Chapter 685: 9 Dragon Warehouse Acquisition Battle

Chapter 685: 9 Dragon Warehouse Acquisition Battle

Chapter 685: The Wharf Acquisition War (1)

On the surface, this announcement seems to be about investment, but everyone knows that the content of this announcement is not exactly the same as the previous announcement of the land for milk, but it is basically the same;
Obviously, the intention is obvious. Changxing Group is preparing to forcibly acquire Wharf Group;
Unlike Hutchison Whampoa's mild acquisition of HK Electric, Wharf Holdings is one of the two core assets of Jardine Matheson and is known as the right-hand man of the Jardine Matheson Group. No matter what, the Jardine Matheson Group will not allow other consortiums to acquire its trusted enterprises.
Although Changxing Group has been very large in Hong Kong for a long time, it has always been very low-key. It has invested in many companies before, but basically all of them were acquired in good faith. After the acquisition, it also used its own resources to help these companies develop, achieving mutual benefit and win-win results. But this time, it seems to be ready for a real fight;

The largest Chinese consortium in Hong Kong VS the largest British consortium in Hong Kong. At this point, just over three months after the real estate crisis, such a fierce acquisition war has emerged, which immediately aroused the hope of countless people;

The world has been suffering from the economic crisis for a long time. After the announcement of the Changxing Group, the share price of Wharf Holdings soared, as did many British-owned groups, because there were market rumors that the Changxing Group intended to continue looking for other British-owned companies after acquiring Wharf Holdings.

With so many good news, the Hang Seng Index finally turned from falling to rising, although the rise was not much; similarly, the real estate market seemed to have some changes. The acquisition of Wharf Holdings must be aimed at Wharf Holdings' huge land reserves. Yang Wendong must still be optimistic about the future real estate market. However, land and housing prices are different from the stock market. Even if there are fluctuations, they generally will not respond as quickly as the stock index.

But in any case, the acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa by the Changxing Group was judged by countless financial groups, shareholders and economists as a strong hope for the recovery of Hong Kong's economy, and a large amount of funds began to move and poured into the stock market.

Standing next to the floor-to-ceiling window of his office in the Kang Lok Building, Yang Wendong can directly see the situation outside the Hong Kong Stock Exchange with a telescope in his hand. This is also an advantage of the scenery of being the tallest building in Hong Kong. However, it is too far away, so he still needs the help of a telescope.

"As we expected, the Wharf shares skyrocketed as soon as the news came to light. It looks like it will double today." Yang Wendong put down the telescope and said, "These stock investors are really a bit crazy. In recent months, there were queues outside the stock exchange when the stock market crash broke out. Today, there are queues again."

In the era without the Internet, although stocks could be purchased over the phone, that was only available to wealthy people and investors above the middle class who had special stock market agents. Ordinary investors could only queue up to buy stocks like going to a bank. So when the stock market was booming or began to fall, all the roads around the exchange would be blocked, and the streets would be full of people. Even if the police came, they would have to close the roads and prevent cars from passing.

Fang Xianming smiled and said, "We launched an acquisition during the economic crisis. Although the Hang Seng Index and market trends are not very good, other investors are not optimistic at this time. They may also flock to our acquisition war. It can be said that this is the hope for many shareholders to get their money back."

Yang Wendong nodded and said, "I know, so I don't care whether I buy it now or in half a year, because the impact will be similar."

Even if we wait until a year later when the Hang Seng Index falls to a point where it is unbearable to look at, the collision of two such large-scale consortiums in Hong Kong is enough to cause countless funds to go out;

The Hang Seng Index fell, which only means that a large amount of funds have withdrawn. However, apart from international capital, other funds are still in Hong Kong bank accounts, so it doesn't matter when to start.
Moreover, he also needs to consider whether this acquisition battle will turn into a tug-of-war like in history. If it takes a long time and he takes action later, then when the economy recovers and he wants to make another successful acquisition, the cost will be even higher, so now is the right time period.

Of course, this refers to the entire stock market crash period. Compared with the peak period before the crash, it was still not possible at that time because the capital was too crazy.

Fang Xianming said, "Mr. Yang, someone is spreading rumors in the market, saying that in addition to Wharf Holdings, we will also invest in British companies such as Wheelock, Hutchison Whampoa, and China Light and Power. This has also caused the stocks of British companies in Hong Kong to rise."

"It's normal for some people to take advantage of the situation. It's even possible that these companies themselves or their shareholders want to cash out." Yang Wendong smiled and said, "But it's a good thing to have such rumors. In this way, a lot of capital will not flow into buying Wharf shares, which will reduce our subsequent funding pressure."

As Wharf Holdings is now the number one target, its market value has been quickly hyped up and has now exceeded 1 billion. This is just the beginning and it may be even higher in the future.

If there are many rumors and people who believe them blindly may see the high share price of Wharf Holdings and dare not take action, they will believe the rumors and buy other stocks.

"If you think in this way, it does make sense." Fang Xianming then asked: "Mr. Yang, our actions have been targeted. Do we need to continue to purchase Wharf Holdings' shares at this time?"

Yang Wendong shook his head and said, "No, once we go out to acquire Wharf Holdings, Wharf Holdings' stock will go even higher. Although I want to acquire Wharf Holdings at all costs, it is better not to let these speculators take advantage of us unless it is absolutely necessary.
I plan to talk to Henry Keswick first, even if it's just a formality, I have to meet him first, and then we'll see how things go."

Of course he knew that Henry Keswick would never agree to the acquisition of Wharf Holdings, but as a major shareholder, he could legally become a director of Wharf Holdings and have voting rights. Naturally, he had to go to Wharf Holdings. Besides, on the surface, it was a "goodwill investment" rather than an "acquisition," so he naturally needed to negotiate with other Wharf Holdings directors about the future operations of Wharf Holdings.

"Okay, I'll arrange it right away." Fang Xianming said with a smile.

Jardine Matheson Group Headquarters: "FUCK." Henry Keswick was furious, with veins popping out of his face. However, in front of so many subordinates, he still held back and asked slowly, "How many Wharf shares does Yang Wendong have? Have you found out?"

A middle-aged man in his 50s said timidly, "Mr. Keswick, according to the data currently released by Changxing Group, they hold 20% of the shares. Whether this is true or not still needs to be investigated. However, generally speaking, such announcements are not false, because they will definitely disclose the stock data and seek a seat on the board of directors later."

"20%? So many shares were acquired, and no one in our group knew about it? How did he do it?" Henry Keswick asked back.

The middle-aged man continued, "Mr. Keswick, we have just evaluated the stock transaction records of the past few years and analyzed that Changxing Group was able to acquire so many shares of Wharf Holdings in secret. There should be two ways;

First, when we expanded our share capital, a large number of new stocks entered the market. The stock market was quite hot at that time, so Changxing Group could easily take advantage of the opportunity to acquire most of the stocks without causing any abnormality.

The second is that in the past two years, American capital came to Hong Kong to invest and bought a lot of Hong Kong listed companies’ stocks, including Wharf Holdings. We didn’t pay much attention to it at the time because they didn’t specifically buy only Wharf Holdings’ stocks.”

Henry Keswick pressed his temples and said, "So, Yang Wendong started plotting to acquire Wharf Holdings many years ago?"

Obviously, he is the only one who can take the blame for this matter. You know, he only took over the Jardine Group as the boss last year, and Yang Wendong started planning it many years ago. But being in this position and the acquisition battle happened when he was in office, he can only take the responsibility. It was also managed by their family before.

The middle-aged man replied softly: "Yes, we were indeed careless."

In fact, it is useless to really care. When Wharf Holdings does not want to take the risk of huge debts but still wants to expand, the only way is to expand its shares for financing, otherwise it should not develop;

The strategy of the top management of Jardine Matheson Group is to develop in Hong Kong, but not to over-indebtedness. Instead, the profits in Hong Kong should be gradually transferred overseas, so as to enrich the private company of the Keswick family.

When the share expansion financing is carried out, a large amount of new capital is used to purchase new stocks, and no one can tell where the capital comes from. When someone with ulterior motives wants to secretly acquire stocks and seek mergers and acquisitions, then this is the best time.

At this moment, a blonde female assistant knocked on the door and walked in, saying, "Mr. Keswick, Changxing Financial Group sent a letter requesting Wharf Group to hold a board meeting. They will come with their stocks and officially become Wharf shareholders."

"." The scene was silent. Henry Keswick looked unhappy, but he finally said, "Okay, then we will hold a board meeting tomorrow morning and reply to Yang Wendong. I very much welcome him to join us."

The unspoken rules of the business world still have to be followed. Even if you hate them in private, you still have to be polite in public. After all, they are all top tycoons in Hong Kong. If you lose your manners, you will become a joke.

According to Hong Kong listed company laws, a person or a company can obtain a board seat and 16% of the voting rights when it owns 20% of the shares of another company. This is the minimum amount. The management can also increase the number of directors, but no matter what is done, the voting rights are granted by law and cannot be changed.

In the whole of Hong Kong, only HSBC, as a quasi-central bank, has the privileges that allow the management to almost completely override the board of directors.

The assistant quickly replied: "Okay, I'll get back right away."

The atmosphere at the scene made her feel depressed. Everyone knew that what was about to happen was going to be the most exciting business war in Hong Kong's history.

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(End of this chapter)