was just an employee.

Hardy picked up a pair of rubber shoes and looked at them.

There is not much difference between these rubber shoes and those of later generations. Hardy knows that these rubber shoes were not mass-produced in China until the 1950s, and the army wore them for 50 years.

These shoes are sturdy and cheap.

Not only is it used by the military, but ordinary people also like it very much.

In addition to this type of rubber shoes, the factory also produces thicker rubber shoe soles, which are hard rubber soles used for leather military boots. This type of hard rubber sole can be used to make cloth cotton boots or leather cotton boots, which are suitable for winter wear.

However, this factory does not produce complete shoes, but only sells hard rubber soles. Those who need them can buy the soles and go home to make their own cotton boots.

The machines in this factory were obsolete machines sold by the logistics department. We packaged them all and ran it in partnership with others. We can produce 1.2 million pairs of rubber shoes and 1 million sets of rubber soles a year.

"Is it selling well?" Hardy asked.

"It sells well. Many people in Hong Kong and mainland China want it. The supply cannot meet the demand. We are working overtime." Chen Xiangsheng replied quickly.

"What about these hard rubber soles?"

“They’ve all been booked.”

"Are there enough raw materials?" Hardy asked.

"Enough, we have been pressing for raw materials for half a year." Chen Xiangsheng said.

Hardy put down his rubber shoes and said, "I have a suggestion for you. Store the raw materials for at least two years. If you don't have enough money, you can apply for a bank loan. I can get Wells Fargo to give you the lowest interest rate."

Chen Xiangsheng was a little surprised.

"Boss, the raw materials have been suppressed for two years. Do you think the price of raw materials will increase in the future?" Chen Xiangsheng asked.

"The raw material you use is mainly rubber. There are more and more cars now, and rubber is used in more and more places. In the past two years, due to the end of World War II, there has been a temporary overproduction, so the price of rubber has dropped, but it will go back up sooner or later." Hardy said.

There is another reason that Hardy did not mention, which is that it is better to buy more now. In 50 years, rubber will become a controlled substance and it will be difficult to buy it.

Hardy came to the toy factory again.

The equipment for producing toys here was purchased from the toy factory when Hardy established HD Security. Later, it was given to the Barbie doll factory. Now the Barbie doll factory has also replaced the equipment, and these have been eliminated and sent here.

It's really not a waste at all.

In this factory, the Hadi Group still holds the majority.

Of course,

The mold was changed. Instead of producing ugly dolls, it mainly produced small plastic cars. Hardy looked at the shapes and there were more than a dozen types, all of which were cartoon versions of the world's more famous car models.

"How are they selling?" Hardy asked.

"We sent them to the United States. The dealers there liked these cars very much, and we had a price advantage, so the sales were very good," said the person in charge.

"How much can you earn from a car like this?"

"After deducting all the expenses such as labor, water, electricity, etc., one can earn about 0.3 Hong Kong dollars."

"How much is the production?"

"Ten million, yes."

Hardy did a quick calculation in his mind: 10 million times 0.3 is 3 million Hong Kong dollars, which is about 370,000 US dollars.

This money has to be divided between the two parties.

This amount of money is nothing to Hardy, but to these investors, it is definitely a good business. With one-third of the shares, they can earn millions of Hong Kong dollars a year. In Hong Kong these days, a million Hong Kong dollars makes one a small rich man.

Hardy then moved to several other companies.

Victor told Hardy that there were already light bulb factories, wire factories, nail factories, wire factories, screw factories, cigarette rolling factories, button factories, zipper factories, hose factories, garment factories, plastic flower factories, etc.

A factory that produces radios and faucet valves is already considered an enterprise with relatively high technological content.

Hadi smiled and said, "It doesn't matter. We will develop step by step. Let's buy the land first."

Hardy has a deep love for the land.