Chapter 680: The Xiangjiang Civil Aviation Industry Fighting Overtly and Secretly
"Don't mention it, Hong Kong Dragon Airlines has been suppressed by the British to the brink of danger before it opened. шщш. , not to work hard like Cao Guangbiao.” Boss Huo shook his head and smiled bitterly, and said with emotion: “It’s ashamed to say, we old men have been fighting with the British for decades, and have struggled in their cracks until now; It’s really incomparable to eat Jardine, the largest British foreign company, in a sloppy manner, and digest it in an orderly manner.”
Tang Huan waved his hand, "Actually, it's not a big deal. It's nothing more than a diamond when it should be hard, and a spring breeze when it should be soft."
"You are modest, but how to implement this strategy." Boss Huo asked with interest: "For example, how to solve the current situation of Hong Kong Dragon Airlines?"
It can be said that Hong Kong Dragon Airlines being stumbling and making things difficult for the current Hong Kong government is a representative manifestation of the competition between Chinese capital and British capital under the new situation.
In terms of business, the driving force for the founding of Dragonair comes from the provisions of Article 9 of the Annex of the "Sino-British_Joint Declaration": "The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region will maintain Hong Kong's status as an international and regional aviation center. Register in Hong Kong and use Airlines and civil aviation-related industries whose main business is Hong Kong can continue to operate. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region continues to use the original private aviation management system implemented in Hong Kong.”
According to this article, once the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is established, the localization of the airline will be extremely important.
In other words, Cathay Pacific, which currently monopolizes the aviation industry in Hong Kong, may lose its long-standing dominance in the future. As long as there is a competitor belonging to Hong Kong who dares to jump out and challenge, there is a great chance to replace it.
You must know that the current Cathay Pacific is not a listed public company, and there are only two major shareholders, one is the Swire Group, one of the four old British foreign firms, which accounts for 70% of the shares, and the other is the Swire Group, which holds 70% of the shares. Thirty HSBC.
With its monopoly on Hong Kong's aviation industry, Cathay Pacific has brought considerable profits to Swire Group and HSBC.
Take 1984, that is, last year's performance as an example. Cathay Pacific carried a total of 3.6 million passengers, 458 million ton-kilometers of cargo, and a revenue of 6.82 billion Hong Kong dollars.
How else can we say that the colony of Xiangjiang is a money bag for the British to take whatever they want, and it has made profits for hundreds of years, but now it is going to run away, it is extremely worthy of a beating!
What is especially ironic is that Cathay Pacific, which is not publicly listed, neither represents Hong Kong nor pays a special monopoly tax to the Hong Kong government, but enjoys the full support of the Hong Kong government and has become the airline that actually represents Hong Kong at this stage.
And this kind of care has recently been reflected in the fact that Dragonair, a potential competitor, has just emerged.
It was suppressed by the Hong Kong government in a deliberate and chain-by-chain manner.
First of all, Cathay Pacific and the Hong Kong government are worried about the establishment and investment background of Dragonair. It was originally a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hong Kong-Macau International Investment Co., Ltd.
And this parent company was established in March 1985. The shareholders include 31 famous businessmen from Hong Kong and Macau, including Cao Guangbiao, Bao Yugang, Li Ka-shing, Huo Yingdong, An Zijie, Feng Bingfen, Ma Wanqi, as well as Bank of China, China _Run Company, China Merchants and other Chinese-funded institutions.
Among them, Bank of China holds 22% of the shares, and China Resources and China Merchants hold 30% of the shares. Obviously, it has a strong Chinese color.
Shortly after the establishment of Hong Kong and Macao International Investment Co., Ltd., in late May 1985, Hong Kong Dragon Airlines Co., Ltd. with a registered capital of 100 million Hong Kong dollars was established, and a team of crew members was quickly formed to lease a Boeing 737. Apply for a business certificate from the Hong Kong Air Transport Licensing Bureau under the Hong Kong government, and open regular charter flights to eight mainland cities including Hong Kong-Beijing, Hong Kong-Shanghai; at the same time, cooperate with the Civil Aviation Administration of China consultations on charter services.
This directly touched the "cheese" of Cathay Pacific Airways, because after China began to implement the reform and opening up policy, the air transportation between Xiangjiang and the mainland became more and more frequent. Especially for the Hong Kong-Beijing and Hong Kong-Shanghai routes, the transportation resources are quite tight, the air ticket prices are extremely high, and it is often difficult to find a ticket.
Ever since, the restless Cathay Pacific, or more precisely, the Swire Group behind it, let the Hong Kong government make a move to stumble, and at the same time went into battle by themselves, rolling up their sleeves and arguing with Dragonair blushing and thick-necked Woke up.
On July 9, more than a month after the establishment of Hong Kong Dragon Airlines, the Civil Aviation Department of the Hong Kong Government suddenly promulgated a new regulation, stipulating that "all airlines based in Hong Kong must obtain the Civil Aviation Department in advance before negotiating with foreign civil aviation agencies on air transport services." permission". And came into effect on July 26. Prior to this, representatives of Hong Kong Dragon Airlines had negotiated charter flights with Civil Aviation of China.
On the day when the new regulations came into effect, the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department sent a strongly worded letter to Dragonair, warning that it must obey the new regulations and not contact CAAC without authorization, otherwise it will not be approved by the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department to operate charter flights.
In addition, the letter also asked Dragonair to give up the charter flight services from Hongkong to Beijing and Shanghai in exchange for the support of Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department for Hongkong Dragonair to operate other charter flights in mainland China.
On August 17, the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department formally rejected Dragonair's application to operate Hong Kong-Beijing and Hong Kong-Shanghai routes on the grounds that "Cathay Pacific already has a license to operate designated routes."
Of course, Dragonair could not accept this seemingly impartial decision, but in fact it cheated you of not discussing it, so it issued a statement at the subsequent press conference, accusing the Hong Kong government of obviously favoring Cathay Pacific, and wrote to the Governor of Hong Kong to protest.
At the same time, Cathay Pacific also issued a statement refuting Dragonair's accusations, and protested that it was an airline designated by the Hong Kong government.
Subsequently, Hongkong Civil Aviation took the issue of the aircraft type of Hong Kong Dragon Airlines and made another serious move, withdrawing its application in July for eight regular regular flights between Hongkong and the mainland.
As a response, the Civil Aviation Administration of China also notified Cathay Pacific to cancel the other two Hong Kong-Beijing flight service applications.
At this point, Cathay Pacific immediately withered, and has never jumped out to publicly publish any comments related to this since then.
Obviously, everyone's fighting skills have reached the current point, and the anger is getting bigger and bigger, and the political significance of the whole incident has begun to deepen.
However, the current Xiangjiang still has the final say from the British. Dragonair cannot twist its arms and legs, and must meet the requirements of the other party, that is, "to provide proof that most of the shares are owned and controlled by British people in order to obtain Sino-British Eligibility for the nominated airline to represent the UK under the Aeronautical Agreement."
For this reason, Hong Kong Dragon Airlines had to carry out the first large-scale capital reorganization since its establishment: the company's capital was increased from 100 million Hong Kong dollars to 200 million Hong Kong dollars, and Bao Yugang, who had obtained British nationality, and Cao Qiyong, the son of Cao Guangbiao, injected capital respectively. , the former acquired a 30.2% stake in Dragonair, became the largest shareholder, and served as the chairman of the company; Cao Qiyong held a 24.7% stake in Dragonair and became the second largest shareholder; and the original parent company - Hong Kong Macau International The equity held by Investment Co., Ltd. was reduced to 24.99%, and the remaining 20.11% of the equity was held by other minority shareholders.
In order to further enhance its strength and prestige, Dragonair even invited Zhong Shiyuan, the current chief unofficial member of the Executive Council, to the board of directors.
After this equity reorganization, Dragonair has transformed into an airline based in Hong Kong owned and controlled by the majority of British nationals, and finally obtained the same qualification as Cathay Pacific to operate scheduled flights.
However, the development of Hong Kong Dragon Airlines has not become smooth because of this, and the constraints of the Hong Kong government are still waiting for it.
In November 1985, that is, just last month, Peng Lizhi, who was the chairman of the board of directors of the Swire Group, the parent company of Cathay Pacific Airways, and is now the financial secretary of the Hong Kong government, announced a new aviation policy, stipulating that "one route can only be operated by one airline. Airline operations, the airline that is licensed to operate first will be eligible for exclusive operation.”
This kind of special care is simply fruitless and undisguised, because high-profit and high-passenger routes, such as Hong Kong-Beijing, Hong Kong-Shanghai, Hong Kong-London, etc., have already been occupied first. Cathay Pacific Airways, which has the advantage, is operating it; while the remaining routes are basically low-profit and low-passenger.
This month, which is also the last month of 1985, the Hong Kong Air Transport Licensing Bureau is publicly hearing Hong Kong Dragon Airlines’s connection with Xi’an, Xiamen, Hangzhou, Haikou, Zhanjiang, and Nanjing. , Gui_lin, Guangzhou_zhou and other routes.
It is entirely predictable that the Hong Kong government will definitely put on a show and approve these unpopular domestic routes. As for international routes like Hong Kong-London, there will be some noise, and there is a great possibility that they will continue to be stuck .
In fact, Bao Yugang and Cao Guangbiao, the major shareholders of Dragonair, have repeatedly publicly criticized the unfair behavior of the Hong Kong government for sparing no effort to protect the interests of Cathay Pacific. However, it is not the same, you are making trouble with you, the Hong Kong government is still the same, and firmly maintains the existing aviation policy unchanged.
In short, it is impossible to improve the plight of Dragonair through bickering. After all, there are too many interests involved, and Swire Group has too many reasons to work hard for it.
The reason why Tang Huan is so clear about the open and secret struggles in Xiangjiang's civil aviation industry at this stage is also because the interests in it are too great, and he can't help being tempted.
The "privatization" process of monopoly enterprises in the UK is in full swing, and it is time for Xiangjiang's profiteering industries dominated by traditional British capital to relax their fingers.
In Tang Huan's view, the timing of Dragonair, a newborn challenger who is not afraid of tigers, is so commendable. Changes, such as abandoning the joint holding structure of Swire Group and HSBC, listing as a public company, so as to have the minimum qualifications to represent Xiangjiang, so as not to be too late when it is really stuck with this problem.
The so-called public company means that there is a clear lower limit on the number of shareholders and tradable shares, so that it can be called "public" and representative. Swire Group and HSBC can no longer sing duets, and must leave room for others to participate .
Tang Huan doesn't need to worry about whether Dragonair can grow after fulfilling its historical mission as a spoiler, as long as it can charge forward courageously and keep putting pressure on Cathay Pacific.
After snooping from Boss Huo about the determination and courage of the shareholders of Dragonair to continue fighting, Tang Huan murmured and answered the other party's question, "I don't know how to break the situation, but I think that Dragonair Airlines can’t just waste their energy on fighting with the Hong Kong government and Cathay Pacific, after all, the other party’s intention to keep popular routes is very obvious. Instead of stalemate like this, Dragonair should think about it , how to strive for and develop the niche routes in Southeast Asia that Cathay Pacific has no time to take care of, such as Xiangjiang to Thailand, so as to generate profits as soon as possible. Even if it is meager, the key is the significance and prospects it represents.”
"I'm afraid it will be difficult for everyone to take their eyes off the popular routes. After all, Dragonair's background is not bad, so there is no need to start from scratch." Boss Huo shook his head.
"Perhaps, from Xiangjiang to Funan, a relatively popular route will be stimulated due to the demand for business contacts." Tang Huan explained with some uncertainty: "The business community on Baodao has recently Funan has implemented a series of projects, and personnel exchanges will increase.”
"I found that you don't know much about Xiangjiang's civil aviation industry. It seems that you have done some investigation beforehand. Do you have any ideas?" Boss Huo, who came back to the memory, asked tentatively with a smile.
"Learning more information is nothing more than capturing more business opportunities." Tang Huan made a noncommittal haha.
"Then do you think it's a good business opportunity to buy the bottom at OOCL at this time?" Boss Huo brought the topic back. He estimated that by taking advantage of this interruption, even if Tang Huan didn't make a final decision, he would have made some preliminary decisions. idea.
"It's really hard to say, the gap of more than 20 billion Hong Kong dollars is too glaring." Tang Huan's attitude became obviously conservative.
"Don't explain to me that you can't turn over funds." Boss Huo joked: "Just to comfort some Hong Kong people in the nuclear panic, you spend 100 million US dollars to buy nuclear protection materials, which shows that you rich financial resources."
"Okay, then I'll 'hand in' the bottom line." Tang Huan nodded, "I still need to think about this matter. It's not that I don't trust the credibility of the documents brought by Mr. Huo, but that I still need to refer to the Intelligence from other angles."
"If you think about it seriously, I should be happy." Boss Huo waved his hand understandingly, "Next year I plan to inject at least 100 million US dollars into OOCL. You may wish to refer to it."
"I'm afraid that even if OOCL survives this round of rescue, the Dong family's controlling position will also be lost. Will they accept it?" Tang Huan couldn't help but wonder.