Chapter 409: Targeting the Big Landlord Again (Part 1)

This time, Xia Yu focused on three crucial companies: the Milk Company in the retail sector, Jinmen Construction in the construction industry, and Yihe Automotive Group in the automotive manufacturing and distribution sector.

**Milk Company**: This is a well-established company founded in 1886 by a Scottish doctor and five Chinese merchants. Initially, they set up a dairy farm in Pok Fu Lam on Hong Kong Island, raising 80 cows imported from the UK to produce fresh milk.

As the business grew, it diversified into frozen meat retail and ice-making. By acquiring the cold storage and ice-making facilities from Yihe and Swire, the company became the top player in the ice-making industry in Hong Kong. Xia Yu recalled that the ice blocks used by his family's fishing boat were produced by the Milk Company.

Later on, the Milk Company expanded further into retail, collaborating with famous fashion brands and accessories to establish the Daliliang Limited, opening the first Daliliang Supermarket in Central, Hong Kong Island, which was also the first supermarket in Hong Kong. They then opened a branch in the Pearl City Building in Causeway Bay, and now, there are five large supermarkets.

In addition to supermarkets, they also have 7-11 convenience stores.

The 7-11 brand, owned by the Southern Company in the US, only allowed franchising in 1973. Ito-Yokado of Japan was the first to franchise in 1974, followed by the Milk Company in Hong Kong, which joined in 1975. Within three years, they opened 20 convenience stores, almost all located on Hong Kong Island.

In the past life, when 7-11 was under Southern Company, the company's diversification expansion failed, leading to bankruptcy. Ito-Yokado then acquired it, and 7-11 rapidly grew into a retail giant, eventually becoming the world's largest convenience store chain and ranking 127th in the Global 500.

The 7-11 convenience stores are like a golden goose. With good management and some competition from Ito-Yokado, it could still become the world's largest convenience store group. Xia Yu was, of course, very interested.

Back to the topic, besides supermarkets and convenience stores, the Milk Company also owns other retail stores.

The most famous is Mannings Pharmacy.

Mannings Pharmacy opened its first store in 1972 and now has 16 stores, offering a comprehensive range of health and beauty products, including health products, skincare products, cosmetics, personal care items, men's products, maternity and baby products, women's products, and medicines. They cater to different consumer needs, with professional beauticians, nutritionists, and pharmacists in the stores. Cosmetics make up 70% of their merchandise, health products and medicines account for 20%, and other categories make up about 10%.

In Hong Kong, besides Watsons under Hutchison Whampoa, Mannings Pharmacy is the strongest in the cosmetics sector. With the resources of the Yihe Consortium, it has the momentum to challenge and surpass Watsons.

However, given the current state of the Yihe Consortium, it will be challenging for Mannings Pharmacy to catch up with Watsons.

But if it falls into Xia Yu's hands, there's still a good chance.

In addition to the above three, the Milk Company also has an IKEA furniture store, franchised in 1975, located in Central, Hong Kong Island.

Although the Milk Company is strong in retail, its retail assets do not constitute the bulk of the company's value.

The retail sector, including the ice-making and cold storage business, only represents a small part.

The Milk Company's greatest value lies in its vast land holdings!

The Milk Company is actually one of the largest landlords in Hong Kong, owning a substantial amount of nearly permanent land in the most prosperous area of Hong Kong Island. These lands have lease terms of up to 999 years, essentially permanent!

Such a large amount of land has been accumulated over time. The original founders could never have imagined that the land, which was not initially valued, would become so valuable in the end.

It is well known that dairy farms, ice-making plants, and cold storage facilities are land-hungry entities.

A long time ago, when Hong Kong was not yet prosperous, Kowloon and the New Territories were considered wilderness, with only Hong Kong Island having some population. However, the population was too small, and land was not seen as precious.

At that time, the Milk Company built a cold storage facility on Snow Factory Street in Central Hong Kong Island, an ice-making plant on Chunyuan Street in Wan Chai on the northern part of Hong Kong Island, and ice-making plants in Causeway Bay and Kwun Tong in Kowloon. They also established dairy farms in Pok Fu Lam in the west of Hong Kong Island and Causeway Bay.

The land for these farms is astonishingly large.

After over a hundred years of development, the central area of Hong Kong Island has become crowded. Historically, the expansion has moved towards Causeway Bay and the westward Pok Fu Lam, leading to land reclamation.

In the future, this land will be developed into high-end residential and commercial areas.

With such a vast amount of land, the hidden value of the Milk Company is immense!

Although Xia Yu has acquired the large landlord Kowloon Warehouse Group, most of Kowloon Warehouse's land is in Kowloon. Even the land in Hong Kong Island is mainly in the dock area, which is relatively scarce and less favorable for Kowloon Warehouse's real estate business expansion and development on Hong Kong Island.

However, if he acquires the Milk Company, Xia Yu's real estate empire will have two substantial legs.

At that point, he would not only be a major landlord in Kowloon but also one of the significant landlords on Hong Kong Island.

Of course, while the ideal is beautiful, achieving it will be challenging and will require careful planning by Xia Yu.

After all, the Milk Company's situation is quite complex, and acquiring it presents significant difficulties.

This is due to the complicated shareholding structure of the Milk Company.

The Milk Company went public in the 1960s. By 1971, Sir Zhou Xinian of the Zhou family, one of Hong Kong's old aristocratic families, continuously bought shares and became the chairman of the Milk Company.

However, in 1972, the Yihe Consortium targeted the Milk Company. They instructed their subsidiary, the Property Group, to propose a takeover of the Milk Company's shares. Zhou Xinian naturally refused, leading to a battle between the two parties. Ultimately, the Yihe Consortium's strength prevailed, and they forcibly took over the Milk Company, fully privatizing it in 1973.

This event also became one of the triggers for the 1973 stock market crash, and the Yihe Consortium ended up getting itself into trouble.

After the Property Group acquired the Milk Company, John Keswick was still not reassured. To better control the company, he began cross-holding, and after a series of dazzling maneuvers, the Milk Company's shares were scattered among Yihe Group, Yihe Holdings, Yihe Pacific, the Property Group, and other companies.

Therefore, if Xia Yu wants to acquire all the shares of the Milk Company, he still has to go through the Property Group.

But for Xia Yu, there are always more solutions than difficulties. He has already devised a plan, though it will be relatively more troublesome!