Chapter 138: Buying a Villa
Around nine in the morning, Lin Haoran arrived at the Wan'an Group building.
Not long afterward, Lin Haoning also arrived, and he came alone, without bringing anyone with him.
When the employees of Wan'an Group saw the new chairman's elder brother, who had once been the group's most likely heir, they were somewhat surprised. What was he here for?
Actually, when Lin Haoran took over as chairman of Wan'an Group, everyone had already understood that the two brothers must have competed for Wan'an Group, and the result was obvious: Lin Haoran had ultimately succeeded.
In the chairman's office, Lin Haoran stood up and said with a smile, “Big brother, have a seat.”
Lin Haoning nodded, looked around the chairman's office, and was filled with emotion.
All the items and furnishings here were not much different from before.
However, none of this had anything to do with him anymore. His energy was now focused on the Wanfeng Fan Factory.
Profits of several million Hong Kong dollars a month had allowed him to see hope for development.
As long as he worked hard, he believed that his career would not be any worse in the future.
Therefore, Lin Haoning was still quite grateful to his younger brother in front of him.
If Lin Haoran had not told him about the fan market in the Americas, he would still be stubbornly working away at the Middle Eastern market.
“Haoran, these are the stock certificates for Wan'an Group. I brought them all over. They're all yours.” Lin Haoning directly handed the stock certificates to Lin Haoran.
“Mm, I've already had the legal counsel draft the contract. Take a look and see if there's anything wrong. If there isn't, let's sign the contract.” Lin Haoran did not say much either. He directly took out two copies of the contract and handed them to Lin Haoning.
Lin Haoning merely glanced through it casually before signing his name directly.
This was a transaction, and one involving more than ten million Hong Kong dollars at that, so it naturally had to go through the normal procedures. Even if they were biological brothers, there were no exceptions.
“Big brother, I'll arrange for the funds to be transferred to you later.” Lin Haoran said as he signed.
“Alright, if there's nothing else, I'll head back first. There are a lot of things going on at the fan factory, so I won't stay long.” Lin Haoning had no intention of lingering here. After all, once he sold his shares to Lin Haoran, he would have nothing to do with this place anymore.
“Alright, big brother, take care. Come over for tea when you have time.” Lin Haoran did not try to keep him and merely said politely.
Although they were biological brothers, Lin Haoran did not know what he could talk about with Lin Haoning either.
After settling Lin Haoning's shares, Lin Haoran went to the office of Universal Investment Company.
Under Su Zhixue's direction, the traders at Universal Investment Company were already systematically accumulating shares of Wan'an Group and Hongkong Electric.
Wan'an Group's shares were easy to accumulate because there were many sell orders and few buy orders.
But accumulating shares of Hongkong Electric was obviously much more difficult.
Although Hongkong Electric was a listed company without a family controlling shareholder, because Hongkong Electric paid stable dividends every year and its performance was also excellent, trading in Hongkong Electric's shares was extremely active.
There were plenty of both buy and sell orders for Hongkong Electric in the stock market, and its daily trading volume was not small.
Especially when the Hong Kong stock market entered a bull market, the trading volume of Hongkong Electric's shares obviously increased substantially, just like that of other high-quality Hong Kong stocks.
However, high trading volume also had an advantage: when they secretly accumulated shares, it was not easy for others to notice.
Unlike Wan'an Group's trading volume, where a sudden obvious increase in buy orders would easily make people realize that someone was buying Wan'an Group's shares in large quantities.
Of course, as long as Su Zhixue and the others did not push up the stock price, those who wanted to speculate on Wan'an Group's shares could do nothing about it.
After acquiring Lin Haoning's 10% stake and then obtaining the roughly 16% of shares held by the six shareholders, even without acquiring shares from the stock market, he would already hold 76% of the shares.
If he accumulated another batch in the stock market, breaking through 90% would not be difficult. At that point, he could directly announce that the privatization had succeeded. In fact, Lin Haoran could already apply to have Wan'an Group delisted, but he planned to accumulate another batch in the stock market first. There was no rush.
Judging from the stock market during this period, it was obvious that everyone was not optimistic about the Wan'an Group he had taken over. Even with the stock market developing in a favorable direction, no one had come to speculate on this stock.
The fact that the share price of Qingzhou Yingni Company could fall so ridiculously was enough to show that everyone really was not optimistic about this young man, Lin Haoran.
The main reason was that Lin Haoran's investments had always been too mysterious. Although he had suddenly acquired Qingzhou Yingni, in the eyes of many people, that was merely a matter of good luck and support from Lin Wan'an behind the scenes.
As for Lin Haoran's subsequent investments in oil and gold, very few people knew about them in the first place. In particular, apart from senior executives at Citibank, no one knew about his gold investment.
Lin Haoran did not stay long at the office of Universal Investment Company before leaving.
Because shareholders had come to see him.
Lin Wan'an had specifically asked the four shareholders who had agreed to sell their shares at market price to come over first and sign the share transfer agreements with Lin Haoran.
As for the other two shareholders who demanded a 10% premium over the market price, Lin Wan'an had specifically arranged another time for them.
The transaction went smoothly. There was actually nothing much to negotiate. They signed the contract, handed the stock certificates to Lin Haoran, and Lin Haoran gave them the money. That was it.
After reaching agreements with four shareholders in the morning and then two more in the afternoon, Lin Haoran successfully acquired the shares of all the shareholders.
Thus, on this day, excluding the shares accumulated from the stock market, Lin Haoran's stake in Wan'an Group directly increased by 26%, though he also spent 45 million Hong Kong dollars on it.
Meanwhile, Universal Investment Company also reaped a full harvest in the stock market.
Hongkong Electric was not something he could acquire in the short term, and he currently did not have the strength to do so.
The current task regarding Hongkong Electric was to take advantage of the still-low stock price and buy as much as possible without being noticed. Only after he obtained huge amounts of funds from the gold market would the time come for him to directly take control of Hongkong Electric.
As for the privatization of Wan'an Group, it was obviously much simpler. In fact, privatizing it was even much easier than privatizing Qingzhou Yingni Company, so Lin Haoran did not need to worry too much. The remaining matters could be handed over to Universal Investment Company, and finally brought to a close by Wardley Company.
The privatization of Wan'an Group did not require borrowing from banks, so having Wardley Company. handle the final stage would not cost much money either.
Over the following period, Lin Haoran focused every day on those few matters.
First, the rise and fall of international gold prices.
Second, the progress of accumulating shares in Wan'an Group and Hongkong Electric.
Third, handling the approval of some important decisions at Wan'an Group and Qingzhou Yingni Company.
On weekends, whenever Guan Shan happened not to be in Hong Kong, Guan Jiahui would take the initiative to look for him again, and at such times, he would stay at the residence in Hengfeng Building.
However, Lin Haoran also felt that it was time to buy a villa that belonged entirely to him.
It was not very convenient to always go back and stay at the Deep Water Bay villa. It was far away at night and not very safe.
It was not as if he had no money now. It was enough to occasionally go back and see his parents.
And at present, Hong Kong property prices were actually not that high yet.
Even the huge real estate bubble two years later would only cause Hong Kong property prices to plunge by around 60% from their peak.
And current Hong Kong property prices were still nowhere near the peak real estate prices of 1981.
So buying property now was extremely worthwhile.
This was also why he had Wan'an Group borrow money to buy land.
Most importantly, Hong Kong villas were genuinely not expensive to Lin Haoran now.
Nowadays, villas in Hong Kong with poor locations or in remote areas could be bought for even just several hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars.
Villas in somewhat better locations, such as Repulse Bay and Deep Water Bay, could be bought for just over two million.
As for villas around the Clear Water Bay Peninsula, one could buy a villa for just over one million.
However, Lin Haoran did not intend to buy any of these. He would rather buy a villa on the Mid-Levels near Central or a villa on The Peak.
Because quite a few foreign tycoons lived there, security in these areas was the best in all of Hong Kong.
Several million Hong Kong dollars was not a significant amount compared with the hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars in funds he currently held.
Once he had the idea, Lin Haoran immediately put it into action.
After leaving the Wan'an Group building, Lin Haoran had Li Weiguo drive to a Midland second-hand property chain store near Central.
Whether it was a Mid-Levels villa or a Peak villa, new developments were extremely rare, so if he wanted to buy a house in either of these places, he could only choose a second-hand one.
However, Lin Haoran did not really care about that. He could buy it and renovate it from scratch. After all, Wan'an Group had a professional renovation team, and if he was dissatisfied with the layout of the house, he could change it however he wanted.
As Hong Kong's largest established real estate company, Midland's second-hand property business was also one of its important operations. It had a solid reputation, and there were plenty of properties available.
The store itself was quite large, and it was located in the most prosperous core area of Central, covering more than two hundred square meters. In Central, where every inch of land was worth its weight in gold, the rent here was certainly not cheap.
“Hello, sir. I'm the sales manager here, Hu Yuhang. May I ask your surname? Are you here to sell a property or to buy one?” As soon as he entered the store, a salesperson immediately came forward to inquire, appearing extremely enthusiastic.
Lin Haoran had two bodyguards following behind him. Anyone could tell at a glance that he was not an ordinary person.
“My surname is Lin. I'm here to buy a property. Is there somewhere a little quieter?” Lin Haoran looked around the lobby, where several customers were chatting with salespeople.
“Yes, yes, of course. Mr. Lin, I'll take you to the consultation room inside.” The salesperson was obviously a shrewd person.
Soon, Lin Haoran was led into a consultation room, and the clerk enthusiastically brought a cup of hot tea for each of the three people.
“Bring me the property information for the Mid-Levels villas and Peak villas you have here. I'll take a look first. If I have any questions, I'll ask you directly.” Lin Haoran said straightforwardly.
The salesperson became instantly excited upon hearing this. A big client had arrived.
“Mr. Lin, please wait a moment. I'll go out and prepare the materials for you right away.” After saying that, the salesperson quickly walked out of the consultation room and gently closed the door.
Not long afterward, the salesperson came back in carrying a stack of documents.
“Mr. Lin, all the information on the Peak villas and Mid-Levels villas that Midland is responsible for selling is here. You can take your time looking through it. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me at any time.” The salesperson placed the documents in front of Lin Haoran and said enthusiastically.
Lin Haoran nodded and began looking through them himself.
(End of Chapter)
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