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Chapter 305 Jardine Matheson & Co.’s Jardine Matheson Holdings’ mutual control plan!

This article in the Hong Kong Times does contain some information.

It even wrote about the acquisition of shares of the Jardine Matheson Group that Huanyu Investment Company had started since the beginning of the year.

This made Lin Haoran even more certain that the information was leaked by an internal employee of Huanyu Investment Company.

However, there are also speculations about how many shares of the Swire Group are actually held by Huanyu Investment Company. The article estimates that it holds between 10% and 15%, which is quite different from the actual number of shares held by Huanyu Investment Company.

Another target of Universal Investment Company, Jardine Matheson, was not announced either.

Putting down the newspaper, Lin Haoran frowned.

Regarding the shares of the Swire Properties Group, the situation has changed from active to passive.

Fortunately, apart from him and Su Zhixue, no one knew how many shares of the Jardine Matheson Group Huanyu Investment Company already held.

After reading the newspaper, Li Weidong had already returned.

So, Lin Haoran took Li Weiguo out of the Lin family villa, got into a Rolls-Royce, and asked Li Weidong to drive directly to Wanqing Building.

At the same time, at the Jardine Matheson Group headquarters in Central, the top executives of Jardine Matheson Group and Hong Kong Land Development seemed to be in a state of chaos.

Huanyu Investment Company, a well-known investment company in Hong Kong, is known to many people as actually backed by Lin Haoran’s private capital operation platform.

Therefore, every move of Huanyu Investment Company, in a sense, is a reflection of Lin Haoran's will.

At this moment, a shocking news quietly spread: Huanyu Investment Company was accused of secretly absorbing shares of the Swire Group over the past six months.

No matter who is in charge of Jardine Matheson, this news will be unbelievable and absurd.

Lin Haoran, he actually coveted the Hong Kong Jardine Matheson Group?
At this moment, Jardine Matheson had already held an emergency telephone conference, and the head of the Keswick family, who was far away in the UK, also participated in the conference call.

The importance of the Hong Kong Land Group to Jardine Matheson is enormous.

Originally, Jardine Matheson had two most important listed subsidiaries, namely Wharf Holdings and Hong Kong Land Development.

Now that Wharf Holdings has been taken over by Bao Yugang, they are absolutely unwilling to lose this important subsidiary of the Hong Kong Land Group.

"What do you think about this matter? How should we respond to Lin Haoran's actions?" Henry Keswick, former head of Jardine Matheson, asked seriously over the phone.

Although the Keswick family is apparently the major shareholder of Jardine Matheson, they actually only hold about 10% of the shares.

Despite this, they treated Jardine Matheson as their own family business.

After Henry Keswick left office, Niu Bijian came to power.

However, now Keswick has planned to take back control of Jardine Matheson, and he is ready to oust Niu Bijian and replace him with his younger brother Simon Keswick.

Of course, if you want to force Niu Bijian to step down, you must make him make enough mistakes.

Previously, losing Wharf was a major mistake, but it was not enough.

Despite this, Henry Keswick was unwilling for Jardine Matheson to lose the Landmark Group.

The original Wharf Holdings and Hong Kong Land Development were like the left and right arms of Jardine Matheson. If Wharf Holdings was gone, it would be like losing one arm. If even Hong Kong Land Development was gone, Jardine Matheson would be like losing both arms.

"I think we should first find out Lin Haoran's current background and see how many shares of the Jardine Matheson Group he already holds," suggested a shareholder.

"This is just a newspaper report, it may not be true, right?" a shareholder questioned.

"No, it should be true. Our Jardine Securities Company just checked the stock trading situation of the Hong Kong Land Group in the past year half an hour ago. Indeed, since the beginning of the year, the trading volume of the Hong Kong Land Group's shares has increased significantly.

Especially in the past three months, the stock trading volume has been more than ever before. Besides, whether it is true or not, we must take precautions. Jardine Matheson cannot lose the Hong Kong Land Group!" said the general manager of Jardine Securities in a deep voice.

"According to what the newspapers said, Lin Haoran only holds 10% to 15% of the shares, so we still have time to prepare. Ever since Huifeng Bank helped Bao Yugang to forcibly acquire Wharf, I realized that other British financial groups in Hong Kong are no longer reliable.

To protect the controlling rights of the Hong Kong Land Group, we can only rely on ourselves. Especially in the past two years, old British companies such as Ching Chau Cement, Hutchison Whampoa and Hong Kong Electric Group have been successively acquired by Chinese consortiums. The myth of the invincibility of our British consortium has been completely shattered.

Even our Hong Kong Land Group and even Jardine Matheson may have been considered as something in the pocket of the Chinese financial group. Now, the report of the Hong Kong Times has confirmed my concerns. Some people are eyeing the Hong Kong Land Group. Therefore, I have been thinking about how to protect the Hong Kong Land Group for a while. Finally, I have a plan that is not yet perfect but has great potential. Once this plan is successfully implemented, no one will be able to acquire the Hong Kong Land Group, or even our Jardine Matheson! "Niu Bijian said at this time.

"Mr. Niu Bijian, can you tell me what the plan is?" Henry Keswick asked curiously.

Henry Keswick still believed in the talents of Niu Bijian, the current head of Jardine Matheson, but when it came to Keswick's interests, no matter how talented Niu Bijian was, he would oust the current head of the company and replace him with someone from the Keswick family.

Therefore, although Niu Bijian is still in office, Jardine Matheson has actually begun an internal power struggle.

After tidying up a bit, Niu Bijian said slowly: "I named this plan 'Yizhi Mutual Control Plan'. From the name, you may have guessed my idea.

Yes, I plan to let Jardine Matheson, Jardine Securities and Hong Kong Land Group increase each other's shares to build a solid iron triangle structure to achieve mutual control. In this way, those Chinese businessmen who covet our two companies will retreat.

As long as each party can hold 40% of the other party's shares, plus the shares held by our British consortium shareholders, the total will easily exceed 50%. In this way, the controlling rights of Jardine Matheson and Landmark will be as solid as a rock, and we will no longer have to worry.

Even if the Chinese financial groups have abundant funds, they cannot forcibly seize our controlling stake as long as we are unwilling to sell!"

Niu Bijian's words immediately sparked discussion among everyone present.

This method is indeed good. Once it is successfully implemented, no matter how rich the other party is, they will not be able to seize their controlling rights.

However, it is not without difficulty, that is, how to increase the other party's shares.

“Please be patient, I have thought about this issue a long time ago. My initial idea is that, given that the Hong Kong Land Group is currently facing a situation where it is being coveted, we should first solve the problem of the Hong Kong Land Group, that is, to increase Jardine Matheson’s controlling stake in the Hong Kong Land Group.

We can issue new shares in the Hong Kong Land Group to inject high-quality assets such as the more than 30 million shares of Wheelock A shares and the interests in the Causeway Bay World Trade Center held by our Jardine Matheson Group, so as to strengthen our control over the Hong Kong Land Group.

At the same time, after the new shares are issued, it can also effectively dilute the shares held by Lin Haoran and reduce his influence, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone. "Seeing that the debate on the scene was endless and it was difficult to reach a consensus, Niu Bijian spoke again and put forward his plan.

Niu Bijian's words were immediately agreed by many people. Even Henry Keswick praised him on the phone, saying, "Mr. Niu Bijian's plan is indeed a good idea. I think we should implement it according to this plan.

Now that the other party has surfaced, as long as we are fully prepared, no matter how rich Lin Haoran is, he will not be able to snatch the Hong Kong Land Group from us. After all, our Hong Kong Land Group is not as easy to be broken into as the Hong Kong Electric Group!"

"Okay then, it's decided. We will try our best to resolve this matter satisfactorily within half a month!" Niu Bijian said straightforwardly.

"Half a month is too long. We need to speed up the issuance of new shares. I propose that it be completed within ten days!" Henry Keswick quickly added.

Henry Keswick always remained highly alert to Lin Haoran.

Especially during Lin Haoran's trip to the UK this time, the incident of Shipley Company caused a lot of uproar in the city, but he eventually made a profit of tens of millions of pounds from it, which brought shame to many British local companies.

To be honest, the financial strength of their Keswick family is only average in the whole of Britain, not outstanding. They only hold about 10% of the shares of Jardine Matheson & Co., and cannot even have a controlling stake in the company. They do not have the strength of the Squid Consortium behind the DHL Group.

Therefore, Henry Keswick was deeply afraid that delaying too long would lead to complications.

Henry Keswick had a big plan in mind. He wanted his family to have complete control over Jardine Matheson & Co., and use it to gain more benefits for the family, thus making the Keswick family the top financial group in Britain.

"Mr. Keswick, I'll do my best!" Niu Bijian finally answered cautiously.

It was indeed a big challenge for him to complete the task of taking over Jardine Matheson and increasing the controlling stake in the Hutchison Whampoa Group within ten days.

But he knew in his heart that this was a necessary measure to guard against Lin Haoran.

So the decision was made.

However, it is not easy for the Swire Properties Group to issue new shares. It requires at least careful preparation in advance and submission of registration materials to the stock exchange, followed by a series of procedures such as public announcement.

In this case, the ten-day time seems very tight indeed.

After the high-level telephone conference of Jardine Matheson & Co., Lin Haoran's car had already arrived at Wanqing Building.

He took the elevator and quickly arrived at the 31st floor, where Huanyu Investment Company was located. He came to the project team of the Jardine Matheson Group and met Su Zhixue who was arranging work.

"Boss, you're here!" Seeing Lin Haoran, Su Zhixue finally let go of his worries, as if he had found his backbone.

(End of this chapter)