In Hong Kong, we build a global business empire

"No, we must find a way to minimize the impact of this incident on Huifeng Bank!" Shen Bi murmured as he looked at the fax message from the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

From the moment Jardine Matheson was driven out of Hong Kong by Lin Haoran, Shen Bi was already clear that Lin Haoran's dominance was inevitable.

After all, when they were secretly competing with Jardine Matheson for the position of British overlord in Hong Kong, Huifeng Bank could only resort to various means.

Even so, Huifeng Bank only slightly suppressed Jardine Matheson, and did not cause much substantial damage to the overall strength of Jardine Matheson.

Although Bao Yugang took over Wharf Holdings with the help of Huifeng Bank, Jardine Matheson took the opportunity to sell Wharf Holdings shares at an inflated price and obtained a considerable return.

Therefore, in reality, Jardine Matheson only lost a small round in its struggle with Bank of Hong Kong, and did not suffer any serious damage.

But as soon as Lin Haoran took action, the situation became completely different.

He accurately saw through the weaknesses of Jardine Matheson and took advantage of the complex situation of mutual shareholding between Jardine Matheson and Hutchison Whampoa to quickly acquire the Hutchison Whampoa Group, thereby counterattacking Jardine Matheson.

If it weren't for the mediation of various forces, forcing Lin Haoran to give up his control over Jardine Matheson, both Jardine Matheson and the Hong Kong Land Group would have already become Lin Haoran's possession.

Although the British financial consortium finally succeeded in redeeming Jardine Matheson, the price they paid for it was extremely heavy. The Hong Kong Land Group was successfully privatized by Lin Haoran, and the shares of Jardine Matheson controlled by Lin Haoran forced the British financial consortium to buy them at prices higher than the market price.

Faced with such a strong and cunning opponent like Lin Haoran, the controllers behind Jardine Matheson have now become completely disheartened and have chosen to withdraw from Hong Kong, the land that once made them rich.

Even their Huifeng Bank couldn't do all this, but Lin Haoran did it!
From this we can see that Lin Haoran is more skilled than Huifeng Bank!
Lin Haoran's strength and strategy made Shen Bi feel deeply fearful.

Therefore, unless it was absolutely necessary, Shen Bi was actually unwilling to become an enemy of Lin Haoran.

But now, Lin Haoran is about to take control of East Asia Bank, which is undoubtedly setting up a cannon at the doorstep of Huifeng Bank, which may shatter their financial hegemony that has lasted for many years at any time.

Of course, given the absolute dominance of Bank of East Asia in Hong Kong, it is not easy for Bank of East Asia to challenge its position.

Today, the gap between Bank of East Asia and Huifeng Bank is almost as big as heaven and earth. In the short term, he is not worried that Bank of East Asia will pose a substantial threat to Huifeng Bank.

But Shen Bi knew in his heart that Lin Haoran was an ambitious man with extraordinary means. Just because he couldn't challenge him now didn't mean he couldn't challenge him in the future.

Once he successfully integrates the resources of Bank of East Asia and gives it some time to develop, he will surely become a serious threat to Huifeng Bank.

If Huifeng Bank does nothing, it will undoubtedly be sitting there waiting for death, watching Bank of East Asia continue to grow under Lin Haoran's control and eventually swallow itself up.

At this moment, Shen Bi was walking back and forth in the office, thinking about how to respond to the challenge from Bank of East Asia.

Traditional means of suppression are no longer effective against Lin Haoran, and Jardine Matheson is the best example.

Shen Bi frowned and couldn't help but sigh.

Just think about how proud he was when he used Bao Yugang to successfully make Jardine Matheson lose Hutchison Whampoa.

At that time, he once thought that Huifeng Bank had become the absolute overlord of the entire Hong Kong business community.

But with Lin Haoran's rapid rise, he realized that Huifeng Bank's idea of ​​becoming the only overlord in Hong Kong's business world had failed.

The enemy he is most reluctant to face is definitely Lin Haoran.

"To attack as a defense? To create another exchange wave for the Bank of East Asia? So that the Bank of East Asia will eventually suffer a broken capital chain like the Hang Seng Bank and be forced to turn to their Hui Feng Bank for help?" Shen Bi murmured.

A hint of ruthlessness flashed across Shen Bi's eyes, but soon dimmed.

He naturally understood that Lin Haoran was no ordinary person and the same method would hardly work on him a second time.

Although the example of Hang Seng Bank is tempting, Lam Ho-yan is not Mr. Ho Sin-hang, and the two are even completely different.

Everyone knows that Lin Haoran controls a huge amount of funds. He wants to create panic and cause a large-scale run on the Bank of East Asia by its customers, thereby triggering a wave of exchange. Even if this succeeds, it will not have much effect.

Although he did not know the exact amount of customer deposits at the Bank of East Asia, he knew the rough figures.

With total deposits of more than 6 billion Hong Kong dollars, the loaned and invested funds amount to more than 3 billion Hong Kong dollars. In other words, if Bank of East Asia were caught up in the exchange tide, it would not be able to come up with more than 6 billion Hong Kong dollars. If it were the previous Bank of East Asia, it would indeed be in crisis.

But now, Lin Haoran, the newly crowned richest man in Hong Kong with huge funds, is fully capable of injecting a large amount of funds to stabilize the situation at the beginning of the exchange wave. He may even do the opposite and use this crisis to further consolidate his position in Bank of East Asia while suppressing the reputation of Bank of East Asia.

Billions may be a huge amount of money for Li Peicai's family, but for Lin Haoran, it is easy to take out.

By then, Bank of East Asia would become famous and make everyone believe that it is safest to deposit money in Bank of East Asia, thus causing more customers to transfer to Bank of East Asia, and ultimately causing Huifeng Bank to lose more than it gains.

"No, we can't use the old method anymore." Shen Bi shook his head and sat back at his desk, tapping his fingers lightly on the table, lost in thought. Use the Governor's Office to deal with Lin Haoran?

This thought flashed through Shen Bi's mind, but he quickly rejected it.

Although the Governor's Office has supreme administrative power in Hong Kong, it has always maintained a cautious attitude towards intervening in business affairs, especially when it comes to business tycoons like Lin Haoran who have deep roots and extensive connections in Hong Kong.

If the Governor's Office is pushed rashly to take action, it may not only trigger a series of unpredictable political consequences, but may also put the Bank of Hong Kong into a more passive situation.

Based on his understanding of MacLehose, MacLehose would consider using administrative power to intervene in business disputes only if Huifeng Bank was really at a critical juncture of life and death. Even if he did intervene, he would be extremely cautious and weigh the interests of all parties. He would never easily become a sharp weapon in the hands of any party.

It is obviously impossible for Huifeng Bank to manipulate the Governor's Office.

After pondering for a long time, Shen Bi's eyes fell on a report on the table. This was a detailed report on Huifeng Bank's failure in overseas expansion in April.

It's really a wave of unrest and another wave!

Huifeng Bank is indeed the absolute overlord in Hong Kong's financial world.

But after leaving Hong Kong, the popularity of Huifeng Bank has been greatly reduced, and its international business accounts for a very small proportion. Compared with those multinational financial giants, it is simply a dwarf compared to a giant.

Three years ago, Huifeng Bank reached an agreement with Ocean Mellan Bank of the United States and successfully purchased 51% of the bank's shares. Ocean Mellan Bank was also renamed Haifeng Bank.

This was the first step for Huifeng Bank to truly move to the international market. They thought it would open the door to the international market, but reality dealt them a heavy blow.

Haifeng Bank's performance in the international financial market was mediocre and failed to achieve the expected results. Instead, due to cultural differences, conflicts in management models and other issues, its operating costs increased and its profits declined.

Haifeng Bank is the 13th largest bank in the United States, which seems to be a good situation, but Haifeng Bank has been losing money for years, otherwise the other party would not have sold its 51% controlling stake.

After the successful acquisition, Huifeng Bank had to inject capital into Haifeng Bank several times, and this bank became a burden to Huifeng Bank.

However, facing the unknown future of Hong Kong, Shen Bi, the boss of Huifeng Bank, still chose to continue exploring the path of internationalization.

He naturally understood that Hong Kong's financial market was facing unprecedented changes, and internationalization and specialization had become an unstoppable trend.

Therefore, three months ago, under his manipulation, Huifeng Bank took action again.

This time, Huifeng Bank’s target is the Royal Bank of Scotland in the UK.

The target of this acquisition is obviously much more significant than the acquisition of US Bank of China.

Once the acquisition is successful, 40% of Huifeng Bank's shares will be held by overseas people, allowing Huifeng Bank to successfully transfer half of its assets overseas. Huifeng Bank will take full advantage of this opportunity to become a top international multinational bank.

From this we can see that Shen Bi’s plan was very big.

However, Huifeng Bank has a strong competitor, that is Standard Chartered Bank of the United Kingdom!
However, with the intervention of the British government, although Huifeng Bank had stronger financial strength, it was defeated by Standard Chartered Bank of the United Kingdom.

The British government and financial community did not want to see a large bank like the Royal Bank of Scotland fall into the hands of a colonial institution like the Bank of England.

In the end, due to interference from all parties, even though Shen Bi presided over the acquisition campaign in the UK and even offered a price much higher than the market price, Huifeng Bank still failed to successfully acquire the Royal Bank of Scotland. It can be said that it failed at the last minute and returned empty-handed.

This is undoubtedly a heavy blow to Huifeng Bank.

Just over a month after the failed acquisition of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Huifeng Bank has once again received bad news.

Shen Bi was not worried at all that other people controlled the Bank of East Asia.

But if Lin Haoran took control of the Bank of East Asia, Shen Bi would feel as if he was facing a formidable enemy and would be uneasy.

Putting down the documents in his hand, Shen Bi couldn't help rubbing his brows.

When he thought about Lin Haoran's development over the past three years, he found it incredible.

He had witnessed Lin Haoran's rapid rise, and before Lin Haoran had fully risen to prominence, he had even shown goodwill to Lin Haoran on behalf of Huifeng Bank.

If he had known that Lin Haoran would grow to this point so quickly, he would have intervened and stopped Lin Haoran before he grew up.

But now, but now the matter is done, and regret is useless. Lin Haoran has even grown to the point where he can threaten the status of their Huifeng Bank in the Hong Kong financial world. (End of this chapter)