Started from Hong Kong Island

Chapter 301 299 [Another Fighting Scene]

Li Wendi is very active. Dasheng Real Estate Company has made a move on Yuanhe Newspaper. This may be an opportunity for Luckin Real Estate Company. It can take advantage of the fact that Dasheng Real Estate Company is too busy to pay attention to it and complete its acquisition plan of other companies.

So, Li Wendi called Zhang Yan and asked him to quickly select a company to be acquired and start the acquisition as soon as possible. He also told Zhang Yan the news that Dasheng Real Estate Company had taken action against Yuanhe Newspaper so that he would be aware of the situation.

Li Wendi will also provide some help to Yuanhe Newspaper. For example, Li Wendi suggested that Yuanhe Newspaper announce to the public that Changxin Real Estate Company will jointly acquire Baohe Investment Company with Yuanhe Newspaper and take advantage of the opportunity to raise the stock price.

The citizens of Hong Kong all know that Li Wendi, the boss of Changxin Real Estate Company, is a tough guy. Since he is going to take action against Baohe Investment Company, the stock price will definitely skyrocket. If they don’t take the opportunity to make a fortune, they would be fools.

On the day the news was announced, the share price of Baohe Investment Company soared from 0.8 yuan to 1.2 yuan, a staggering 50% increase.

Under the command of Ma Jincan, Dasheng Real Estate Company offered a purchase price of 1.4 yuan. Unfortunately, shareholders did not think this price was the peak and ignored the offer from Dasheng Real Estate Company.

Li Wendi felt that it was about time, so he called He Yongjian and asked him to start selling small quantities of stocks the next day and be careful not to leave any traces.

If Dasheng Real Estate Company finds out, it may cause the stock price to plummet, which will have a great impact on the established plan.

Why didn't Li Wendi manipulate the stock price and make it fluctuate to affect investors' mentality?
Because Dasheng Real Estate Company really wants to acquire Baohe Investment Company, it is easy for Dasheng Real Estate Company to take advantage of the low price to buy.

Li Wendi would never do anything to help the enemy.

The securities company hired by Dasheng Real Estate is HSBC's Huoduoli Company. This company is very experienced and has made many acquisitions, so it is quite sensitive to the stock market. Seeing a lot of scattered stocks appearing in the stock market, they became suspicious.

After investigation, they found out that the securities company hired by Yuanhe Newspaper was responsible, so they reported the news to Ma Jincan.

It is true that Ma Jincan is a business tycoon, but he does not know much about the stock market. He thinks this is a feint by Li Wendi. If they also start selling stocks and Li Wendi uses other accounts to absorb them, wouldn't his attack have failed?

Ma Jincan did not understand the essence of sniping, which is not about successful acquisition, but about successful profit.

Since Ma Jincan made the decision, the people at Huodoli Company stopped trying to persuade him, but instead did as Ma Jincan said and tried to collect as many scattered shares on the stock market as possible.

The news of Hutchison Whampoa's acquisition of Wheelock continued to ferment, and with the help of the Qinian Newspaper, it became even more rampant. The share price climbed to another level, 3.8 yuan per share, an increase of 1 yuan from when Li Wendi bought it, and this happened in just two days (from the day the acquisition was announced).

Shareholders who have witnessed the acquisition of Dairy Farm by Hong Kong Holdings and the counter-takeover by Wharf Holdings know that this is a great opportunity to make a lot of money, because they all believe that Hong Kong Holdings can successfully acquire Wheelock Holdings, and even if the acquisition fails, the stock price will soar.

As a result, the news of Hong Kong Land's acquisition of Wheelock became the top topic of discussion among Hong Kong citizens. Many Hong Kong economic commentators said that if the acquisition of Wheelock was successful, Jardine Matheson Group would surpass HSBC and become the number one corporate enterprise in Hong Kong.

Of course, Li Wendi was involved in this. He even did it in a covert way, bribing major newspapers (he didn't do it himself, but hired people to do it).

HSBC's boss Shen Bi was an ambitious man who was determined to surpass all the bosses before him and become the most outstanding boss in the history of HSBC. He wanted to be at the forefront even in the history of world banking.

Therefore, Shen Bi realized that these were remarks guided by someone with ulterior motives, but he still fell into the trap.

Although Hong Kong Land has lost Wharf Holdings, once it merges with Wheelock Holdings, the Jardine Matheson Group may potentially surpass the size of HSBC. If no action is taken now, once the acquisition is successful, Jardine Matheson Group will make big moves and it will be even more difficult for HSBC to contain it.

Shen Bi immediately convened a board meeting to discuss the matter with the directors. However, some British directors disagreed with Shen Bi's proposal because the British should be united and they wanted to resist the rise of the Chinese. They also accused Shen Bi of favoring Chinese-owned enterprises.
Shen Bi was very annoyed, but he did not lose his temper at the board meeting. Fortunately, a group of Chinese directors including Bao Yugang and Li Mingze supported Shen Bi, so the proposal was passed. This also made Shen Bi more subjectively inclined towards the Chinese.

Just as Li Wendi expected, HSBC Bank actually made things difficult for the land company only on the loan issue, causing the loan to be delayed in being approved.

This is a small trick and will not affect the huge acquisition of Hong Kong Land Development. After all, there are many powerful banks in Hong Kong, such as Standard Chartered Bank and Citibank.

Three days later, Hutchison Group announced that it was negotiating a merger with Wheelock and Company and the progress was going smoothly.

The fight between the two largest foreign companies for the fourth-ranked foreign company made things even more heated, and even the vegetable vendors were talking about it.

This also surprised Li Wendi. How come even Hutchison Group was involved? Wasn't Hutchison Group negotiating a merger with Huangpu Dockyard Company?
By taking on two big companies at once, isn't Willis afraid of bursting his stomach?
After thinking it over again and again, Li Wendi felt that there must be a push from HSBC. Otherwise, no matter how brave Welles was, he would not dare to take such a risk unless he got some promises from Shen Bi.

On the surface, there were four major foreign companies in Hong Kong, but in reality, Jardine Matheson had trampled on the remaining three major foreign companies, and Jardine Matheson remained in the first place. Even the second-ranked Hutchison Group had an asset value of less than 80% of the Jardine Matheson Group (in its heyday). HSBC was the largest shareholder of the Hutchison Group, and the asset value of the Hutchison Group was far less than that of the Jardine Matheson Group, so the merger of the Hutchison Group and Wheelock was acceptable to Shen Bi.

In Li Wendi's opinion, even with the support of HSBC, Hutchison Group is still a "troublemaker" and has no strength to merge with Wheelock Company because Whampoa Dock Company is more suitable for Hutchison Group.

With the participation of Hutchison Group and HSBC, Li Wendi felt very at ease. If neither of them could stop Hutchison Whampoa, he didn't think he could stop Hutchison Whampoa.

When two tigers fight, one of them will be injured. So, Bao Fuda of Hong Kong Land Development approached Stephen Simpson of HSBC to discuss the purpose of Hong Kong Land Development's acquisition of Wheelock and how it would not threaten HSBC's dominant position in Hong Kong. He hoped that Stephen Simpson could provide more loans to Hong Kong Land Development and at the same time let Hutchison Group withdraw its decision to merge with Wheelock.

It was naturally unlikely that Bao Fuda would gain Shen Bi's trust with his empty words. Although the negotiations did not end in a bad mood, they did not achieve their goal.

Hongkong Land Office

"Shen Bi has indeed become a stumbling block to our expansion. All our preparations have failed. What exactly do those Chinese want to do? What does the acquisition of Wheelock have to do with them? Why do they want to stop us?" Newby asked many questions.

Bao Fuda had been angry before, so he was able to calm down now and thought about why the Hong Kong Land Development had no supporters in this acquisition.

"Maybe these Chinese want to leave Wheelock to their own people. It is impossible to convince them now. Wheelock's A shares have risen to 4.2 yuan, and the funds we have are about to bottom out. If we want to continue, we must get loans from major banks." Bao Fuda believes that the problem to be solved now is how to advance or retreat, but he does not want the Hong Kong Land to experience another failure.

"What do you think? Should we continue?" Newby asked. He would be unwilling to cash out, but completing the acquisition would involve great risks.

Bao Fuda's fingers tapped on the table, making a particularly loud sound in the quiet office. After more than a dozen times, he replied, "This is a great opportunity for the Land Company. We simply cannot give up. I suggest that we get a bank loan immediately and buy shares from shareholders. We should also talk to Zhang Yuliang and John Madden of Jinxing Land Company. If we can get their shares, HSBC will not be able to stop us."

The chairman of Wheelock and Company is John Madden, and the operator is also John Madden, but the largest shareholder of Wheelock and Company is Zhang Yuliang, who holds more than 30% of the shares, while John Madden only holds 14%.

Zhang Yuliang's father was Zhang Zhushan, who started his business by selling western medicine and got involved in real estate in the late 50s. After 62, Zhang Yuliang took over the Zhang Zhushan family and used the funds of the family company to start building two buildings in Central, the Federal Building and the International Building. Later, he exchanged shares of the two buildings with the Federal Real Estate Company under the Madden family and became the controlling shareholder of the Federal Real Estate Company.

Between 70 and 72, the Zhang family exchanged part of its shares in Federal Realty and large properties in Central for shares in Wheelock Company. At its peak, it held more than 40% of Wheelock Company's shares.

Such a powerful family is very low-key, but many bigwigs in the business world know about the Zhang family's actions, but they tacitly don't say it out loud.

Now that the Hong Kong Land Development wants to acquire Wheelock Group, it is naturally impossible to bypass the Zhang family.

Li Wendi certainly knew all this, so he sent a number of reporters to keep an eye on John Madden, Zhang Yuliang, and Bao Fuda and Newbyjian of the Jardine Matheson Group.

After taking photos of these people's meeting, Li Wendi immediately hired people to sell the photos to major newspapers. His idea was simple: if one person did it, it would definitely bring hatred, so it would be better to let everyone do it, so as to confuse the public. Besides, the Qinian Newspaper Company did not lack this little sales volume.

As soon as the newsprint came out, Willis quickly went to contact the two people from Wheelock to discuss the merger.

In fact, the merger of the companies is very much in line with the interests of the Zhang family, but it does not coincide with the interests of the Madden family, so John Madden does not want to merge.

Because John Madden was a man who loved to show off. After the merger, Willis would naturally be the boss, and he could only be the second in command. How could he save face?

As for the acquisition of the Hong Kong Land Development, it was a cash-out. Coupled with the Madden family's distrust of the North, they left Hong Kong with a large amount of funds and could easily establish a new business empire in other countries.

John Madden did not believe what Willis said that "many of the companies are still managed independently by Mr. Madden". If that was the case, what would be the benefit of merging with Hutchison Group? Moreover, Willis was a domineering person and would not tolerate several listed companies being outside the control of the head office.

There are many reasons to take back management rights, so Madden is not interested in these prices.

After knowing the news, Li Wendi couldn't stop laughing. It turned out that being a oriole was so wonderful. There was a sense of satisfaction in controlling a big shot.

There is no need for Li Wendi to spread this information. The journalists in Hong Kong are professional, and many of them are keeping an eye on the top executives of these three companies. They all want to get first-hand news, or at least not lag behind their peers.

Then, the share price of Wheelock Land Development reached a peak, and the share price of Hutchison Group also rose significantly, making investors smile.

(End of this chapter)