Money Machine

Chapter 20Flavor of the Day

The Hong Kong office of Goldman Sachs was in the 68‐story Cheung Kong Centre, a slender rectangle of glass and steel that rises above Hong Kong's Central district. The building sits between the sharp‐edged Bank of China Tower and the squat gray battleship of the HSBC building. Hong Kong businesspeople are obsessed with feng shui, whose masters are said to understand how to harmonize the invisible forces of nature in building designs, channeling their energies to bring about good fortune, or misfortune. It seemed that Hong Kong feng shui masters agreed that the I.M. Pei–designed Bank of China Tower, with its vertical, knife‐shaped corners, posed a case of bad feng shui, particularly for those standing in the way of its energy field. For this reason, the Cheung Kong Center had been designed so that its highest point was just below an imaginary line that connected the tall Bank of China Tower and the short HSBC building. This was a clever effort by the architect to allow the Cheung Kong Center to duck from the negative energy emanating from the Bank of China Tower, and guide it toward HSBC.

Negative energy or not, on June 4, I arrived at Goldman's office at about 9:30 in the morning for a meeting with Peter Ma's three deputies, Louis Cheung, Richard Jackson, and Liew Shan Hock. They were joined by their Goldman advisors. I was alone but prepared. The discussion was friendly and constructive. Both sides were motivated to hash out a deal.

As we negotiated, ...