Legendary Henry Fok: The super-rich started from selling groceries.

Legendary Henry Fok: The super-rich started from selling groceries. In 1950s, an all-powerful figure appeared in Hong Kong real estate market. At that time, he once created a real estate myth that 1 year sold more than 100 properties, and thus created a multi-billion-dollar Huoshi Group. Now everyone is familiar with installment payment and mortgage payment, which was invented by Henry Fok. At the peak of the real estate industry, Henry Fok once owned 70% of the construction business in Hong Kong, and most of the more than 60 companies under his name were engaged in real estate business. He is a veritable "landlord" in Hong Kong. Li Ka-shing, Lee Shau Kee, Guo Bingxiang and so on, the real estate tycoons in Hong Kong, grew up with him. So, how did Henry Fok enter the real estate industry? How did he earn his first bucket of gold? Shipping by sea, earning the first bucket of gold, Henry Fok's life is full of legend. 1923 in may, Henry fok was born in haozhou. Because of his poor family, Henry Fok never wore shoes before he was 6 years old. At the age of seven, two brothers and father died one after another. Later, when Hong Kong was occupied by the Japanese army, life became more difficult. As the only man in the family, Henry Fok dropped out of school to go out to work. Part-time job is actually a coolie, but Fok Ying-tung, who is small and thin, is not cut out for coolies. Every job is dismissed by the boss after a short time. There is no way, Henry fok's mother had to borrow from the east and move from the west to help him open a grocery store. Henry fok, who settled down, married his neighbor's daughter, Lv Yanni, and lived a stable and plain life. Soon, a mother's decision changed Henry Fok's life. 1945 After the war, the economic situation in Hong Kong improved. Henry fok's mother felt that the family could not always guard a grocery store. She wondered if she could change the shop and open a small shipping company to do some shipping business. In fact, Henry Fok had another opportunity to work as a clerk in a foreign firm at that time, with a salary of HK$ 300 1 month. His income is good, and he is relaxed and stable. However, he finally respected his mother's decision. So, they bought several boats and engaged in sea transportation. As a result, a few years later, the opportunity really came. 1950, when the Korean War broke out, some European and American countries began to impose a comprehensive economic blockade on China, which led to a sharp rise in the price of strategic materials. Therefore, many overseas businessmen take risks and smuggle "prohibited items" into the mainland of China. Due to the huge profits, Henry fok also joined the adventure. He organized a transport fleet to transport important materials such as black iron sheets, rubber, tires, cotton and medicines to Macao every day for three consecutive years, and then tried to transport them to the mainland. In fact, at that time, Hong Kong's wealthy businessmen, such as Bao Yugang and Stanley Ho, all worked in this line more or less, but this line was too risky and too hard, and only Henry Fok persisted for the longest time. At that time, Henry fok slept for three or four hours at most every day. Contact loading during the day and transport things by moonlight at night. On several occasions, Henry Fok almost lost his life in order to avoid being chased by the British Marine Police. In this way, Henry fok worked for three years. High risk, of course, has a high return. During the three years of maritime transportation during the Korean War, Henry Fok earned the first bucket of gold in his life. Fok Ying-tung, with a net worth of millions, moved into a mansion at Lantang Road 1 1 in Happy Valley, where the rich live, and became a upstart in Hong Kong. After that, it was with this first bucket of gold that Henry Fok entered the real estate industry and achieved great success, becoming the top real estate developer in Hong Kong. In his later years, Fok Ying-tung commented on his behavior: "It is deceptive to say that I support the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea and break the blockade and embargo. I'm not that savvy. But it is untrue to say that I didn't know and didn't have any ideas at that time. There are many ways to make money, and you don't have to go this way. " After the Korean War, Henry Fok had millions of capital, so he didn't need to fight to the death in the storm. But this does not mean that Henry Fok is ready to "quit the Jianghu" and live with money. Qian Shengqian's investment is necessary, but what projects should he invest in? Henry fok's mind began to turn again. The first installment business strategy In the early 1950s, Hong Kong ushered in a wave of immigrants. According to statistics, during the six years from 1947 to 1953, the population of Hong Kong increased from less than 500,000 to about1500,000. With the rapid increase of population, there will be a serious shortage of housing. At that time, housing conditions in Hong Kong were very poor. The dilapidated wooden houses, roofs and even corridors and stairwells are crowded with people. Seeing this situation, the shrewd Henry Fok decided to bet all his money on real estate. 1June, 953, Henry Fok and his wife Lv Yanni founded Huo Xingyetang Real Estate Co., Ltd. with a registered capital of HK$ 4.65 million, which was quite a sum at that time. However, at that time, the real estate industry in Hong Kong was not yet an industry, and the general public rented houses to live in. Moreover, at that time, Hong Kong was a British colony, and the real estate market in Hong Kong had been monopolized by British consortia. It's hard for China people to get a piece of it from them. As a matter of fact, Henry Fok first entered this business and considered making money by renting a house. 1at the end of 953, Henry fok took out 2.8 million hong kong dollars and bought his first building, the embassy building, in causeway bay, hong kong, and officially entered the real estate industry. At that time, like ordinary real estate developers, he spent money to buy old buildings and then rented them out to make money. But about two or three months, Henry fok took the account book and calculated that it would take seven and a half years for 2.8 million Hong Kong dollars to buy this building to recover the cost. So how can we get the money back faster if we don't rent it? He is considering selling it. At that time, in Hong Kong, the house was bought and sold by the whole building, but the annual income of ordinary employees in Hong Kong was less than 3,000 Hong Kong dollars, and only a few rich people could afford the house. So some buildings have been sold for more than ten years, even longer than seven and a half years. How to make more people afford to buy a house and get greater returns with less investment? Henry fok after some thinking, first came up with a layered selling method, the house apart to sell, so that the total price of people who buy a house is reduced, and people who are slightly richer can afford it. Then, in order to attract people who only have part of the house price to buy a house, Henry Fok invented the business strategy of selling uncompleted residential flats by stages. This method seems nothing now, but it was a great event at that time. It is inconceivable to pay only a part of the money for shopping. Besides, home ownership is the traditional ideal of China people. Now the house is smaller, the down payment is lower, and you can own your own house for hundreds or thousands, which is too attractive to ordinary citizens. When people line up to buy a house, Huo Jiaguang will be soft on the down payment. Several initiatives of Henry Fok, the "land king of Hong Kong", suddenly activated the real estate market in Hong Kong. Fok Ying-tung built more than 1 00 houses in the real estate industry only1year, and basically all the houses were sold out before they were built, creating the myth of the real estate industry in Hong Kong. Sun 1955 He built Dengfeng Building, the tallest building in Hong Kong at that time, in Causeway Bay. In two or three years, Henry Fok earned over HK$ 10 in the property market and became the largest Chinese real estate developer in Hong Kong. At this time, Henry Fok was only 32 years old and was already a well-deserved leader in the real estate industry in Hong Kong. However, just as Henry Fok was very popular in the real estate industry in Hong Kong and was called "the local tyrant of Hong Kong", some people began to make things difficult for Henry Fok everywhere. At that time, Hong Kong was administered by Britain. In the 1950s, Hong Kong and Britain had been worried about Henry Fok's supply to the mainland of China during the Korean War. Later, Henry Fok quietly contacted some mainland officials. 1964, he bypassed macau and went to Beijing to attend the national day celebration of 15. His behavior, the British Hong Kong * * * see in the eye but helpless to him, had to take his most prosperous real estate business. Among them, the "Star House Incident" dealt the greatest blow to Henry Fok. Star house is a commercial building built by Henry Fok in 1962. Located at the seaside of Tsim Sha Tsui, the location is excellent. It was mainly used to collect rent. As a result, in order to suppress Henry Fok, Hong Kong British * * * actually came up with a bad trick to make the telephone company not call the building. Then, the American consul in Hong Kong blacklisted the Star House and announced that all tenants of the Star House were not allowed to buy or sell American goods. Under a series of suppression measures, Henry Fok was forced to sell star house to the British real estate company at a low price. Due to the "ban" of Hong Kong British investment in Guangzhou White Swan Hotel, Henry Fok gradually faded out of the Hong Kong real estate market. After the "Star House Incident", Henry Fok began to look to overseas markets. 1968, Henry fok led more than 400 people and a fleet, set out from Hong Kong, sailed into Brunei, and began to build port projects in Brunei. Later, he moved to oil, department stores, hotels, restaurants and other industries. 1978 65438+ 10, the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee put forward the reform and opening-up policy for the first time, allowing foreign capital to be used for economic construction in the Mainland. At that time, many overseas wealthy businessmen were still waiting to see, and Henry Fok had already taken action. 1979, following Zhongshan Hot Spring Hotel, Fok Ying-tung invested in the construction of Guangzhou White Swan Hotel, which is the first five-star hotel with Sino-foreign cooperation in China and the first large-scale modern hotel designed, built and managed by China people. On February 6th, 1983, White Swan Hotel officially opened and was fully open to the outside world. This decision caused a sensation in Guangzhou, and a large number of citizens came to visit. More than 200 rolls of toilet paper were used in five public toilets in the hotel, and the brand-new carpets were trampled, so that some employees asked Fok Ying-tung whether to stop opening. Henry fok's answer is: full opening cannot be changed. If something is broken, put it on my account according to the price. It seems incredible to queue up to visit the hotel now. However, thirty years ago, it was very difficult for ordinary citizens to enter ordinary hotels. When they go in, they need to register at the doorman with the company's letter of introduction, not to mention a five-star hotel like White Swan Hotel. According to the staff of the hotel at that time, one or two days before the opening, they found a laundry list of shoes every day, which was crowded away by thousands of tourists. Because of the White Swan, people know that there is a big boss in Hong Kong, Henry Fok, but people may not know that Henry Fok actually wanted to be an athlete rather than a businessman when he was young. Actively Help China Bid for the Olympic Games Henry Fok loved sports since childhood, and what he wanted to do most when he was young was to become a full-time football player. From 65438 to 0959, he funded the establishment of the Hong Kong Dongsheng Football Team. He used to be the Executive Committee of FIFA and won the Hong Kong Tennis Doubles Championship for six consecutive years. He sponsored many sports in Hong Kong. At the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, China achieved the breakthrough of zero Olympic gold medal. Henry fok was greatly excited. In order to encourage China athletes to achieve good results, Henry Fok invested HK$ 1 billion in 1984 to set up the "Henry Fok Sports Fund" to award huge bonuses to athletes who achieved good results in the Olympic Games. Hosting the Olympic Games in China is one of Henry Fok's greatest wishes in his later years. 1993, when Beijing bid for the 2000 Olympic Games, Fok Yingdong did a lot of lobbying work to the IOC Executive Committee, and even promised to donate money to set up a sports foundation in Africa. When Beijing failed to bid for the Olympic Games for the first time, Henry Fok once said that this was the biggest failure in his life. In 200 1 year, Beijing applied for the Olympic Games for the second time. Fok Yingdong did not go to Moscow to help out because of his age, but was attended by his son, Fok Zhenting. After Beijing's successful Olympic bid, Henry Fok donated 200 million yuan to the Water Cube of the National Swimming Pool. For more than 20 years, Henry Fok has donated more than 800 million yuan for sports in China. 10 year 10 On October 28th, Mr. Fok Yingdong died in Beijing at the age of 84. After Henry Fok's death, he left a legacy as high as HK$ 28.9 billion and a huge Huo Group. Henry fok has three wives and thirteen children. According to the arrangement of Henry Fok's life, the children born to his original wife are the main force to inherit Huo's industry. Other children born to his second wife Feng and his third wife, Fok Ying-tung, opposed them to go into business and let them develop into professionals such as law and doctors.