The Tyrant Billionaire

Hardy's private plane, a B-29, landed at Hong Kong airport. As soon as he got off the plane, a group of people gathered around to welcome him.

Among them were Saunders, the president of HSBC, several vice presidents, the president of the Hong Kong branch of Wells Fargo, as well as the president and editor-in-chief of the Hong Kong branch of The Global Times, and the head of ABC Radio.

ABC had set up a branch station in Hong Kong last year, but there were no television users in Hong Kong yet, so they only operated a radio station that broadcasted in two languages: English, Cantonese.

Currently, The Global Times and ABC Radio were the best newspaper and radio stations in Hong Kong. The local competitors stood no chance against them.

Hardy didn't expect them to make money right away; Hong Kong was still a poor region. He simply wanted them to dominate the market early by leveraging the resources of The Global Times and ABC Radio. High-quality programming would naturally attract more people.

Hardy exchanged brief pleasantries with these people and said, "Thank you all for coming to greet me today. It's getting late, so I'll head back to rest now. In a few days, I'll visit each company."

"We welcome the chairman's visit," the group responded in unison.

At this point, Victor stepped forward and respectfully said, "Boss, the car is ready. Please get in, and I will handle the arrangements for the others."

After Hardy got into the car, he immediately started reading the reports placed on the seat. He nodded in satisfaction; it seemed the branch presidents here were doing great.

As the car moved smoothly along the road, Hardy glanced out the window, taking in the sights of the unfamiliar city. His mind briefly wandered from the reports.

Although business was the main reason for his trip, Hardy knew the importance of rest. The long hours of travel and the demands of running The Hardy Group required balance, something he had learned over the years. Setting the reports aside, he leaned back and closed his eyes.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

...

The next day.

After breakfast, Victor was already waiting in the living room. When he saw Hardy, he quickly stood up, "Boss, did you sleep well?"

"Haha, I sleep well no matter where I am," Hardy replied.

"Boss, Governor Grantham is hosting a reception tonight to welcome you to Hong Kong. It will be held at the Peninsula Hotel, and Hong Kong officials and prominent figures from various industries will attend," Victor informed.

Hardy nodded.

"Notify the people from HSBC, Wells Fargo, The Global Times, and the radio station to join us," Hardy instructed.

"I understand, boss."

"Boss, there's something else I need to report," Victor added.

"What is it?"

"It's about selling supplies to the Chinese. We agreed to provide them with $100.000 worth of goods. They took it seriously and gave me a procurement list. The goods on the list are already being prepared by the company," Victor explained.

Hardy already knew about this matter; the group had reported it to him, and some of the goods were likely already being loaded onto ships.

"When I talked to them, they asked what kind of guarantees we needed for the $100.000 debt and how they would repay it. I didn't give them an answer at the time because you hadn't specified anything, so I told them to come up with their own guarantee terms."

Hardy didn't have a thorough understanding of the Communist Party's financial situation, so he had left everything to Victor.

The Chinese were poor to begin with, and after being devastated by the Japanese and the Civil War that followed, feeding their own people was already a luxury.

He didn't have high hopes for the collateral they could provide for the loan.

"Yesterday, before you arrived in Hong Kong, Mr. Xu came over and gave me a list of repayment guarantees. Boss, take a look," Victor said, pulling a piece of paper from his pocket and handing it to Hardy.

Hardy took it and read through it.

There were securities, stocks, promissory notes, and certificates of deposit from other countries banks.

Jewelry items.

Land.

Minerals.

Livestock.

After reading it, Hardy sighed inwardly, thinking, The Chinese was indeed impoverished there was so little to offer.

Hardy pondered over the list for a long time.

Victor sat silently, not daring to make a sound.

After a while, Hardy finally said, "Reply to them, saying we want securities from other countries banks, still calculated at the exchange rate of 100:1."

"How much did we cash in from the previous securities?" Hardy asked.

Victor quickly replied, "We've cashed in a total of $21.85 million, and there are still more than $30 million worth of promissory notes from other countries banks that we haven't been able to redeem yet."

This $21 million had actually been cashed out by using HSBC's network. It wasn't easy to get money back from the promissory notes of other banks.

But it didn't matter.

Getting more than $20 million was already a big win. Later, the remaining promissory notes could be handled by Wells Fargo's network. If they refused to pay, they'd send legal notices and hire lawyers. For the more scattered and difficult to collect ones, they could hand them over to the gangs and societies in various regions to try.

They were gangsters, so they could use some underhanded methods. They might be able to recover some, and Hardy would give them a cut at a ratio of ten to one, dividing whatever they managed to collect. This was a business they'd likely be happy to take on.

"As for the jewelry, we'll only accept diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and jadeite of high quality recognized by the British in Hong Kong. Let your auction company handle the valuation," Hardy instructed.

Victor quickly noted it down.

Experience tales at empire

Jewelry was part of the auction business, so there was no problem with pricing and selling.