Chapter 152: The International Gold Price Continues to Surge
During this period, Lin Haoran had mainly used his funds to acquire more shares of Hongkong Electric Holdings, aiming to increase his ownership ratio. As a result, for the past two to three months, he hadn't had any other development plans.
In the blink of an eye, September had passed, and October had too.
During these two months, the price of gold had risen steadily, just as Lin Haoran had anticipated.
By early November, the price of gold had surged past 400 dollars per ounce.
At that moment, his gold futures had already appreciated by 200 dollars per ounce.
However, Lin Haoran was naturally not satisfied yet and continued to wait patiently.
Because he had always trusted his company's management teams when it came to business operations, he didn't have much personal work to handle. Although he owned many businesses, his life was quite leisurely.
Over at Qingzhou Cement Company, profits had been steadily increasing these past months, with October's profits surpassing 10 million Hong Kong dollars.
Under Burton's leadership, Qingzhou Cement successfully merged with Huafeng Cement Plant.
After the merger, Huafeng Cement Plant ceased to exist independently and was turned into the Yuen Long Branch of Qingzhou Cement Company.
After more than a month of renovations, the Yuen Long Branch finally met Qingzhou Cement's quality standards and officially started producing cement under the Qingzhou brand.
Following that, Burton began arranging for employee transfers, first relocating part of the staff to the Yuen Long Branch.
The employees of Qingzhou Cement were considered relatively good; even when forced to move from the city center to the distant suburbs, very few chose to resign.
As a result, the Qingzhou Cement Company at Hung Hom became much quieter.
With fewer employees, production volume at the Hung Hom site decreased, and night shifts were no longer necessary.
Although there were already plans for diversification, the immediate priority was to relocate cement production completely out of the city, to prepare for broader development in the future.
Over these months, Qingzhou Cement Company had generated over 20 million Hong Kong dollars in profit.
Although this was far less than Aimeigao Company's profits, it was still quite good.
Ultimately, Qingzhou Cement's true value lay in the land it owned at Hung Hom.
If it hadn't been for successfully opening up the Southeast Asian market, and achieving decent results there, monthly profits of over 10 million Hong Kong dollars would have been impossible!
Originally, Burton had wanted to use this money to purchase more land.
However, after careful consideration, Lin Haoran decided to take out 20 million Hong Kong dollars from the profits to continue funding Huanyu Investment Company's acquisition of Hongkong Electric Holdings shares.
In Lin Haoran's view, the top priority now was the acquisition of Hongkong Electric Holdings. Land purchases could wait.
Since Qingzhou Cement Company was already a private enterprise and part of Lin Haoran's personal assets, Burton had no reason to oppose his decision to use the funds elsewhere.
Besides the 20 million Hong Kong dollars from Qingzhou Cement, Lin Haoran also received another dividend of 35 million Hong Kong dollars from Aimeigao Company in early November.
Entering October, Aimeigao's fan orders had indeed declined significantly, with October's order volume notably lower than September's, let alone the peak of July and August.
However, both Liu Luanxiong and Lin Haoran knew that November's order volume would drop even further.
Therefore, they had prepared in advance. After consulting several European and American fan distributors, Liu Luanxiong decided to start producing electric blankets and water-injection electric hot water bags in autumn and winter.
Several distributors had already agreed to place initial trial orders.
After all, Aimeigao brand fans had earned their trust in terms of quality.
Both electric blankets and electric hot water bags had very low technological barriers.
As the fan orders dwindled and factory space became idle, they quickly acquired the necessary production technology and material suppliers.
Compared to fans, the profits from electric blankets and hot water bags were just as good, and when winter fully arrived, demand would be enormous.
Thus, these two new products would help Aimeigao Company smoothly weather the cold winter.
A few days ago, Lin Haoran visited Aimeigao Company to discuss dividends and took the opportunity to tour the electric blanket and hot water bag production lines.
Although Liu Luanxiong was unfamiliar with these industries, many principles of manufacturing were universal.
Given the low technological requirements, Aimeigao Company easily integrated these products into their production lines.
By November, some parts of Europe and North America had already entered the cold season — for example, Canada, which is close to the Arctic Circle — and demand for these two products was immense.
Thus, since the decision to manufacture them in October, Aimeigao Company had already secured a significant amount of orders.
As November continued, orders increased again.
Although it was still unclear exactly how much profit this would generate for Aimeigao, as long as the distributors sold well, their orders would naturally continue to grow.
In September, Lin Haoran had received a dividend of 65 million Hong Kong dollars from Aimeigao.
In November, he received another 35 million Hong Kong dollars.
Together with the 20 million Hong Kong dollars from Qingzhou Cement, he had gathered 120 million Hong Kong dollars in three months.
This amount allowed Huanyu Investment Company to keep operating until he could cash out his gold futures.
On November 4, a hostage crisis in Iran shocked the world.
The first market affected was the international gold market.
Subsequently, gold prices skyrocketed, quickly breaking the 500 dollars per ounce mark, and continuing to rise.
At this point, Lin Haoran's profits from his gold futures had officially doubled.
And this was still far from the peak.
In December, another world-shaking event occurred: the Soviet Union officially invaded Afghanistan.
Affected by this, gold experienced another explosive surge.
The global gold market seemed to go insane.
Despite poor economic conditions worldwide, vast sums of money poured into gold.
A series of wars made the world feel unsafe, leading people to believe that hoarding gold was the best investment.
As a result, central banks around the world hoarded gold, wealthy individuals hoarded gold, and even many ordinary citizens began stockpiling gold.
Only a few people knew about the large amount of gold futures Lin Haoran held — aside from Su Zhixue, only a few top executives at Citibank were aware.
These included John Reed, currently a Senior Vice President at Citibank, and Walter Wriston, Chairman of Citibank.
Over the past few months, Lin Haoran had received several phone calls directly from John Reed.
After his gold futures doubled, even Walter Wriston himself called Lin Haoran personally.
The reason was simple: the funds Lin Haoran controlled had become significant enough to attract attention from Citibank's top leadership.
Five hundred million dollars' worth of gold futures, doubled, meant one billion dollars!
Such an enormous sum would draw attention not just from Citibank, but from other major financial institutions in America — like JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Merrill Lynch, and Goldman Sachs.
Clearly, Lin Haoran was now firmly on Walter Wriston's radar.
Over the phone, Walter Wriston expressed Citibank's desire to engage in more collaborations with Lin Haoran and hoped they could become close partners.
Naturally, Lin Haoran readily agreed.
Citibank was one of the largest financial groups in the U.S.
Building a strong relationship with them would significantly benefit his future international business expansion, especially when he entered the U.S. market.
Lin Haoran certainly wouldn't be content with just the small Hong Kong market.
Moreover, a powerful consortium like Citibank wielded influence even in Congress.
If he could secure their attention, they might provide him with unexpected help in the future.
Walter Wriston had been at the helm of Citibank since 1967 and had dramatically elevated Citibank's international standing and brand value.
He wasn't only a key figure in American banking but often a focus of global attention.
Although John Reed would succeed Walter Wriston in five years, currently, Walter Wriston remained in charge.
Building strong ties with both men meant cementing relationships with both Citibank's current and future leadership.
"Mr. Lin, your gold futures have already more than doubled. Don't you plan to sell?"
John Reed couldn't help but ask again, shocked by Lin Haoran's calmness in holding onto the position.
Could it be that this Mr. Lin was simply too greedy?
But through their interactions over time, he felt otherwise — Lin Haoran seemed full of confidence in the gold market and wasn't worried at all about a crash following the surge.
It was already December 28, 1979.
In just a few days, it would be 1980.
"Mr. Reed, I'm actually very satisfied with the current international gold prices. I'm planning to fly to New York tomorrow and make arrangements for my gold futures," Lin Haoran said with a smile.
John Reed had asked similar questions three or four times before, but each time Lin Haoran had answered, "No rush, I'm very confident in the gold market."
This time, his response was different.
"Indeed, my advice would be to sell too. Half a year ago, when we started working together, I never imagined your gold futures would double — no, they've already more than doubled! The latest gold price has broken past 600 dollars per ounce!" John Reed said with emotion.
Lin Haoran just smiled and didn't continue the topic.
600 dollars per ounce was not enough for him.
Although the price had just crossed the 600 dollars per ounce threshold, Lin Haoran knew that in the next ten days, gold would experience a truly supercharged rally.
From a little over 600 dollars to a peak of 850 dollars per ounce, it would take only a few days.
Before, even a 100-dollar increase took one to two months.
But now, a 200-dollar increase would happen in just days.
If Lin Haoran hadn't been a transmigrator, he wouldn't have believed such a thing possible.
It was simply too absurd.
Lin Haoran knew he couldn't perfectly time the peak at 850 dollars per ounce.
International gold prices fluctuated constantly with opening, mid-day, and closing prices.
His massive position could even influence the market.
But as long as he could sell at over 700 dollars per ounce, he would be very satisfied.
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