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Chapter 776 HSBC Offensive
This matter is also related to Liu Luanxiong and HSBC.

Last year, China Entertainment under Liu Luanxiong bought 10.6 million shares of the hotel from Su Chen at a price of 2000 billion Hong Kong dollars. Together with Lin Jianyue, they planned to join hands with the Kadoorie family.

On May 5, China Entertainment and Lai Sun International issued a statement at the same time, and Yibu entrusted Citicorp Bank as a financial advisor to purchase 3 million shares and 2000 million shares of Grand Hotel respectively from Shengshi.

This move immediately caused a sensation in the market.

Because it was Shengshi who had been spreading rumors that it wanted to build a big hotel.

Moreover, Tang Wanru also successfully entered into Chinese real estate with a strong posture, and launched a sniper attack on China Gas under the real estate tycoon Lee Shau Kee, and her reputation as the "goddess of sniper" was loud.

Everyone predicted that the hotel would be Tang Wanru's next target.

On the day when China Entertainment and Lai Sun announced the purchase of shares in the Grand Hotel, the closing price of the Grand Hotel was HK$50 per share.

After the news was announced, the price of the property soared immediately, and the highest price was as high as 80.5 Hong Kong dollars, which showed that some people were buying large hotel shares in the market.

On April 4, China Entertainment announced that the company's shareholding in the hotel has increased to 11%, holding a total of 25.9 million shares.

In just one month, China Entertainment has purchased more than 500 million shares of the hotel in the market.

Market participants estimated that Liu Luanxiong bought the shares of the hotel through China Entertainment, and the instigators behind it must be those two lunatics from Shengshi.

The purpose is either to join the board of directors of the big hotel as the largest shareholder, control the decision-making power, and then include the Peninsula Hotel, which the Kadoorie family regards as a precious jewel, into the property of Hongkong Land in the future.

Or it is green blackmail, forcing the Kadoorie family to buy back the shares of the big hotel at a high price, and get huge profits from it.

However, Liu Luanxiong was also kind and did not say that the instigator behind it was Sheng Shi. He publicly stated:

The act of buying the shares of the Grand Hotel had nothing to do with Shengshi, but the shares in his hands were indeed bought from Shengshi.

Because he is optimistic about the company's long-term prospects, and it is a long-term investment that will not be sold in the short term.

But his request to join the board of directors was rejected by the Kadoorie family.

This aroused extreme dissatisfaction from Liu Luanxiong and Lixin, and a battle was imminent.

On May 5th, the Grand Hotel held its annual general meeting, and Michael Kadoorie resigned as usual, and the directors had to be re-elected.

Liu Luanxiong personally marched, but unfortunately, with a difference of two percentage points, he could not overturn Mi Gao Yingli's decision to be re-elected as director.

In the end, Mi Gao was successfully elected as the chairman again, while Liu Luanxiong and Lin Jianyue were rejected from the board of directors.

Things didn't end there.

A few days after the general meeting of shareholders, the board of directors of the hotel announced that there was an error in the counting of votes, and the 130 million shares supporting Kadoorie were counted one more time.

However, after the correction, there are still 4130 million votes in favor of Kadoorie, that is, a narrow majority of 77 shares.

After the first round of confrontation, although Kadoorie won a battle, the situation is not optimistic.

Because the voting showed that Lai Sun and Liu Luanxiong were on the same front, they together controlled more than [-]% of the shares, while the Kadoorie family only held [-]% of the shares.

In order for the Kadoorie family to retain control of the hotel, they must obtain the support of 60% of the votes from other shareholders.

On the contrary, Liu Luanxiong only needs 11% of the votes.

Originally, this matter had nothing to do with Mr. Su, but HSBC suddenly jumped out to attack.

It is believed that Shengshi played an important role in this acquisition, and even believed that Shengshi has been manipulating this acquisition.

Ask the Hong Kong government to investigate Shengshi's finances, and believe that Shengshi's previous acquisition of Jardine has a large number of violations.

Why would HSBC jump out at this time to attack?

Because Mr. Su acquired Midland Bank, one of the four major settlement banks in the UK.

It just so happened that this collided with HSBC.

Because HSBC's goal of entering Europe is also this bank.

From the 70s to the 80s, Midland, like other large western banks, was committed to expanding its international business.

In particular, they are keen on a large amount of loans from developing countries such as Mexico and Brazil, resulting in a large amount of bad debts and a loss of up to 24 billion US dollars.

In the mid-80s, Midland Bank entered the United States and acquired the Crocker Bank of California. However, it was dragged down by the real estate collapse and lost about 36 billion U.S. dollars, so it was forced to withdraw from the United States.

At this time, Midland Bank was in a lot of difficulties.

However, Midland Bank is one of the four major settlement banks after all, ranking third in terms of asset value and fourth in terms of number of branches.

It is headquartered in London, has 2100 branches in the UK, and also has a huge business network in Germany, France, Switzerland and other European countries.

The acquisition of Midland will undoubtedly greatly strengthen the foundation of Minsheng Bank in Europe, so as to complete the "three-legged stool" strategic deployment that Mr. Su dreamed of.

This "three-legged stool" deployment is based on Hong Kong and radiates to the Asian region. The Soviet Union also has its own bank, and now there are no European and American countries to develop.

Midland Bank's current predicament provides Minsheng Bank with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to enter Europe.

It just so happened that the British government's attitude towards foreign capital's acquisition of British banks was showing signs of loosening, and Mr. Su seized this historic opportunity in time.

Since January this year, Shengshi has spent 3.83 million pounds, about 56 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Purchased a 430% stake in Midland Bank at a high price of 14.9 pence per share, while the stock price of Midland Bank was 350 pence per share at this time, a premium of 90%.

And appointed two directors to join the board of directors of Bank of Midland, taking the most important step in the journey of acquiring Bank of Midland.

At the same time, the two banks reached an agreement that Minsheng cannot change its equity in Midland Bank within the next three years, and the final completion price of its acquisition is based on the net asset value of Midland Bank in that year.

As early as when Shen Bi was still working at HSBC, he planned to enter Europe.

It's just that when HSBC acquired the Royal Bank of Scotland, it can be said that it lost a lot of merit and returned home.

Because the Royal Bank of Scotland is the head of the Scottish Settlement Bank and the fifth largest settlement bank in the UK.

The ethnically conscious Scots are naturally reluctant to transfer control of their largest bank to London, let alone Hong Kong.

Although the journey into Europe was full of thorns, HSBC did not stop there.

In 1984, HSBC acquired 93% of the shares of Zhan Jinbao, a securities company based in London. In 9, HSBC bought Zhan Jinbao and successfully established a stronghold in the UK.

HSBC has carefully studied the feasibility of acquiring about 30 European banks. However, either the acquisition price of these banks is too high, or the business base is too narrow, which is not in line with HSBC.

So coincidentally, Midland Bank was also eyeing.

It turned out that Sheng Shi was one step ahead!
Pu Weishi instantly felt that the company Shengshi was so over the top, always making troubles without making a sound.

Finally, this time, Pu Weishi couldn't bear it anymore, and used the melee between Liu Luanxiong and the Kadoorie family as an excuse to launch two waves of fierce attacks on Shengshi.

The first wave of attacks led the Hong Kong government to investigate Shengshi.

What are you investigating?
Anyway, people don't want to investigate anything, even if the ICAC or something comes to the company and investigates for three to five months, it can make Shengshi exhausted.

The second wave, together with other companies in Hong Kong, launched an attack on Shengshi's companies...

(End of this chapter)