Chapter 416： Staring at the big landlord again

This time, Xia Yu's three companies are very important: Dairy Company in the retail department store industry, Kinmen Construction in the construction engineering industry, and Jardine Auto Group in the automobile manufacturing and distribution industry.

The Milk Company, an established company, was established in 1886. It was originally established in cooperation with a Scottish doctor and five Chinese businessmen. At the beginning, it established a ranch in Pokfulam on the west of Hong Kong Island and raised 80 dairy cows imported from the UK to produce fresh milk. .

Then with the development, the business continued to expand, from frozen meat retail to entering the ice industry, through the acquisition of freezer warehouses and ice factories under Jardine and Taikoo, it became the first in the field of ice making in Xiangjiang. Xia Yu remembers that his family originally The ice cubes used by the fishing boats are all produced by milk companies.

After that, Dairy Company went further and further in the retail industry, cooperating with the famous fashion brand, accessories, and fashion boutique brand Lane Crawford to establish Dalilian Co., Ltd., and opened Dalilian Supermarket in Central on Hong Kong Island, which is also the first supermarket in Hong Kong. Later, a branch was opened in the Pearl City Building in Causeway Bay. So far, there have been five large supermarkets.

In addition to supermarkets, there are 7-11 convenience stores.

The 7-11 Convenience Store is owned by the Southern Company of the United States. It was only allowed to join in 1973. The Japanese Ito Yokado Company was the first to join in 1974. Then Xiangjiang Milk Company joined in 1975. After three years, it opened Almost all 20 convenience stores are on Hong Kong Island.

In the previous life, when the 7-11 convenience store was in the hands of Southern Company, Southern Company failed to diversify and expand, causing the company to file for bankruptcy. It was then bought by Ito Yokado Company. After that, it was out of control until it became a small island country retail giant , Is also the world's largest chain convenience store group, rushing into the 127th place in the world's top 500 brands.

It can be said that the 7-11 convenience store is a golden chicken. As long as it is managed well, Hu from the island country Ito Yokado Company is still very likely to become the world's largest convenience store group. Of course Xia Yu is greedy.

Closer to home, in addition to supermarkets and convenience stores, Dairy Company also has other retail stores.

The most famous is Wanning Pharmacy.

Wanning Pharmacy opened its first store in 1972. It has 16 stores so far, providing a comprehensive range of health and beauty products, including health products, skin care products, cosmetics, personal care products, men's products, maternal and child products, and women's products. Supplies, medicines, etc. cater to the consumer needs of people of different levels and different ages. The store is equipped with professional beauticians, nutritionists and pharmacists. The products are mainly cosmetics, accounting for 70%, health products and medicines accounting for 20%, and others Class accounts for about 10%.

In Hong Kong, except for Watsons under Hutchison Whampoa, Wanning Pharmacy is the strongest in the cosmetics field, and with the help of the resources of the Jardine Consortium, it has the momentum to chase beyond.

Of course, now that the Jardine Consortium has become like this, it will be difficult for Wanning Pharmacy to catch up with Watsons.

But if he gets into Xia Yu's hands, there is still a big chance.

In addition to the above three, Dairy Cow has a franchised IKEA furniture supermarket in the field of furniture and furniture. It was franchised in 1975. The supermarket is located in Central on Hong Kong Island.

Although the dairy company is very strong in the retail industry, the asset value of all retail industries does not account for the bulk of the company.

Not to mention the retail industry, even the ice and cold storage fields that monopolize the business of Xiangjiang milk, ice, and refrigerated meat are only small.

The greatest value of the Milk Company lies in its huge amount of valuable land!

The Milk Company is actually one of the big landlords of Hong Kong. It has a lot of almost permanent land on Hong Kong Island, the most prosperous Hong Kong Island, because the lease term of those land is as long as 999 years, which is completely permanent!

With so many plots, they were left a long time ago. The founders at that time never thought of the end, and the development of the business was not as valuable as the plots that he didn't care about at the time.

As we all know, fields like milk, ice making, and cold storage, whether it is a cattle ranch, an ice factory, or a cold storage, are all beasts of swallowing land.

Long ago, Hong Kong was not prosperous. Kowloon and the New Territories were both wild and popular on Hong Kong Island. However, the population was too small and the land was not precious.

At that time, the dairy company built a freezer on Ice House Street in Central on Hong Kong Island, and built ice factories on Chun Yuen Street in Wan Chai, Causeway Bay and Kwun Tong, Kowloon.

Pastures were also established in Pokfulam and Causeway Bay in the western part of Hong Kong Island.

The land of the ranch is surprisingly big when you think about it.

With the development of hundreds of years, the central area of ​​Hong Kong Island has become crowded. According to the historical process, it will expand towards Causeway Bay, and then Pokfulam in the west will expand. Until later generations, the land is still insufficient, and the sea will be reclaimed for land.

In the future, these plots will be built into top residential and commercial districts.

It is conceivable that the milk company holding such a large amount of land has too much hidden value!

Although Xia Yu won the big landlord of the Wharf Group, most of the land of the Wharf Group is in Kowloon. Even if it is on Hong Kong Island, it is also in the wharf, which is still less, which is not conducive to the future real estate of Wharf. Business foothold and development on Hong Kong Island.

But if you swallow the milk company, Xia Yu's real estate empire will have two thick legs.

At that time, he was not only the big landlord of Kowloon area, but also one of the big landlords of Hong Kong Island.

Of course, ideals are beautiful, but it is very difficult to achieve them, and Xia Yu needs to plan carefully.

After all, the milk company's situation is a bit complicated, and it is quite difficult to swallow it.

This is due to the complicated equity structure of the dairy company.

The milk company went public in the 1960s By 1971, Sir Zhou Xian, the owner of one of the veteran giants in Xiangjiang, bought shares and became the chairman of the milk company.

However, in 1972, the Jardine consortium focused on Dairy Company and asked its subsidiary Land Group to come forward and propose to acquire the equity of Dairy Company. Of course Zhou refused to buy the shares of Dairy Company. Shengsheng took over the Dairy Company and fully privatized it in 1973.

Of course, this incident also became one of the fuse of the 1973 stock market crash, and the Jardine Consortium also pitted itself.

After the Land Group ate Dairy Company, John Keswick was still worried. In order to better control the company, he started cross-holding. After a series of dazzling operations, the equity of Dairy Company was dispersed and distributed in the Jardine Group. And holdings, Jardine Pacific, Land Group and other companies.

Therefore, if Xia Yu wants to take all the shares of Dairy Farm, he still cannot bypass the Land Group.

But for Xia Yu, there are always more solutions than difficulties. He has already thought out measures, but it will be relatively more troublesome!