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Chapter 576: Targeting Wheelock? Swapping shares with Wharf?

Even if some media laughed at Bao Yugang's acquisition of Wharf Holdings, it was purely "the shipping king won at a loss, and Hutchison Whampoa cut off its arm with a smile."

What this means is that although Bao Yugang won, the price he paid was too high. Although Hutchison Whampoa lost Wharf Holdings, it took advantage of the time when Bao Yugang raised the price of Wharf Holdings to HK$105 per share and secretly sold all the shares it held to Wharf Holdings, thereby making huge profits.

However, even in the face of ridicule from some media, Bao Yugang did not respond. He still focused on low-key development, conserving his energy, and quietly recovering his vitality.

An ambitious man like Bao Yugang would naturally not be satisfied with just acquiring Hutchison Whampoa.

Hearing Lin Haoran's question and looking at Lin Haoran's acquisition cases in the past two or three years, Bao Yugang couldn't help but sigh.

It would be great if he could be like Lin Haoran, acquiring a large company every time and then quickly having the strength to acquire the next company.

But now, Hutchison Whampoa has temporarily restricted his ambitions.

No, it should be said that the Harbour City limited his ambitions.

However, the importance of Harbour City to Wharf Holdings Group is such that it can be regarded as Wharf Holdings Group’s core business in the future.

Therefore, he had no choice but to continue working hard on the Harbour City project, hoping that it would become a shining pearl in the future business empire of the Bao family to make up for the huge price paid for the acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa.

In the future, Harbour City will indeed become Wharf's largest money-making business. Until the 21s, Harbour City will be one of the most important industries under the Wharf Group.

"This is what I admire most about you. When you acquired Hong Kong Electric Group, Hongkong Land Group and other companies, it seemed that you were not hurt at all. I wish I could be like you." Bao Yugang couldn't help but sigh.

"Uncle Bao, if there's anything I can do to help you, please let me know. I'll do my best to help within my ability!" Lin Haoran said with a smile when he heard that.

Hearing Lin Haoran's words, Bao Yugang paused slightly, and an idea suddenly appeared in his mind.

With Lin Haoran's current status, he has become the most sought-after entrepreneur in Hong Kong. His strength has long surpassed him, and now he is even widening the gap with his Bao family.

If Lin Haoran could be brought into the Wharf's lineup, Wharf might be able to develop faster.

The most important thing is that Bao Yugang has set his sights on another company - Wheelock & Co.!

The Swire Group holds 11.8% of Wheelock's shares, making it the third largest shareholder of Wheelock after the Zhang family and John Madden, the head of Wheelock.

If Lin Haoran were allowed to exchange his shares in Wheelock & Wharf for those in Wharf Holdings, Lin Haoran would not only become a shareholder of Wharf Holdings, but would also lay the groundwork for Wharf Holdings to acquire Wheelock & Wharf.

In Bao Yugang's view, Wheelock & Co. has similar businesses to Wharf Holdings, mainly engaging in real estate investment, shipping, retail department stores and trade.

If Wharf Holdings acquires Wheelock, it will be able to make up for the shortcomings of Wharf Holdings' business and make Wharf Holdings a diversified, comprehensive large-scale enterprise group.

After successfully acquiring Wharf Holdings, Bao Yugang had actually set his sights on Wheelock & Co.

However, Wheelock & Co. was now firmly in the hands of John Madden. After the successful acquisition of Wharf Holdings, he was heavily in debt and was unable to take any action against Wheelock & Co.

If the shares of Hutchison Whampoa held by the Hong Kong Land Group are acquired by Wharf Holdings, it will bring many benefits to Bao Yugang.

First, if Lin Haoran, the newly crowned richest man in Hong Kong, becomes a major shareholder of Wharf Holdings, Wharf Holdings will certainly gain a lot of benefits through resource sharing;
Second, the Hong Kong Land Group holds a large number of shares in Wheelock. Even if Bao Yugang successfully recovers in the future and wants to take action against Wheelock, if Lin Haoran also takes a fancy to Wheelock, Bao Yugang will find it difficult to succeed.

Third, if Lin Haoran agreed, then the shares of Wheelock & Co. would belong to Wharf Holdings. In this way, Wharf Holdings’ future acquisition of Wheelock & Co. would be a natural outcome, greatly reducing the difficulty and obstacles of the acquisition.

As for whether Lin Haoran would pose a threat to their Bao family after becoming a shareholder of Hutchison Whampoa, Bao Yugang was not worried at all.

After all, the Bao family now owns 49% of Hutchison Whampoa shares.

If the critical point for acquisition had not been below 50% at the beginning, his Bao family would have increased their shares to a controlling position of 51%.

Therefore, Bao Yugang was very relieved about whether Lin Haoran would take over the controlling stake of Hutchison Whampoa.

The more Bao Yugang thought about it, the more he felt that this plan was feasible. He looked at Lin Haoran with burning eyes and said slowly: "Haoran, I have an idea that I want to discuss with you.

As you know, the Hong Kong Land Group holds a lot of shares in Wheelock & Wharf. I was thinking, can you exchange the Wheelock & Wharf shares held by the Hong Kong Land Group for the shares of Wharf Holdings and become a shareholder of Wharf Holdings?

In this way, our cooperation will surely create a bigger market in the future."

Lin Haoran was slightly stunned. He didn't expect Bao Yugang to come up with such an idea.

However, he soon understood Bao Yugang's intention.

After all, the two biggest things Bao Yugang did in the 1980s were the acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa and the acquisition of Wheelock & Co.

However, the acquisition of Wheelock & Co. would probably be delayed until the mid-1980s, because by that time, Bao Yugang had gradually gathered his strength and was preparing to continue his expansion with great ambition.

Therefore, Lin Haoran was not surprised that Bao Yugang had set his sights on Wheelock & Co.

What surprised him was that the other party actually wanted him to become a shareholder of Hutchison Whampoa.

To be honest, he actually had little interest in Wheelock & Co. The reason was that Wheelock & Co. had been constantly dismantling and rebuilding the group's land and properties, selling them at high prices during the real estate boom, and then using the funds to actively develop the shipping industry, ordering a large number of bulk carriers to expand its fleet.

Among the ships sold by the Bao family's Global Shipping Group in the past two years, some were sold to Defeng & Co.

The reason why Wheelock & Co. did this was that its chairman, John Madden, lacked confidence in the future of Hong Kong and was worried that Hong Kong would be returned to China sooner or later. Therefore, he implemented a strategic transfer of assets and made it "float on the high seas" to be on the safe side.

Unfortunately, it was precisely because of this strategy that Wheelock & Co. gradually became heavily in debt during the subsequent shipping industry depression.

This is also the reason why Lin Haoran has no interest in the current Wheelock & Co.

In another world, Bao Yugang also happened to recover, and Bao Yugang seized the opportunity to successfully acquire the company, eventually making Defeng Foreign Trade an important piece of the puzzle in the Bao family's business empire.

But at this moment, facing Bao Yugang's proposal, although Lin Haoran had many ideas in his mind, he also knew that this was an opportunity for cooperation that could not be missed.

Even though he had little interest in Wheelock & Co., the potential benefits and influence that came with becoming a shareholder of Wharf Holdings were definitely hard for him to refuse.

Because, although he looked down on Wheelock & Co., he was very interested in Wharf Holdings, especially Harbour City, which was owned by Wharf Holdings.

In his previous life, Lin Haoran once read a news report about Harbour City.

The content of the news is actually very simple. It is about Harbour City, the core shopping mall of the Wharf Group. In 2024, its revenue reached HK$91 billion and its profit was HK$71.1 billion.

In other words, the profits that this shopping mall brought to Hutchison Whampoa were astonishing.

In the previous year, that is, 2023, Harbour City’s profit was almost the same as that in 2024.

Relying on rent collection, the company makes a profit of more than 7 billion Hong Kong dollars a year, which means tens of billions of Hong Kong dollars in ten years, and it can remain prosperous for decades. This shows how amazing the profits this industry brings to Hutchison Whampoa are.

After all, Harbour City’s prime location has already determined the foundation for its enduring prosperity.

It enjoys the core beauty of Victoria Harbour and has convenient surrounding transportation. After its opening, it has gathered many high-end brands and various specialty stores, whether it is shopping, dining or entertainment, it can meet the needs of consumers at different levels.

Lin Haoran naturally understood that once he became a shareholder of Hutchison Whampoa, he would have the opportunity to deeply participate in the development of Harbour City and share this huge business dividend.

Speaking of which, Lin Haoran has long been coveting this Harbour City.

However, when Bao Yu first acquired Hutchison Whampoa, Lin Haoran did not have any strong financial strength, and even the money for stock trading was obtained by borrowing.

Even his first pot of gold was earned by Bao Yugang when he took advantage of the fight between Bao Yugang and Jardine Matheson.

Therefore, at that time, he had no qualifications to covet Hutchison Whampoa.

By the time he had gained the strength, Bao Yugang had already seized the initiative in the battle for Kowloon Warehouse. Even if he went in again, he would return empty-handed.

Not only that, if they really enter the market forcefully, they will eventually offend the two powerful forces, Bao Yugang and Jardine Matheson.

After Bao Yugang completely took control of Hutchison Whampoa, he realized that he had no chance at all.

So, in the end, he could only miss out on Hutchison Whampoa with regret.

Now, he did not expect that Bao Yugang would take the initiative to ask him to become a shareholder of Hutchison Whampoa.

However, with the current shareholding structure of Hutchison Whampoa, he has no chance of taking control of Hutchison Whampoa.

However, it would be a very good idea to become a major shareholder of Hutchison Whampoa.

In fact, the current share price of Hutchison Whampoa has fallen by more than ten times compared to the share price when Bao Yugang was competing with Jardine Matheson!
When Pao acquired Wharf Holdings, the price ranged from HK$36 to HK$110 per share, which made Wharf Holdings' market value surpass that of Hong Kong Land Development.

Of course, everyone knows that the stock price is seriously inflated.

It is also because of this that after the end of the Wharf Holdings' additional acquisition war, Wharf Holdings' share price fell rapidly, falling again and again!
Today, it has fallen to HK$6 per share.

Before this, if he secretly purchased shares of Wharf Holdings, it might have caused Bao Yugang's dissatisfaction.

After all, he acquired so many shares, and each one was either privatized directly or he seized absolute controlling rights.

If he really took action on Wharf Holdings' stocks, Bao Yugang would definitely have all kinds of thoughts.

Given his relationship with Bao Yugang, he really didn't want Bao Yugang to have any misunderstandings about him.

After all, Bao Yugang can be considered his benefactor in the business world.

But now that Bao Yugang has invited him to invest, it will be a good opportunity for him to become an important shareholder of Hutchison Whampoa in a legitimate way!

Moreover, he had another idea, but this matter was of great importance and required Bao Yugang's consent.

(End of this chapter)