In Hong Kong, we build a global business empire

Chapter 706 A terrifying surge in stock price: Motorola's market value surpasses 10 billion US dollars!
Lin Haoran never expected that in his previous life, the famous financial tycoon George Soros actually admired him.

Even more unexpectedly, the other party had already guessed that the other force absorbing Motorola's stock was none other than Lin Haoran!

They even extrapolated from this to believe that since Lin Haoran was secretly acquiring Motorola shares, it must be because Lin Haoran also believed that Motorola's stock would definitely rise.

Therefore, even though Lin Haoran unintentionally turned the tables on him, making his plan not as good as he had imagined, Soros didn't care.

If Lin Haoran knew, he would definitely be on guard.

After all, Soros's style doesn't seem like that of a good person.

But in Soros's eyes, aren't Lin Haoran and Soros the same kind of people?

Both men are skilled hunters adept at maneuvering in the capital market.

They are certainly not the same kind of people as Warren Buffett.

If Lin Haoran had simply followed Warren Buffett's example and invested in high-quality companies, he wouldn't have achieved what he has today.

As night falls in New York, a new day begins in Hong Kong.

On the morning of August 19th, the fifth day after the official commercial launch of Hong Kong Mobile, crowds were already thronging outside the various business halls of Hong Kong Mobile Communications Company.

Since Hong Kong Mobile Communications Corporation announced the "lottery system" for pre-orders, countless elites, businessmen, and even foreign investors from all walks of life have been eagerly anticipating becoming the first users of the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X mobile phone.

At 9:00 a.m. sharp, the staff in the business hall posted the list of successful bidders on the glass curtain wall, which immediately caused a sensation.

"I won! I really won!" A smartly dressed senior executive of a company excitedly waved the certificate in his hand, his face full of excitement.

"How could there be so many people? Weren't they saying there would only be one or two thousand people to book?" A citizen who didn't get a spot stared at the densely packed list and muttered incredulously.

At the same time, the Oriental Daily News prominently featured the following headline on its front page:
"In just three days, the number of mobile phone pre-orders in Hong Kong has exceeded 9,000! Far exceeding market expectations!"

The reason why Oriental Daily was able to publish this news separately in today's newspaper is naturally because it is a newspaper under Lin Haoran's control, which gives it a unique advantage.

Therefore, unsurprisingly, today's Oriental Daily News was extremely popular.

This news exploded in Hong Kong like a bomb.

Undeniably, the exorbitant price deters many citizens from even considering participating in the lottery. However, just because they can't afford it doesn't mean they don't care about the matter. Besides, a copy of the Oriental Daily News only costs one Hong Kong dollar.

They wouldn't part with tens of thousands of Hong Kong dollars, but not many people really care about one Hong Kong dollar.

Previously, many media outlets predicted that due to the high price, a few thousand reservations would be the limit.

Although the Hong Kong mobile phone service halls seem to be packed with people every day these days, no one knows the specific appointment data. This has led many people to believe that either Hong Kong Mobile Communications Company has hired online trolls, or that people are just there to watch the excitement.

However, the actual data shocked everyone – the total number of reservations reached a staggering 9089!
It should be noted that the initial press conference stated that due to various limitations, the first batch of mobile phone users would only number three thousand!
The second batch is expected to arrive in about six months.

And the number of reservations in just three days far exceeded the three thousand available spots!
This is still under the condition that the appointment time is still short. If it is a month or even half a year, there would be at least tens of thousands of customers!
At this moment, the sheer number of wealthy people in Hong Kong is astonishing, even to the locals.

In a teahouse in Mong Kok, several middle-aged men sat together, some looking at the Oriental Daily News. Suddenly, one of them slammed his fist on the table and stood up: "This isn't selling telephones, it's printing money!"

The middle-aged man next to him, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, quickly calculated: "The first batch of three thousand units, at sixty thousand each, that's one hundred and eighty million. And that doesn't include the monthly fees and call charges. If the second batch doubles in six months..." His voice trembled slightly, "This business is even more profitable than real estate speculation!"

Meanwhile, on a luxury yacht in Victoria Harbour, several executives from foreign banks were having a breakfast meeting.

A copy of the English-language *Oriental Daily News* was being circulated. One of the vice presidents from Société Générale put down his coffee cup and remarked meaningfully, "It seems we underestimated the purchasing power of the Asian market."

Hong Kong has a population of five million, which seems like a lot, but compared to other markets, it's not that big.

But when it comes to comparing spending power, everyone now deeply appreciates Hong Kong's spending capacity.

“No wonder Mr. Robert Galvin of Motorola chose Hong Kong as the pilot city for the commercialization of mobile phones; he was truly prescient,” another executive from a Swiss bank remarked. “The market potential here is even more astonishing than we imagined.”

"These British conglomerates have been withdrawing from the Hong Kong market for the past decade or so, which is simply foolish. They're abandoning a gold mine to explore unknown markets," a representative from an American bank sneered, gently swirling his champagne. "It seems JPMorgan Chase needs to accelerate its expansion in Hong Kong."

The mere release of pre-order data completely changed these foreign investors' perceptions of Hong Kong's consumer market.

They had assumed that the market capacity of this small eastern city was limited, but the data before them completely overturned their perception.

Don't be fooled by the seemingly small number of over nine thousand bookings. Keep in mind that with the HK$10,000 activation fee, each phone costs as much as HK$60,000.

This is equivalent to two years' salary for an average white-collar worker in Hong Kong today.

Moreover, once you successfully become a full-fledged mobile phone user, you will need to pay an additional HK$1,000 per month for call charges.

In other words, those who can afford it are at least millionaires or higher.

Those with a net worth of hundreds of thousands can afford it, but such people are definitely rare.

This also shows that Hong Kong's wealthy population is far larger than outsiders imagine.

“This data is astonishing,” said the vice president of Société Générale, putting down his calculator. “Based on this ratio, at least 3% of Hong Kong’s population has the spending power of millionaires.”

With a population of five million, 3% would be more than 15 people!

At least 15 people have the spending power of millionaires, which is an absolutely terrifying figure.

If Standard Chartered's Brown were here, he would certainly be surprised and wary of their predictions.

After all, Standard Chartered Bank holds more detailed customer asset data in Hong Kong after acquiring Huifeng Bank.

They knew perfectly well that the concentration of wealth in Hong Kong far exceeded outside expectations.

Given this situation, wouldn't the fact that these people from foreign banks are so optimistic about Hong Kong make Hong Kong's banking industry even more chaotic?
The most important reason why Huifeng Bank has been trying to transfer assets and fully internationalize over the years is not because they look down on the Hong Kong market.

Rather, their previous development in Hong Kong had reached a bottleneck, and to break through this bottleneck, they had to rely on the international market. In addition, they were uncertain about the future of Hong Kong.

These are the main reasons why Huifeng Bank wants to go international.

As for why other British-owned companies withdrew from Hong Kong, it was naturally because they couldn't see the future of Hong Kong and made a choice to avoid risks.

In the afternoon, at the headquarters building of Hong Kong Telephone Company.

Lin Haoran appeared in David's office.

"Boss, our reservation results have shocked the entire Hong Kong. Everyone is talking about us now. All the customers who won the lottery have already completed the procedures for paying the difference and registering their residency."

In addition, we have done some research and found that none of the 9,000 reservation slots have received any requests to withdraw their HK$10,000 deposits. This means that they will continue to participate in the lottery next time, and we will continue to open reservations for the next round.

"I've heard that someone is offering HK$100,000 for a single winning entry. I've already arranged for some media outlets with which we have good relations to give this story extensive coverage," David excitedly reported upon seeing Lin Haoran.

Almost all of them chose to participate in the next draw, which was far beyond their expectations.

After all, there were still nearly 9,000 customers who had made reservations but did not win a lottery after the results were announced.

If these people continue to the next round, it means that the number of people in their next round will definitely explode, exceeding 10,000 is a certainty.

In fact, the mere mention of this HK$100,000 offer would undoubtedly trigger a frenzy of applications to reserve the item.

After all, if you win the lottery, you can make double the money by selling it!
After listening to David's report, Lin Haoran's lips curled up slightly.

All of this was within his expectations.

After all, once he proposed the idea of ​​"hunger marketing," mobile phones were destined to be hyped up in Hong Kong.

And naturally, he wouldn't restrict this behavior.

Anyway, most of the wealthy people who have a good relationship with him already have one.

The top executives of his various companies have basically all acquired one.

The 300 units ordered by the government have already been delivered.

Let them hype it up; it's all just "market behavior"!
The fact that over 9,000 people booked for the first time was already quite insane.

If you add the crazy "hunger marketing" hype to that, the numbers will be absolutely terrifying.

Let it get even crazier!

At this moment, Lin Haoran's heart was already set on the United States.

By this time, many American media outlets were likely already aware of the situation in Hong Kong.

He was increasingly eager to see what Motorola's next data would be like.

After all, he had made some investments in Motorola stock.

"I hope the final result will meet my expectations!" Lin Haoran murmured.

Su Zhixue had already reported to him that on August 17th, Huanyu Investment Company had once again increased its stake by 2.16%.

The reason why less shares were absorbed this time compared to the previous two days is that, in addition to Motorola's share buyback, another force was also absorbing shares aggressively, which greatly reduced the absorption progress of Huanyu Investment Company.

However, this was all within Lin Haoran's expectations.

He was already quite satisfied with this shareholding. With this additional 2.16% stake, Huanyu Investment Company now holds 16.51% of Motorola's shares.

In addition to the 5.23% stake already acquired, the team has increased its holdings by a further 11.28% in the past four days.

The remaining 5.23% was acquired at a relatively high cost, amounting to a substantial $2.51 million.

As for the 11.28% stake acquired over those four days, since the share price fell day by day, it only cost $3.62 million in total, which is much lower than the average cost of the 5.23% stake acquired earlier.

In other words, Universal Investment Company spent a total of $6.13 million on this 16.51%.

I wonder how high Motorola's stock price will eventually go?
Lin Haoran's anticipation grew even stronger.

After so many consecutive days of decline and being talked down for so long, it's no surprise that Motorola's rebound will be stronger than anyone imagined.

……

As night fell in Hong Kong, the sun was already rising in New York on the other side of the world.

The morning mist in New York had not yet dissipated when the hurricane that had caused Motorola's huge bookings in Hong Kong swept through Wall Street.

When major U.S. media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and The New York Times simultaneously published headlines such as "Hong Kong Mobile Phone Pre-orders Far Exceed Expectations, Motorola's New Product Is a Huge Success," all shareholders who had previously sold their Motorola stock were filled with regret.

However, it was too late.

As for those shareholders who chose not to sell their shares, they were overjoyed at that moment.

They made the right bet.

Quantum Fund Management Co., Ltd. will soon hold a pre-market meeting.

At this moment, his subordinates looked at George Soros, who was in the main seat, with admiration.

Soros actually guessed all of this correctly!

At this moment, many people present were worried that Motorola's booking data might be dismal.

Therefore, what they value more is the profit from shorting Motorola.

Unexpectedly, the result is exactly as the boss expected: Motorola's booking data in Hong Kong far exceeded expectations!
Soros sat at the head of the conference table, looking at his smiling subordinates, a confident smile on his face: "Ladies and gentlemen, now you understand why I insisted on continuing to aggressively increase my holdings after I had already bought enough shares to pay off the debts?"

Although the stock market has not yet opened, based on their years of experience, it is obvious that Motorola's stock price will surge dramatically after the market opens.

This means that their strategy of shorting first and then buying at the bottom has been a great success, and they will reap double benefits.

Chief Trading Officer David jumped up excitedly and exclaimed, "George, your judgment is absolutely brilliant! Not only will we make tens of millions of dollars by shorting, but the value of the stocks we hold will definitely skyrocket after the market opens! This profit might even be more than the last 'Silver War'!"

The marketing manager chimed in, "Based on past experience, Motorola's stock price has been falling for several days in a row. It will definitely rebound to its original price today. Moreover, there's a major positive development this time, so the stock price is expected to rise even more sharply than we anticipated."

Take Hong Kong, an Asian city, for example. It has tens of thousands of potential customers. If they expanded their mobile communication business to the US, or even Europe, how huge would the market be? Even a fool could see that Motorola's mobile phone project was a complete success!

Although Soros was equally excited, his emotions had gradually calmed down by now.

His gaze slowly swept over everyone present, and he said in a deep voice, "Gentlemen, now is not the time to raise a glass in celebration. After the market opens, we must keep a close eye on the trading dynamics and be sure to sell off any excess stocks at the most appropriate time."

If we can win this battle smoothly, we will surely become famous in the financial world once again!

"Yes!" everyone responded in unison.

"Meeting adjourned. Everyone get ready. There are only ten minutes left before the market opens!" Soros glanced at his watch and continued.

When the bells rang at the New York Stock Exchange, everyone knew that a new trading day had begun.

Sure enough, as soon as the stock market opened, Motorola's stock price soared like a rocket.

Within just three minutes of the market opening, the stock price surged by 35%, and the trading hall instantly erupted in excitement.

"Buy! Buy all of them!" Morgan Stanley trader Tom shouted at the top of his lungs, his trading orders flying like snowflakes.

Soros stood in the trading room of the Quantum Fund, his eyes fixed on the steeply rising curve on the electronic screen.

He picked up the walkie-talkie and calmly issued instructions: "Don't rush to sell; continue to closely monitor the upward data."

In just three minutes, it surged by 35%, which is enough to demonstrate the madness of stock market investors.

Of course, Soros also knew that many powerful forces were involved in this.

After all, the success of Motorola's new product means that Motorola's future profits will be greater than they imagined.

More profits are naturally good news.

Just like IBM, which relied on the earning power of mainframe computers to achieve far superior profits, coupled with its role as the initiator of the personal computer revolution and its market leadership, all of these factors were enough to drive IBM's performance and stock price to soar, making it the second largest listed company in the United States.

And today's Motorola is so similar to IBM!

Why did Motorola, despite its high standing in the technology industry, have a stock price that was far lower than IBM's?

The reason is that Motorola has invested too much money in the research and development of mobile phones and cellular mobile communication networks over the years, resulting in poor financial results each year. Even though revenue is high, profits are low.

But now, things are different. Motorola, like IBM, will be a pioneer in the mobile phone revolution and will surely see a double explosion in performance and stock price!
These are things that ordinary stock market investors can see, and so can investment companies that focus on investment.

Moreover, many newspapers today have also conducted detailed analyses of this, which has made even those stock market investors who hadn't thought of it realize this point.

As a result, Motorola's stock price surged dramatically after the market opened.

Within just ten minutes of the market opening, Motorola's stock price returned to its peak, even surpassing a market capitalization of $50 billion.

However, at this moment, Motorola's stock had more buy orders than sell orders.

Many of those orders that were actually filled were poor souls who had placed them the day before but hadn't had time to cancel them.

Within an hour of the market opening, Motorola's market capitalization had reached $78.2 billion.

It's worth noting that Motorola's total market capitalization was only $32.5 billion at the close of trading the previous day.

At this point, the stock price has more than just doubled.

Moreover, judging from the stock trading volume, the market capitalization of $78.2 billion is definitely not the highest point today.

Trading volume continued to increase, and at this moment, the investors on the New York Stock Exchange seemed to have gone crazy.

Driven by those with ulterior motives, the stock price continued to break records.

Originally, although Motorola was a well-known American technology giant, it only ranked in the thirties in terms of total market capitalization.

Even companies like Procter & Gamble, 3M, Johnson & Johnson, and Kodak have much higher market capitalizations than him.

Driven by this surge in stock price, Motorola's market value continued to reach new highs, surpassing one listed company after another, and soon entered the top 20.

In fact, its ranking continues to rise.

Driven by ordinary shareholders, fund companies, investment companies, and large conglomerates, Motorola is surpassing one once-leading listed company after another at a miraculous pace.

As the time approached 4 p.m., Motorola's market capitalization had already surpassed the $10 billion mark.

This figure was like a bombshell, sending shockwaves through Wall Street and the global financial markets.

Inside the exchange, cheers and shouts mingled together as traders worked tirelessly, the sounds of keyboards clicking and telephones ringing incessantly, creating a frenzied symphony of wealth.

"This is absolutely insane! Motorola is about to take off!" A young stock investor stared wide-eyed at the constantly changing numbers on the screen, his face filled with disbelief.

"Hmph, this is nothing! Judging from the current situation, its upward momentum is still very strong, and it's far from over!" A seasoned stock market investor next to him smirked, his eyes gleaming with greed.

He took advantage of the rising stock price and bought a lot of shares. Even though the purchase price was quite high, the stock price has already increased by about 50% based on the current price.

In other words, if he sells now, he can directly profit 50% from this investment.

Who would have thought that Motorola, which had been consistently criticized by numerous media outlets in recent days, would make such a dramatic comeback, undoubtedly slapping the faces of those who were pessimistic about it?

Those Motorola shareholders who panicked and sold their shares prematurely are now filled with regret beyond words. They are convinced they've been tricked by a scheme orchestrated by the financial world!
At four o'clock in the afternoon, the stock exchange bell rang at the opportune moment.

This signifies the official end of today's stock market trading.

At this moment, Motorola's market value has reached a staggering $101.6 billion.

According to market capitalization rankings, Motorola has moved up to 13th place, replacing DuPont, which was originally ranked 13th.

Ahead of him, the 11th and 12th places are Mobil Corporation and Mobil Oil Corporation, with market capitalizations of $103 billion and $102 billion, respectively.

In other words, Motorola has a great chance of replacing these two companies when the stock market opens next time.

It's even possible to break into the top ten.

Lin Haoran's arrival completely changed the fate of Motorola!
(End of this chapter)