Through the wealth life

Chapter 532 Shen Bi's Helplessness

After Henry Keswick left Lee's Building, he did not return to the Jardine headquarters, but came directly to the HSBC Bank Building. He knew that it was impossible to expect Li Guangyu to stop the current price war. He needed to seek advice from HSBC. And Standard Chartered's support, otherwise it would be difficult for Jardine, a giant ship, to move freely in Xiangjiang.

In the office of HSBC, Shen Bi invited Henry Keswick to sit down in the reception area, poured him a cup of tea, and said to him: "Keswick, is there any urgent matter for your sudden visit today? "

Henry Keswick briefly talked about Jardine's current situation and asked HSBC to help him.

After Shen Bi heard Henry Keswick's remarks, he did not rush to respond, he was thinking about the gains and losses inside.

He himself does not want Jardine to fall like this. He is very clear that at present, only Jardine in Xiangjiang can hold back the Li consortium. Once Jardine also backs down, they HSBC and Standard Chartered will directly face Li The consortium is under pressure.

Shen Bi also has no confidence that HSBC can compete head-on with the Li's consortium. Now the Li's consortium is too large. HSBC is just a single financial group, and the Li's consortium is not only competing with Tianyu Financial Group. , Li's major groups will provide assistance to him.

HSBC and Standard Chartered now have no advantage against Tianyu Financial Group except for the right to issue banknotes in Hong Kong dollars.Shen Bi knew very well that the Lee consortium has never given up on the right to issue banknotes in Hong Kong dollars, and the pressure on HSBC and Standard Chartered will be very heavy.

It's just that Shen Bi is very familiar with the current situation at the Wellcome Supermarket. It is a bottomless pit. Even if HSBC and Standard Chartered enter the market, they will only lose money in it.

Although I am the chairman of the board of directors of HSBC, I know that this is a loss. If I still invest, I will definitely face the blame of HSBC shareholders.

The reason why Li Guangyu dared to play like this is that Hengyu Supermarket Group is solely owned by him, and Hutchison Whampoa is also controlled by several big families, so they can make their own decisions.

Shen Bi is just a manager, and HSBC is not owned by Shen Bi. Once he makes a decision that damages the interests of HSBC, the subsequent shareholders will definitely not let him continue to be the helm of HSBC.

Shen Bi said: "Keswick, I still need to discuss your proposal with the directors of the bank, so I can't give you an answer for now. But don't worry, I very much hope that you, Wellcome, can continue to operate. It will also persuade the members of the board of directors of our bank."

Henry Keswick's heart was very cold. When this matter was brought up to the board of directors of HSBC, he knew that it would basically fail.Knowing that Wellcome is a pit, how could directors like them be willing to jump off.

As long as the Li's consortium does not stop its discount sales activities, Wellcome will face the dilemma of no one to take over, and no one is willing to invest a large amount of funds in enterprises that cannot see benefits.

Henry Keswick said: "Shen Bi, you are also aware of the current situation. The Chinese capital family headed by the Li family is crowding out other forces, and the only ones who can resist them are our Jardine and Kadoorie families at the front." , so you HSBC and Standard Chartered can still be stable, they don’t have the energy to deal with you for the time being. Once we also fall, I’m afraid it will be you next.”

Shen Bi was also silent. What he was most worried about was this issue. Several major Chinese-funded banks had already started to cooperate.

He received the news last month that the Bank of East Asia, Hong Kong Asian Commercial Bank, Sun Hung Kai Bank and Wing Hang Bank, together with Hong Kong China Investment Company and Ho Investment Company, jointly undertook CITIC Group's 20 billion Hong Kong dollars. corporate bonds.

And this is obviously a combination of Chinese-funded banks, and Shen Bi knows how strong the combination of these big banks is.The Bank of East Asia has always been known as the No. [-] Bank of Hong Kong Huazi before, only under its own HSBC and Standard Chartered.

The Xiangjiang Asian Commercial Bank followed closely behind, and more importantly, this bank was backed by the Pangu Bank of Thailand, and its strength was extremely strong.

Although Wing Hang Bank ranks behind Hengfeng Bank, which is controlled by itself, the gap is limited.Although Sun Hung Kai Bank is newly built, Feng Jingxi is not a fuel-efficient lamp. In time, it will definitely be able to be on par with Bank of East Asia and Heung Kong Asian Commercial Bank.In addition to Tianyu Bank, which is not much worse than him, he doesn't think that he can gain an advantage by joining forces with HSBC and Standard Chartered.

Shen Bi now regrets his previous decision a little bit. If he hadn’t wanted to win over the Huazi family so that HSBC could suppress Standard Chartered Bank, the Huazi family didn’t have such strength, so he wouldn’t have to face such a big pressure now. up.

Shen Bi, I knew that what I did before was not wrong at the time, but I didn't expect such a freak like Li Guangyu to appear.Let his own plan be ruined, and now he has to give up his previous strategy and switch from the Huazi family back to the British consortium.

After Li Guangyu got the banking license, HSBC's advantage over the Chinese-owned family was completely lost.

If the ordinary Chinese got this license, it would not have much impact on him, but as the richest man in Xiangjiang, Li Guangyu was born in a wealthy family, with the support of the He family, Luo family, Cao family, etc. in Xiangjiang behind him, so that all the connections and business of these families were transferred. Arrived at Tianyu Bank.

Xiangjiang is such a big place, and many families are related by marriage, and most of Xiangjiang's industries are in the hands of these families. They all hope to maintain a close relationship with Li Guangyu. How can HSBC compete with Tianyu Bank.

Shen Bi was somewhat dissatisfied with MacLehose. He complained in his heart that the Hong Kong Financial Management Authority granted too many business licenses to Tianyu Bank, which made them unable to maintain their special status for HSBC and Standard Chartered, which led them to face such a predicament now. .

If MacLehose could impose more restrictions on Tianyu Bank, many customers on his side would not be lost.

Shen Bi said: "Keswick, I also know the current situation, but HSBC is not my decision alone, especially in the case of Wellcome Supermarket. You must know that our bank's investment depends on the return, and the return is low. We will not invest, let alone a loss-making enterprise, I must be responsible for the shareholders of the bank and our customers."

Henry Keswick was very disappointed by this. It seemed that he had to think about it carefully. Maybe Wellcome Supermarket really didn't need to continue to operate.

Although he is very reluctant to part with the Xiangjiang market, the situation cannot be controlled. Instead of struggling in the Xiangjiang market and facing the risk of no profit, it is better to withdraw from the Xiangjiang market and operate the Singapore and Australian markets.

Henry Keswick said: "Shen Bi, I will go back to Standard Chartered to visit George Lavin later to see what he thinks, and I hope you can think about it more. Now we are on the same boat, and we are in the same boat. If it falls, you HSBC will not have a good time."

After Shen Bi sent Henry Keswick away, he immediately ordered his assistant to inform the directors of HSBC to come to the conference room of the headquarters for a meeting at three o'clock in the afternoon.

It is necessary for Shen Bi to have a serious communication with them. Jardine cannot fail yet. He knows that if HSBC and Standard Chartered do not support it, Jardine will definitely learn from Swire and give up competing with the Li consortium and gradually withdraw from the Xiangjiang market.

……

(End of this chapter)