Chapter 1431 The Last British Bank!
Yang Ming is always at ease when Shen Yi does things.
After Shen Yi went to London and officially took over the handling of Barings Bank's affairs from Huo Jianning, Huo Jianning had already flown back to Hong Kong from London to meet the boss.
Repulse Bay Hillside Villa.
"Boss, I'll hand over all the affairs of Barings Bank to Mr. Shen. It can be seen that Mr. Shen is indeed more convenient to do things in London than me."
This is inevitable.
In the 1970s, 1980s, and even 1990s in history, Shen Yi played a role and influence in Hong Kong that could not be replaced by many people.
If it weren't for the appearance of Yang Ming, which weakened Shen Yi's role and influence, Shen Yi would probably still push Li Jiacheng to become the richest man in Hong Kong and even the Chinese as in history.
However, because of the appearance of Yang Ming, the role played by Shen Yi was much smaller.
Even so, Yang Ming knew that Shen Yi had worked in financial banks for a long time, and his handling of banking crises was indeed better than Huo Jianning and others.
"Jianning, you did a great job this time."
Huo Jianning went to London this time and successfully took over the Barings Bank, so he completed this task very well.
However, Huo Jianning felt that even if the boss gave this task to other cabinet members, it would still be easy to complete.
That night.
Huo Jianning finished dinner at the Repulse Bay Mid-Levels Villa.
When Huo Jianning was about to go back to see his family, Yang Ming said: "Jianning, let's go upstairs to talk."
Go upstairs to talk?
Is there something important?
Huo Jianning showed a different excitement.
After Huo Jianning followed Yang Ming to the third floor.
After Huo Jianning closed the door, Yang Ming looked at him and said: "In recent years, in addition to acquiring the four major foreign companies in Hong Kong, the Empire Group and I have also acquired large and small foreign companies, including Wharf & Co., Huifeng Bank, and Jardine Matheson Bank. But, do you know that there is still a foreign company in Hong Kong, which is known as the last foreign company in Hong Kong."
The last British foreign company in Hong Kong?
Huo Jianning thought about it and it really was.
The big foreign companies in Hong Kong were basically swallowed up by the Empire Group and Yang Ming.
However, there are still some fish that slipped through the net.
Among them, there is really a very large one.
"Boss, you are talking about Inchcape, right?"
Among the British foreign companies in Hong Kong with a long history and large scale, Inchcape Group is a latecomer and entered Hong Kong relatively late. However, the business under Inchcape evolved from the original member companies, such as Tianxiang Foreign Company, Yan Kee Foreign Company, and Pacific Bank. Like Jardine Matheson and Taikoo, they are all old foreign companies established in Hong Kong more than 100 years ago.
Inchcape was founded by Scottish businessman Mackey in London in 1870.
Mackey started his business in shipping and served as the chairman of the Iron and Steel Shipping Company. His investments spread across the colonies of Country Y east of the Suez Canal. He was named Baron Inchcape in 1911 and Earl Inchcape in 1929. He was quite influential in the political arena of Country Y.
For a long time, the Inchcape Group developed quite slowly. It was not until 1958 that Inchcape Limited was established in London as the group's holding company and listed in London that the group began to develop rapidly.
Since 1967, Inchcape has successively acquired Y country's Tianxiang Foreign Company, Anglo-Thai United Company, and Ban Tao Group, and its influence has been expanding.
In the late 1960s, the Inchcape Group began to enter Hong Kong, and through Inchcape (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd., it launched a series of acquisition activities, and successively acquired three old British foreign companies with a history of more than 100 years in Hong Kong-Pacific, Tianxiang Foreign Company and Yan Kee Foreign Company.
Pacific was a famous British foreign company in Hong Kong as early as the mid-19th century. Unfortunately, the business development was not ideal in the 1960s. The businesses of elevators, escalators, air conditioners, etc. under its operation were hit hard, and the annual profit of the entire group was only more than 4 million Hong Kong dollars.
Tianxiang Foreign Company has many companies under its umbrella, including Tianxiang Trading Company, Tianxiang Boutique Company, Tianxiang International Purchasing Company and Tianxiang Hong Kong Purchasing Company, etc.
After the rapid rise of Inchcape in Hong Kong, Inchcape immediately focused on developing the automobile agency and sales business in Hong Kong.
After acquiring Pacific Bank, Inchcape reorganized the Taiping Garment Factory under the foreign company into Taiping Automobile Trading Co., Ltd., which distributes automobiles and auto parts.
In 1970, it acquired Tianxiang Automobile Company in Hong Kong and merged it with the New Yinghua Automobile Company in Hong Kong to form New Yinghua Tianxiang Automobile Co., Ltd.
At that time, the New Yinghua Tianxiang Automobile Company, Crown Motors and Fattley Motors under the group respectively obtained the Hong Kong agency rights for brands such as Rolls-Royce, Leyland, Toyota and Mastercard.
Among them, Toyota cars represented by Crown Motors have a good market share in the Hong Kong market.
In 1976, New Yinghua Tianxiang Automobile Co., Ltd. was renamed Inchcape Enterprise Co., Ltd. and listed in Hong Kong.
The business expansion of the big foreign companies in Hong Kong, such as Jardine Matheson, is mostly from top to bottom, that is, first there is a head office, and then branches are set up according to different business needs. Therefore, the business of the group is gradually expanded from a center, and there is rarely business overlap and competition.
However, the way that the Inchcape Group expands its business in Hong Kong is exactly the opposite. It adopts a bottom-up approach. For example, it first has subsidiaries such as New Yinghua Tianxiang Automobile Company, Pacific Bank, and Tianxiang Foreign Company, and then organizes a central control agency, which incorporates the subsidiaries into the group through acquisition.
In 1972, in order to strengthen the management of its business in Hong Kong, Yingzhijie established Yingzhijie Far East Co., Ltd. in Hong Kong as the group's investment headquarters and holding company in the Far East.
In 1977, Yingzhijie (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd. purchased some floors of the Queen Elizabeth Building in Wan Chai for HK$90 million. It served as the group's Hong Kong headquarters. Except for Tianxiang Yangxing, all its subsidiaries are still located in Tsim Sha Tsui to facilitate contact with customers. Moved into Elizabeth Building to strengthen management.
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By the end of the 1970s, Yingzhijie had become a large trading house in Hong Kong, second only to the four major British banks, with more than 30 subsidiaries and associated companies.
Among them, 8 major subsidiaries, including Yingzhijie (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd., Yingzhijie Far East Co., Ltd., Yingzhijie Finance Co., Ltd., Yingzhijie Enterprise Co., Ltd., Tianxiang Matheson Co., Ltd., Pacific Co., Ltd., Yan Kee Matheson Co., Ltd., and Crown Automobile Co., Ltd. are all directly It is affiliated to the head office of country Y, and the rest are subsidiaries and associated companies of these eight companies.
Yingzhijie's business operations in Xiangjiang mainly include trading, automobile agency, finance, insurance, shipping, advertising, and sail and carpet manufacturing.
In the 1980s, Yingzhijie lost its strategic focus due to its over-expanded business scope. As a head office, its member companies gradually lost control. Some companies even suffered huge losses due to poor management, causing the performance of the entire group to decline.
This situation is further exacerbated by the increasing pressure on localization policies in Asian countries.
The situation is the same in Hong Kong. Each company has its own chairman, board of directors, and management. Due to over-dispersion of business, sometimes there are even overlaps, competitions, etc., resulting in a lack of overall planning.
In 1983, Lord Inchcape, chairman of the London Inchcape Group, announced his retirement and was succeeded by Sir David ORR. He formulated a series of development strategies to address the weakness of Inchcape's "no strategic goals" operation, an important one of which was to target the "Pacific Ocean" Century", with the market strategy of "supplying Asian goods to the Western European market" and "expanding business in Country Z and Central and South America", and established two main business development directions - professional sales and professional services. The former mainly uses modern sales methods to enter the traditional trade and retail markets, while the latter expands from existing insurance, shipping, port services, etc. to comprehensive transportation services and
consultation service.
In 1987, in order to cooperate with the group's strategic transformation, Yingzhijie carried out structural and business reorganization in Hong Kong and established Yingzhijie Pacific Co., Ltd. as the group's headquarters and holding company in Hong Kong to strengthen the management and control of its subsidiaries. Business adjustments have also been made, such as the sale of some loss-making or low-profit companies: Tianxiang Department Store, etc., and the three core businesses of automobile distribution, market expansion, and commercial services have been selected as the strategic focus of the group's development.
In the history of Yang Ming's previous life, in 1989, in order to strengthen the group's core business, Yingzhijie Pacific proposed to Hutchison Whampoa to acquire its two subsidiaries, Hutchison Matheson and Hutchison Engineering.
At that time, Zheng Mingshun, the executive director of Yingzhijie Pacific, discussed with Li Jiacheng. Li Jiacheng was worried about adverse reactions from the outside world. Zheng Mingshun pointed out that Hutchison Whampoa’s investment in Hong Kong was already quite large, and its core businesses were container terminals, real estate, telecommunications, etc., and the sale of these two companies It is just a reasonable reorganization of the business, but Yingzhijie's core business is trading. The acquisition of these two companies will be beneficial to Yingzhijie's development.
As a result, Yingzhijie Pacific successfully acquired these two companies at a cost of HK$870 million.
At that time, Hutchison Company's business was mainly the import, export and wholesale of fast-moving consumer goods (including the agency rights for Nike sports shoes), while Hebao Engineering was mainly engaged in the import and distribution of building materials and industrial products.
In 1989, the total turnover of these two companies was HK$1.9 billion. After acquiring these two companies, Yingzhijie Pacific's agency business has exceeded that of established foreign banks such as Jardine Matheson and Swire Pacific.
Entering the 1990s, Yingzhijie Pacific has become the largest trading firm in Hong Kong. As a subsidiary of Yingzhijie Group, Yingzhijie Pacific is mainly responsible for the group's operations in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Haojiang, Wanwan, the Philippines and Vietnam. business in China, Cambodia, Laowao and other regions.
Among them, Xiangjiang is the group's business focus, and all of the group's core businesses are very active in Xiangjiang.
In terms of automobile distribution, Yingzhijie Pacific, as the main automobile distributor in Hong Kong, represents Toyota, Masters, Aston Martin, Bentley, Junlang, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Lexus, Lotus, Peugeot, Rolls-Royce, Rover, and Cross Country Rover. , Hino trucks and other brands of cars, and the cars it distributes account for about 40% of the Xiangjiang car market.
In terms of market expansion, Yingzhijie Pacific distributes more than 200 brands of daily necessities, medical drugs, personal care products, sporting goods, brand-name leisure products and durable goods in Xiangjiang. It also represents 30 principals for various world-famous wines. . In addition, Yingzhijie Pacific is a major distributor of office equipment in Hong Kong - especially photocopiers and fax machines, as well as various industrial and engineering products and building materials.
In terms of commercial services, Yingzhijie Insurance is one of the largest insurance intermediaries in Hong Kong. It provides insurance consulting services across various industries in Hong Kong, including construction, shipping, manufacturing and jewelry firms. It also serves as an agent for many well-known insurance companies in the world. acting.
Yingzhijie Pacific also provides quality testing and safety verification services for various export products in Xiangjiang, from toys, electronic products, textiles to ready-made clothing, etc. Its inspection equipment in Xiangjiang is among the best in Asia.
In addition, Yingzhijie Shipping is one of the largest independent shipping service agencies in the world.
In 1992, Zheng Mingshun replaced Mai Jiazhuo, who returned to Y, as chairman of the board of directors of Yingzhijie Pacific, becoming the company's first Chinese executive.
After taking office, Zheng Mingshun further determined to accelerate the development of the group in the mainland. He said: "In the next century, looking back on the past, we will clearly know that the rise of Country Z and the development of the Greater China Economic Zone are the key to creating the 20th century. Once an important economic force in the late century."
He emphasized: "Continuous expansion of business in Greater China is Yingzhijie's priority project."
At present, Yingzhijie Pacific has offices in more than 20 cities in the mainland, including Yanjing, Shencheng, Jinling, Yangcheng, Pengcheng, Chengdu, Bingcheng, Shencheng and Dalian. The business it operates Including the import, export and distribution of automobiles, office equipment, industrial and engineering products, building materials, health care products, foreign wine and consumer goods, the business of country Z is in Yingzhijie Pacific.
Although there are still some differences between the Yingzhijie of today and the Yingzhijie of history.
However, after the Imperial Group and Yang Ming swallowed up the four major foreign banks in Hong Kong, Yingzhijie Pacific has become the largest British-owned foreign bank in Hong Kong. Its chairman Zheng Mingshun said that Yingzhijie Pacific may become the last major bank in Hong Kong.