In Hong Kong, we build a global business empire

Chapter 113 Targeting from British Shareholders

Xiangjiang, Mongkok, Mount Kadoorie villa area.

The buildings on Mount Kellett are mainly mansions. The western part is the location of the Diocesan Boys' School, while the foot of the southeast end is the headquarters of China Light and Power Company founded by the Kadoorie family.

The streets of Mount Kellett are surrounded by lush trees, making them particularly quiet and charming.

This place carries more than half a century of memories and stories, and every place exudes a strong historical atmosphere. Most of the people living here are British expatriates and their descendants.

Among them, Halil Centurion, the former chairman of the board of directors of Qingzhou Cement Company, lived in a villa in the Kedoori Hill villa area.

At this moment, in the backyard of Halil Centurion's villa, many men with foreign faces gathered.

If Lin Haoran happened to be here, he would be surprised to find that the five British shareholders of Qingzhou Yingni Company, who were rarely seen on weekdays, were gathered together at this moment and appeared in the backyard of Halil Centurion's villa.

Since Lin Haoran took over the position of chairman of Qingzhou Yingni Company, these British shareholders often get together to discuss.

The more they discussed, the more pessimistic they became about this young Chinese man taking over the Qingzhou Yingni Company.

What they could not stand the most was that after Lin Haoran took office, except for a few days of increase in the stock price of Qingzhou Yingni Company at the beginning, the stock price fell rapidly afterwards. Now, it has even fallen to a low of HK$3.4 per share.

The drop in the share price of Qingzhou Yingni Company made them bleed.

Invisibly, this makes them want to withdraw from the big pit of Qingzhou Yingni Company as soon as possible, but it is obvious that they are unwilling to sell it at the current stock price!
They decided to keep the stocks, as they felt that there was no hope for the future of Qingzhou Yingni. They simply did not believe that a young man in his twenties could manage Qingzhou Yingni well.

Before this, when Qingzhou Yingni Company was managed by Halil Centurion, there was at least some dividends every year. Apart from that, Halil Centurion would secretly take care of them one by one.

This dividend plus the money from the management allowed them to live comfortably with the shares of Qingzhou Yingni Company.

But now, the controlling shareholder of Qingzhou Yingni Company has changed, and it is a young Chinese. How can they believe in Lin Haoran’s management ability?
Later they learned that Lin Haoran hardly ever went to Qingzhou Yingni Company throughout November, which means that after obtaining the controlling rights, he was too lazy to manage it.

Faced with such a controlling shareholder, they have even less confidence.

Therefore, the five of them often gathered together to discuss how to deal with it.

Finally, they unanimously decided to sell off the shareholders of Qingzhou Yingni Company as soon as possible. Otherwise, when the company's annual report came out in the future, they would most likely be faced with a Qingzhou Yingni Company that was suffering from serious losses.

If this is the case, not only will their shares not receive dividends, but they will become less and less valuable!

However, you cannot sell at the current market price.

So, after discussing, they decided to find Halil Centurion, the old leader of Qingzhou Yingni Company, hoping to get some solutions from him.

After understanding the needs of these former colleagues, Halil Centurion said with a wry smile: "Everyone, I no longer have any relationship with Qingzhou Yingni Company. I am not afraid to tell you that I have already sold all the assets in Xiangjiang.

Currently, everything that needs to be sold has been consigned. Even the villa we are standing in has been put up for sale at the second-hand trading store of Hong Kong Land Development. At the earliest, by the end of this month, I will say goodbye to Hong Kong and return to my hometown. It is useless for you to look for me!"

In fact, Halil Centurion really didn't want to touch anything related to Qingzhou Yingni Company, because he knew that Lin Haoran had the leverage over him. Now he just wanted to stay away from Lin Haoran and didn't want to see him for a moment.

"Mr. Halil, since we are all British, please think of a solution for us. You are a senior in the business world and your business is bigger than ours. You must have a solution."

"Yes, if there was no other way, we wouldn't have found you together."

"We have worked together for so many years, and we can be considered old friends. Please help us for our old friendship!"

……

The five shareholders of Qingzhou Yingni spoke one after another. They knew that there must be a way to deal with Khalil Centurion's treacherous character.

Halil Centurion looked at this scene with a wry smile, he really didn't want to care, but it was not a solution if these people kept pestering him.

In fact, these shareholders have been calling him every day, but he always says there is nothing he can do.

What I didn’t expect was that these people actually united today and came to visit in person.

Considering that they have been together for so many years, he couldn't possibly turn anyone away, so this scene happened in the backyard of the villa.

"It's not that there is no way, but I need you to agree to one condition. As long as you agree and swear on the Bible that you will never tell anyone what happened today, I will tell you my way!" There was really no other way, so Halil Centurion could only say this. The British basically believe in Christianity, and the Bible has a great power among the British, so there is nothing better than swearing on the Bible to make them keep their oath.

Five of us, you looked at me and I looked at you, as if we were communicating with our eyes.

They really don't want to do this, after all, to them, this is no joke.

"If you don't agree, I'm sorry I can't say too much to you. This matter has nothing to do with me. To be honest, I don't want to get into this trouble. I just want to leave Hong Kong as soon as possible and return to my hometown to enjoy my old age!" Halil Centurion told the truth.

At this time, a shareholder said, "Mr. Halil, I am willing to swear!"

With the first one, there will be a second and a third.

Next, all five agreed to Halil Centurion's oath conditions.

After all, it was not difficult for them to just not tell others that it was Khalil Centurion who said it.

So Khalil Centurion found a Bible at home and made them swear an oath one by one.

Only after everyone swore an oath did Khalil Centurion feel relieved.

"Your goal is nothing more than hoping that the share price of Qingzhou Yingni will not be too low so that you can sell it. My method is actually very simple. When Lin Haoran took over the position of chairman of Qingzhou Yingni, he personally held 40.1% of the company's shares. Later, his father Lin Wanan also purchased 12.6% of the shares from me.

This means that the Qingzhou Yingni shares actually controlled by the Lin family have exceeded the 50% threshold. According to the crucial principle of "fair treatment of all shareholders" in the Takeover and Merger Code, once the shareholding exceeds half, there is a legal basis for the full privatization and acquisition of the company.

At this moment, if you can unite and lodge a formal complaint with the Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Office, I believe that Mr. Max, Hong Kong Securities Commissioner and Chairman of the Takeovers and Mergers Committee, will be able to seek justice for you with his impartiality.

By then, even if Mr. Lin Haoran has no intention to privatize Qingzhou Yingni, the situation will force him to consider this path.

Once Mr. Lin Haoran takes the initiative to negotiate with you about the sale of shares, the room for negotiation on the share price will naturally open up, which will be a more favorable situation for everyone." Khalil Centurion said with a smile.

Listed companies have clear acquisition trigger points, namely, once any individual or entity holds more than 50% of its shares, a full acquisition obligation will be triggered. This is intended to comply with the core principle of "fairness to all shareholders" in the Takeover and Merger Code. Any behavior that ignores this provision may face public condemnation or even more severe legal consequences.

In fact, Khalil Centurion's strategy was somewhat subtle and strategic.

Given the special attitude of the Governor's government agencies towards British capital, Khalil Centurion was well aware that these agencies would inevitably have a bias towards the British when dealing with similar disputes.

Therefore, when shareholders unite to protest to the Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Office, they are likely to receive some form of official response or attention.

The most likely scenario is that under the supervision and pressure of the Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Office, Lin Haoran will have to announce the privatization acquisition of Qingzhou Yingni.

This move will definitely help the company's stock price to recover, or at least get rid of the current depressed market share price of Qingzhou Yingni Company.

As for violating the principle of "fair treatment of all shareholders" in the Takeovers and Mergers Code, the consequences can be minor or serious, but are often not to be ignored.

In order to avoid the company being secretly acquired and maintain its identity as a listed company, many family businesses choose to hold shares in a dispersed manner rather than concentrating them in the hands of one person. This ensures control while reducing the risk of triggering a full acquisition.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, although such violations occur occasionally, most of the time they fail to attract widespread attention or lead to actual action.

Take Wan'an Group for example. Although Lin Wan'an personally controls 49.99% of the shares, his mother holds another 10%. The two together do exceed the 50% controlling stake.

From the sole perspective of personal holding, Lin Wanan did not directly touch the trigger point of a full acquisition. In addition, the outside world did not take any special action against Wanan Group. As long as no one pursued it, such a shareholding structure would not cause any problems.

However, what Halil Centurion and these shareholders did not know was that Lin Haoran had actually long intended to fully privatize Qingzhou Yingni.

This means that even if they tried to use the provisions in the Takeovers and Mergers Code to put pressure on Lin Haoran, it would actually be futile because Lin Haoran's privatization plan had already been in the works.

They planned to put pressure on Lin Haoran to proactively announce the privatization of Qingzhou Yingni in order to boost the share price and realize asset appreciation.

However, the ultimate effectiveness of this strategy depends entirely on how Lin Haoran responds.

In their opinion, whether it is the young and energetic Lin Haoran or the cautious Lin Wanan, faced with such a dilemma, they may find it difficult to quickly find an effective response strategy.

But it is precisely this uncertainty that makes them somewhat optimistic about the final outcome. They believe that as long as the pressure is applied properly, the rise in Qingzhou Yingni's stock price is almost a foregone conclusion, and asset appreciation will naturally come to fruition. At that time, they will not have to sell Qingzhou Yingni's shares at a loss.

(End of this chapter)