Chapter 310 Yue Ning Graduates
The stock market dropped from a high of more than 1,800 points in 1981 to 680 points in early 1983, a drop of two-thirds. The property market was slightly better, but house prices generally fell by one-third, and the market was in a slump. Many wealthy people in Hong Kong accelerated their pace of immigration and sold their local assets.
At this time, Baohualou announced the repurchase of Ning Xiaochu shares to stabilize the share price.
In mid-1983, the Li family, who were known as the "Four Shipping Kings" together with the Qiao family, misjudged the severity of the crisis in the shipping industry, especially the persistence of the cold winter in the oil transportation field, and began to sell off their assets due to capital chain problems. They had a commercial building in Tsim Sha Tsui that had only been completed for a year and were urgently looking for a buyer. At this time, the market was sluggish and most powerful buyers were still waiting and watching.
When Yue Ning heard the news, he decided to go and take a look.
When she founded 联众, her sole purpose was to resolve the pain point of poor communication between the mainland and overseas.
However, in 1982, Lianzhong became the first Hong Kong-funded company to set up a professional booth at the Spring Fair. With its familiarity with the mainland, it became the preferred partner for many companies that wanted to enter the mainland market. From the moment one company handed over the agency rights, there were the second, the third, and so on.
In addition, the Qiao family is the shipping king in Hong Kong, and the Yu family in Nanyang is the shipping king in Southeast Asia. Yue Ning has unique logistics advantages. Many links that are difficult for others to get through can be easily solved in Lianzhong.
Zhou Mingxuan, Zhao Jiaying, Pang Qiang and others were promoted to senior management positions right after graduation. Faced with a huge business spread, they grew rapidly under pressure, but it was also extremely difficult.
Fortunately, they have Yue Ning as their backer. They never understand why Yue Ning can always provide solutions quickly.
In her previous life, Yue Ning ran a hidden restaurant that was a place for business leaders to meet friends over food and exchange ideas. She often acted as a matchmaker for people who were short of funds or looking for projects. At that time, the Internet was booming, and logistics, the core link of e-commerce, was repeatedly discussed. Yue Ning was the beneficiary of these business models, otherwise Ning Shaoma would not have been able to open stores around the world.
Lianzhong is engaged in trade logistics, which happens to be Yue Ning’s expertise.
Lianzhong is now developing rapidly, and the one-story office building shared with Ningyan Lu Mansion is no longer sufficient. If it continues to lease, Lianzhong is currently on the seventh floor, and only the sixteenth floor has office space left. A company is divided into two separate floors, which is not only inconvenient, but also difficult to meet the needs of Lianzhong's continued rapid development.
In addition, it was inconvenient for Lianzhong employees to go to Kwai Chung Pier from Central to work, and the office space of Baohua Building Management Company was also stretched due to the accelerated expansion of Ning Xiaochu after its listing. Yue Ning originally planned to move Lianzhong to Kowloon and had been looking for a suitable office location.
The new building that we chose this time not only has a direct view of Victoria Harbour, but also has a grand ground floor design and a very spacious interior space.
Although the Po Wah Building main store in Mong Kok carries my grandfather’s memories for many years, the streets are narrow, the environment is poor, and parking spaces are scarce in the surrounding area. It has to bear a large number of customers for a long time, which puts a lot of pressure on it.
Moreover, Baohua Building lacked a store that could host large banquets. Yue Ning discussed with his grandfather Yue Baohua whether to buy the building and use the ground floor and the second floor as the new Baohua Building headquarters, the upper floors for the management company and Lianzhong offices, and the extra floors for rent.
Yue Baohua is quite open-minded. When he made money, he bought the tenement building and moved from a small store to this store. Now that Baohua Building has developed to a new level, it is normal to relocate. He can then rent out the tenement building and collect rent.
The two of them had only been discussing for two days. Perhaps because the market was sluggish, the seller was afraid that they would change their minds, so he lowered the price again. The price was really favorable, so Yue Ning decided to buy it immediately.
As the Li family was in trouble and was the focus of financial reports, and Yue Ning was a rising star in the media, this transaction became a hot topic in the market at a time when the future of Hong Kong City was uncertain and real estate transactions were sluggish. Some people believed that Yue Ning's repurchase of Ning Xiaochu's shares at this time could be understood as stabilizing the stock price, but the act of purchasing a commercial building was too radical.
Yue Ning said frankly: "I am confident in the future of Hong Kong City and believe that the current regional market is at a stage low."
Unexpectedly, this view has caused controversy. Some commentators have insinuated her that "the wise follow the times, the fools go against reason", saying that this business star has been blinded by success and that it is easy to make a fortune but also easy to lose it. Some people even pointed out that she has the support of a wealthy family, and those who are "tricked" by her to buy a house may suffer a great loss, and gave her the title of "economist who graduated from the kitchen".
It happened that Yue Ning graduated from college after three years, and he spoke again as a representative of the graduates.
“Being able to stand here at least proves that I am a real HKU graduate, not just a ‘kitchen graduate’.”
There were sporadic chuckles from the audience, and Yue Ning glanced at the whole room: "But I want to ask everyone here, how many of you have ever been to the dock to count the containers on the yard? And who has paid attention to the number of trucks entering and leaving the port from the mainland?" The auditorium gradually became quiet, and Yue Ning listed a series of transportation data from the port city to the mainland: the freight volume has achieved double-digit growth in the past three years, and the growth rate further accelerated in the first quarter of this year.
She continued, "'The wise follow the times, the fools go against them'. This saying is not wrong in itself, but the understanding of 'time' varies from person to person. Some people focus on the stock market and the property market, and stare at the crowds of people waiting in line in front of the consulates for immigration approval; but what I see is that since the second oil crisis triggered a global economic recession, especially since the shipping industry fell into crisis, the port city's transportation business to the mainland has not only not declined, but has grown rapidly. Mid- to long-term investment looks at ten to twenty years, while short-term speculation looks at a few months or one to two years. Different perspectives lead to different conclusions."
After sharing his thoughts, Yue Ning concluded with this sentence: "Use today's choices to add a solid brick and a beam of warm light to the port city of tomorrow. The land under our feet is worth our efforts."
Today, Grandpa and Qiao Junxian came together to attend her graduation ceremony. Yue Ning walked out of the auditorium and asked Qiao Junxian to take a photo for her. The reporters who had been waiting nearby immediately came forward and asked, "I heard that Ning Ning will continue to study for a master's degree?"
"Yes, I will continue to study." Yue Ning responded with a smile.
Another reporter looked at Qiao Junxian: "Does that mean the Second Young Master will have to wait for many more years?"
Qiao Junxian smiled and said, "No, our wedding date is set at the end of this year."
What everyone is more concerned about is the specifications of Yue Ning and Qiao Junxian's wedding banquet. Qiao Junshen and Cui Huiyi's wedding was impressive, and as a practitioner in the catering industry, Yue Ning's wedding naturally needs to show strength.
She said in an interview with reporters: "The wedding banquet will be held in the new Baohua Building main store."
In everyone's perception, Ningyan is the symbol of high-end catering. Why did Yue Ning, the boss, choose the Baohualou flagship store?
After all, Baohualou has long given people the impression of being an affordable restaurant. Now her wedding banquet is being held at the new Baohualou headquarters, which makes everyone curious about what the new Baohualou headquarters looks like.
The day of closing of Po Wah Lau in Mong Kok has finally come. The grandparents and grandchildren worked in person in Po Wah Lau in Mong Kok for a week, allowing old customers to once again experience the taste of this old restaurant.
Some people are also worried that the Xin Baohualou, which hosted the wedding banquet of Yue Ning and Qiao Junxian, will no longer be accessible to the public.
"No!" Yue Ning explained with a smile, "Now that food prices have risen, Baohualou will adjust prices appropriately according to market conditions, but the positioning remains unchanged, and the prices are still within the range of restaurants of this level, focusing on cost-effectiveness. The new store not only has an excellent environment, but also extremely convenient parking and first-line views."
Uncle Chang, who sells clothes next door, couldn't help but sigh: "Once Baohualou leaves, my business will probably be much worse."
"Your clothes are the same as Baohualou's, with a very high cost-performance ratio. Your business won't be too bad." Yue Ning chatted with him.
At this time, Yue Ning saw Yang Zhijie and Sister Lan passing by with bags, and Uncle Chang joked, "Alan, are you going to live in a mansion?"
Sister Lan smiled from ear to ear: "Don't talk nonsense, it's thanks to Ningning that we moved to a new house."
Buying a house has always been difficult for Hong Kong people, but the friends who follow Yue Ning have long since gotten rid of the pressure.
Yue Ning had previously advised them to hold off on buying a house, saying that housing prices had reached their peak and they should wait until prices dropped before buying. Of course, there were also people like A Wei who needed to improve their living conditions after having children, and who replaced their houses in 1981. This year, they found that housing prices had dropped a lot in just two years, and they regretted not listening to Yue Ning's advice.
After Yue Ning bought the building this year, she insisted on letting her friends buy houses even though critics became more vocal. She started a "group buying mode" and helped her friends buy houses by lowering prices during the downturn in the property market.
Yang Zhijie bought two houses in Quarry Bay, the larger one is over 900 square feet, and the smaller one is over 400 square feet. The mother and son first lived in the smaller one, which was opposite Hua Jie's house, and the larger one was reserved for Yang Zhijie to get married.
Asong's family also bought a house in this area. Yue Ning asked him to buy all the houses at once, one for each of his three children and one for himself.
In the sluggish market, employees of Baohua Building and Lianzhong bought houses in a big way. Real estate agents set their sights on them and even opened agencies near Baohua Building.
After hearing about this, people who criticized Yue Ning posted again, sneering: "She is willing to be the brick to fill the hole, no one will stop her. I just want to advise everyone that making money is not easy, and your little money is not enough to fill the hole."
No one could convince anyone else on matters like this, and Yue Ning didn't bother to pay attention and focused on preparing for her own wedding.
After Yue Ning and Qiao Junxian returned to their hometown to pay tribute to Yue Zhirong, they returned to Hong Kong and began the countdown to their wedding.
Amid everyone's anticipation, chefs arrived from all over the world a week before the wedding.
Since 1979, Baohualou has maintained exchanges with members of the mainland and the Black Truffle Restaurant Alliance, and many chefs have worked in Baohualou's restaurants. For Yue Ning's wedding, Baohualou invited some chefs to return and prepare the wedding banquet together with Baohualou's two chefs, Chen Jinying and Lu Peide.
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