Chapter 453 End of the Auction
After hanging up the phone with Shao Yifu, Lin Haoran returned to his villa at Deep Water Bay, preparing to have his first meal of 1981 with his parents. After lunch, Lin Haoran bid farewell to his parents and headed to Connaught Centre. Today, Connaught Centre was unusually quiet; aside from a few staff members on duty, most employees were off for the New Year's Day holiday. Only a few essential personnel were required to work.
Lin Haoran walked into Ma Shimin's office, where the current head of Jardines Matheson was already waiting, speaking on the phone.
"Normally on New Year's Day, all the major properties launch aggressive sales promotions. I just learned that many developments offered discounts today, but actual buyers were extremely few. Most of the crowd was just paid actors pretending to be buyers. If, Boss, you don't take action, Hong Kong might genuinely face a real estate crisis. Your personal influence on Hong Kong's market is simply too great," Ma Shimin said after putting down the phone, sounding somewhat emotional.
If things were allowed to develop unchecked, Lin Haoran would undoubtedly offend a great number of developers.
Although the media was responsible for stirring things up, most people would see Lin Haoran as the root cause.
Jardines Matheson's move was indeed despicable.
Lin Haoran laughed indifferently. "It's not going to be so easy for them to pin this blame on me. Starting today, this matter will be settled."
As long as he secured those five government plots, the rumors about him losing faith in Hong Kong's real estate market would collapse on their own.
At 3 PM, sunlight filtered through the clouds, casting a vibrant glow over the bustling city.
Central's streets were packed with people; with many companies closed for the holiday, even more citizens were out enjoying themselves.
Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin arrived on time at the Lands Department to participate in the government-organized land auction that had been prepared for nearly a month.
Unlike past auctions, this one was exceptionally deserted. Besides Jardines Matheson, Wheelock Marden, and Swire Pacific, no other real estate companies attended.
The auction was held in a simple meeting room inside the Lands Department, presided over by a government official.
The atmosphere at the auction was strange.
Both Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin were present in person, but Wheelock Marden and Swire Pacific only sent mid-level executives of little renown.
It was clear these two British firms attended merely out of courtesy to the Governor and had no real intention of bidding.
In past auctions, it was either the company bosses themselves or, at the very least, their general managers who participated.
Now, neither Wheelock Marden nor Swire Pacific had even bothered to send executives of that rank, revealing their perfunctory attitude toward this auction.
The official presiding over the auction sighed when he saw the scene.
He had hosted many government land auctions before, but never one like this.
Usually, at least a dozen developers would show up; once, he had hosted an auction where over thirty developers competed for the land, even though the quality of the plots wasn't even as good as today's.
Even so, that auction had been extremely intense, with some plots selling for more than double their starting prices.
But today, the atmosphere was more like a pre-arranged sale than an actual auction.
It seemed like everything was already decided, and they were just going through the motions.
Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin sat calmly, the government official's voice echoing crisply in the empty meeting room.
The first plot was located about 100 meters east of Connaught Centre along Lung Wo Road, less than 50 meters from the Central ferry piers.
This was the most expensive of the five plots, starting at HKD 1.05 billion.
Given the current market, its true value was at least HKD 1.8 billion to 2.5 billion.
The starting price was intentionally set low to encourage fierce bidding, but due to recent events, no one else showed up.
Had they known this would happen, the government would never have offered such prime land for auction a month ago.
As soon as the official finished describing the first plot, Ma Shimin, on behalf of Jardines Matheson, immediately raised his paddle to bid.
Representatives from Wheelock Marden and Swire Pacific made no move at all.
Unsurprisingly, Jardines Matheson won the plot at the starting price of HKD 1.05 billion.
The same happened with the other four plots, each one secured by Jardines Matheson at the starting bid.
In reality, if Swire Pacific's chairman had been present, he would have seen how much of a bargain Lin Haoran was getting and might have intervened.
But Swire Pacific had only sent a powerless executive who had been instructed simply to observe, not to bid.
Wheelock Marden, meanwhile, had long been withdrawing from Hong Kong's property sector and had no intention of participating.
Thus, Lin Haoran picked up a massive bargain.
If Swire Pacific had engaged in the bidding, Lin Haoran might have been forced to fight hard for the plots, but now, all went smoothly.
Even though Lin Haoran had previously told Governor MacLehose that Jardines Matheson might not acquire all five plots, deep down he was determined to get them no matter the cost.
In the end, Jardines Matheson acquired all five plots for a total of HKD 3.02 billion.
"Congratulations, Mr. Lin, congratulations to Jardines Matheson!"
Representatives from Wheelock Marden and Swire Pacific came forward to congratulate him.
They had little real authority, but they could see how significant the outcome was after the second plot was secured.
One Swire Pacific representative even tried to pause the auction to request new instructions from his headquarters, but the government official refused.
The auction was clearly intended from the beginning to allow Jardines Matheson to take all five plots.
Lin Haoran smiled and accepted the congratulations, knowing it was just superficial courtesy.
"Mr. Lin, please attend the press conference at 3:30 PM," the Lands Department official said immediately after the auction ended.
The auction had started at exactly 3:00 PM and wrapped up by about 3:10 PM—one of the fastest government land auctions ever held in Hong Kong.
There had been no bidding wars; Jardines Matheson simply secured everything at the starting prices.
The Governor's Office understood that to restore prosperity to Hong Kong's real estate sector, it wasn't enough to implement substantive policies; public opinion needed to be swayed as well.
Thus, they had organized a press conference beforehand, ready to announce Jardines Matheson's acquisition of the five plots as a major positive signal.
By utilizing the media's power, they hoped to rapidly rebuild market confidence, attract more investors and homebuyers, and revive the property sector.
Otherwise, the financial loss from this auction would have been in vain.
Under normal conditions, the five plots should have fetched HKD 5 to 6 billion at least.
Today, they sold for just over HKD 3 billion, and the government even had to offer favorable payment terms.
It was a tremendous financial loss for the Governor's Office.
Lin Haoran, of course, would not refuse to help with the publicity effort.
Having secured such a bargain, offering a little assistance was the least he could do.
At 3:30 PM, Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin were led to the press conference hall.
Many journalists were already gathered there, representing all the major media outlets in Hong Kong, including Sing Tao Daily, Overseas Chinese Daily News, and Hong Kong Industrial & Commercial Daily—the very ones that had been stirring up trouble lately.
After all, these were some of Hong Kong's top media organizations.
Seeing Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin appear at the press conference left many reporters stunned.
They had received the government's invitation for this event and guessed it might relate to today's land auction.
However, most had heard that few developers would even show up, so many had come expecting to witness a farce.
Given how fiercely the real estate crisis rumors had been spreading, and Lin Haoran's silence throughout, they had assumed the worst.
So the fact that Jardines Matheson not only participated but also dominated the auction was a complete surprise to many.
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