In Hong Kong, we build a global business empire

Chapter 163: The news spreads, and the bosses react

Before six o'clock in the evening, more than a dozen reporters from Hong Kong's mainstream media arrived at the headquarters of Hong Kong Electric Group.

The Hong Kong Electric Group is a British giant that is known to everyone in Hong Kong. Its market capitalization ranks among the top ten among listed British companies.

Therefore, these media reporters were naturally very considerate and every one of them arrived on time.

"Oriental Daily News", "South China Morning Post", "Overseas Chinese Daily", "Sing Tao Daily", TVB, ATV, Broadcasting Corporation of Hong Kong, etc., these are the most famous media organizations in Hong Kong.

At six o'clock, Chen Shoulin, on behalf of the Hong Kong Electric Group, officially announced all the decisions of the board meeting, which immediately shocked all the reporters present.

In front of reporters, Chen Shoulin solemnly announced the fact that Mr. Lin Haoran already held 49.9% of the shares of Hong Kong Electric Group. This move undoubtedly sent a clear signal to those forces that coveted the interests of Hong Kong Electric Group, such as Hong Kong Land Group, Cheung Kong Group, Carrian Group, etc., and effectively curbed potential ambitions and competition.

Lin Haoran’s role as the chairman of Hong Kong Electric Group is completely different from Chen Shoulin’s role as the chairman of Hong Kong Electric Group.

Even though Chen Shoulin is the chairman of the Hong Kong Electric Group, he is just a professional manager. To put it bluntly, he is just a senior employee of the Hong Kong Electric Group. If he does not perform well, he will be a scapegoat and is at risk of being stepped down at any time. Many decisions need to be voted on and approved by the board of directors before they can be implemented.

The chairman, Lin Haoran, owns almost half of the group's shares. He is the real boss and has the greatest say in the Hong Kong Electric Group. If he wants, he can even have the final say. Even the board of directors is just a decoration in front of him. Even if he runs the company at a loss, others can't do anything to him. This is the power of corporate control.

After the announcement, the reporters seemed to have countless questions in their minds that they wanted to ask Lin Haoran.

However, he only selected a few questions and answered them briefly before hurriedly leaving the scene. Otherwise, the reporters would have too many questions and he would not be able to answer them all even after several hours, and there were many questions he did not want to answer.

Everyone is familiar with Lin Haoran, the suddenly rising young Chinese entrepreneur.

The previous acquisition of Qingzhou Yingni Company caused a lot of controversy.

Later, the company was reported by British shareholders and had to privatize Qingzhou Yingni Company.

How long has it been since then? Have you acquired another British company?
And, most importantly, Ching Chau Cement Company cannot be compared with the Hong Kong Electric Group at all.

The difference between the two is many times just in terms of market value.

If Ching Chau Cement Company is just a medium-to-large-sized British-owned listed company, then Hong Kong Electric Group is a top-level British-owned listed company. There is an insurmountable gap between the two.

What the reporters are most curious about is where Lin Haoran's funds come from?

It is understandable to acquire Qingzhou Cement Company or even privatize it, as the funds involved are only 200 to 300 million Hong Kong dollars.

But according to the current market value, the Hong Kong Electric Group is a giant with a total market value of more than 49.9 billion. To acquire % of the shares, according to the current share price, it would cost at least billion Hong Kong dollars!
However, Lin Haoran did not answer this question and remained mysterious. Except for Su Zhixue, the president of Citibank's Hong Kong branch, no one in Hong Kong knew that he had made huge amounts of money from gold futures.

Anyway, his funding source is legitimate, so he is not afraid of being investigated.

After the interview, although the newspapers would not report it until at least tomorrow morning and the TV station would need some time to organize the materials, the Hong Kong Broadcasting Station quickly leaked the matter.

“Interrupting urgent news, just now, the Hong Kong Electric Group officially announced a major personnel change. Mr. Lam Ho Yin, the new chairman of Ching Chau Cement Company, has officially taken over the position of chairman of the Hong Kong Electric Group. He also announced that he and the parties he represents hold up to 49.9% of the shares of the Hong Kong Electric Group.

This change marks that since the change of control of Wharf Holdings, another historic British giant company has welcomed a Chinese entrepreneur to take the helm. At the subsequent press conference, Mr. Lam Ho-yan demonstrated his leadership style that combines foresight and humility.

He made it clear that he would fully support and respect the hard work and outstanding contributions of the former chairman, Mr. Chen Shoulin, over the years. He also announced that Mr. Chen Shoulin would take up a new role - executive director and general manager, and continue to contribute to the future development of the HK Electric Group.

Mr. Lin Haoran emphasized that this change is aimed at further promoting the integration of the internationalization and localization of the Hong Kong Electric Group and jointly creating a more brilliant future..."

At this moment, the news broadcast by Hong Kong Radio Station spread throughout Hong Kong through car radios, home radios and other channels.

At this moment, it was dinner time for the citizens, and this news instantly caused widespread heated discussion among everyone.

Although the Hong Kong Electric Group is not as big as giants such as Hutchison Whampoa and Jardine Matheson Group, it is only slightly inferior. It is also a British company that has entered the top giants in Hong Kong.

But now, this giant was acquired by Lin Haoran quietly?

Previously, when Lin Haoran acquired Qingzhou Yingni Company, the matter had already caused a lot of controversy. It was the first British listed company to be acquired by Chinese capital.

At that time, everyone felt that he was too young and was not optimistic about the prospects of Qingzhou Yingni Company after he took over, so the stock price plummeted and not many people dared to continue holding shares in Qingzhou Yingni Company.

But not long after that, it acquired another larger British company and held a 49.9% stake.

How can such a person have poor abilities?
If the acquisition of Ching Chau Cement Company was probably due to luck in obtaining a huge amount of funds or the support of elders, then the acquisition of Hong Kong Electric Group was definitely not a matter of luck.

Moreover, the reporters had already investigated Lin Haoran's background at the time. His father was just the boss of an ordinary listed company and could provide very limited help to Lin Haoran.

At this moment, everyone's view of Lin Haoran began to change completely.

Being young does not necessarily mean that one has poor ability to run a business.

When the news of the acquisition of Hong Kong Electric Group caused widespread discussion among Hong Kong citizens, some of the city's business giants, such as Bao Yugang, Shen Bi, Niu Bijian, Bao Fuda and Li Jiacheng, had already learned of this shocking news to the industry when the Hong Kong Electric Group press conference was held through their intelligence network throughout the Hong Kong business community.

With their deep industry background and extensive personal connections, these bigwigs are always able to grasp clues to market trends and major events earlier than ordinary people.

In Bao Yugang's personal office at Prince's Building, the headquarters of Global Shipping Group, Bao Yugang put down the phone, his expression full of surprise.

"This nephew Lin is really extraordinary!" Bao Yugang said to himself with some emotion. In order to take over the Wharf Group, he went through untold hardships and paid billions for it. In the end, he drove the Hong Kong Land Group out of Wharf and took control of Wharf.

Everyone knows that although Bao Yugang won the battle to increase the purchase of Hutchison Whampoa, it can only be described as a miserable victory.

After the stock market reopened, the share price of Hutchison Whampoa began to decline with the end of this battle. On every stock market trading day, the share price of Hutchison Whampoa was falling. The more it fell, the greater Bao Yugang's book loss.

Although Bao Yugang had been mentally prepared for this early on, in order to successfully transfer assets from the sea to land, initial losses were inevitable, but losses were still losses after all.

As for Lin Haoran's acquisition of Hong Kong Electric Group, there was no setbacks at all before the successful acquisition. It can even be described as a silent acquisition. This situation often means that the acquisition cost is not high because there are no competitors.

At this moment, the two events of Bao Yugang's acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa and Lin Haoran's acquisition of Hong Kong Electric Group seemed to form a huge contrast.

If it is said that Bao Yugang had always regarded Lin Haoran as a junior in the business world before, then from this moment on, Lin Haoran's status was enough to be on par with Bao Yugang and stand at the top of Hong Kong's business world.

"It seems that the younger generation of the Bao family will have to deal properly with this nephew Lin in the future!"

……

Li Jiacheng was sitting in his office at the Bank of China Building. He couldn't help but frown when he received the news.

Did Lin Haoran acquire Hong Kong Electric Group?
This news was really beyond his expectations.

His previous dealings with Lin Haoran were because of the Qingzhou Cement Company. At that time, he had just received a huge sum of money from Hutchison Whampoa, so he set his sights on the Qingzhou Cement Company and wanted to acquire this high-quality British-funded enterprise.

Unexpectedly, this enterprise was actually planned in advance by an unknown young man, who even persuaded Bao Yugang to persuade him to give up the acquisition of Qingzhou Yingni Company.

When doing business, Li Jiacheng always adheres to the principle of harmony and does not easily offend other bigwigs. This is also one of the biggest reasons why he has such a wide network of contacts.

In order to give face to Bao Yugang, and considering that Lin Haoran already had an innate advantage at the time and he was not sure whether he could win, Li Jiacheng had no choice but to give up the acquisition of Qingzhou Yingni Company and instead focus on discussing with Shen Bi about taking over Hutchison Whampoa.

Just last September, after much hard work and many private negotiations with Stephen Sham, Li Ka-shing finally reached a consensus with Bank of Hong Kong and successfully acquired the shares of Hutchison Whampoa Group held by Bank of Hong Kong, thus becoming the major shareholder of Hutchison Whampoa.

However, the status of a major shareholder alone is not enough to fully control Hutchison Whampoa. In addition, Hutchison's business areas are completely unfamiliar to Li Ka-shing. If the management is replaced rashly, it may have an adverse impact on Hutchison.

In view of this, in order to ensure a smooth transition and takeover of Hutchison Whampoa, Li Ka-shing adopted a cautious strategy.

On the surface, he maintained harmonious relations with Hutchison Whampoa's senior management and avoided direct conflicts, but privately he gradually arranged for his team to integrate into Hutchison Whampoa's management system, allowing them to gradually adapt to and take control of various affairs.

At the same time, he continued to secretly increase his holdings in Hutchison Whampoa, waiting for the right time.

When Li Ka-shing believes that he holds enough shares, he will remove the current chairman of Hutchison Whampoa through legal means and take over the position himself, thus achieving full control of Hutchison Whampoa.

Therefore, before completely controlling Hutchison Whampoa, his main task was to familiarize himself with Hutchison Whampoa's business and continue to acquire Hutchison Whampoa shares. As for other things, he had no time to take care of them.

Li Ka-shing has long wanted to cooperate with the Hong Kong Electric Group and even had the ambition to take it into his pocket.

With its abundant high-quality land resources and stable main business income, HK Electric Group is like a continuously increasing value bank, bringing considerable cash flow to shareholders every year.

However, before he completely controlled Hutchison Whampoa, he could not withdraw his funds for other purposes, so his plan was to first cooperate with the Hong Kong Electric Group and then slowly find ways to erode this high-quality British bank.

What he didn’t expect was that before the cooperation started, the Hong Kong Electric Group was acquired, and it was acquired by a former young rival of his?
Li Ka-shing has great ambitions. The acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa Group is just one of his goals. He had already planned to take over Hutchison Whampoa completely and then began to plan for the Hong Kong Electric Group. But now it seems that all plans are in vain as the Hong Kong Electric Group has been acquired by others in advance.

Lin Haoran's 49.9% controlling stake in Hong Kong Electric Group has put an end to Li Ka-shing's ambitions for Hong Kong Electric Group.

"It is true that each generation is stronger than the previous one. Mr. Lin is no simple man!" Li Ka-shing sighed. It is a pity after all to miss out on the Hong Kong Electric Group.

……

In the Jardine Matheson Headquarters Building not far from the Bank of China Building, Niu Bijian was sitting side by side with Bao Fuda, and they both received the news at the fastest speed.

The acquisition plan of Hong Kong Electric Group by the Swire Properties Group was decided personally by Niu Bijian.

What they didn’t expect was that their plan was forced to stop shortly after the decision was made.

In the morning, after confirming with the Chairman of Hong Kong Electric Company Limited, Chen Shoulin, he asked the Hong Kong Land Development Group to stop acquiring shares of Hong Kong Electric Company Limited, as there was no point in continuing to acquire shares.

Now, the news from his subordinates made Niu Bijian feel fortunate that the acquisition of Hong Kong Electric Group had just begun and the time and cost were not much.

"Perhaps we can consider Mr. Lin's suggestion to the Hong Kong Land Group. It is time to study the feasibility of acquiring Hong Kong Telephone Company and China Light and Power Company." Bao Fuda on the side said solemnly to Niu Bijian.

"Okay, the real estate market in Hong Kong is booming right now, and it's a good opportunity for us to expand. The only way for the Swire Group to develop faster in a short period of time is to continue to acquire and merge more high-quality companies. Not only high-quality companies in Hong Kong, but we can also acquire some high-quality overseas companies. The previous conservative, stable and prudent strategy is obviously no longer suitable for Swire!" Niu Bijian said in agreement.

The forced takeover of Wharf Holdings by Pao Yu-kong has caused Jardine Matheson and Hong Kong Holdings to become reckless, impatient and speculative, trying to find an opportunity to compete with the Chinese tycoon Pao Yu-kong.

Unfortunately, they missed out on the Hong Kong Electric Group, which they had previously been optimistic about, and now can only shift their focus to other companies.

(End of this chapter)