In Hong Kong, we build a global business empire

Chapter 121 The controversy ends
After the shareholders' meeting, as expected, Henry and eight other shareholders began to get busy with Lin Haoran's affairs.

They first went to see the Chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, Mr. Mai, and jointly wrote a statement on the situation.

Then, the five British shareholders took more drastic actions. They directly contacted several influential media reporters, frankly accepted interviews and stated that they reported Lin Haoran solely to force him to consider privatizing the company.

According to them, after internal discussions, Lin Haoran has finally become interested in privatization.

In order to sell their shares, these five British shareholders did not care about the possible negative reputation.

They believe that the vast majority of those who have been cheated are Chinese stock investors, and that their British identity seems to make them feel superior.

What's more, their report was indeed well-founded, because at that time Lin Haoran actually held more than 50% of the shares, and by a lot.

Because of this, even if they publicly admitted that they reported the incident in order to force Lin Haoran, the law could not do anything to them.

Originally, after interviewing Max, these reporters planned to contact the five British shareholders for interviews, because they were actually the instigators of the whole incident.

However, their previous attempts had failed to elicit a response.

Unexpectedly, this time the five shareholders took the initiative to unite and accept interviews.

This matter began to ferment again, causing heated discussions among many citizens.

Lin Haoran was reading the newspapers and articles at home and was very satisfied.

Sure enough, these foreigners were really helpful. They said they would help him solve the problem and took action immediately.

"Hao'er, your concerns are reasonable. If you are not careful, you may be judged by the China Securities Regulatory Commission as manipulating the stock market. In serious cases, you may even go to jail. But now that they have come forward to explain the situation, it is equivalent to completely clearing you of any connection. This matter has nothing to do with you from beginning to end. You have been very cautious this time. I am relieved to hand over Wan'an Group to you!"

Lin Wanan was enjoying breakfast with his son and reading the newspaper, and couldn't help but praise Lin Haoran.

"After all, this was all an accident. I didn't expect these people to report me." Lin Haoran said with emotion.

Although the market value of Qingzhou Cement Company exceeds 200 million, it is not very prominent among British-owned enterprises and cannot be compared with top British-owned companies such as Jardine Matheson, Swire, and Wheelock, so it rarely receives attention.

If it weren't for the shareholders' report this time, the CSRC might not have paid any attention to the matter at all.

The securities laws of that era were not perfect enough, otherwise there would not be four stock exchanges coexisting in a small place like Hong Kong.

The privatization trigger point, a merger and acquisition rule, is often just a decoration in normal times.

In order to prevent their own businesses from being forcibly acquired by other large conglomerates, it is not uncommon for many listed family-owned businesses to privately hold more than 50% of the shares.

Before the mid-1970s, Hong Kong's securities and commodity markets were even unregulated.

It was not until the stock market crash of 1973-1974 that the government began to intervene and subsequently enacted core legislation to regulate the securities and futures industry.

However, due to the short time, today's laws are still very imperfect, and many systems are hastily borrowed from Western securities laws.

"Hao'er, are you really planning to privatize Qingzhou Yingni Company?" Lin Wanan asked still in disbelief.

He was very surprised that his son could become the controlling shareholder of Qingzhou Yingni Company.

Later, his son continued to increase his holdings of stocks, and at one point his holdings exceeded 50%. Lin Wanan simply believed that his son was doing this to prevent others from targeting Qingzhou Yingni Company again.

Because he had learned that Qingzhou Yingni Company had previously been targeted by Cheung Kong Holdings.

Even Lin Wanan found it unbelievable that the company could successfully win the controlling stake in Qingzhou Cement Company from a large Chinese company like Cheung Kong Holdings.

"Of course, if there is an opportunity, I will definitely privatize the Ching Chau Cement Company. You see, Uncle Kwok of the Kerry Group had to join forces with other companies to bid for several plots of land in Tsim Sha Tsui East, which cost a lot.

You can imagine how high the land price is over there! And the location of Qingzhou Yingni Company is not far from the land they bought. Therefore, the value of this land is also very high.

Although it is industrial land, it is in such a core location that it is no longer suitable for industrial use, and has greatly affected the appearance of Hong Kong.

In addition, Qingzhou Yingni Company has often received complaints from citizens, and the relocation of the cement plant is imminent. As long as I pay the land price and apply to the government to convert it into commercial land, they will be happy to do so! "Lin Haoran explained with a smile.

"If you really have the ability, I will naturally support you. This is a good thing. But if you lack funds, don't force it. Although loans can solve temporary economic problems, when the time comes to repay, if you don't have enough funds to repay the money, then everything will be in vain." Lin Wan'an's character is still so cautious.

"Don't worry, Dad. I will do what I am sure of." Lin Haoran said with a smile without explaining too much on this issue.

He still had a lot of things he was hiding from Lin Wanan.

When it is time to know these things, let Lin Wanan know them naturally.

Because some things are really hard for him to explain. If Lin Wanan knew that Lin Haoran had directly borrowed more than 3 million yuan from Yumin Financial Company, he would probably regret giving the inheritance rights of Wanan Group to Lin Haoran.

"Beep, beep." A series of beeping sounds were heard. It was Lin Haoran's pager ringing.

"Dad, I'm going to make a phone call." Lin Haoran put down the newspaper and said to Lin Wanan.

"Well, go ahead." Lin Wanan waved his hand and continued reading the news.

The call was from Burton, the general manager of Qingzhou Yingni Company.

"Boss, a lot of reporters came to our company and they all want to interview you. No matter how much we persuade them, they won't leave." Burton's tone was obviously helpless.

Lin Haoran naturally guessed why these reporters were looking for him, because today's newspapers reported the statements of the five British people.

"Tell them I'll be there in half an hour!" Lin Haoran responded.

After hanging up the phone and saying goodbye to his parents, Lin Haoran hurriedly took a bus to Hung Hom.

This was exactly what he wanted, he needed to use these interviews with reporters to respond to this matter again.

Half an hour later, the car parked at the dedicated parking space of Qingzhou Building as scheduled.

Lin Haoran's arrival quickly attracted the attention of reporters who had been waiting for a long time.

Suddenly, dozens of people swarmed to Lin Haoran, vying to interview him.

"Everyone, what do you want to know from me?" He simply accepted the interview on the spot.

However, there were too many people at the scene, and everyone raised their hands to ask questions, causing a lot of noise.

Lin Haoran then said: "Whoever I point at can ask questions. I can't reply if you do this."

At this moment, the scene gradually quieted down.

Lin Haoran first pointed to the reporter from Oriental Daily.

"Mr. Lin, I would like to ask, do you really plan to privatize Qingzhou Yingni Company?" The reporter immediately asked this key question, which is also the answer that many reporters want to know most.

“I originally had no recent plan, but yesterday, all the board shareholders of Qingzhou Yingni Company invited me to discuss, hoping that I could buy their shares at an extremely low price.

The stock selling price they offered did attract me, and if I had the chance, I think I would take over these shares, because the stock price they offered in order to sell the shares was very sincere, and even made me want to take over their shares at all costs.

However, I have already announced publicly that I have no plans to privatize the company for the time being. If I acquire it now, it means that my shares will exceed 50% again, and there will also be suspicion of manipulating the stock market.

Therefore, in order to get rid of suspicion, if the China Securities Regulatory Commission does not agree to my delisting and privatization of Qingzhou Yingni Company, I will not take this step. Please believe me, shareholders, the reason why I sold part of my shares before was completely out of helplessness!" Lin Haoran answered directly.

He deliberately passed this issue to the CSRC. Now that the matter has become so serious, the CSRC will definitely respond to it. If the CSRC says that there is no problem with the privatization procedure, he can naturally take the next step.

"A reporter from Ming Pao asked: Mr. Lin, what do you think of the British people's reporting behavior?"

"I don't have much to say about this. After all, they have caught me. In fact, I prefer to keep a low profile."

"A reporter from Sing Tao Daily asked: Mr. Lin, if you want to privatize, where will your funds come from?"

"Of course I don't have that much money. If I really have this opportunity, I can only take out a loan."

After answering a few questions, Lin Haoran left under the protection of his bodyguards, quickly ending the interview.

The reporters also knew what they wanted to know most, so they did not force Lin Haoran to stay.

Afterwards, these reporters swarmed to move their base again and headed to the CSRC office building to interview Mai Si.

After learning about the situation, Mai Si did not rush to answer.

Although he is the chairman of the CSRC, these decisions need to be made through meetings and cannot be made by him alone.

Therefore, Mai Si directly told the reporters: "We need to hold a consultative meeting. After the meeting, our Securities Regulatory Office will issue a response announcement to the public."

Two hours later, the Hong Kong Securities and Commodity Exchange Commissioner's Office issued an announcement in response to the incident: "Mr. Lin Haoran can make a privatization decision on Qingzhou Cement Company under legal and compliant conditions. In order to be responsible to all shareholders, the privatization price shall not be less than HK$4 per share!"

The meeting of the CSRC has given a characterization to this controversial incident.

(End of this chapter)