In Hong Kong, we build a global business empire

Since the 1970s, in order to cope with the changes in Hong Kong's political and economic environment, Bank of Hong Kong has begun to accelerate the deployment of the group's internationalization strategy, which has basically been fully planned.

And they privately called this plan "The Return of the Empire"!
"Return of the Empire" actually means something very simple, which is to gradually shift the focus of the commercial empire of the Bank of England back to their hometown in the UK.

The entire plan was led by Shen Bi, the current head of Huifeng Bank.

Their goal is ambitious, which is to expand the market to Asia, Europe and the United States!
Hong Kong is the core market of Huifeng Bank and the source of their success. Unless forced to do so, they naturally do not want to give up the Hong Kong market.

But the future of Hong Kong is full of uncertainty. Even the top management of Huifeng Bank and even the British government do not know what the future of Hong Kong will be like?
They still remember that 30 years ago, the business of Huifeng Bank in the Mainland was forced to close, so the senior management of Huifeng Bank did not dare to gamble on the future of Hong Kong.

In addition, the development of Huifeng Bank in Hong Kong has actually reached a bottleneck, and its current achievements are already very impressive.

Therefore, if they want to break this bottleneck now, the best way is to take the international route.

So, they had a strategy for internationalization.

With the support of Hong Kong, one of the world's three largest financial centers, they have great confidence.

In particular, the huge cash reserves provide Huifeng Bank with sufficient ammunition reserves in promoting its internationalization strategy.

As long as the internationalization strategy is successful, it will not only be able to transfer Hong Kong's assets out and reduce the risk of them continuing to stay in Hong Kong, but also take this opportunity to expand their territory in the global financial landscape.

For Huifeng Bank, opening up overseas markets has become an urgent matter.

First, in 1978, Huifeng Bank took the lead in entering the United States and successfully reached an agreement with the American Ocean Bank. It eventually acquired 51% of the other party's shares and Huifeng Bank became the controlling shareholder of the bank.

Excluding the small-scale ventures of Huifeng Bank in the Nanyang market, this was the first time that Huifeng Bank truly entered the mature and highly competitive international financial market on a large scale and in a strategic manner.

The United States, as the absolute core of global finance, has a financial system that is far more profound and broad, and a regulatory environment that is more complex and strict, than anything else in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.

As it turned out, this acquisition was very smooth. Huifeng Bank successfully took control of the American Ocean Milan Bank and renamed it Haifeng Bank.

However, due to long-term losses in recent years, Haifeng Bank has needed continuous capital injection from Huifeng Bank, which has become a heavy burden for Huifeng Bank.

At the beginning of the acquisition, Huifeng Bank had high hopes for Haifeng Bank, hoping to use its influence in the US market to open up the situation for the group's internationalization strategy, but the reality was far more complicated than expected.

Despite this, Huifeng Bank did not stop its overseas expansion because of the losses of Haifeng Bank.

So they turned their attention to Britain.

As a British-owned enterprise, Huifeng Bank naturally has deep feelings for Britain.

Otherwise, their plan wouldn’t be called “Return of the Empire.”

Unfortunately, a few months ago, they wanted to acquire the Royal Bank of Scotland in the UK, but unfortunately the final result was failure.

Despite this, the top management of Huifeng Bank has not given up their plan.

Therefore, even if they fail, they are still waiting for a more suitable opportunity.

Like Huifeng Bank’s past dark history, many business giants actually have similar behaviors in secret.

If you don't have a black heart, you can't make money.

In particular, companies that have grown into giants have often experienced countless choices between risks and opportunities in a complex and ever-changing business environment. At certain moments, they have even had to adopt strategies that seem very radical or unacceptable to others.

As long as we keep it secret and don't let the truth of the matter come to light, then everything will be fine.

But now, Huifeng Bank’s past actions have been published in some mainstream newspapers in Europe and the United States, which will undoubtedly pose a huge obstacle to their future expansion into overseas markets.

These negative reports are like stones thrown into a calm lake, which will cause ripples. Not only will potential partners in the European and American markets have serious doubts about the credibility of Huifeng Bank, but it will also attract close attention from regulators.

They can indeed cover the sky with one hand in Hong Kong, but outside Hong Kong, they lose that absolute control and have to face more stringent and diverse market rules and public opinion supervision.

Therefore, it is not difficult to explain why the senior management of Huifeng Bank panicked because of this matter.

If public opinion continues to ferment, it will have a serious impact on Huifeng Bank's overseas expansion plans.

At this moment, in the entire conference room, the senior executives of Huifeng Bank no longer had that calm expression.

What followed was a depressing silence, and the air seemed to freeze.

The executive in charge of intelligence went out to answer a phone call, and when he came back, his face was as dark as ink.

"Everyone, our people learned from the Oriental Daily that they have a lot of evidence that is unfavorable to our Huifeng Bank. Today's report is just one of them. From now on, they will report it every day. Not only that, some mainstream media in Europe and the United States will do the same!" The senior executive said even worse news.

In Hong Kong, with the government's favoritism, it is difficult for public opinion to hammer them to death.

But in Europe and America, they have no backing.

The most important thing is that the Governor's Office has also expressed dissatisfaction with them. Mai Lihao even called Shen Bi personally this morning. Some of their previous criminal acts that were concealed from the Governor's Office may have been partially known by the Governor's Office. This has undoubtedly made the situation of Huifeng Bank worse.

If even the Governor's Office abandons them, it would be like adding insult to injury for them.

"I didn't expect Lin Haoran to be so difficult to deal with!" Bao Yuetan sighed.

In the end, they still underestimated this young Chinese man who had only been rising for two or three years.

"I hope that old man He Shanheng will not have any estrangement towards us because of what was reported here?" a senior executive said worriedly.

"We don't need to worry about Mr. He. Hengsheng Bank has already stabilized. It will be the same with or without him. Even if he knows the truth, so what?" another senior executive said indifferently.

When the others heard this, they all nodded.

Indeed, it was once the second largest bank in Hong Kong. However, as the businesses of Lin Haoran's companies such as the Hong Kong Land Group were gradually transferred to the Bank of East Asia, Heng Seng Bank's market share has now fallen to the third largest bank in Hong Kong.

Over the years, its business development has been as solid as a rock and has accumulated a solid foundation.

After years of sedimentation and polishing, it has many stable and reliable partners. Even if Ho Shan Heng is no longer involved, how much impact can it have on Hengsheng Bank?

They are not worried about the Hong Kong market, but about the overseas reputation.

If Huifeng Bank wanted to enter the European and American markets, it would have been rejected by its local peers.

Now, with these negative news, it is even more difficult for them to gain a foothold in the European and American markets.

Those local banks have always been eyeing foreign competitors, and now with these negative news, they may unite to boycott Huifeng Bank, and even use various means to put pressure on regulatory agencies, making it difficult for Huifeng Bank to make subsequent acquisitions.

"We must come up with a countermeasure as soon as possible to stop Lin Haoran from doing this, otherwise the door to the overseas market will be completely closed to us." Pu Weishi said.

"Mr. John, come with me to find Mr. Mai Lihao and ask him to make an appointment with Lin Haoran. If Mr. Mai Lihao comes forward, Lin Haoran will eventually give him face." Shen Bi said calmly.

As of now, that's all it can do.

They knew that in Hong Kong, they could still cope with various disturbances with the connections and means they had built up over the years.

But when they arrived in Europe and the United States, they were like a kite with a broken string, without any foundation. Faced with the overwhelming negative public opinion and suppression from their peers, they had no idea how to deal with it.

If they don't want overseas markets, they don't care. The problem is that they are now planning to expand overseas markets with all their strength to get rid of the unknown risks and existing development bottlenecks that the Hong Kong market may face. For them, overseas markets are a key layout that concerns their future survival and prosperity, and they must not give up easily.

Bao John nodded.

Lin Haoran is more difficult to deal with than they thought. If they could turn back time, they would even regret targeting the Bank of East Asia.

Even after Lin Haoran took over, Bank of East Asia will pose a certain threat to Huifeng Bank in the future, but that is ultimately a matter for the future.

As long as they expand overseas well, what does it matter even if the Hong Kong market shrinks in the future?
But it's too late now. It's no exaggeration to say that they and Lin Haoran have reached the point where it's difficult to reconcile.

After all, everything the two sides had done before was aimed at killing each other.

Even if Mai Lihao came forward, it would only be a stopgap measure to temporarily ease the tense situation and buy some breathing space. It would be far from easy to completely resolve this crisis.

Shen Bi and Bao John did not dare to delay and immediately set out to the Governor's Mansion to meet with MacLehose.

At the same time, in Kangle Building, a few hundred meters away from Huifeng Bank’s headquarters building, Lin Haoran was making a phone call.

This is an overseas call, the destination is New York, USA.

"Mr. Walter Wriston, are you saying that you intend to go to Singapore in two days?"

"Yes, Mr. Lin. We at Citibank attach great importance to the Nanyang market, and Singapore is the center of the Nanyang market. This time, our Citibank is involved in an important acquisition case, so I have to go there and personally take charge of Singapore."

"That's perfect. I have something important to discuss with you, Mr. Walter Reston. If you come to Asia, I won't have to travel all the way to the United States."

"How about this, Mr. Lin? I also happen to have something to discuss with you. Besides, I haven't visited Citibank's Hong Kong branch for a long time. I will go to Hong Kong on July 7th. We can talk in detail then. How about that?"

"That's great. I'll be waiting for you in Hong Kong."

After hanging up the phone, Lin Haoran was really surprised. Originally, in order to reach a cooperation with Citibank, he planned to fly to the United States in person and inspect the Huanyu Investment Company led by Su Zhixue.

Unexpectedly, the other party was actually planning to come to Asia and even come to Hong Kong.

This saved him from running around. Lin Haoran put down the phone and a barely perceptible smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

This unexpected call undoubtedly added some convenience to his plan.

Now is the critical time to fight back against Huifeng Bank. If it were not for the cooperation of Citibank, he would not be willing to leave Hong Kong.

It is now June 6th, and there is only one week left until July 27th.

If he goes to the United States, it will take him two days.

Walking out of his office, Lin Haoran looked through the window and saw Ma Shimin talking on the phone in the office of the president of the Jardine Matheson Group not far away.

So he walked over and knocked on the door.

Ma Shimin held the receiver in one hand, and when he saw it was his boss, he nodded to him and continued talking on the phone.

Lin Haoran walked into the office, pulled over a chair and sat down.

About a minute later, Ma Shimin finished the call and hung up the phone.

“Boss, over the past two days I have called the business owners who rely heavily on us and asked them to transfer their financial operations to Bank of East Asia. All the business owners have agreed, and they will start transferring funds one after another.

Facing the Landmark Group, these companies that rely heavily on us have no room for opposition. Moreover, it is just a transfer of financial business, and there is no loss to these companies. So these business owners are very obedient! "Ma Shimin said with a smile.

Lin Haoran nodded, a hint of satisfaction flashing in his eyes: "Well done, Mr. Ma."

“In addition, the issue of employee salaries involves too much, so we need to proceed step by step. First, we need the Bank of East Asia to resolve all the shortcomings of the transfer before we can fully connect with our finance department.

Mr. Dashan said that this process may take a month, so until Bank of East Asia is completely settled, we will temporarily follow the previous process for salary payments. "Ma Shimin continued.

"There's no rush for this. As long as these employees work for the Jardine Matheson Group, their financial business will be taken away sooner or later. We should do it step by step and sort it all out at once. It will be a huge blow to Huifeng Bank, so we won't let them do anything desperate." Lin Haoran laughed.

After all these plans are implemented perfectly, they will be able to directly tear off a huge market from other banks, especially Huifeng Bank, which will definitely suffer the most serious bleeding. It can even be said that the aorta of Huifeng Bank has been cut!

Apart from other things, companies like Hong Kong Land Development and Hong Kong Electric Group basically conducted their businesses in cooperation with Citibank before Lin Haoran acquired Bank of East Asia.

Most companies and individuals in Hong Kong are actually similar.

From this we can see how terrifying the market share of Huifeng Bank in Hong Kong is.

He had never thought that it would take only a few days to seize the market share of Huifeng Bank. This was a bit unrealistic.

"By the way, boss, I just heard a piece of news. As soon as the stock market opened today, the share price of Huifeng Bank plummeted." Ma Shimin said with glee.

The last time, when Lin Haoran announced that he had become a major shareholder of Bank of East Asia, the share price of Huifeng Bank plummeted.

Because everyone knows that once Lin Haoran takes over Bank of East Asia, the business of companies such as the Hong Kong Land Group will be transferred from Bank of East Asia to Bank of East Asia, which will have a significant impact on Bank of East Asia.

At that time, the market value of Bank of Communications fell below HK$197 billion to around HK$ billion.

However, after the establishment of the Hong Kong Banking Association, the share price of Huifeng Bank gradually recovered a lot.

After all, in everyone's opinion, in this situation, Huifeng Bank is equivalent to wiping out Bank of East Asia, making it difficult for them to develop through external markets.

Coupled with the bank run at Bank of East Asia, many customers fled to Bank of East Asia.

Therefore, it is normal that the share price of Huifeng Bank has rebounded.

What's more, the board of directors of Huifeng Bank will not allow the stock price of Huifeng Bank to continue to fall sharply.

"Oh? Interesting!" Lin Haoran was also happy to hear it.

The more embarrassed the enemy is, the happier he is.

"I feel sorry for them because they have offended you, the boss!" Ma Shimin said with a smile.

Ma Shimin was also a participant in the Bank of East Asia's next plan, so he naturally knew it clearly.

Therefore, Ma Shimin can now imagine how miserable Huifeng Bank will be in two months.

The market is losing a lot, the stock price continues to plummet, the customer trust has dropped significantly, and the internal employees are in panic. This series of chain reactions will sweep towards Huifeng Bank like a surging tide, making its seemingly indestructible business empire shaky.

At this moment, he even felt pity for Huifeng Bank, but this pity was quickly replaced by the excitement of witnessing the opponent's miserable defeat.

Huifeng Bank, the once invincible behemoth in Hong Kong's financial world, is now gradually falling into the crisis web they have woven with their own hands.

When he thought about these things, in which he had personally participated, Ma Shimin felt a sense of accomplishment.

Witnessing the gradual collapse of one business empire after another under the planning and strategy of their bosses, Ma Shimin was deeply excited by the wonderful feeling of participating in the historical process.

"Boss, should we step up our efforts and give Huifeng Bank another blow in terms of public opinion? Now is the most vulnerable moment for Huifeng Bank. The storm of public opinion can make them even worse at any time.

Although the Governor's Office has the final say in Hong Kong, and it is impossible for the Governor's Office to allow Hui Feng Bank to have any problems in the end, as long as we let Hui Feng Bank struggle in the whirlpool of public opinion for a while before they come up with a countermeasure, it can greatly weaken its vitality and gain more initiative for our subsequent actions!"

There was a gleam of excitement in Ma Shimin's eyes. He couldn't wait to see the moment when Huifeng Bank was defeated by Bank of East Asia.

Previously, Huifeng Bank manipulated public opinion and caused serious impact on Bank of East Asia.

Today, they are also manipulating public opinion and continuing to bring more troubles to Huifeng Bank. This is just giving someone a taste of their own medicine.

"Okay, if you have any ideas, you can discuss them with President Cui. I support the idea of ​​striking a blow to Huifeng Bank. By the way, don't leave any evidence. Make sure our actions are carried out within the framework of legality and compliance, and never give the other party an excuse to fight back. I'll go to the office of Galaxy Securities!" Lin Haoran said with a smile.

"Don't worry. We have uncovered so much evidence about Huifeng Bank this time, and we naturally know that the other party will investigate us. President Cui must know what to do, and I will remind him." Ma Shimin nodded.

After chatting with Ma Shimin for a few more words, Lin Haoran left the office and soon arrived at Galaxy Securities.

Today's Galaxy Securities has gradually replaced the original Jardine Securities and occupies a considerable market share in the securities industry in the Hong Kong market.

Therefore, the office is busy.

The employees looked up and saw that it was their boss Lin Haoran, and they greeted him respectfully.

Lin Haoran nodded in response one by one, and finally came to Dai Shi's office.

Since the successful privatization of Bank of East Asia, he no longer gave any work instructions to Galaxy Securities and allowed them to develop on their own.

Most of Jardine Securities' previous business was taken over by Galaxy Securities, so Galaxy Securities naturally has no shortage of business today.

"Good morning, boss." Dai Shi greeted.

"Well, I heard that Huifeng Bank's stock price plummeted as soon as it opened today? How is it now?" Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

"Boss, I was also paying attention. Before the opening of the market this morning, the market value of Huifeng Bank was around HK$226.8 billion. However, due to the scandal in the Oriental Daily, many investors sold off the stock price of Huifeng Bank at the opening, causing the stock price to continue to fall.

Therefore, many investors started selling their stocks as soon as the market opened, fearing that if they were too slow, they would be cut off again.

More than an hour after the market opened, the share price of Huifeng Bank has fallen to around HK$200 billion. Huifeng Bank's efforts to raise its share price in recent days have been in vain.

However, the share price of Huifeng Bank has stabilized. Someone is pulling up the price of Huifeng Bank. It should be Huifeng Bank that has taken action. They don’t want to see the share price of Huifeng Bank fall too badly! "Dai Shi was also happy to hear this.

In the past few days, because the business of Lin Haoran's companies such as the Hong Kong Land Group has been transferred to the Bank of East Asia, many banks such as the Hong Kong International Financial Holdings Group, Hengsheng Bank and Standard Chartered Bank have suffered losses to varying degrees. It is normal for stock prices to fall.

Today, with numerous scandals emerging, it is normal for Huifeng Bank's share price to plummet.

Lin Haoran nodded.

Stock price is absolutely crucial to a listed company.

The continued plunge in stock prices will not only seriously affect the company's market value and reduce its financing ability in the capital market, but will also trigger a series of chain reactions, damaging the company's reputation and customer trust.

For a company as important as Huifeng Bank in the financial world, a collapse in its stock price would undoubtedly be a heavy blow.

However, Lin Haoran knew clearly that HK$200 billion was definitely not the lower limit of the share price of Huifeng Bank.

Especially with his series of strategies targeting Huifeng Bank, Huifeng Bank will suffer greater and greater market share losses in the next two months.

By then, even he would find it hard to imagine how low the share price of Huifeng Bank would fall.

Thinking of this, he suddenly had an idea. Since the share price of Huifeng Bank would drop sharply in the next two months, why didn't he let Galaxy Securities secretly short Huifeng Bank?
This will not only bring in huge profits, but will also further exacerbate the plight of Huifeng Bank, killing two birds with one stone. (End of this chapter)