In Hong Kong, we build a global business empire

Chapter 473 Traitors, all traitors!
It was late at night, and the high-rise buildings on both sides of the Hong Kong River gradually disappeared into darkness. Even the sparse vehicles on the streets became less visible.

However, on the 32nd floor of Jardine House in Central, the lights were still as bright as day.

There were broken vases and scattered documents on the floor of the office, a mess that showed that the place had just experienced a storm.

Henry Keswick stood in front of the window with a grim face, his eyes piercing through the night as if to penetrate into the Connaught Building, which was the headquarters of the Jardine Matheson Group.

His clenched fists trembled slightly, revealing the anger in his heart.

Bullying goes too far, simply bullying others goes too far!
"How could this happen?! More than 700 people! They actually poached more than 700 of our elite employees!" Henry Keswick turned around angrily and roared at his brother Simon Keswick and the general manager of Jardine Securities who were standing in front of him.

Simon Keswick's face turned gray and he said nothing.

Although he is the current boss of Jardine Matheson, he still seems a little lacking in confidence in front of his elder brother Henry Keswick, the former boss of Jardine Matheson.

After all, Henry Keswick had been running the business at Jardine Matheson for many years and had a solid foundation, and he was a major contributor to the rise of the company.

The most important thing is that Henry Keswick is now the head of the Keswick family. Simon Keswick can take the position of the head of Jardine Matheson thanks to Henry Keswick's support behind the scenes.

These days, Simon Keswick has been running around looking for a suitable new owner for Jardine Matheson Securities.

But who could have thought that while he was busy looking for a suitable buyer, his own nest was attacked.

Without these more than 700 elite employees, it is obvious that Jardine Securities may find it difficult to continue its normal operations.

What awaits them next may be a sharp drop in stock prices, inability to complete business, sky-high breach of contract compensation, etc.

At this time, it was a question whether Jardine Securities could sell it for HK$100 million, let alone HK$500 million or HK$600 million.

The general manager looked terrified, lowered his head, and replied in a trembling voice: "Yes... yes, Mr. Simon, it happened too suddenly. Vice President Allen... he secretly planned all this."

"Alan! The traitor!" Henry Keswick gritted his teeth.

He never expected that the deputy general manager of Jardine Securities would betray him at this critical moment.

"What should we do now? Can our business still operate normally?" Henry Keswick asked.

The general manager was silent for a while, then answered cautiously: "I'm afraid... I'm afraid it will be a bit difficult. These resigned employees are the backbone of our company. Their departure will deal a serious blow to our business."

Simon Keswick's face turned even uglier when he heard this. He knew that this incident was not just a simple brain drain, but also a major blow to Jardine Matheson Securities and even the entire Jardine Matheson Company. If measures were not taken quickly, the consequences would be disastrous.

At this moment, the office door was suddenly pushed open, and a middle-aged man in a suit and tie walked in hurriedly.

He was the legal advisor of Jardine Matheson. Two hours ago, he went to the Kangle Building on behalf of Jardine Matheson, hoping to find the other party for negotiations. However, he also had a solemn expression on his face.

It goes without saying that the outcome of the negotiations will not be good.

"Mr. Henry, Mr. Simon, I met Mr. Ma Shimin and Mr. Allen at the Kangle Building. Their response to me was to let us sue them. They would pay the penalty for breach of contract, but it was impossible to stop poaching people!"

"Traitors, all traitors!" Henry Keswick once again picked up a stack of documents from the bookcase and threw them to the ground.

Ma Shimin, former executive director of Jardine Matheson.

Allen is currently the Deputy General Manager of Jardine Securities.

As a result, they joined forces to poach most of the elites from Jardine Securities.

What is the most valuable thing about Jardine Securities? These elite employees!
Without them, how can Jardine Securities continue to operate?
The atmosphere in the office instantly dropped to freezing point, and everyone's face was filled with solemnity and despair.

Henry Keswick was breathing heavily, his eyes bloodshot, pacing back and forth in the small space like an enraged lion.

"We can't just sit there and wait for death!" Henry Keswick finally stopped and calmed down. He looked at his brother and said, "Simon, immediately contact all the employees you can still contact and see if they can give up job-hopping. We can promise them a salary increase first. We will give them the same amount as the Landmark Group. I think they won't change jobs if the salary is the same."

Jardine Matheson had been under Simon Keswick's management for only two or three months, but the company had already become a mess. At this moment, Henry Keswick had already considered taking control of Jardine Matheson again.

Recalling the decision to oust Niu Bijian, Henry Keswick could not help but feel regretful.

At that time, he should have taken control of Jardine Matheson personally, but out of consideration for training a family heir, he handed over this important task to his younger brother Simon Keswick.

He originally hoped that Simon would be able to grow up quickly, become independent, and reduce his burden on the family and the business.

But what was the result? They framed Lin Haoran as revenge, but it didn’t work out. Jardine Matheson was not only fined HK$5 million, but also lost face.

We asked them to sell Jardine Securities, but they didn't even know their base was raided.

Looking at Simon Keswick, he felt a little disappointed with him.

When he was in charge of Jardine Matheson, Jardine Matheson was so powerful in Hong Kong that even the Bank of Hong Kong had to bow down to it.

However, in the few years after he stepped down, under the leadership of Niu Bijian, Jardine Matheson lost Wharf Holdings, Hong Kong Properties and others one after another.

Even a few months ago, Lin Haoran directly took away the controlling rights.

In the end, although he used all his connections to force Lin Haoran to give up his controlling stake in Jardine Matheson, the company also suffered heavy losses.

Now, they are forced to completely evacuate Hong Kong.

Henry Keswick was indeed unwilling to accept this.

As the controlling shareholder of Jardine Matheson, the Keswick family has always regarded Jardine Matheson as their own and would not allow others to interfere.

But now, there is no point in blaming this or that. The most important thing is to solve the current problems.

Perhaps what he regrets most now is that he should not have thought of selling Jardine Securities.

However, just like an arrow that has left the bow, once it is shot, it can only move forward and cannot look back.

Before Simon could speak, the legal advisor who had just returned shook his head and said, "Mr. Henry, forget about contacting those employees and getting them to change their minds!"

Henry Keswick immediately looked at him and asked, "Why?"

“These more than 700 employees have signed new contracts with Huanyu Investment Company. The liquidated damages are ten times that of Jardine Securities. This means that if we want to poach all of them, we will not only have to significantly increase their salaries, but also bear a huge amount of contractual compensation.

The compensation alone will be more than 300 million Hong Kong dollars. Obviously, they have been prepared for this." The legal advisor said with a wry smile.

As soon as these words were spoken, the scene suddenly became unusually quiet.

It’s absolutely ruthless! The other party was too ruthless!
Henry Keswick's face darkened again, and his eyes flashed with icy coldness.

He didn't expect that the other party had set up such a careful plan. Not only did they poach his people, but they also made them sign a contract with a high penalty for breach of contract.

"300 million Hong Kong dollars..." He repeated the number in a low voice, his tone full of reluctance and anger, "How dare they! How dare they treat our Jardine Matheson Company like this!"

The legal advisor shook his head helplessly and said, "Mr. Henry, the current situation is very unfavorable to us. The Hong Kong Land Group and Huanyu Investment Company are obviously well prepared. They have seen that the elite employees of our Jardine Securities Company cannot resist the temptation of high salaries. In addition, we are more worried now that there are more than 200 elite employees left in the company. Once these people change jobs, then our Jardine Securities Company can declare a closure."

Simon Keswick was completely at a loss at this moment. He looked at his brother, hoping that he could come up with a solution.

However, Henry Keswick just clenched his fists tightly and stared at the ground, as if he was thinking about something.

At this moment, they had never thought about why Lin Haoran would treat them like this if they didn't want to take revenge on him.

Originally, Lin Haoran didn't think much of Jardine Matheson Securities. When the Henry Keswick family wanted to redeem Jardine Matheson and negotiated with Lin Haoran, he only asked for the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Kwai Chung Pier, etc.

However, Jardine Matheson Securities was never mentioned because he felt that the reason why Jardine Matheson Securities could have such a high market value was entirely due to the support of Jardine Matheson Company behind the scenes, which enabled Jardine Matheson Securities to perform very well and thus increase its stock price. The core value was the professional level of their employees.

But now, almost all the core employees have been poached. How much actual value is left of Jardine Securities?

At this time, even if Jardine Matheson wanted to sell off Jardine Securities, no one would be interested in it.

Although there are many people employed in the financial industry in Hong Kong, it is not easy to recruit elites, and they are basically all in major financial companies.

Unless, they also follow the example of the Swire Group this time and directly poach people from Wal-Mart, Baoyuan Investment and others with high salaries.

However, this is obviously unrealistic.

Now, they are all trying to find a way to sell Jardine Securities, so how could they afford to poach people with high salaries?

The most important thing is that once they do this, they will completely offend the other party.

There is no solution, absolutely no solution!
(End of this chapter)