In Hong Kong, we build a global business empire

Chapter 200 If the hard way doesn’t work, try the soft way!

Regardless of whether Niu Bi believed it or not, at this point, there was no point in delving into whether it was Lin Haoran's setup.

Even if it was Lin Haobu's plan, what could they do?
To some extent, this is also the norm in business competition.

In a business war, there will always be a loser, but there will also be a winner.

"Mr. Lin, let's discuss the matters concerning China Gas Company." Niu Bijian sat down facing Lin Haoran.

At this point, we can only accept this situation.

Let Lin Haoran give China Gas Company to their Jardine Matheson Group?

It's just a beautiful dream, such a high-quality enterprise is worth a high price for Jardine Matheson to acquire, who would give up the controlling rights of such a company?

Just like Li Mingze, the former chairman of China Gas Company, if he could compete with Jardine Matheson, he would never have sold his shares to Lin Haoran.

At this point, what Niu Bijian wants to do most is to withdraw calmly from China Gas Company.

Let them hold 40.7% of the shares and become shareholders without decision-making power?
Of course they couldn't possibly do that.

This is just a waste of the funds of Jardine Matheson and the Hong Kong Land Group.

Although China Gas Company is of very high quality and has very high profits every year, under the control of Hong Kong Electric Group, who knows what they will do with the company's profits?
Not everyone will distribute profits every year or every other year like the China Gas Company managed by Li Mingze.

This time, in just one month, Jardine Matheson and Hong Kong Land Development invested more than 200 million Hong Kong dollars.

A few years ago, they already held a certain proportion of shares. Those funds were just like the 7.2% shares of Hong Kong Electric Group before. Since they invested early, the cost price was not high.

But the more than 200 million Hong Kong dollars after that is also a huge sum of money for them, and it is impossible for them to keep it with the China Gas Company and not be able to use it.

Therefore, Niu Bijian now needs to convert the shares in his hands into funds, and then use these funds to invest in other projects, or acquire listed companies that they can fully control.

"Mr. Niu Bijian, if you have any ideas, just tell me." Lin Haoran said with a smile.

"I hope Mr. Lin can buy the shares of China Gas Company held by our Jardine Matheson and Hong Kong Holdings at market prices!" Niu Bijian said directly.

Since the other party already held more than 50% of the shares and Jardine Matheson had no chance of taking over, Niu Bijian felt that it was time to be decisive and withdraw quickly.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Niu Bijian, I now control enough shares and I don't think there is a need to continue purchasing more." Lin Haoran shook his head.

"Mr. Lin, I have to tell you that the shares you control have exceeded 50%, which has triggered the Hong Kong Takeover and Merger Code. You are obliged to make a full acquisition. Although you control multiple companies, you are the actual controller of these companies.

If no one brings it up, perhaps the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission won't care so much, but if we apply to the Securities and Futures Commission to investigate Mr. Lin's illegal acquisition behavior, Mr. Lin will still have to acquire our shares at that time!" Niu Bijian said bluntly.

Niu Bijian had thought about slowly exiting the stock market, but given the current situation of China Gas Company, it was simply not suitable.

The reason is very simple. The Jardine Matheson Group and the Hong Kong Electric Group already hold more than 90% of the shares.

In other words, there are very few shares of China Gas Company on the stock market.

If they want to ship goods from the secondary market, as long as the quantity is a little larger, they will soon be discovered by others.

The final result is definitely a rapid drop in stock prices in the secondary market.

They hold 40.7% of the shares. If no one is secretly buying them, how long will it take for them to sell so many shares?

So, the best thing to do is to find a buyer to buy their shares directly.

But now, the China Gas Company has been completely controlled by Lin Haoran. Under this circumstance, it is impossible to find a buyer for the shares in the hands of Jardine Matheson, unless they sell them at a very low price. But they will lose too much in this way, so naturally they are unwilling to do so.

Therefore, the best way now is to force Lin Haoran, the actual controller of China Gas Company, to buy these shares!

Lin Haoran didn't expect Niu Bijian to say this. He had thought about this issue before and felt that as the three companies held shares, there should be no problem.

But now that I think about it, I was a little naive.

He still remembered that during the last acquisition battle of Qingzhou Yingni Company, the CSRC directly and openly helped the British shareholders.

Now, even if no one would pay attention to his situation normally, the CSRC would openly help Jardine Matheson.

However, it is not easy to force him to submit.

Buying their shares at the current market price? Niu Bijian was totally overthinking.

Today, the market value of China Gas Company is HK$8 million, but all of this is because Jardine Matheson Bank wanted to take over China Gas Company in one fell swoop, so they deliberately raised the stock price.

And the total market value of China Gas Company was only HK$590 million, less than HK$600 million, a year ago.

Do you want to continue to let him be the scapegoat?
This is of course impossible!

"I'm sorry, Mr. Niu Bijian may be disappointed. Although Mr. Li Mingze and I have signed the share transfer contract, we haven't actually completed the transaction yet. My funds have not been transferred to them, and they have not handed over the stock certificates to me.

Since Mr. Niu Bijian thinks that what I did was not reasonable, it is very simple. I will re-sign a share transfer contract with Mr. Li Mingze later to reduce the shares I actually control to 49.9%. I don't think Mr. Li Mingze will refuse me.

After all, he has been a shareholder of China Gas Company for a long time. It is normal for him to keep a small portion of the shares as a sustenance for himself, right?" Lin Haoran smiled calmly.

Last night, after Lin Haoran and Li Mingze and others signed the share transfer contract, they agreed to transfer the funds to their accounts before this afternoon, and they would also hand over all the stock certificates to Lin Haoran. Therefore, the transaction between the two parties has not been completed. Although the contract has been signed, the transaction is not really completed without the last step, because the stocks have not yet reached Lin Haoran's hands.

Lin Haoran was not panicked at all when dealing with an old fox like Niu Bijian. He just needed to counter his moves. He wanted to see what new tricks Niu Bijian could come up with.

Lin Haoran's words made Niu Bijian frown. This sudden change was indeed beyond his expectations.

Obviously, the attempt to force Lin Haoran to acquire shares by means of threats is no longer feasible.

Therefore, Niu Bijian decided to change his strategy. Since the hard approach didn't work, he would try the soft approach.

“Mr. Lin, the relationship between Jardine Matheson and HK Electric Group is pretty good. We have been cooperating frequently for a long time. For example, five years ago, we jointly acquired China Gas Company. Although it ultimately failed, it was enough to show that our relationship has always been very good.

Last month, our Hong Kong Land Group reached a strategic partnership with Hong Kong Electric Group. We have always been very good partners.

Hong Kong Electric Group competed with Jardine Matheson for China Gas Company, and the final result was that you won. On behalf of Jardine Matheson, I would like to congratulate you.

Towngas is a very excellent public utility enterprise. The most important thing is its monopoly. Your Hong Kong Electric Group at least cannot achieve a monopoly in electricity supply. It still has a competitor, China Light and Power Company. But Towngas has a monopoly on the entire Hong Kong market.

With the gas pipelines crisscrossing the entire city center of Hong Kong today, there is bound to be no other competitors. This is also the reason why our Jardine Matheson Company wants to acquire the China Gas Company. It is difficult to find a few companies in Hong Kong that can offer stable and generous returns.

Think about it, if you completely privatize it, then all the profits of China Gas will be completely yours. Owning China Gas is like owning a gold mine that will produce gold for you continuously. "Niu Bijian continued.

What Niu Bijian said was indeed true. Not long after the China Gas Company was founded, the company's gas pipelines and gas lamps quickly spread throughout Victoria City, which is now the Central and Western District of Hong Kong Island.

In 1892, the gas company's business further covered the Kowloon Peninsula.

Today, the gas pipelines of China Gas Company have covered all the prosperous areas of Hong Kong, and even the new towns.

It can be said that Towngas Company is basically impossible to be replaced. Its thousands of kilometers of gas pipelines have already occupied the entire Hong Kong market.

Even if there is capital to support a gas company now, it is absolutely impossible for it to develop!
Therefore, its monopoly will only continue to exist.

Especially after entering the 1970s, due to the rapid increase in Hong Kong's population and rapid economic development, the pipeline gas business was booming, and the gas company was truly the "Tang Monk's meat" in the eyes of various consortiums.

For example, last year, the annual profit of China Gas Company reached more than 70 million Hong Kong dollars, which are all profits, not turnover. With the rapid increase in Hong Kong's population, the number of new users has increased year by year, which has also made the revenue and profits of China Gas Company higher and higher.

Although there is a big gap in profit compared with Hong Kong Electric Company, if the market value and profit are compared, the profit ratio of China Gas Company is even better than that of Hong Kong Electric Company.

This led to the largest British financial group, Jardine Matheson, joining forces with the Hong Kong Electric Company to launch a hostile takeover of the Towngas Company a few years ago. However, due to the strong opposition from Chinese businessmen such as Li Mingze, this joint action by the British financial group ended in failure.

However, the high quality of China Gas Company made Jardine Matheson obsessed with it and they were determined to take it over. This led to the recent "Dawn Assault" operation by Jardine Matheson.

What the top management of Jardine Matheson did not expect was that this acquisition attempt still failed!
Lin Haoran was naturally very clear about the specific situation of China Gas Company.

It is not impossible for him to privatize China Gas Company, but it is impossible for him to do so at the current stock market price.

As for acquiring the company at the current share price with a total market value of 8 million, he has no interest at all. Jardine Matheson can sell it to whoever they want.

"Mr. Niu Bijian, if you are willing to sell the shares to me for 200 million Hong Kong dollars, I don't mind buying them!" Lin Haoran said with a smile.

The price of HK$40.7 million to buy the 5% shares held by Jardine Matheson Land Development Group is actually to calculate the total market value of China Gas Company at around HK$ million.

In this way, Jardine Matheson and Swire Properties Group will naturally suffer huge losses.

Because this time, the banking firm and the Hong Kong Land Group invested more than 30 million Hong Kong dollars to acquire China Gas Company, which was only about % of the shares.

Now 40.7% of the shares are sold for million? Just think about it and you know it is impossible to sell.

Who can accept losing tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars in a short period of time?
Fortunately, Niu Bijian cleverly brought in the Jardine Matheson Group to join the acquisition, so that Jardine Matheson's losses were not so severe. If Jardine Matheson had absorbed all these shares by itself, the shareholders of Jardine Matheson would probably have caused trouble for him.

"2 million Hong Kong dollars? That's impossible!" Niu Bijian refused without even thinking about it.

It was impossible for him to decide such a price alone in private. Although he was the boss of Jardine Matheson, he could not bear this responsibility.

"In that case, how about we not talk about this topic for the time being? You also know that the share price of China Gas Company has reached its current price entirely by you guys. If I accept your price, wouldn't I be a sucker? For me, I am very satisfied with the controlling stake in China Gas Company now. As for privatizing this company, I have never considered this issue before." Lin Haoran said with a smile.

With his current cash flow, it would not be difficult to privatize China Gas Company.

The premise is that the stock value is not worth it!

Niu Bijian knew that it was impossible to convince Lin Haoran today, so he could only go back and discuss with Jardine Matheson's think tank and board members.

"In that case, I'll take my leave first. We'll talk later!" Niu Bijian no longer wanted to stay here.

"Mr. Niu Bijian, won't you stay to hold the board meeting? You are now an important shareholder of the company and you can take on a very important position in the company. I propose that Mr. Niu Bijian serve as the supervisor of the board of directors. What do you think?" Lin Haoran said with a smile.

"No need, let's talk about this later, Mr. Lin. I'll go back first." After saying that, Niu Bijian left the training room without looking back.

What a shitty board supervisor. It would be a disgrace for him if he really took up this position.

After all, he came here aiming for the position of chairman of China Gas Company. Now, even if he can't be the chairman, he can at least be the vice chairman, right?
So, he naturally did not accept Lin Haoran's proposal.

(End of this chapter)