Video Game Empire

It took less than three years from Li Xuan's bid for the land in 1983 to the official completion of the Dongfang Building, which can definitely be regarded as a very fast pace. In contrast, HSBC's new headquarters building has been designed as early as 1976, and has been in construction since 1981, but it was put into use a week later than the Oriental Building.

Of course, this is also related to the relatively simple architectural structure of the Oriental Building. Unlike the HSBC Building, most of the components need to be prefabricated. In the future, the entire building can even be dismantled into modules and shipped away. Rebuild offsite.

Of course, Li Xuan offered a design fee of tens of millions of dollars and invited the world's most advanced architectural firm to participate in the bidding. Naturally, he did not want to obtain a mediocre building. And Dongfang Building has indeed met his requirements and has unforgettable strength.

The whole milky white building seems to be made up of seven huge boxes with different orientations superimposed. It is full of distinct post-modernism style, and it looks very abrupt in the central ring of high-rise buildings. (For the specific shape, refer to the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York)

The headquarters building of HSBC Bank, which is about to be put into use, has a total investment of 700 million US dollars and is known as the most expensive building in the world. The total construction cost of the Oriental Building is 300 million US dollars, but in fact it is not cheaper than the HSBC Building.

You must know that the area of ​​the Oriental Building is less than half of the HSBC Building, and its height is only two-thirds. It’s just that the Oriental Building is not as exaggerated as the HSBC Building, using 30,000 tons of steel and 4,500 tons of aluminum. Instead, a lot of money is spent on the intelligent transformation of the entire building.

Li Xuan's office is located in the dǐng building of the Oriental Building. Outside the glass curtain wall of the living room, it faces the invincible sea view of Victoria Harbour. Hong Kong in 1986. The Oriental Building, which is only 128 meters high, can already be called a skyscraper. And the future Hong Kong skyline. Those buildings that are three or four hundred meters in length have not even been seen yet!

Li Xuan received the first wave of guests on the first day of office in the new building. It was exactly what John Shi, the chairman of the Swire Group, introduced to him last night, the two guests who came all the way from London.

"Mr. Li, Standard Chartered has failed to make more than £1 million in profit for three consecutive quarters. This operating performance is undoubtedly a failure for a bank with total assets of over £40 billion!

And our Lloyds Bank's pre-tax earnings for the past three quarters have all been above £150 million. Although last year's final financial report data will be released for some time, the pre-tax profit for the whole year will definitely be more than 600 million pounds.

The management of Standard Chartered Bank is still unable to come up with new plans to improve profitability. We at Lloyds Bank are very willing to send the best management team. Come to assist Standard Chartered to improve the current inefficient business level!

What's more, the business layout of our Lloyds Bank is mainly based in the UK, which is just complementary to Standard Chartered Bank, which has a large number of networks overseas! The merger of the two banks can easily achieve a win-win situation.

Therefore, in my opinion, the acquisition of Standard Chartered by Lloyds Bank is a very promising solution for all shareholders of Standard Chartered! "The Brit who is trying to persuade Li Xuan to sell his stake in Standard Chartered is Mr. Smith, a director of Lloyds Bank.

Lloyds Bank is one of the UK's largest businesses with total assets exceeding £50 billion. There are more than 2,700 branches across the UK. It has just won the approval of the British Takeovers and Mergers Committee, allowing it to start a merger of Standard Chartered Bank.

As one of the main shareholders of Standard Chartered Bank, Li Xuan holds as much as 17.5% of Standard Chartered shares, and is naturally one of the objects that Lloyds Bank prioritizes to persuade. Looking at Li Xuan's somewhat noncommittal expression. Another man who flew to Hong Kong from London with Director Smith also spoke up.

"As far as we know, Mr. Li, although you are a director of Standard Chartered Bank, your position in the board of directors has been marginalized! If you agree to transfer the shares of Standard Chartered, we are willing to pay a high price in cash.

And if you want to keep holding those stocks. Then just choose to support our M&A actions. After the merger, Lloyds Bank is willing to exchange them for stock in the new combined company! And we're also committed to being on the new Lloyds Bank board. A director seat is reserved for you. All your suggestions for company development will be given priority! "The Englishman who then spoke up to persuade was a senior vice president of Lloyds Bank.

It's just that this vice president's promise like a lotus flower is almost like a fart in Li Xuan's opinion. Lloyds Bank's core business is the UK domestic market, and the purpose of its purchase of Standard Chartered is to make up for the shortcomings of its overseas business. In the board of directors of Standard Chartered, which pays more attention to overseas business, it is difficult for Li Xuan to promote his own proposal, let alone influence the decision-making of the senior management of Lloyds Bank!

The purpose of his previous acquisition of Standard Chartered shares was not for dividends. Therefore, the two executives of Lloyds Bank tried to persuade him with the reason for improving Standard Chartered's performance, which was not reliable at all. However, since the other party came to the door, Li Xuan did not hesitate to make an offer.

"Mr. Director and Mr. Vice President, they have traveled thousands of miles from London. I am very moved by their sincerity! But what I want to say is that Standard Chartered Bank has 2,000 business networks outside the UK, of which more than 100 One is located in Hong Kong.

The 5% of the network located in Hong Kong can contribute more than 50 million pounds of profits to the Standard Chartered Group every year! The profits that the Hong Kong market has continuously created for Standard Chartered have been used by the top bankers to cover losses elsewhere, which is very unfair to the Hong Kong economy.

As a Standard Chartered shareholder and a Hong Konger, I have been pushing for proposals on the Standard Chartered board. It is hoped that Standard Chartered Hong Kong Branch can be independently listed on the Hong Kong stock market, so that Standard Chartered Bank can better integrate into the economic development of Hong Kong!

If Lloyds Bank can support my request and agree to convert my current equity into the equity of the Hong Kong branch when I am listed on Standard Chartered in Hong Kong, then I can consider supporting your acquisition! "Li Xuan made his request with a smile.

Although Hong Kong's stock market and property market plummeted in the past two years, Standard Chartered Bank still achieved a very good level of profitability by relying on large-scale credit to Hong Kong's rapidly developing electronics industry.

Standard Chartered Hong Kong should be regarded as the entire Standard Chartered Group. One of the best performing branches. It is precisely because of this that the board of directors of Standard Chartered asked Li Xuan to list Hong Kong Standard Chartered independently. Has been ignored.

The annual profit of the Hong Kong Standard Chartered branch has reached one-sixteenth of the annual profit of Lloyds Bank. Against the backdrop of Standard Chartered Bank's overall weak earnings. It fully shows that Standard Chartered Hong Kong is one of the most high-quality assets in the entire group.

Li Xuan's ambition to take control of Standard Chartered's Hong Kong branch is already clear. The two representatives sent by Lloyds Bank naturally did not have the right to make promises directly on behalf of Lloyds Bank, so they had to leave Li Xuan temporarily.

And not long after Li Xuan sent the two guests away from the Oriental Building, Sir Goldstone's phone also came in. He invited Li Xuan to have lunch, and also conveyed to Li Xuan a notice from the headquarters of Standard Chartered Bank in London, hoping that he would rush to London in person to attend the special board of directors of Standard Chartered Bank to be held in a few days.

Large-scale mergers and acquisitions between companies. Usually, the acquirer communicates with the management of the acquired company first. If the acquired company's management can be persuaded to accept the merger proposal, then their chances of success will be greatly improved if they can help convince the acquired company's board of directors.

When the Oriental Group acquired a company that had never done ra, it used this method. Not long ago, Heung Kong Holdings' acquisition of Landmark Group was very simple and crude, and it forced mergers and acquisitions directly from the secondary market as soon as it came up. This is because the board of directors and senior management positions of Landmark have been firmly held by the major shareholder Jardine Group for many years, and there is no possibility of being persuaded.

However, in European and American capital markets, the major shareholders of many large companies are usually various investment funds. They don't have as much control over public companies. What's more important is the return on the stock. Therefore, as long as the asking price is appropriate, these major shareholders will not hesitate to transfer their shares.

Li Xuan did not expect that when Goldstone invited him to lunch, Sir Bernard, the CEO of Standard Chartered Bank, appeared with him. The other party should have just got off the plane, and his face still can't hide the tired look of the long journey.

"Li. You must have understood my intention. Lloyds Bank launched a hostile takeover of Standard Chartered! On behalf of the bank's management, I hope to gain the support of shareholders!" The o of Standard Chartered Bank. As soon as he came up, he said straight to the point.

At this critical moment of precariousness, Bonnet, the o, left London. Made a dozen vanishing planes to meet him in person. Li Xuan could guess that there must be a major change that he did not know about Standard Chartered Bank.

Standard Chartered executives are naturally reluctant. Standard Chartered was swallowed up by Lloyds Bank, especially when Standard Chartered was not doing well. Because once the two banks merge, the original Standard Chartered executives are likely to be directly abandoned.

No one wants to be swept out of the house when they are in power. Therefore, Li Xuan guessed that it is likely that some directors in the board of directors of Standard Chartered have made decisions that are not conducive to the management.

Guessing in this direction, Li Xuan quickly guessed it was close to ten. Li Xuan holds a 17.5% stake in Standard Chartered Bank, but is not Standard Chartered's largest shareholder. Standard Chartered's largest shareholder is a large pension fund with a 17.9% stake in Standard Chartered. Below Li Xuan, there are two institutional shareholders holding more than 5% of the shares.

The four shareholders, Standard Chartered, each have one executive director seat, while Standard Chartered Bank's management has another three executive director seats.

The only reason why Bonnet, the CEO, flew to Hong Kong so impatiently was that the largest shareholder of Standard Chartered Bank had decided to support Lloyds Bank's acquisition plan. Only in this case, Li Xuan will be extremely important. Because if he is also persuaded by Lloyds Bank first, then Lloyds Bank's shareholding will suddenly exceed 35%.

Standard Chartered's shareholding concentration is relatively high. And the reason for all this is the influence of Li Xuan, the butterfly. Because of his continuous increase in his holdings of Standard Chartered shares in the past few years, the executives of Standard Chartered are quite wary of him. In fact, the current largest shareholder of Standard Chartered, the original shareholding ratio was only 12.9%.

However, another institutional shareholder was planning to reduce its holdings of Standard Chartered by 5%, and Li Xuan immediately expressed his willingness to buy. However, the management of Standard Chartered did not want to see that the shares in Li Xuan's hands continued to rise. So they tried their best to persuade the large pension fund, which already owns 12.9% of the shares, to take over the deal in place of Li Xuan.

Standard Chartered Bank's earnings in the past two years have been very poor. Not only has the company's dividends dropped sharply, but its stock price has continued to slump. As a result, the family pension fund is now ready to take advantage of the Lloyds Bank M&A opportunity to resell Standard Chartered's stock at a high price. By the way, remove Standard Chartered, a company with an unsatisfactory return on investment, from your own investment portfolio!

"Lyth Bank's director Smith, as well as another senior vice president, also came to Hong Kong not long ago! Mr. Smith told me that Standard Chartered Bank's performance can only be reversed by fundamentally innovating its current inefficient governance model.

I don't know what you think of his opinion? After all, the operating performance of Standard Chartered in the past period is indeed very disappointing! I would like to know whether there is a new profit plan for the management of the company? "Li Xuan asked casually.

Bonnet's face changed, he didn't expect Lloyds Bank to move so quickly. Fortunately, he flew to Hong Kong immediately, otherwise if the person in front of him was also persuaded by the other party, then he would be gone.

"Lee, Lloyds Bank is a standard British bank and has no business in the Far East at all. If Standard Chartered is acquired by Lloyds, it will adjust its overseas operations with the local British operation method. Overseas business including Hong Kong will inevitably encounter difficulties. Major setback!

This is not only detrimental to all shareholders of Standard Chartered, but will also cause a lot of unnecessary trouble to Standard Chartered Bank's Asian customers ~www.readwn.com~! "Bonnat immediately began to articulate his objections.

"I agree with your point of view too!" Li Xuan nodded, but before Bonnet was happy, he immediately continued, "So I suggest that Director Smith, whether he can consider taking Standard Chartered Hong Kong from the The entire Standard Chartered Group was split and listed independently in Hong Kong, and the other party said that it could be considered!”

Bonnet's face immediately turned bad again. The business in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia has always been the most important core market in the entire Standard Chartered Group. He understands that Li Xuan is putting conditions on himself, and it is not the first time that Li Xuan has proposed the plan to separate and list Hong Kong Standard Chartered independently.

"As one of the two note-issuing banks in Hong Kong, Standard Chartered Bank is indeed not suitable to continue to develop in Hong Kong as a British bank in the context of Hong Kong's imminent separation from the United Kingdom. We will focus on considering the localization strategy of Standard Chartered Bank in Hong Kong. .And listing the Standard Chartered Hong Kong company independently on the Hong Kong stock market is undoubtedly a good solution!" Bonnet frowned and finally said.

Li Xuan smiled and said nothing. In this unfavorable situation, the old fox finally started to let go. But Li Xuan's purpose is not only to let Standard Chartered's Hong Kong branch be listed independently, but to fully control Standard Chartered, the second largest bank in Hong Kong. (To be continued..)