In Hong Kong, we build a global business empire

Acquire Hong Kong Telephone Company?

After listening to Lin Haoran's words, Ma Shimin suddenly realized that this was what his boss was planning.

He groaned for a moment, nodded and responded: "Regarding the proposal to acquire Xiangjiang Telephone Company, I fully support your plan.

Although Hong Kong Telephone Company is not a listed public utility company, it is better than a listed public utility company.

It is a high-quality asset with stable cash flow, along with listed public utilities such as Towngas and Hong Kong Electric. In particular, it has a virtual monopoly in the Hong Kong telecommunications market, and its annual profit margin and revenue growth are very stable.

After a brief pause, Ma added: “In fact, when I took over the Hong Kong Land Group, I had already formed a team to conduct an in-depth due diligence on Heung Kong Telephone and consider whether to continue to acquire Heung Kong Telephone Company.

But my energy has been mainly focused on real estate projects for some time, so this plan has been temporarily shelved.

Now that the group has sufficient funds, since you have brought this up again, I can immediately restart the acquisition process. I will have the investment banking team update the valuation model within this week and then acquire Hong Kong Telephone Company. "

In the past two years, many industries in Hong Kong, an international metropolis, have been affected by the oil crisis, but there are exceptions.

In addition to real estate companies that were not affected by this crisis, there are four companies that have remained standing and have been almost unaffected by any impact over the past few decades no matter how the market fluctuates.

The four companies are China Light and Power, Hong Kong Electric, China Gas and Hong Kong Telephone. During the oil crisis, they were like "golden bells" and risks seemed to have nothing to do with them.

This is mainly due to the fact that they are closely linked to the daily operations of the city of Hong Kong, ensuring the smooth operation of the city day and night. They are like daily necessities, indispensable when needed, and are necessities that citizens cannot live without.

In this way, even if there is any crisis in the market, they will not be affected at all and will still make as much money as they should.

Among these four companies, Hong Kong Electric Group and China Gas Company have been acquired by Lin Haoran, and Lin Haoran has become their actual controller.

The remaining China Light and Power and Hong Kong Telephone have not yet been acquired by him.

The reason for not acquiring China Light and Power is naturally because Lin Haoran has already acquired Hong Kong Electric Group. If he continues to target China Light and Power, he will definitely be stopped by the Securities and Futures Commission because this will involve monopolizing the electricity industry, and the Hong Kong government will never allow this situation to occur.

As for Hong Kong Telephone, he had not been very interested in it before, because his target at that time was Hong Kong Electric Group and China Gas Company. In order to make Jardine Matheson shift its target, he suggested that Jardine Matheson should target Hong Kong Telephone Company.

But this time, after reaching a cooperation with Motorola, his interest increased greatly.

Founded in 1925, Hong Kong Telephone Company focuses on the construction and operation of Hong Kong's fixed-line telephone network and is now the main monopoly of local fixed-line services.

This year, Britain's Cable & Wireless attempted to acquire Hong Kong Telephone Company, but because the Hong Kong Land Development Group was in the process of acquiring Hong Kong Electric Group, it was ultimately defeated by Lam Ho Yin.

At this time, Lin Haoran encouraged Jardine Matheson to acquire the Hong Kong Telephone Company.

In the end, Jardine Matheson allowed the Hong Kong Land Group to acquire the Hong Kong Telephone Company alone.

This also led to the failure of Britain's Cable & Wireless, which was originally planning to acquire the Hong Kong Telephone Company.

After that, Jardine Matheson Group failed again when competing with Lam Ho Yin for China Gas Company.

During this process, the Hong Kong Land Group also suspended its acquisition of the Hong Kong Telephone Company.

To date, the Hong Kong Telephone Company has maintained the status quo.

Things seem complicated, but in fact they are not simple at all.

Jardine Matheson asked the Hong Kong Land Group to acquire the Hong Kong Telephone Company. Although it ultimately failed, the acquisition of 10 million shares made Lin Haoran, as the current boss of the Hong Kong Land Group, the ultimate beneficiary.

"What is the current stock market value of Hong Kong Telephone Company? Also, what is their equity structure?" Lin Haoran asked again after a brief thought.

Ma Shimin did not think much and responded immediately: "Boss, Hong Kong Telephone Company was originally a listed giant ranked in the top 30 of the Hong Kong stock market.

However, as the market value of real estate companies has generally increased this year, although the market value of Hong Kong Telephone Company has also increased, its ranking has dropped slightly and it is ranked 38th among Hong Kong listed companies. Its current market value is approximately HK$24 billion, and the average price per share is between HK$26 and HK$26.5.

In addition, the management of Hong Kong Telephone Company is similar to that of Hong Kong Electric Group, both of which are controlled by a team of professional managers, and shareholders do not have excessive controlling rights within the company.

Our Hong Kong Land Group currently holds 10.95 million shares of Hong Kong Telephone Company, accounting for approximately %, making us the company's second largest shareholder.

The largest shareholder holds 1534 million shares, accounting for approximately 16.8%, and is held by a British person in Hong Kong.

If we want to become a major shareholder of Hong Kong Telephone Company, it is actually not difficult, but if we want to directly acquire or even control the company, we need to hold at least more than 30% of the shares.

In addition, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission has begun to implement new merger and acquisition regulations, and holding more than 35% of the shares will trigger the merger and acquisition regulations. "

After listening to this, Lin Haoran nodded slightly, expressing his satisfaction with Ma Shimin's report.

"In that case, then you should acquire 34.9% of the shares. Jardine Matheson is good at surprise acquisitions. You have worked at Jardine Matheson for so many years, and I think you should be proficient in this. I hope you can complete the acquisition of Hong Kong Telephone Company as quickly as possible, and you will manage the company afterwards. At the same time, the joint venture with Motorola will also be your responsibility!" Lin Haoran said after a little thought.

As a boss, he naturally doesn't have to do everything himself. He can just leave the negotiated matters to his subordinates to handle properly.

"Don't worry, boss. Please leave this matter to me. With the current stock situation of Hong Kong Telephone Company, once we launch a thundering attack, Hong Kong Telephone Company will not be able to escape from our grasp!" Ma Shimin said confidently.

In fact, it is true.

Currently, the Hong Kong Land Group holds a 10.95% stake in Hong Kong Telephone Company, which is only about 34.9% away from controlling 24% of the shares.

Given that the current total market value of Heung Kong Telephone Company is approximately HK$24 billion, this means that the Hong Kong Land Group only needs to invest an additional approximately HK$6 million to directly take over Heung Kong Telephone Company.

At that time, relying on the shareholding ratio of the Hong Kong Land Group, the board of directors of Hong Kong Telephone Company will have to obey its command.

In this way, the Hong Kong Telephone Company was naturally completely controlled by the Hong Kong Land Group.

After chatting with Ma Shimin for nearly half an hour, Lin Haoran hung up the phone.

It has been half a month since he came to the United States. Now, since everything at Huanyu Investment Company has been arranged almost and there is nothing to do here for the time being, it is time for him to return to Hong Kong.

Life in the United States is actually quite boring. The most important thing is that there are too many people with guns here, and the secret guards cannot provide him with 100% security like in Hong Kong. So in many cases, for his own safety, he almost always stays in the hotel.

This made him feel extremely bored in the United States.

Therefore, after communicating with Ma Shimin, he planned to return to Hong Kong in two days.

On the other side, in Hong Kong, under the instructions of Lin Haoran, Ma Shimin quickly took action.

Because Ma Shimin knew very well that this acquisition was not only a major change to Hong Kong Telephone Company, but also a key step for the Hong Kong Land Group to expand its business territory and enhance its strength.

After separating from Jardine Matheson, the Hong Kong Land Group had to pursue diversification to the end.

The acquisition of Hong Kong Telephone Company will obviously help expand the strength of the Hong Kong Land Group.

Most importantly, Hong Kong Telephone Company will not incur losses.

In other words, acquiring Hong Kong Telephone Company is very safe!

Ma Shimin first convened the finance, legal, and investment banking teams of the Swire Group for an emergency meeting.

At the meeting, he elaborated on the plan to acquire Hong Kong Telephone Company and assigned various tasks.

The financial team is responsible for raising funds to ensure sufficient funds during the acquisition process;

The legal team is responsible for reviewing relevant legal documents to ensure that the acquisition is legal and compliant;

The investment banking team is responsible for updating valuation models, formulating acquisition strategies, and finding the right time to launch a "thunder strike."

A day later, on December 12, Ma Shimin was sitting in an office.

After all tasks have been completed, the secret acquisition will begin today.

To this end, under Lin Haoran's instructions, a team from the Hong Kong branch of Universal Investment Company was urgently dispatched to the Hong Kong Land Group to assist the Hong Kong Land Group in acquiring the Hong Kong Telephone Company!

With the addition of the team from the Hong Kong branch of Universal Investment Company, the acquisition of Hong Kong Telephone Company by the Hong Kong Land Group has been further strengthened.

This team brings rich market experience and accurate data analysis, providing strong support for the execution of the acquisition plan.

According to the pre-listing survey, the final transaction price on the previous trading day was HK$26.21 per share. Before the stock market opened today, the trading team also counted that there were about 30 million orders for shares below HK$1438 per share.

For this mission, they need to acquire 2187 million shares, plus the 34.9 million shares they already hold, to complete their shareholding ratio of %, thus completing the acquisition of Hong Kong Telephone Company!
That is to say, once they launch a thundering attack after the stock market opens, they will absorb all the orders on the stock market. If all goes well, they only need to gradually absorb more than 7 million shares to successfully achieve their goal!

The task is arduous, but given the current strong strength of the Hong Kong Land Group, this challenge is not insurmountable.

As long as the strategy is right and the execution is precise, success is almost certain.

Even if we cannot achieve the established acquisition target 100% today, we are actually very close.

By then, with the proportion of shares held by the Hong Kong Land Group, it will be difficult for any company or shareholder to shake the Hong Kong Land Group's controlling position in the Hong Kong Telephone Company. (End of this chapter)