In Hong Kong, we build a global business empire

In April, Citibank continued to negotiate with several fund companies and investment companies.

10% of Toyota Motor shares is not Lin Haoran’s ultimate goal, nor is it Citibank’s highest goal.

Among many business tycoons, Lin Haoran's debt ratio is definitely the lowest.

It is precisely because of this that Citibank believes that Lin Haoran has the ability to launch a full acquisition of Toyota, let alone acquire a portion of Toyota's shares.

Therefore, Citibank was not worried at all that Lin Haoran would not be able to pay in the end.

In this business, the bigger the amount, the better.

On April 4, another piece of news came from the United States.

This news is completely bad news for the Japanese market.

The US-Japan automobile trade negotiations have been going on for more than a month since they began, but because both sides refused to give in, the negotiations have ultimately made no substantial progress.

This deadlock has attracted widespread attention from the global automotive industry for more than a month, especially for those companies trying to expand their influence in the US and Japanese markets. Any final negotiation results will undoubtedly have a profound impact on their future strategies.

At 15 o'clock in the afternoon on the th, local time in the United States, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives held a press conference.

At the press conference, the speaker stressed that Japanese cars have seriously disrupted the U.S. auto market, and pointed out that the number of cars exported by Japan to the United States far exceeds the United States' exports to Japan, causing a trade imbalance, a sharp drop in U.S. auto production, and a large number of workers unemployed.

The Speaker called on the U.S. government to take tougher measures, including but not limited to raising tariffs and setting import quotas, to protect domestic automakers from unfair competition.

If Japan does not take the initiative to restrict its automobile exports to the United States, then the United States will pass legislation to forcibly restrict Japanese automobile imports!

As soon as this news came out, it once again caused panic in the Japanese auto industry.

The share prices of Japanese automobile companies such as Toyota, Honda, and Nissan continued to fall from their originally stable prices. Although the overall market did not fall much, many investors have become concerned about this matter.

In contrast, the stock prices of major American automobile companies such as Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler have all soared.

This press conference held by the U.S. Congress was obviously aimed at the U.S.-Japan automobile trade negotiations.

The negotiations have been at a stalemate, and they naturally cannot just let it go, so now they have started to directly threaten Japan.

At this moment, Japanese investors are even more pessimistic about the future of domestic automobile brands.

Originally, some people believed that since the relationship between Japan and the United States was so good, the final result might not be as serious as they imagined.

But now that the U.S. Congress has directly threatened, how good can the consequences be?

Those fund companies or investment companies that sold Toyota shares early on breathed a sigh of relief at this moment.

Instead, the fund companies and investment companies that had been negotiating with Citibank were in a panic at this moment.

They took the initiative to contact Citibank, hoping to discuss further, fearing that it was too late and Citibank would not buy.

Naturally, this incident also gave Citibank an opportunity to use leverage to push down prices.

These fund companies or investment companies simply dare not sell in the secondary market.

During this period, the stock prices of major Japanese automobile companies generally have more sell orders than buy orders.

If these fund companies or investment companies make a move through the market, they may not be able to do so smoothly unless they lower the price.

But doing so would quickly drive the company's stock price down.

This is completely different from what Lin Haoran had done before, when he asked employees of Galaxy Securities to sell off Sony shares.

Sony's stock price has been rising continuously due to various positive factors, resulting in high trading volume. Therefore, even if stocks worth tens of billions of yen are sold, as long as they are not all sold within a day or two, it will not have any impact on the stock price.

In contrast, investors are afraid to buy major Japanese automobile brands because of the impact of the recent US-Japan automobile trade negotiations, for fear that they will be the ones to take the blame.

Fortunately, there are no investors who are willing to sell at low prices at all costs, otherwise the share prices of these Japanese cars would have fallen by who knows how much.

Therefore, it is very difficult for these fund companies to make moves through the stock market.

"Mr. Lin, are you sure you want to continue buying Toyota shares? If you stop now, it's not too late. You should know the news from the United States. I think Mr. Lin should be able to imagine the consequences.

If you want to terminate the acquisition, I will ask Citibank's negotiation team to stop negotiating with those fund companies or investment companies. But if you still want to continue the acquisition, I will use this opportunity to negotiate a lower price for you! "When those fund companies or investment companies took the initiative to contact Citibank, Citibank's general manager Yasushi Kawai also called Lin Haoran to ask.

"Keep buying. The more shares the better! Of course, taking advantage of such a good opportunity, I do hope that Citibank can negotiate a more satisfactory transaction price for me. Although the previous transaction was slightly lower than the market price, you know, it was not actually much lower!" Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

The press conference of the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives was simply an assist for him.

Ever since the last deal with the last fund company was concluded, there has been no practical good news from Citibank. Although there are several companies in talks, the transaction prices they offered did not satisfy Lin Haoran. These fund companies or investment companies want to trade at the market price or even a higher price, which Lin Haoran naturally disagrees with.

Originally, Lin Haoran thought that he could only buy these shares at a higher price in the end, but he did not expect that such an accident would occur at this time.

Good, it's just great.

From the actions of these fund companies, we can see how strong their sense of urgency is now.

"Don't worry, Mr. Lin. I will do my best to get you the best price." Kawai Yasushi assured solemnly on the other end of the phone.

With Lin Haoran's clear instructions, he now had a clear idea of ​​how to deal with those fund companies or investment companies.

"By the way, Mr. Kawai, I want to know how many shares the fund companies and investment companies that have contacted Citibank and hope to sell Toyota shares have in total?" Lin Haoran thought for a moment and asked.

At this time, those who take the initiative to contact us will basically be able to close the deal in the end, unless something unexpected happens.

As for whether there will be more in the future, it is not clear. Anyway, knowing this data, he will have an idea of ​​how many Toyota shares he will eventually control.

"Mr. Lin, more than ten hours have passed since the announcement in the United States. During this period, a total of three fund companies and one investment company have contacted us, and these four companies hold a total of 3% of Toyota Motor shares." Yasuya Kawai quickly gave the specific data.

"Okay, thank you for your help. I look forward to your good news!"

After hanging up the phone, Lin Haoran couldn't help but laugh.

Previously, Citibank had acquired 10.11% of Toyota Motor shares for him.

The company that took the initiative to contact Citibank this time and hoped to sell its shares has a share of 7.96%.

In other words, once Citibank successfully acquires the shares of these four companies this time, Lin Haoran's stake in Toyota Motor will be as high as 18.07%!

Lin Haoran knew very well what this proportion of shares represented.

After putting the receiver back on the phone, Lin Haoran took out a document from the drawer of his desk and finally turned to the middle page.

Listed above are the current major shareholders of Toyota Motor.

Among them, the fund companies, investment companies, etc. that have negotiated with Citibank during this period are all on this list.

The largest shareholder is the Toyota family, the founding family of Toyota Motor, which currently holds 15.32% of Toyota Motor’s shares.

The second largest shareholder is controlled by the Mitsui family, which currently holds 10.49% of Toyota Motor. The Mitsui family is also one of the top three chaebol families in Japan and is very powerful.

These data are of great significance to Lin Haoran.

They indicate that once Citibank successfully helps him acquire Toyota shares held by the four fund companies or investment companies, he will become the largest shareholder of Toyota.

Under extremely strict confidentiality measures, with only a very small number of people inside Citibank knowing about it, Lin Haoran is about to quietly become the largest shareholder of Toyota Motor, a national brand that the Japanese are deeply proud of.

Once this matter is exposed, it will definitely cause an uproar in Japan and shock the whole world.

However, Lin Haoran had no intention of leaking the news.

He was of course clear about his purpose. This time, his investment in Toyota was just to make a quick buck.

In other words, he only held these shares temporarily and had no real intention to acquire Toyota Motor.

Moreover, he also clearly realized that even if he became a major shareholder, he would not be able to control Toyota because other shareholders would join forces to fight against him and would not give him any chance at all. Even the Japanese government would definitely intervene to prevent his acquisition.

He also wants to continue his layout in Japan before the Japanese economic bubble occurs. Naturally, he will not offend everyone in Japan. That would be a waste of time!
Therefore, he had no intention of getting involved in this complicated dispute and felt there was no need to take the risk.

For him, it was enough to keep a low profile and eventually make steady money from the surge in Toyota Motor's stock price.

Now, what Lin Haoran is most concerned about is how high Toyota's stock price will eventually rise after the results of the US-Japan auto trade negotiations come out. (End of this chapter)