Chapter 765 Choosing the Right Time
A hundred days after his daughter was born, Song Yuanchao returned to the mainland.
Just over a week after I returned to Jinling, I received a call from Hong Kong.
"What did you say? Chinese Estates?"
When Song Yuanchao heard what Xu Hui said on the phone, he was stunned for a moment, and at the same time he finally understood what Liu Da was going to do.
"When did it start?"
"It should have been a while, but Boss Liu's actions were very covert. We didn't discover this until the Chinese Estates shares surged at the opening today. It has now been confirmed indirectly that Boss Liu's target this time is this company."
Xu Hui said this on the phone. Song Yuanchao was silent for a moment. He frowned and asked, "Chinese Estates is a long-established real estate company in Hong Kong. I remember that the Feng family and the Li family are now the major shareholders of Chinese Estates, right? Doesn't Boss Liu know the strength of these two families?"
"Of course he knew, but I think it's impossible for Boss Liu to attack Hutchison without being prepared, and I think he is very determined this time."
"Could it be that he obtained a certain proportion of shares from small shareholders in advance?" Song Yuanchao asked.
"I'm not sure about that, but according to my current investigation, there is no sign of small shareholders selling their shares in Hutchison Whampoa, otherwise the news would have been all over the place long ago."
"Strange..." Song Yuanchao was a little confused for a moment. He admitted that Liu was a capable man, but it was a bit unexpected that he suddenly attacked Chinese Estates. Because a large company like Chinese Estates is not comparable to ordinary companies. You have to know that Chinese Estates was already famous before Li Chaoren started in Hong Kong. This old company founded in 1922 has a high status in Hong Kong.
As can be seen from the company's name, China Estates' main business is real estate, and it is also one of the oldest real estate companies in Hong Kong.
Although Song Yuanchao had never had any contact with this company, he knew its name. He also heard that Chinese Estates Holdings had many industries in Hong Kong and around the world. How could Liu have the confidence to make a move on it?
"Please fax me the relevant information about Hutchison Whampoa." Song Yuanchao said to Xu Hui after thinking for a while. Xu Hui told him that the information was ready and would be sent over soon.
Song Yuanchao hung up the phone. A moment later, the fax machine started to move, and sheets of information came out of it. Song Yuanchao sat next to the fax machine, holding the information in his hand and looking at it carefully. He had to say that Xu Hui did a very good job. When she noticed Da Liu's actions, she immediately sorted out the information, and the content of the information was very complete.
It took Song Yuanchao some time to finish reading the information. After reading it, he finally understood why Liu had set his sights on Chinese Estates.
Although Chinese Estates Holdings is one of the oldest real estate companies in Hong Kong and has many industries in Hong Kong and around the world, the problem is that after the death of its founder, the company fell into internal friction and fighting. In addition, the business model of Chinese Estates Holdings is mainly based on leasing real estate properties. This simple model is destined to require large investments and a long time to return, and is completely backward compared to the current real estate model in Hong Kong.
Due to this reason, the stock of Chinese Estates Holdings has been in a sluggish state and is not favored by investors in the market.
According to the current proportion of Chinese Estates Holdings in the stock market, the internal controllers of Chinese Estates Holdings do not hold the majority of shares, which gives Liu an opportunity to take advantage.
Seeing this, Song Yuanchao couldn't help but admire Liu's unique vision. He noticed the weakness of Chinese Estates Holdings when no one was paying attention, and after making careful preparations, he took the initiative to attack, intending to swallow up this old real estate company in one gulp.
Liu's acquisition of Chinese Estates can be said to be one of Liu's proudest achievements, but Song Yuanchao did not pay attention to these things in his previous life, so he never thought of this possibility.
And now, the mystery has been solved. Liu's target is Chinese Estates Holdings. This makes sense why Liu had tentatively asked Song Yuanchao and took the initiative to propose to sell his shareholding in the company.
Liu's initiative to transfer a certain proportion of shares to Shenghua was simply for two purposes.
The first purpose is to raise funds. Liu needs a lot of money to acquire Chinese Estates Holdings. Although he has a lot of money, the more ammunition he has, the better. After all, he is facing an old company. It is true that the share price of Chinese Estates Holdings has been sluggish in the stock market for a long time, but once the acquisition is launched, he will have to compete with the two major families, the Feng family and the Li family, which currently control Chinese Estates Holdings. Facing such an opponent, the more money he prepares, the better.
As for the second purpose, it is to take this opportunity to show goodwill to Shenghua and consume the funds in the hands of Shenghua or Song Yuanchao to prevent Shenghua from disrupting the acquisition.
In the previous retreat to regain the controlling rights of the company, Liu was forced to join forces with Shenghua, which made Shenghua one of the shareholders of the company and also gained considerable benefits from the acquisition.
Although the result was good, Song Yuanchao taught Liu a lesson, which made Liu feel very unhappy. In order to avoid a similar situation from happening again, Liu did this.
You should know that Shenghua is at a critical moment of listing. Due to the listing, Shenghua headquarters has limited fund transfers, and large-scale fund transfers will affect the listing operation. Therefore, Shenghua cannot withdraw funds into the stock market in this case, which is a good opportunity for Liu.
In addition, once Shenghua agrees to take over the proportion of shares transferred by Liu, it will further consume the proportion of funds that Shenghua can mobilize, which will also make the subsequent acquisition of Chinese Estates Holdings more secure.
Liu Da's plan was very good. He originally thought that Song Yuanchao would definitely agree to his conditions. Then, he could take this opportunity to not only raise more funds, but also eliminate the hidden danger of Shenghua, a potential rival, in this way.
It has to be said that Liu's idea was good, but he did not expect that Song Yuanchao did not agree. This surprised Liu, but the arrow was on the string and had to be shot. He had already made other preparations. Now was the best time to acquire Chinese Estates. Even with unexpected factors like Shenghua, Liu had to go ahead with it.
"Sister Hui, it's me!"
After putting out the cigarette in the ashtray, Song Yuanchao picked up the phone and dialed Hong Kong.
"I have read the information. Boss Liu has a big appetite. What do you think about this matter?" Song Yuanchao asked on the phone.
"I think it's better to observe for a while." Xu Hui answered on the phone, and then explained: "I just received accurate information that Boss Liu definitely did not buy shares from small shareholders of China Asset Management in advance. This means that he is fully prepared to go head-to-head with the Feng and Li families in the stock market this time."
"I admit that Boss Liu is bold, but the risk is too great to do this without any trump cards in hand before the acquisition. To be honest, I am not optimistic about his acquisition this time. The possibility of failure is very high."
"Is this your personal opinion or...?"
"It is not only my personal opinion, but also the opinion of the group's investment department." Xu Hui replied. Shenghua Company's investment department was established not long ago. In fact, this investment department is just a transition. In the future, the investment department will be directly incorporated into Shenghua Capital. Now the staff of the investment department are all elites recruited by Xu Hui from various financial institutions and banks.
"Go on..." Song Yuanchao said as he lit a cigarette.
Xu Hui continued, "Although I am not optimistic about Mr. Liu's acquisition, there are two things that are certain. The first is that the shares of Chinese Estates will fluctuate greatly due to the acquisition. The second is Mr. Liu's capital problem. He will invest a large amount of money in the stock market."
"Do you mean to do the same thing as last time ?" Song Yuanchao asked back.
Xu Hui smiled bitterly on the phone and said, "I'm afraid not. Currently, our Shenghua is at a critical moment in its listing, and Boss Liu has chosen a good time. It is impossible to withdraw funds now. If we don't withdraw funds through Shenghua headquarters, we can only follow the trend in the stock market but will not play a decisive role."
"What about other companies? How do other companies and wealthy people in Hong Kong react?"
“At present, everyone is basically waiting and watching. Chinese Estates is not a small company. The amount of funds mobilized to acquire a company of this size is very large, and the incident happened suddenly. In addition, Shenghua is preparing for the IPO, so it will take time to mobilize funds, so…”
Song Yuanchao sighed inwardly, and had to admit that Liu had chosen a very good time. He took advantage of the time difference and took advantage of the opportunity of Shenghua's listing to launch this acquisition, which caught many people off guard.
Shenghua's listing is no small matter in Hong Kong. When Liu's company went public, it raised 150 million yuan in financing and its total market value reached 500 million yuan.
Compared with Liu's company, Shenghua's listing has attracted more attention, not only because Shenghua is larger in scale than Liu's company was at the beginning, but also because Shenghua also owns large-scale factories, industrial parks and markets in Shenzhen and the mainland.
Although Shenghua divested and restructured some of its industries before its listing, the industries attributed to Shenghua Clothing alone were a considerable amount. In addition, Shenghua's business was developing very fast, the company had good financial resources and huge profits, and it had long been the target of capital and wealthy people.
Originally, Song Yuanchao was planning to issue shares to the public with a minimum quota of 25%, but after many rounds of communication and discussion, Shenghua made certain concessions, increasing the ratio from 25% to 30%, which is 5% more than the original plan.
With a financing ratio of 30%, Shenghua will raise 285 million yuan in the stock market. From this point of view, Shenghua's market value after listing will reach 950 million yuan. This amount is very astonishing, and this is only the amount calculated based on financing. After the official listing, Shenghua's situation will definitely rise under everyone's optimism, and it will be easy for the final market value to exceed 1.5 billion yuan.
Such a big piece of cake is so tempting that all kinds of capital and wealthy people have been ready to go, and the funds mobilized will also be invested in the subscription of Shenghua's IPO. Liu took this opportunity to suddenly attack Chinese Estates because he saw this point and took action directly while everyone was paying attention to Shenghua, catching everyone off guard.
