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Chapter 195 Jardine Matheson Announces Acquisition of Towngas
Just when Li Mingze and others were anxious about how to deal with the sudden attack from Jardine Matheson, the Hong Kong stock market became lively.

Although today is the third day of the Chinese New Year, most people have not yet started working.

But when Jardine Matheson announced their acquisition decision, most of the shareholders knew about it in less than an hour.

Hong Kong is so small that it is very easy to convey messages.

Especially those investors who frequently trade stocks all have their own sources of information.

Therefore, for shareholders holding shares of China Gas Company, who would have the mind to celebrate the New Year at this time? Making money is the most important thing.

It is rare to directly raise the stock price significantly. If you miss it, you don’t know how long you will have to wait.

In the Securities Department office of Hong Kong Electric Group, Lin Haoran and Chen Shoulin are both here at the moment.

"Our group's shareholding in China Gas Company has exceeded 10%!" At : p.m., the head of the securities department excitedly reported.

"What percentage of the afternoon's trading volume does it account for?" Lin Haoran asked.

"It accounts for about 25% of the total trading volume in the afternoon. Our securities department is not as strong as Jardine Securities, a subsidiary of Jardine Matheson. They have more staff and higher professionalism. This result is actually quite good and better than expected." The head of the securities department replied.

Lin Haoran nodded.

That is to say, from the opening of the afternoon trading till now, the shares of China Gas Company held by Hong Kong Electric Group have increased by 2%, accounting for 25% of the total transaction volume. In fact, the total transaction volume of the entire China Gas Company shares has reached about 8%.

Within less than an hour of the opening, 8% of China Gas Company's shares were traded. This data is very terrifying.

I don’t know what the situation is at Huanyu Investment Company.

Lin Haoran did not disturb them for the time being.

With the increase of professional traders, the current trading strength of Universal Investment Company is no worse than that of the securities department of Hong Kong Electric Group. However, Universal Investment Company has diverted some of its personnel for investment. It is not only absorbing shares of China Gas Company, but also shares of Hongkong Land Group, Jardine Matheson and Kowloon Motor Bus, which are all being secretly absorbed.

Therefore, the absorption speed of Universal Investment Company is actually not as good as that of Hong Kong Electric Company.

In other words, Jardine Matheson increased its stake by more than 48% within these 4 minutes?

At this rate, they might actually acquire more than 10% or even 15% of the shares by the time the market closes.

The Jardine Matheson Company is still very strong.

However, judging from the shares held by the three Chinese consortiums including Lin Haoran, Jardine Matheson and Li Mingze, there are not many shares left in the hands of shareholders, and the speed may even slow down towards the end.

Lin Haoran wanted to see how much Jardine Matheson could eventually increase its holdings.

Time passed by little by little, and in the blink of an eye, it was four o'clock in the afternoon and it was closing time.

The securities department of Hong Kong Electric Group has already started calculating.

In less than ten minutes, the head of the securities department began to report the results to Lin Haoran and Chen Shoulin.

"Throughout the afternoon, we increased our holdings by a total of 4.3%. Together with the 8% we held previously, HK Electric Group now holds a total of 12.3% of China Gas Company shares. Most of these were acquired in the first two hours. In the next hour, as the number of shares held by shareholders decreased significantly, there were not many left. So between three and four o'clock, our gains were not great." The person in charge reported quickly, and handed a carefully compiled data spreadsheet to Lin Haoran.

That afternoon, Hong Kong Electric Group spent HK$3440 million.

I just don't know how many shares Jardine Matheson has acquired.

This is basically predictable.

Because the stock price has been raised so much, apart from Jardine Matheson, only the two companies under Lin Haoran would secretly participate in the acquisition.

As for Li Mingze and his gang, they themselves had no intention of increasing their holdings, and it was even more impossible for them to do so when the stock price had been pushed up so much. That was why they had to seek help from outsiders. Otherwise, in another world, Li Zhaoji would not have been given the opportunity to take over China Gas Company.

Therefore, taking the total transaction volume this afternoon minus the amount absorbed by Hong Kong Electric Group and Universal Investments, this is basically the amount that Jardine Matheson Holdings gained this afternoon.

The person in charge also calculated the total transaction volume this afternoon, which reached a terrifying 22.1%. The transaction volume of China Gas Company in the afternoon alone reached about 1.7 million Hong Kong dollars.

From this we can see how many people were attracted to sell their China Gas shares after Jardine Matheson released the news.

It really is true that a deal fails not because the other party is unwilling to sell, but because the price you offer fails to meet the other party's expectations.

As a result, the price was directly raised by 35%, and investors who wanted to sell came in droves. Even though it was still the Spring Festival, it couldn't stop them from making money.

This is not a giant like Wharf Holdings and Hong Kong Land Development. Although China Gas Company is also quite strong, 10 China Gas Companies may not be able to match one Hong Kong Land Development.

Therefore, the stock transaction amount of China Gas Company in one afternoon reached 1.7 million Hong Kong dollars, which is a very scary figure.

Lin Haoran called Su Zhixue directly in the office. At this time, Su Zhixue should have already calculated the transaction data.

As expected, after Su Zhixue answered the phone, he began to report today's results to Lin Haoran. Among them, the data of China Gas Company was what Lin Haoran was most concerned about.

As for the stock progress of the other three companies, Hong Kong Land Development, Jardine Matheson and Kowloon Motor Bus, he was not so concerned.

It is basically impossible to take over these three companies in a short period of time, and it will take a long time.

Especially Jardine Matheson and Hong Kong Land, both of which are giants.

Kowloon Motor Bus might be much easier to get.

"Throughout the afternoon, we increased our holdings of Towngas China by approximately 3.6%. Combined with the previous 4%, we now hold a total of approximately 7.6% of the shares." Su Zhixue reported the situation of Towngas China.

"Okay, I get it. Thank you for your hard work. I have to take care of some things here first." Lin Haoran said and hung up the phone.

At the same time, he also had a rough idea of ​​how many shares Jardine Matheson had absorbed that afternoon.

The shares acquired by Universal Investments were indeed less than those of Hong Kong Electric Group, but not by much.

In the afternoon, Hong Kong Electric Group absorbed 4.3%, and Universal Investments 3.6%, which added up to 7.9%, while the total trading volume was 22.1%. In other words, the amount absorbed by Jardine Matheson is expected to be around 14.2%, which is close to their announced target of 15%.

From this we can see that Jardine Matheson is still very strong. The trading strength of Jardine Securities is so strong that even the securities department of Hong Kong Electric Group and Universal Investment Company are far inferior to the other party. This is also a gap, but there is no way. The other party is an old securities company that helped Jardine Matheson become one of the three major financial giants in Hong Kong.

For the Hong Kong Electric Group, financial business is just a sideline, so it is normal that its strength is not strong.

As for Huanyu Investment Company, although it can be considered a professional company, it has no foundation and insufficient experience. It will take a long time for it to develop.

While Lin Haoran and his men were studying today's situation, at the headquarters of Jardine Securities, Niu Bijian, Bao Fuda and others were in the office.

"The trading volume is as high as 22.1%, so why did we ultimately increase our holdings by only 14.2%?" Niu Bijian frowned and asked.

Their goal was to increase their holdings by about 15%, but this time, with investors selling off on a large scale, they only absorbed 14.2%, which was below the transaction expectation.

“Mr. Boss, through investigation, we found that the remaining shares were bought by multiple accounts, so we don’t know who the opponents involved in this absorption are. However, we absorbed 14.2%, which is not far from our expectations. Even if a part is missing, the total shareholding of our Jardine Securities and Swire Properties Group still exceeded 40%, reaching 40.7%.” The general manager of Jardine Securities reported.

"In China Gas Company, as the major shareholder, no one can threaten us. Through secret investigation, we found that Li Mingze and others hold less than 33% of the shares. Even if these 7.9% of shares were absorbed by them, the shares we control are almost the same as them. What's more, these shares may not be absorbed by them, so we now have the strength to control China Gas Company!" Bao Fuda said with a smile at this time.

"Don't forget, the Hong Kong Electric Group controls 7.2% of the shares of China Gas Company. Could it be that they acquired these 7.9% of the shares?" Niu Bijian seemed to have guessed something.

“Even if all of them were secretly acquired by the Hong Kong Electric Group, they pose no threat to us. Since the beginning of our action, the Hong Kong Electric Group has lost the opportunity to compete for control. 7.2% + 7.9% is only 15.1% of the shares. Even if they participated in the morning, their equity could not exceed 20%. So what can the Hong Kong Electric Group use to compete with us?
Without the right to control, I don't think the Hong Kong Electric Group will help Li Mingze and his team. This will not only do no good to the Hong Kong Electric Group, but also offend our Jardine Matheson Group for no reason." Bao Fuda was not worried at all.

After all, more than 40% of the shares. In Hong Kong, no matter which listed company, holding this proportion of shares can basically control the listed company.

However, what they didn’t know was that the shares of China Gas Company controlled by Lin Haoran were not 7.2% or 15.1%, but 19.9%. These were added to those secretly absorbed by Huanyu Investment Company!

"That's true. I had a very pleasant conversation with Mr. Lin at the Governor's Mansion on the night of the 16th. He should not help Li Mingze for the sake of that Chinese financial group without being able to obtain controlling rights, unless Li Mingze and others sell their shares to the Hong Kong Electric Group. But this is basically impossible. We promised them so many benefits five years ago, but they didn't sell them. This shows that they value the controlling rights of China Gas Company very much. How could they sell them to the Hong Kong Electric Group?" Niu Bijian also felt that he was thinking too much.

"After five years of lurking, we are finally going to take over China Gas Company. It's not easy!" At this moment, Niu Bijian was very emotional and excited.

In recent years, the proportion of shares held by the Chinese is so high that they have had no chance.

Until they accidentally learned that a Chinese shareholder planned to sell his shares through the stock market. Then they acted quickly and secretly intercepted these stocks through the secondary market, and most of them eventually fell into the hands of Jardine Securities.

This gave them the opportunity to take over China Gas Company.

Coupled with today's dawn raid, their shareholding has officially exceeded 40%. Under normal circumstances, China Gas Company will basically not be able to escape from their clutches.

"By the way, Mr. Boss, the media reporters should be here soon, let's get ready!" Bao Fuda reminded.

At noon, they began to make full preparations for the "Dawn Assault" operation. Not only did they release the news to the public, they also arranged for their men to notify more than a dozen mainstream Hong Kong media.

They will announce to the public at five o'clock in the afternoon that Jardine Matheson has acquired more than 40% of the shares and will soon officially take over the China Gas Company!

As for Li Mingze, the chairman of the board of directors of China Gas Company, he naturally had no choice but to step down.

Niu Bijian looked at the time and saw that it was almost 4:30 in the afternoon, so he stood up and said with a smile: "Okay, let's go out and get ready. I'm looking forward to announcing our victory!"

After losing Wharf Holdings, Jardine Matheson's strength was greatly reduced. Now it controls China Gas Company. Although it is not as good as Wharf Holdings, it is not bad either. At least it can make up for it.

Moreover, the Swire Group has also been secretly acquiring a number of companies. As long as everything goes well, the strength of their Jardine Matheson Group will increase greatly, and the loss of Wharf Holdings will be made up soon!
At five o'clock in the afternoon, in a spacious conference room of Jardine Matheson, Jardine Matheson announced a sensational news: "Jardine Securities and Hong Kong Land Holdings, subsidiaries of Jardine Matheson Group, together control 40.7% of China Gas Company, officially becoming the major shareholder of China Gas Company. At the same time, Jardine Matheson will officially take over China Gas Company on February 2th!"

Jardine Matheson announced this news unilaterally without even discussing it with shareholders of China Gas Company such as Li Mingze.

Because they felt that with the shares they controlled, Li Mingze and others no longer had the power to resist.

(End of this chapter)