Chapter Ninety-Seven: The Tianxing Foundation

Hong Kong, Regent Hotel.

“Ha-ha, Brother Lu, did you rest well last night?” Li Erfu, seeing Lu Kun chatting with Stone and the two brothers Cheng Yuan and Cheng Hao, hurried over to ask.

“Very comfortable, Brother Li. Please, have a seat.” Lu Kun quickly pulled out a chair for the stout man to sit down.

“Brother, care for some food?” Lu Kun asked with a smile.

“No, no. I’m a rough fellow; I can’t get used to Western food,” Li Erfu declined.

The idea of a Western meal had come from Cheng Hao. None of them had ever tried it before, and somehow they felt that eating Western food would make things seem formal and stylish. Only when they sat down did they realize how awkward it was.

Knife in the left hand and fork in the right? Or was it the other way around?

Everyone looked to Lu Kun and copied him, their movements terribly comical.

“I told you not to insist on Western food!” Cheng Yuan snapped, snatching Cheng Hao’s steak with a fork.

Cheng Hao: “......”

“Waiter, a cola!” Lu Kun snapped his fingers and called over a server, ordering a drink for Li Erfu.

......

“Brother, what’s the status of the matter I asked you to help with before?” Lu Kun asked, a little anxious.

“It’s already being processed. It’s not difficult. Besides, you’re planning to invest and start a company in Hong Kong, so that makes it even less of a problem,” Li Erfu said with a smile, thinking Lu Kun was eager to obtain Hong Kong resident status.

“Brother, you’ve misunderstood. The one applying for Hong Kong resident status isn’t me—it’s my brother here.” Lu Kun patted Stone on the shoulder.

Li Erfu: ???

“That makes it a little troublesome. He may need proof of assets,” Li Erfu said evasively, his eyes flickering.

“I’m planning to set up a foundation here in Hong Kong. What do you think, Brother?” Lu Kun shifted his chair closer and asked.

“It can be done, but...” Li Erfu’s face twitched; some things were hard for him to say.

Lu Kun: ???

“Brother, there’s no need for us to beat around the bush. Just say what’s on your mind,” Lu Kun said with a smile.

“Brother Lu, let me put it this way. If you want to register a private foundation in Hong Kong, it’s best to do it through the Hong Kong branch of Citibank. Their strength and background are both excellent.

You’re only ahead of the curve because you came early. These days, private foundation management in Hong Kong is fairly loose, with loopholes everywhere to exploit. Otherwise, with the amount of money you have right now, you wouldn’t even qualify to register,” Li Erfu said frankly.

Lu Kun: “......”

“Really that realistic?” Lu Kun murmured.

“And then there’s the matter of smoothing all the channels. That’ll probably cost quite a lot too,” Li Erfu added, driving the knife in further.

Lu Kun: “......”

Fine then.

“Then I’ll trouble Brother Li with it,” Lu Kun said quickly, cutting off whatever refusal Li Erfu had been about to offer.

......

The three major banks in Hong Kong were HSBC, Standard Chartered, and Hang Seng. Citibank was formidable worldwide, but in Hong Kong it could only rank fourth.

In truth, HSBC was the best choice for Lu Kun to establish a private foundation.

However, because HSBC had been founded very early, with business spread across the globe, and because its systems and services were highly developed, Lu Kun’s modest funds would probably not be enough to get a foundation registered there.

Lu Kun had asked Li Erfu to exchange twenty million yuan into Hong Kong dollars, and the man had not cheated him; he had converted it into more than sixteen million Hong Kong dollars.

Yes, the fellow was indeed decent.

If Lu Kun had gone to exchange it himself, not only would it have been troublesome, the exchange rate would likely have been even worse.

HSBC had a large proportion of Chinese business. If he registered the private foundation there, he would probably gain more networking support.

“Forget it for now. Register one at Citibank first, and later register another at HSBC,” Lu Kun thought to himself.

After all, it wasn’t as if a foundation could only be registered once. He could first register it at Citibank, use it to inject capital and expand equity in the Hua Kun group, turn it into a joint venture, and secure the government’s tax exemptions and reductions first.

Besides, with a Hong Kong capital background, the Hua Kun group’s public-relations expenses could be cut in half at once.

......

Once the managers at Citibank’s Hong Kong branch had taken the money, the pace of the work became astonishingly fast.

Of course, Lu Kun’s more than sixteen million Hong Kong dollars had already shrunk to 14.5 million by then.

Citibank’s Hong Kong office dispatched specialists to provide the professional qualifications needed to register the foundation for Lu Kun, and the foundation was also placed under Citibank’s direct custody.

In fact, once Lu Kun successfully registered in Hong Kong, he would immediately begin investing in the mainland’s Hua Kun supermarket chain group. Most of the funds would flow back to the mainland anyway, so there was no need to worry about Citibank pulling any tricks behind his back.

He named the foundation “Starlight,” with the full name Starlight Investment Company.

On the Hong Kong side, the Starlight foundation didn’t even have an office address at all—a classic shell company.

At present, there were only two investors: Lu Kun and Stone.

The legal representative of Starlight Investment Company was Stone. This fellow gritted his teeth and converted all of his savings into more than eighty thousand Hong Kong dollars, investing in Starlight Investment Company under his own name for a 0.54 percent share.

A legal representative and a legal person are two different things; the two must not be confused.

That more than eighty thousand Hong Kong dollars was actually Stone’s salary and bonus income from his position in the Hua Kun group.

A security department manager’s salary was naturally not much. The key was that Lu Kun had given Stone a leisurely post as honorary consultant to the headquarters of the Hua Kun supermarket chain group, and the salary and bonuses were handed out entirely according to his mood.

When Stone was short on money, Lu Kun would give him bigger bonuses; if Stone spent money too recklessly, then he would simply get his base salary.

As for the two brothers Cheng Yuan and Cheng Hao, they were sorry to say it, but they were following Stone. If Stone prospered and looked after them, that was Stone’s business. Lu Kun would not give them shares out of thin air, let alone any chance to invest.

Lu Kun carefully reviewed the custody authorization letter several times before signing his name with a flourish, then said with a smile, “Pleasure doing business with you.”

“Pleasure doing business with you, and thank you for your trust, Mr. Lu,” the staff member said hastily, shaking Lu Kun’s hand in gratitude.