Chapter 1153: Earning 50 Billion

'Chairman!'

'Chairman, sorry to keep you waiting!'

Seeing Liu Tianci and Wang Qi come in, Xia Yu gave them a smile: 'You both look very energetic.'

'Heh heh, mainly because the stock market is picking up again and the financial market is full of vitality, so I can't help but be happy,'

'The company has made a lot of money in this stock market boom, and the momentum is even stronger.'

Liu Tianci and Wang Qi successively answered with a smile.

Xia Yu was interested.

'Sit down first and tell me how much you've made this time.'

After Liu Tianci and Wang Qi sat down on the sofa, Wang Qi pondered for a moment before reporting to Xia Yu, 'Chairman, a few months ago, the Hang Seng Index was less than 1,000 points. I mobilised a large amount of capital to enter the stock market to go long. A total of 1 billion Hong Kong dollars in principal was invested to leverage 5 billion in capital, and all the stocks bought were from the highest quality companies.'

'Now the Hang Seng Index has risen by nearly 600 points since we entered the market, and the stocks we bought from high-quality companies have been the main drivers of the Hang Seng Index. The average share price of these companies has nearly doubled.'

'Right now, the stocks we bought with the HK$5 billion we invested in the beginning alone have a book value of HK$10.4 billion.'

'The unrealised profit has reached HK$5.4 billion.'

'Oh, and the stocks we bought at the bottom after the stock market crash last year are now worth at least twice as much.'

'Not bad!'

Xia Yu said with appreciation and satisfaction.

With a floating profit of more than 5 billion Hong Kong dollars, the current situation of Hong Kong stocks will only continue to strengthen. Without a large-scale sell-off, it is absolutely enough to turn the floating profit of more than 5 billion Hong Kong dollars into real profits.

A floating profit of more than 5 billion Hong Kong dollars can be considered the hard fee for building the stock exchange.

As for the profits from the stocks that were bought at the bottom last year and held for a long time, Xia Yu didn't care about them.

Even if Wang Qi didn't say anything, according to the scale of the 26 billion Hong Kong dollars in liquid capital that Jiuding Securities raised last year, the profits from investing in the market to buy the bottom could be guessed.

Now Jiuding Securities has become an Asian securities giant with assets of 100 billion Hong Kong dollars. There is no one in Xiangjiang that is qualified to compete with Jiuding Securities, and there are only those multinational securities companies and investment banks.

'Okay, I won't go into the details of company operations, just get the gist of it.'

Xia Yu said with a faint smile, not intending to dwell on the topic.

'I asked you to come here today mainly to talk about the stock market.'

'Although the daily trading volume of the Hong Kong stock market has now tripled compared to before, there is still a large part of the market's potential that has not yet been unlocked.'

Hearing this, Liu Tianci's face, which had been somewhat happy, instantly lost its smile, and he paid full attention, waiting for Xia Yu to continue.

As for arguing back?

He didn't even think about it.

'How many companies are listed on the exchange? How many kinds of bonds are listed?'

Xia Yu suddenly asked.

Liu Tianci recalled a little and replied, 'There are 269 companies with stocks and 136 kinds of bonds.'

Xia Yu didn't comment, but continued to ask, 'What about the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange?'

'You studied the models of these stock exchanges before, do you still remember the data?'

'Chairman, let me think for a moment.'

Liu Tianci frowned and tried his best to recall.

He was sure that he had seen the data for these two stock exchanges before, but it had been a while and his memory had faded.

After a long while, he said uncertainly, 'I remember the data from the beginning of this year. The New York Stock Exchange has more than 2,400 stocks of listed companies and more than 3,300 kinds of bonds from American and foreign companies, the US government and international banks.'

'As for the Tokyo Stock Exchange, I can't remember clearly.'

Xia Yu did not blame him, smiled and nodded to him, then looked at Wang Qi and said, 'Wang Qi, after all, Tianci is not in the securities industry, and Jiuding Securities is also doing well in Tokyo. You should know the data of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, right?'

'Chairman, I know,'

'According to last month's data, there were 923 listed companies on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and 1,407 listed bonds,'

Wang Qi answered very decisively.

Xia Yu nodded slightly: 'This is still just the data from one stock exchange in the United States and one in an island country, but there is more than one stock exchange in these two countries.'

'If we expand the scope to these two countries and no longer limit it to a particular stock exchange, what would the respective numbers be?'

This is more difficult.

However, Jiuding Securities Company has been in the United States and island countries for two years. Although these data are not particularly important, Wang Qi has seen them in many internal company analysis reports and therefore remembers them.

After a moment's thought, he replied, 'When statistics were compiled for the first half of this year, the major stock exchanges in the United States had a combined total of 5,559 listed companies and 7,628 types of bonds, ranking first in the world in terms of quantity.'

'The stock exchanges in the island country had a combined total of 1,429 listed companies and 1,938 types of bonds. This ranked third in the world, behind the United States and the United Kingdom.'

'Very good!'

Xia Yu praised.

Then he looked at the two men and asked, 'Is the gap large?'

'Very large!'

Liu Tianci and Wang Qi nodded with a bit of a downcast expression on their faces.

'The gap is particularly large.'

'But we also have to think practically. After all, Xiangjiang is only a small city, and it definitely cannot be compared to the United States and the island country.'

'Think about it from another perspective. If we talk about the number of listed companies per capita, Xiangjiang can actually rank first in the world.'

At the end of his sentence, Xia Yu revealed a smile, but it was a strange smile.

Liu Tianci and Wang Qi couldn't help but twitch their mouths, but they didn't dare to laugh.

Xia Yu pretended not to see the two of them suffering, and continued talking to himself, 'Although there are many listed companies per capita, it is undeniable that there are many junk stocks among them.'

'This is a historical legacy. When the four major exchanges were established, especially before the stock market crash of 1973, they lowered the listing requirements to attract companies to list and raise capital.

'Although over the years, many junk stocks have been acquired and listed through backdoor listings, which has improved the quality of companies listed on the stock market, the average quality is still far lower than that of the island countries and the United States.'

'Not to mention anything else, just the market value of the top three companies in the US stock market combined is equivalent to the total size of the Hong Kong stock market! This is the gap!'

Liu Tianci and Wang Qi were silent. They both felt bad, and the pride they had felt because of the good results of the Hong Kong United Stock Exchange had vanished.

On second thought, they are now like frogs at the bottom of a well, looking up at the sky.

'So the Hong Kong Stock Exchange still has a long way to go.'

'But we have to take things one step at a time. Rome wasn't built in a day. As long as we stay focused on development, there will always be a way.'

'The number of listed companies in Hong Kong must increase as soon as possible. The more there are, the bigger the pie, and the more capital will be attracted.'

Hearing this, Liu Tianci spoke up: 'Chairman, the listing threshold on the stock exchange has now been raised a lot. Only companies with a net asset value of more than 50 million Hong Kong dollars, five years of good operating performance, and audited by a financial company, and then by the stock exchange, can be listed.'

'At present, there are not many companies in Xiangjiang that fully meet this requirement. After the stock exchange was launched, there are currently only 27 companies that have submitted information and are waiting in line for listing review.'

'Of course, there are still some companies whose assets meet the specifications, but because they were established less than five years ago or their operating performance is unstable, they do not meet the listing requirements.'

'For example, the companies in our group are definitely some of the best in Hong Kong, but many of them have been established for less than five years.'

'This threshold...'

Xia Yu knew what Liu Tianci wanted to say, and he shook his head to reject it before he could finish: 'The threshold cannot be lowered. Although our threshold has been raised a lot compared to before, there is still a certain gap compared to countries such as the United States and island countries.'

'If it is lowered again, it will only damage the market and undermine the foundation of the exchange, which will outweigh the gains.'

Since Xia Yu had said so, Liu Tianci naturally stopped, and decided in his heart that he would not mention this again in the future. In fact, he was also reluctant to lower the threshold and let some rubbish companies in to harm investors.

Xia Yu said with a smile, 'There are only so many companies in Hong Kong and Macau, and since they are hard to find, then look at the whole of Southeast Asia.'

'No stock exchange in Southeast Asia can match ours, and no country's financial market can match Hong Kong.'

'And most of the wealth in Southeast Asia is in the hands of major Chinese families.'

'You can definitely go to them and persuade them to list their companies in Hong Kong.'

'Although Southeast Asia as a whole is not as prosperous as the island countries, it has five times the population and is quite rich in various resources.

'And although Southeast Asian countries have stock exchanges, they are either in poor condition or small in scale, and they are simply no match for Hong Kong.'

'If the Hong Kong Stock Exchange can be established as the holy land of listing in the eyes of companies from Southeast Asian countries, with the whole of Southeast Asia behind it, it is definitely qualified to become a world-class exchange.'

'After the rise of the mainland, if it is operated properly, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange has a good chance of becoming the world's number one, and it is even possible to look forward to the New York Stock Exchange's position as the world's number one.'

Of course, he said so, but Xia Yu didn't really hope to surpass the New York Stock Exchange. When he thought about the future, its total market value of nearly 20 trillion US dollars was three times that of the second-placed Nasdaq Stock Exchange, more than four times that of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and six times that of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange!

Even if he gave the Hong Kong Stock Exchange a big boost in this life, it would be almost impossible to catch up with the New York Stock Exchange.

But when you're looking ahead, you have to set a lofty goal.

Determined to become the world's second, no matter how you hear it, it doesn't sound good, it's too low-key.