Chapter 797 HSBC’s Dilemma
No. 1 Queen's Road Central, Hong Kong.
The fourth generation of the Hong Kong HSBC Head Office Building, designed by the famous architect Norman Foster, stands in the most prosperous core area of Central!
This 180-meter-high, 46-story building is one of the most expensive buildings in the world so far, with a total cost of up to US$1 billion.
This HSBC Head Office Building is not the tallest building in Hong Kong, but its architectural style is unique. It does not use the traditional layer-by-layer pouring method, but uses a prefabricated structure. If necessary, HSBC can dismantle the entire building in a short time and transport it to other places to reassemble it into a skyscraper.
To use the words of a Hong Kong newspaper that mocked HSBC before, people who deal with money really know how to be thrifty. When HSBC wants to abandon Hong Kong in the future, it will not leave even a brick or a tile, which can be called the highest level of "capitalism"!
Under the exaggeration of public opinion, the head office building that should have demonstrated HSBC's strong financial strength has become the most powerful evidence that HSBC has no intention of taking root in Hong Kong. How can a bank that is unwilling to stay win the lasting trust of local users in Hong Kong?
HSBC was originally the largest bank in Hong Kong, relying on its unquestionable strength in the financial field of Hong Kong, but now it ranks only seventh in Hong Kong.
Yes!
From 1982 to 1992, it took only ten years for HSBC to go from the largest and most powerful bank in Hong Kong to the seventh largest bank in Hong Kong.
The currently recognized ranking of banks in the Hong Kong industry is - Hong Kong Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Hong Kong Construction Bank, Hong Kong Commercial Bank, Hong Kong Development Bank, and Hong Kong Everbright Bank.
Standard Chartered Bank is next.
The top six banks have developed at an astonishing speed in the past ten years. With Hong Kong as their base camp, they have vigorously developed the mainland market and extended their tentacles to Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and South America. Now they even have branches in Europe and the United States.
However, HSBC has encountered difficulties.
HSBC was in a disadvantageous position in the overall environment, and the fact that HSBC had its headquarters in London and the news that HSBC was going to run away constantly caused great trouble in its business.
HSBC also coveted the mainland financial market, but it could never get in.
Pu Weishi sat in his spacious and bright office, with a panoramic view of the beautiful sea view of Victoria Harbour in the distance outside the glass curtain wall, but at this moment he frowned and had no time to appreciate the scenery outside the window.
The current predicament of HSBC put him under great pressure.
In recent years, the "capital-walking" hat that some Hong Kong media have put on HSBC is not groundless. Because HSBC has been following the established steps and gradually shifting its development focus away from Hong Kong.
For example, after HSBC acquired a stake in the US Haifeng Bank in 1980, it further merged it into a wholly-owned subsidiary in 1987. Even after the failure of the acquisition of the Royal Bank of Scotland in 1981, HSBC's interest in acquiring large British banks has never diminished, and it eventually acquired equity in the British Middle East Bank and Midland Bank.
As early as that year, the HSBC board of directors passed a resolution that HSBC would set up a new holding company based on the group. Without relocating the group's headquarters, the newly established holding company would be directly registered in the UK, and then the HSBC Group would be placed under the name of the new holding company. Then, through the issuance of new shares, overseas listing and other means of operation, the overall asset transfer of the HSBC Group would be realized.
HSBC planned and did so.
However, there is no impenetrable wall in the world. After the announcement of HSBC's plan, it caused an uproar and completely detonated the negative public opinion of Hong Kong society against HSBC, thus causing an immeasurable and serious blow to the development of HSBC.
This blow has continued to this day.
Originally, although Hong Kong was just a small place, it was the most important source of profit for the entire HSBC Bank, but now the HSBC Group has no profit in Hong Kong.
Especially other banks, which put HSBC under great pressure.
Look at those banks, which use computers for office work, pursue paperless office work in the office, and open Internet services as soon as possible, and set up ATM machines one by one.
The office efficiency and market share competitiveness have been greatly improved.
Pu Weishi frowned. HSBC is in a bad situation now, and it puts him under great pressure because shareholders only care about profit distribution and don't care about any difficulties he encounters, what caused the difficulties, and Pu Weishi, the boss, has to solve any difficulties.
In comparison, his predecessor Shen Bi is much more prosperous.
"Ah~~" Pu Weishi sighed for a long time.
Competitors are developing rapidly and becoming stronger. The two sides have always had a huge gap in strength, not to mention now.
If this continues, HSBC will not talk about development at all, and even survival will be a big problem.
Now the largest proportion of HSBC's total deposits is not corporate or ordinary personal deposits, but some wealthy and middle-class people who deposit part of their money in HSBC, thinking that it is easier to withdraw money when they immigrate.
But this is not enough to get HSBC out of trouble.
"Is HSBC really going to be sold to the Chinese business consortium?" Pu Weishi was very unwilling.
In recent years, Chinese business consortiums have been trying to acquire HSBC, but they have been rejected.
As a bank for the British, HSBC still retains the last bit of British pride.
Unless they are at the end of their rope, the British will never be willing to sell HSBC.
Thinking of Liu Tao inviting him to dinner, Pu Weishi felt even more pressured.
Although Liu Tao rarely appeared in the news in Hong Kong, no one in the upper class did not know about Liu Tao's existence.
The resources that this man could mobilize in Hong Kong were so terrifying that it was unimaginable.
He served as the chairman of the board of directors of the top six banks in Hong Kong; all the port terminals in Hong Kong were controlled by him; all the electricity and communications in Hong Kong were controlled by him.
Pu Weishi had met Liu Tao before, but every time Liu Tao gave him a lot of pressure.
Others would look up to the British. But Liu Tao gave him the feeling that he was always looking at the British at eye level, or even looking down on them.
And this man, whenever the British who knew about it mentioned it, they couldn't help but grit their teeth, because the biggest reason for the heavy losses of the British Expeditionary Force in the Falklands War was the 'Eagle Strike' anti-ship missiles.
If there were no 'Eagle Strike' anti-ship missiles, the British Expeditionary Force would not have suffered such heavy losses.
Not to mention, in 1982, Liu Tao took advantage of the cold winter to buy Hong Kong at a low price, and the British in Hong Kong suffered heavy losses.
In order to leave quickly, assets worth 1 million Hong Kong dollars at that time were often sold at less than one-third of the price.
The assets of foreign companies such as Swire Group all came into Liu Tao's hands in this way.
Even the investment and factory construction of Panshan Group led to a major change in the economic fundamentals of Hong Kong and a subversive transformation of the entire industrial structure.
It was because of this that HSBC was in a passive situation.