Chapter 673: Ruthless

Barron did not stay in Japan for too long. On the third day, he flew to Hong Kong, China again.

In Hong Kong, Barron stayed in the newly opened Devonshire Hotel. Hong Kong itself has the Four Seasons Hotel Group, but in the plan of the Four Seasons-Cavendish Hotel Group, they will open or acquire more than 80 hotels around the world within 10 years, and implement the "10-20-50" strategy, that is, to add 10 Devonshire luxury hotels, 20 Four Seasons high-end hotels and 50 Cavendish luxury hotels.

The main growth will be in Asia, with the focus on China, where emerging wealth will accelerate.

One of the Devonshire luxury hotels was chosen in Hong Kong, the financial center of Asia.

This time, Barron came to Hong Kong mainly to inspect some of his industries and provide support for some of them. Therefore, his trip was very low-key. Not only would he not have any contact with the official, but he also refused all private banquets from local tycoons.

After all, as the Duke of England, his identity is somewhat sensitive when he comes to Hong Kong, China. I believe that there must be many people who will pay attention to his visit.

"We set up the headquarters of AIA in Hong Kong to express our intention to continue to develop the Asian market with AIA as the main company, and we will provide the greatest support for this."

As soon as he arrived in Hong Kong, Barron met with Arthur Enriquez, CEO of AIA, and expressed his support for him.

After the AIA Group acquired AIA from the American International Group, it still retained AIA as an independent company. Now the headquarters of AIA has moved from the United States to Hong Kong - in fact, the headquarters of AIA was in Hong Kong before, but their parent company, American AIA Life Insurance Company, was headquartered in the United States...

This also shows that AIA, as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the AIA Group, has its main market in the entire Asian region radiated by Hong Kong.

In the future, they will use the AIA brand to conduct business in emerging markets such as Asia, and continue to use the original AIA brand to conduct business in the European market.

However, in comparison, the market value of AIA Insurance Company, a "subsidiary" of the Friendship Insurance Group, is much greater than that of its parent company.

The reason for this arrangement is that after years of development in Asia, AIA Insurance Company has already had a large customer base and brand effect, and should not be easily abandoned.

"In the next few years or even decades, Asia, especially China, will be the most growing market in the insurance industry. Our AIA Insurance Company will also invest in this market. Your Highness, especially in China, we have established Friendship China Insurance Company as our China branch, which will also be our largest branch, and will develop this market together with local partners."

It can be seen that Arthur Enriquez still attaches great importance to the China market. Before this, he had just returned from the mainland of China and led the team to inspect the insurance industry in China.

In the previous acquisition, Arthur Enriquez stood on the side of the Cavendish Trust Fund, that is, Barron. Therefore, after completing the acquisition of AIA Insurance Company, he was retained and continued to serve as the CEO of AIA Insurance Company.

The reason for making such a choice is that Arthur Enriquez is optimistic about the investment capabilities of DS Group and Barron. Insurance companies collect premiums and then pay compensation after the conditions are met. During this period, there will be a large amount of deposited funds, and an important part of their profits is the investment profit of these deposited funds.

And cooperating with DS Group to invest can ensure that AIA Insurance Company's funds will have more reliable and considerable returns.

After all, AIA Insurance Company's original parent company, American International Group, had to sell them due to the huge losses of their investment department.

In comparison, DS Group has not only achieved outstanding results in the subprime mortgage crisis, but also in its investment after its establishment.

…

After coming to HK, Barron also gave his personal assistant Zhang Junning two days off as he said before - her parents also came to HK from Taiwan to visit her at this time.

After all, since she became Barron's personal assistant, although the treatment is generous, Zhang Junning can be said to have had no vacation for quite a long time, let alone going back home to visit her parents. Now there is this opportunity, which can also allow her to reunite with her family.

At this time, he met a visiting guest in the presidential suite of the hotel.

This visiting guest was the famous Li Chaoren.

In fact, this was not the first time Barron met Li Chaoren. Before, when he was preparing to acquire Standard Chartered Bank, he had come to Hong Kong to meet some HK tycoons and acquired part of Standard Chartered Bank's shares from them. At that time, Barron had met Li Chaoren.

This time, after Barron came to HK, he declined all private banquets, including Li Chaoren's.

But what he didn't expect was that Li Chaoren failed to invite him to the banquet and came directly to the hotel to meet him.

Speaking of which, Barron has intercepted many of Li Chaoren's projects so far, including the Northern Natural Gas Network and British Power Distribution in England, which were all projects acquired by Li Chaoren in the original time and space.

Even Li Chaoren of O2 Telecom once thought about making an acquisition, but the acquisition failed in the end because it was not reviewed by the British regulatory agencies.

It was obvious that Li Chaoren still had not given up his intention to invest in England, and Barron could also see what he meant during the conversation with him.

It's no wonder. Although Li Chaoren has connections in England and he himself has received a knighthood from the Queen, he understands better that Barron, the Duke of England, has a great influence in England. If he can Establishing a good relationship with him and gaining his support will also be beneficial to his series of acquisitions in England.

So when it comes to making money, it’s not shabby. For this reason, it’s not surprising that Asia’s richest man personally came to the Devonshire Hotel to meet Barron.

And in terms of net worth, although Barron is younger than Li Ka-shing's youngest son, he is still ranked third on the world's richest list this year.

"I very much welcome you to come to the UK to invest, Sir. Especially at this moment, the economic crisis has not yet passed, and the world is likely to fall into a long-term recession. Any investment is worthy of being welcomed..."

Barron didn't really like talking to an old fox like Li Chaoren. After all, it was a bit unpleasant to always talk in a roundabout way.

More importantly, if according to the habits of Chinese people, Barron should always be humble when faced with all kinds of flattery from Li Chaoren...

But his current wealth and status, no matter how modest he is compared to his youth, seem to be showing off in a roundabout way.

Well, Barron can only congratulate Li Chaoru on adding a grandson...

The thing is, the hottest news in Hong Kong recently is nothing more than the "scandal" between actress Liang Luoshi and Li Chaoren's second son, Superboy. Of course, it is no longer just a scandal, because the media directly announced "Superboy" Photo of a family of three - at the end of April, Master Liang gave birth to a son for Little Superboy in Canada...

Li Chaoren was so happy that he personally named his grandson "Changzhi"...

However, Barron knew that Master Liang Luo was also a ruthless person. In order to marry into a wealthy family, he gave birth to a son for Superboy when he had no status, and later gave birth to three sons for Superboy in succession - even Before Barron was reborn, news that Master Liang Luo was pregnant with his fourth child began to come out...

Of course, she was not at a loss. Although she did not marry into the Li family in the end, she at least took away more than 500 million in alimony from the Li family, and her sons all have inheritance rights...