In Hong Kong, we build a global business empire

"Mr. Lin, the key challenge you face now is how to properly deal with the pressure from the government. Whether it is Mr. MacLehose or the Prime Minister's wife who personally lobby, I think you should give them as much respect as possible. After all, the business community is always at a disadvantage to the political community, and Mr. Lin must know this very well.

However, as long as Mr. Lin promises not to increase his holdings in Jardine Matheson, I will be able to mediate and ensure that you can retain your existing shares while taking up some key senior positions in Jardine Matheson. Alternatively, you can appoint a confidant to take up an important position in Jardine Matheson, but the premise is that you must avoid the position of the boss!

As long as you can do this, I am confident that I can convince the higher-ups and prevent them from asking Governor-General MacLehose or the Prime Minister's wife for help.

In other words, as long as you promise not to increase your shareholding and not to covet the position of the boss, I can ensure that your rights and interests in Jardine Matheson will not be harmed, and I can even win the support of Huifeng Bank for you!

In addition, I need you to continue to support me in my position as the manager of Jardine Matheson. Only if I continue to serve as the manager can you keep your interests in Jardine Matheson intact.

I am a professional manager. In fact, I am just serving you, the important shareholders. Everything I do is for the interests of Jardine Matheson!
You also know that once the Keswick family takes control of Jardine Matheson again, it will be impossible for you to maintain your interests in Jardine Matheson." Niu Bijian expressed his intentions bluntly.

Niu Bijian is quite cunning. Once Lin Haoran chooses not to increase his shares or participate in the competition for the position of the boss, it means that Lin Haoran has completely lost the opportunity to take the lead.

Although holding a 20% stake gave him a certain amount of voting power, in Niu Bijian's eyes, this just became a card for him to check and balance Henry Keswick.

Moreover, as long as the mutual control plan between Hutchison Whampoa and Swire Properties is successfully implemented, the controlling rights in the hands of Lin Haoran will be reduced again.

Although Henry Keswick has many supporters behind him, as long as Niu Bijian can win the support of Lin Haoran, Huifeng Bank and several shareholders who are on good terms with him, Henry Keswick will hardly pose a threat to him.

As long as Niu Bijian does not make any major mistakes, he will be able to sit firmly on the throne of Jardine Matheson and continue to control the lifeblood of this king of foreign firms.

At this moment, Lin Haoran already understood Niu Bijian's wishful thinking - he just wanted to occupy the position of the head of Jardine Matheson for a long time.

According to what Lin Haoran knew about Jardine Matheson in his previous life, Niu Bijian was forced to resign after two or three years, and the reason why the Keswick family pulled him out was quite direct - the loss of Wharf was considered Niu Bijian's biggest dereliction of duty.

In addition, during the Hong Kong real estate bubble, both Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land Group suffered heavy losses, and this responsibility also fell heavily on Niu Bijian's shoulders.

Therefore, despite his deep roots in Jardine Matheson, he had to regretfully bid farewell to the place where he had served for more than 30 years.

At that time, he was undoubtedly unwilling to leave like this.

He felt that the main fault for Jardine Matheson's loss of Wharf Holdings, the deep losses of Hong Kong Land Group and the difficulties faced by Jardine Matheson was not his, but was a means by which the Keswick family deliberately put all the blame on him in order to regain control of Jardine Matheson.

It now seems that the internal struggle between Niu Bijian and the Keswick family had actually begun long ago.

Otherwise, he would not seek Lin Haoran's help.

At this moment, Lin Haoran figured out a lot.

Unable to increase holdings?

To Lin Haoran, this doesn't matter.

Because he had no intention of increasing his holdings.

Today, the share price of Jardine Matheson has been hyped up too high. It is no longer suitable to increase holdings, as it has long deviated from its actual value.

In addition, the British financial group controlled too many shares of Jardine Matheson, so it would be useless even if he increased his holdings.

As for not competing for the top position, he actually doesn't care.

In fact, whether or not to be the boss of Jardine Matheson is not that important to Lin Haoran. If he has enough controlling rights in the future, then even if he is the boss, they will have to listen to him. Otherwise, he can veto any decision made by the company and directly vote against anything that is not in his favor!

In this way, Jardine Matheson was actually controlled by him.

Lin Haoran has also figured out how to increase his controlling stake in Jardine Matheson without increasing his shareholding.

That is, to utilize the mutual control plan of Jardine Land promoted by Twist Wall.

Now, his controlling stake in the Hong Kong Land Group has basically reached the point where he can take over at any time, but he has not announced it yet. And all the senior executives of Jardine Matheson are still unaware of this.

Apart from him and Su Zhixue, only Li Jiacheng knew a rough idea.

Li Jiacheng also promised not to make the matter public. Given Li Jiacheng's credibility, he would not deliberately tell anyone about it and offend Lin Haoran.

So, as long as he enters the decision-making level of Jardine Matheson and pushes forward the plan of mutual control between Jardine Matheson and Hutchison Holdings, when Hutchison Holdings controls a certain amount of shares in Jardine Matheson, even if he does not increase his controlling stake in Jardine Matheson, he can still use Hutchison Holdings to control Jardine Matheson!

Even if his controlling stake in the Jardine Matheson Group is reduced due to the financing, he now holds more than 40% of the shares, so even if his controlling stake is reduced, it is unlikely to be reduced by too much.

What's more, he can continue to increase his holdings in the Jardine Matheson Group!

In addition, he also has a good chance of acquiring Li Jiacheng's shares.

Because based on his understanding of Li Ka-shing, this richest Chinese man whom he knew in his previous life was very ambitious. Since he could not control the Hutchison Whampoa Group, it was impossible for him to continue holding shares in the Hutchison Whampoa Group. The most likely possibility was that he would withdraw funds to acquire other companies.

After all, 5% of the shares of the Hong Kong Land Development Group are already worth HK$5 million. HK$5 million can allow him to do a lot of things. How could he possibly keep the shares of the Hong Kong Land Development Group!

Now, the secondary market transaction volume of the Swire Properties is extremely low. If Li Jiacheng wants to sell it, he can either sell it to Lin Haoran or to a British consortium.

Obviously, the relationship between Li Ka-shing and Jardine Matheson was not that good. In fact, Li Ka-shing had coveted Wharf Holdings at first. After being discovered, the two sides had many confrontations. Finally, Jardine Matheson asked Shen Bi to persuade him to give up Wharf Holdings. Li Ka-shing had no choice but to sell his shares in Wharf Holdings to Bao Yugang.

Otherwise, the owner of Hutchison Whampoa today might not be Bao Yugang, but Li Ka-shing.

Therefore, although Jardine Matheson and Li Ka-shing are both at the top of Hong Kong's business community, their relationship is actually not that good.

As long as he takes over Li Ka-shing's 5% or so shares in the Hutchison Whampoa Group, it means that before the financing, the shares in the Hutchison Whampoa Group held by him will exceed 45%. Who can compete with him for the Hutchison Whampoa Group?
Of course, with the shares he controls now, even without Li Jiacheng’s 5% shares, it is not that important.

"Mr. Niu Bijian, before answering your question, I would like to know at what stage your mutual control plan for the Jardine Matheson Group has been implemented?" Lin Haoran asked a question.

“You may as well tell Mr. Lin that what we are preparing to do now is to increase our holdings in Hong Kong Land first. Currently, our Jardine Matheson Group holds a total of 20% of the shares of Hong Kong Land. Once the increase is successful, our shares in Hong Kong Land are expected to increase to 27.8%. In this way, our Jardine Matheson Group’s controlling stake in Hong Kong Land will be consolidated.

After Jardine Matheson increases its controlling stake in the Hong Kong Land Group, we will carry out the next plan, which is to allow the Hong Kong Land Group to also hold shares in Jardine Matheson, completely cutting off all external financial groups' covetousness towards Jardine Matheson except for you, Mr. Lin.

Of course, increasing Jardine Matheson's controlling stake in Hong Kong Land to 27.8% is far from our goal. In the future, we plan to let Jardine Matheson and Hong Kong Land hold about 40% of each other's shares. In this way, no other consortium can threaten us. These need to be planned step by step. My plan is to complete it within half a year, and even strive to complete it within this year!" In order to express his sincerity, Niu Bijian directly stated his plan.

In fact, even if he didn't say it, Jardine Matheson would need to announce the increase in its stake in Hutchison Whampoa in a few days. After all, both Jardine Matheson and Hutchison Whampoa are listed companies. They need to announce such an important matter to the public as soon as possible, otherwise they will violate securities-related laws and regulations, and the CSRC will also cause trouble for them.

In another world, by December 1980, Jardine Matheson announced that it and its subsidiary Jardine Securities already held 12% of the shares of Hong Kong Land Development, and Hong Kong Land Development also held 40% of the shares of Jardine Matheson. This meant that the plan to turn the tide had been completed by that time.

This world has changed slightly due to the appearance of Lin Haoran, but the general trend remains unchanged, and the mutual control plan is still proceeding as planned.

After hearing what Niu Bijian said, Lin Haoran was delighted.

He was surprised by how anxious Jardine Matheson was.

The mutual control will be completed within this year, and now it is already being prepared for October, which means that their plan is to complete it within these three months?
According to Niu Bijian, in the future, the Swire Group will control nearly 40% of the shares of Jardine Matheson.

What does this mean?
This means that once Lin Haoran takes over the Jardine Matheson Group, he will directly and indirectly control Jardine Matheson.

40% of the shares plus the 20% of Jardine Matheson shares he holds now, even if diluted, there are still more than ten points. By then, doesn't this mean that the shares of Jardine Matheson that he actually controls will exceed 50%?
In this way, how can these British financial groups compete with him?
Even if they eventually pull out the government, Governor-General MacLehose and the Prime Minister's wife, what is the use?

Unless their British consortium uses money to buy out the shares of Jardine Matheson & Co. held by the Hong Kong Land Group.

At that time, Lin Haoran will either take direct control of Jardine Matheson or sell the shares of Jardine Matheson to make a fortune. No matter which one he chooses, he will not lose money! (End of this chapter)