We're building a super chaebol in Hong Kong

"Why doesn't Mr. Su come to our Jardine Matheson headquarters office to chat?" said Newbigging.

After listening, Su Cheng directly shook his head and said, "Mr. Newbigging should also know that my current situation is very special. I don't like showing my face in public. If I go to Jardine Matheson, I will definitely meet a lot of people, which is not my style."

"Then how about this, let's talk directly in Government House. I'll apply to the Governor to find an empty office in Government House to chat. I believe it won't be difficult to say this to the Governor," Newbigging said after thinking for a while.

Jardine Matheson's current situation is not good. After the failure in the Wharf battle, Jardine Matheson's overall operations have been affected. It even had to sell several properties at a loss to obtain a lot of funds to persevere until now.

The main reason was that Jardine Matheson and Yue-Kong Pao fought too fiercely at the beginning, basically to the point of disregarding costs.

Therefore, in this commercial war, Jardine Matheson lost too much money.

Bankruptcy is unlikely, but it will affect many of the group's established investment plans.

This seriously disrupted Jardine Matheson's development.

Don't look at Jardine Matheson's large business, but there are many places where money is needed.

Moreover, the loans they have borrowed from banks have already exceeded the limit, and it is impossible to borrow more.

Therefore, selling the Wharf's equity is currently Jardine Matheson's only solution to break the situation.

"Okay," Su Cheng nodded and agreed to Newbigging's idea.

Being able to talk in Government House would be the best.

Now, Su Cheng didn't think about going anywhere else.

If he left Government House, he would go straight home.

Seeing that Su Cheng agreed, Newbigging immediately walked into the Governor's office again to tell Murray MacLehose, who was still in the office, about this matter.

After a while, Newbigging came out again.

"I have agreed with the Governor. Later, a staff member will take us to a vacant office," Newbigging said to Su Cheng.

This matter itself was a trivial matter, and Murray MacLehose would naturally not refuse.

After a while, a female staff member walked over and took Su Cheng and Newbigging to an office not far from Murray MacLehose's office, and opened the door with a key.

"Gentlemen, what would you like to drink?" the female staff member asked.

"No, thank you," Su Cheng replied with a smile.

Since she knew what Newbigging wanted to talk to him about, it certainly wouldn't take too long, so he didn't need to trouble her.

"I don't need anything either," Newbigging said, seeing that Su Cheng didn't want anything to drink, he was naturally too embarrassed to drink anything.

"Okay, then I'll go out first. If you need anything, please call the front desk. I will be happy to serve you," the female staff member said, then went out and closed the door for them.

Su Cheng sat opposite Newbigging, watching the female staff member leave the office, and said with a smile, "Mr. Newbigging, what do you want to talk to me about?"

Although he knew what Newbigging was looking for him for, Su Cheng certainly wouldn't take the initiative to say it.

Otherwise, it would make Newbigging feel that he really wanted Wharf's shares, which would make it difficult to lower the price.

"Mr. Su, then I'll be frank. Our Jardine Matheson Group currently holds nearly 30% of Wharf's shares. I don't know if Mr. Su is interested. If you are, we can sell them to Mr. Su at a preferential price," Newbigging said directly, stating his purpose.

After hearing this, Su Cheng was not surprised, as this was originally expected.

"Wharf? Why don't you sell the shares to Mr. Pao? As Wharf's current major shareholder and the actual controller of Wharf, he should be willing to take over your shares, right?" Su Cheng said, pretending to be very surprised.

Newbigging said with a wry smile, "Mr. Su may not know, but Mr. Pao, like us, spent a great price to obtain so many Wharf shares. As far as I know, they also didn't have much working capital at the beginning, so they borrowed billions of dollars from HSBC Bank. Now, if Mr. Pao were to buy them, he would be powerless."

Of course, Su Cheng knew these things, but now, what he needed to do was pretend that he didn't know anything.

"Is that so? Then why did Mr. Newbigging think of finding me to buy Wharf's shares? Even if I acquire all the shares in your hands, I'll only be a second shareholder and won't be able to control Wharf. It wouldn't make much sense for me to buy your shares, right?" Su Cheng said seriously.

Su Cheng needed to make it seem like he had no interest in Wharf, so that he could take the initiative when negotiating the price and successfully acquire it.

"Looking at the current Hong Kong consortiums, there are not many people who can take over the Wharf shares in Jardine Matheson's hands. Mr. Su is one of them, especially since Mr. Su has made a lot of money in the oil business recently, so he must have enough funds. Therefore, I wanted to discuss with Mr. Su to see if he is interested in taking over our Wharf shares.

In fact, Wharf is a very high-quality group with a large amount of high-quality land. If it can be developed well, it will definitely be able to obtain a lot of profits. As the original controlling party of Wharf, we Jardine Matheson originally thought that no one would be able to take Wharf from us. What we didn't expect was that so many people had already been eyeing Wharf.

In the beginning, including Mr. Su, Mr. Li of Cheung Kong Holdings, and Mr. Pao, had already taken so many Wharf shares, but we were still full of confidence. To be honest, we didn't lose unfairly in this battle.

We actually wanted to continue holding Wharf's shares, but Mr. Su should also understand our current situation. We urgently need funds to alleviate our operating pressure, so selling Wharf's shares is our only option.

If Mr. Su takes over these shares, although he can only be the second shareholder, he may have the opportunity to take the opportunity to become Wharf's major shareholder in the future! That's how companies are. Not everything is set in stone. Just like before, who would have thought that Wharf would be taken away from Jardine Matheson's control?"

Newbigging said a lot, and finally even tempted Su Cheng to find an opportunity to compete for the controlling stake in Wharf.

For him, if Su Cheng and Yue-Kong Pao eventually engaged in a battle, that would be the best thing.

Yue-Kong Pao caused Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land to suffer heavy losses. As the taipan of Jardine Matheson, Newbigging naturally hoped that Yue-Kong Pao would also suffer such an ending. At that time, he, as an onlooker, would be watching the fun from the sidelines. What a wonderful thing that would be!

"Sounds like a good idea," Su Cheng said with a smile.

"Of course, controlling Wharf is equivalent to controlling Hong Kong's most important cargo handling and warehousing business. Wharf is a very high-quality listed company. Owning its shares is definitely a very worthwhile thing!" Newbigging said directly.