Chapter 1431 The last major British bank!

Yang Ming always felt at ease when Shen Bi was doing things.

After Shen Bi went to London and formally took over the handling of all matters of Barings Bank from Huo Jianning, Huo Jianning had already flown back to Hong Kong from London to meet his boss.

Repulse Bay mid-level villa.

"Boss, I leave all the affairs of Barings Bank to Mr. Shen. I can see that it is much more convenient for Mr. Shen to do things in London than it is for me."

This is inevitable.

Historically, Shen Bi played a role and influence in Hong Kong in the 1970s, 1980s, and even the 1990s, which can be said to be irreplaceable by many people.

If the emergence of Yang Ming had not weakened Shen Bi's role and influence, Shen Bi might still have promoted Li Jiacheng to become the richest man in Hong Kong and even the Chinese people, as he did in history.

However, because of the appearance of Yang Ming, Shen Bi's role was much smaller.

Even then, Yang Ming also knew that Shen Bi had worked in a financial bank for a long time, and his handling of banking crises was indeed better than people like Huo Jianning.

"Jian Ning, you did a great job this time."

Huo Jianning went to London this time and successfully captured Barings Bank, so he completed this task very well.

However, Huo Jianning felt that even if the boss assigned this task to other cabinet members, it would still be easy to complete.

That night.

Huo Jianning finished dinner at the mid-level villa in Repulse Bay.

When Huo Jianning was about to go back to see his family, Yang Ming said, "Jianning, let's go upstairs to talk."

Let's talk upstairs?

Is there something else very important?

Huo Jianning showed a different expression of excitement.

Huo Jianning followed Yang Ming to the third floor.

After Huo Jianning closed the door, Yang Ming looked at the other party and said: "In recent years, in addition to the four major foreign banks in Hong Kong, the Imperial Group and I have acquired foreign banks of all sizes, including Wharf Bank, Huifeng Bank, Zada ​​Bank, etc. . But, you know there is still a foreign bank in Xiangjiang, which is known as the last foreign bank in Xiangjiang."

The last British-owned foreign firm in Hong Kong?

When Huo Jianning thought about it, it really was.

Most of the large foreign banks in Hong Kong were swallowed up by the Imperial Group and Yang Ming.

However, there are still some things that slip through the net.

Among them, there is really a very large one.

"Boss, you are talking about Ying Zhijie, right?"

Among the long-standing and large-scale British-owned foreign firms in Xiangjiang, Yingzhijie Group is a rising star and entered Xiangjiang relatively late. However, Yingzhijie's business has evolved from its original member companies, Tianxiang Matheson, Yan Kee Matheson, and Pacific Co., which, like Jardine Matheson and Taikoo, are all well-established foreign companies established in Xiangjiang more than 100 years ago.

Yingzhijie was founded in London in 1870 by Scottish businessman McKee.

McGee started his career in shipping and was once the chairman of the Railway Steamship Company. His investments were spread all over the colonies of Country Y east of the Suez Canal. In 1911, he was awarded the title of Baron Yingzhijie. In 1929, he was awarded the title of Earl Yingzhijie. He was quite influential in the politics of Country Y. .

For a long time, Yingzhijie Group developed slowly. It was not until 1958 that Yingzhijie Co., Ltd. was established in London as the group holding company and listed in London that the group began to develop rapidly.

Since 1967, Yingzhijie has successively acquired Tianxiang Company of Y country, Yingtai United Company, and Banto Group, etc., and its power has been growing day by day.

In the late 1960s, Yingzhijie Group began to enter Hong Kong, and launched a series of acquisition activities through Yingzhijie (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd., and successively acquired three old British-owned foreign banks with more than a century of history in Hong Kong - Pacific Bank , Tian Xiang and Yan Kee, etc.

Pacific Bank was a well-known British-owned foreign firm in Hong Kong as early as the mid-19th century. Unfortunately, its business development was not very satisfactory in the 1960s. Its lifts, elevators, air conditioners and other businesses were severely hit. The entire group was hit hard every year. The profit was only over HK$4 million.

Tianxiang Matheson owns many enterprises, including Tianxiang Trading Company, Tianxiang Boutique Company, Tianxiang International Purchasing Company and Tianxiang Xiangjiang Purchasing Company, etc.

After Yingzhijie's rapid rise in Xiangjiang, it focused on developing the automobile agency and sales business in Xiangjiang.

After acquiring Pacific Bank, Yingzhijie reorganized the Taiping Garment Factory under the Pacific Bank into Taiping Automobile Trading Co., Ltd. to distribute automobiles and auto parts.

In 1970, it acquired Xiangjiang Tianxiang Automobile Company and merged with the subsidiary New Yinghua Automobile Company in Xiangjiang to form New Yinghua Tianxiang Automobile Co., Ltd.

At that time, the group's subsidiaries, New Yinghua Tianxiang Automobile Co., Ltd., Crown Automobile Dealers and Fadeli Automobile Dealers, respectively obtained the agency rights for Rolls-Royce, Leyland, Toyota, Mastercard and other brands of cars in Hong Kong.

Among them, Toyota cars represented by Crown Car Dealer occupy a good market share in the Xiangjiang market.

In 1976, New Yinghua Tianxiang Automobile Co., Ltd. was renamed Yingzhijie Enterprise Co., Ltd. and was listed in Hong Kong.

The business expansion methods of Dayang Bank in Xiangjiang, such as Jardine Matheson, are mostly top-down, that is, there is a head office first, and then branches are set up according to different business needs. Therefore, the group's business gradually expands from one center and rarely There is business overlap and competition.

However, the way Yingzhijie Group expands its business in Xiangjiang is exactly the opposite. It adopts a bottom-up approach. For example, it first established subsidiaries such as New Yinghua Tianxiang Automobile Company, Pacific Bank, Tianxiang Company, etc., and then organized a central control agency. , the central control agency will incorporate each subsidiary 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. Acquiring 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. China, Cambodia and Laowo 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 automobiles are sold, and the cars distributed account for about 40% of the Xiangjiang automobile 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 various world-famous wines for 30 principals. . 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.