Chapter 165

It is like the enemy is coming with full force, and the Kadoorie family is not prepared.

Lawrence exclaimed in shock: "Oh no! This is Liu Zhicheng's plan. He created a lot of public opinion in the market and bought a lot of goods.

The purpose is simple, which is to push up the share price of China Light and Power. He calculated that we are not financially capable, so he did not give us the opportunity to increase our holdings.

Michael nodded and said, "What should we do now?"

Lawrence said: "For now, there are only two ways to stop Liu Zhicheng: first, insist on not letting Liu Zhicheng join the board of directors;
Second, I will lobby all shareholders to support us on the board of directors. Our family has run China Light and Power for half a century, and in the eyes of all shareholders, we must be the most suitable person to take power.

In addition to these two points, you can also refute Liu Zhicheng in the newspaper, if he is a long-term investor, why is he buying up stocks in the market? "

Michael nodded and said, "Okay, I'll do it right away."

Lawrence was still worried and continued, "If you continue to say in the media that Liu Zhicheng intends to strip China Power of its skin and bones, and also split up the Grand Hotel, then they will naturally not get the support of the shareholders.

Not only that, after a while, you go to the China Securities Regulatory Commission to file a complaint, saying that Shanfeng Investment’s shareholding exceeds 35% but it did not initiate a full acquisition.”

“They wouldn’t make this mistake, would they?”

"It's just that Liu Zhicheng lost his reputation and got into trouble. It doesn't matter whether they made mistakes or not. What matters is that the CSRC will find trouble with them."

As the saying goes, "old ginger is wiser". Old Jardine used one method after another to find the weaknesses of Shanfeng Investment and Liu Zhicheng one by one.

Horace Kadoorie thought for a while and suddenly said, "Did you miss something? If Liu Zhicheng persuades Exxon to betray us, what will be the consequences?"

Lawrence Kadoorie shook his head heavily. "The stakes of betrayal are too high. How can Liu Zhicheng lobby for it? The price he has to pay is too high. This price is enough to buy China Light and Power twice. He is a capital operator. Why would he want to pay so much for China Light and Power?"

After listening to Lawrence Kadoorie's statement, Horace Kadoorie was surprised to find that his brother had not made any plans for Exxon's betrayal.

He suddenly looked worried: "This matter is too important and has a profound impact on our family. We need to take all the impossible details into consideration."

"I understand, but it's not very helpful to consider that possibility."

Lawrence Kadoorie considered all possibilities and analyzed: "Once Exxon betrays us and forms an alliance with Liu Zhicheng, its strength will far exceed ours.
No matter what we do, we cannot save the Grand Hotel and China Light and Power. We cannot panic now. The only thing we can do is to consider how to defeat Liu Zhicheng at the shareholders' meeting."

"Yes, father!" Michael said helplessly.

If Liu Zhicheng went to lobby Exxon at all costs to reach an alliance agreement.

So the moment Liu Zhicheng took the initiative to initiate a shareholders' meeting for China Power, the outcome was probably already determined.

Both the Grand Hotel and China Light and Power would be ruined. Even if the Kadoorie family went to Liu Zhicheng to apologize now, it would not be able to prevent the final completion of this deal.

Once the arrow is shot, there is no turning back, so at that time, leaving will be the only option for the Kadoorie family.

But Lawrence Kadoorie never believed that Exxon would turn to support Liu Zhicheng because the benefits would be too great.

Any mature capital party must consider the costs and benefits of any business they do.

If the cost of Liu Zhicheng's acquisition of China Light and Power far exceeds the company's intrinsic value, then what is the point of the acquisition? Is it purely for the purpose of losing money?

Since Liu Zhicheng entered the Hong Kong capital market, he has never made a losing transaction. Lawrence Kadoorie is certain that Liu Zhicheng will not lose money this time by lobbying Exxon.

Of course, we cannot rule out the possibility that Liu Zhicheng got carried away and made irrational business decisions, but the possibility is very small.

Lawrence Kadoorie finally pointed out: "As long as Exxon is still willing to stand on our side, both the Grand Hotel and China Light and Power can be saved in the end!"

When Horace Kadoorie heard this, he had a deep understanding of the development of the whole incident: "We actually have no way out. We must not compromise. We must fight Liu Zhicheng to the end!"

Why did he have such an idea?

Because if Exxon had betrayed the Kadoorie family, even if it had not threatened to cut off power to Liu Zhicheng's Yuen Long Industrial Park, disaster would have happened.

Anyway, once the betrayal happens, both the Grand Hotel and China Light and Power will be lost.

If Exxon had not betrayed and was willing to stand on the side of the Kadoorie family, they could have defeated Liu Zhicheng and successfully defended the Grand Hotel and China Light and Power.

Therefore, Horace Kadoorie believed that showing weakness and seeking peace with Liu Zhicheng would not change the outcome of the deal, so there was no need to show weakness and the only thing to do was to fight bravely.

Lawrence Kadoorie fell into deep thought. At present, Exxon still explicitly supported him, but how long could this support last?

He had no idea at all.

.........

The next day, both sides started a war of public opinion, but Shanfeng Investment still had the advantage because Liu Zhicheng himself owned the best-selling newspaper group in Hong Kong.

Shanfeng Investment’s request was very reasonable. It was only to send a few directors to the board of directors of the hotel in accordance with regulations.

The Kadoorie family is too unreasonable and too bullying. It is totally unreasonable to exclude the second largest shareholder of China Light and Power from the board of directors.

In Liu Zhicheng's memory, in his previous life, Liu and Lin Jianmin cooperated to acquire the hotel, which gave the Kadoorie family a reason to accuse the delay.

In the previous life, Liu Luanxiong held 26% of the shares of the Grand Hotel, and Lin Jianmin held 12% of the shares.

So the Kadoorie family accused Liu and Lam of being "persons acting in concert".

If the lawsuit is successful, Liu and Lin will have to launch a full acquisition at the highest price in nearly six months. This is why Liu and Lin were a little scared (the highest price at that time was 80.5 yuan per share).

Fortunately, the accusation was not passed, but it was delayed for a long time, causing the bank to put pressure on Liu, and he finally had to give up.

The Kadoorie family spread many rumors in the market, and Liu Zhicheng quickly responded in the "Tiantian Daily" and "Tiantian Economic News" under the City Group.

At this time, the sales volume of "Tiantian Economic News" had reached about 4 copies, which had initially met Liu Zhicheng's requirements.

The interview was conducted by the same female reporter as last time, but the questions this time were all prepared by Liu Zhicheng in advance. He asked: "China Power's share price has skyrocketed in the past week. Is it because Shanfeng Investments is buying up shares in the market?"

A: “Shanfeng Investments does intend to increase its stake to 34%, which is reasonable. However, I believe the reason why CLP Power’s share price has skyrocketed is because investors are optimistic about our joining CLP Power.

I believe many people should know that I have some titles, such as 'Investment King', 'Stock God', etc. I believe that many investors have invested in China Light and Power for this reason. "

Liu Zhicheng specifically emphasized that Shanfeng Investment is the second largest shareholder in order to prepare for the future request to join the board of directors. After all, joining the board of directors is a reasonable request of Shanfeng Investment.

Q: “Some people say that Shanfeng Investment intends to spin off China Power. Is this true?”

A: "We haven't even joined the board of directors, how can it be true? China Power has great development potential.
Especially for the power generation business, if we manage it carefully, we can become a world-class power company and make China Light and Power present in many parts of the world."

Q: "There are rumors in the market that Shanfeng Investment's acquisition of China Power was acquired with bank loans, resulting in excessive debt. Is the company already facing big problems?"

A: "Haha, we have just raised funds from banks for the rights issue of Whampoa Group. Given the shrewdness of bankers, how could they not have considered this issue?
What I can tell you is that the net assets of Shanfeng Investment have reached 100 billion Hong Kong dollars. If anyone thinks that our acquisition of China Light and Power's shares has caused the company to have too much debt,
What I want to say is that we bought a very high-quality asset, so the bank is willing to lend. "

Liu Zhicheng refuted the rumors one by one, causing public opinion to once again favor Shanfeng Investment and making the Kadoorie family's plan fail.

Next, Liu Zhicheng no longer needs to worry too much about China Power's affairs. Han Chunxi and Yuan Tianfan will fight the war of words.

All Liu Zhicheng had to do was to find time to persuade some important shareholders of China Light and Power to ensure his success in the election for chairman of the board.

At this time, Shanfeng Investment has 22.3% of the voting rights and also owns 18.2% of the voting rights of Pacific Investment Company.

Due to the recent surge in China Light and Power's share price, investors were reluctant to sell their shares, so Liu Zhicheng did not acquire too many shares recently (only 1.3%).

At the October board meeting, if the company wants to defeat the Kadoorie family, it must gain the support of other shareholders.

Moreover, the Kadoorie family has been in Hong Kong for so many years and has a good reputation. They have been in charge of China Light and Power for almost half a century, so it is reasonable for shareholders to support them.

However, Liu Zhicheng also has an advantage, that is, he only took a few years to build a tens of billions of wealth empire, so his ability is naturally beyond doubt.

Moreover, his reputation is much better than that of Liu in his previous life, which is also an advantage. No matter what, Liu Zhicheng will eventually get control of China Power.

Because he is not Liu Cixin, there is no possibility of making a comeback after losing the election. The bank also puts a lot of pressure on Liu Cixin, forcing him to let go.

Liu Zhicheng is different. After his defeat in the election, the banks will certainly ask about his affairs, but they will never doubt the strength of the Shanfeng Investment System before the stock market crash.

As long as the battle line is extended, it will definitely be beneficial to Liu Zhicheng, and there will even be no problem in completely acquiring China Light and Power.

.........

It’s April 8th.

In a secret box at the Whampoa Hotel in Sheung Wan, Liu Zhicheng met with Robert Kuok and Michael Kadoorie. Obviously, it was not a pleasant meeting.

Michael looked at Liu Zhicheng, the richest Chinese in Southeast Asia, with an air of dominance. No wonder HSBC sacrificed itself and gave up supporting their family.

Only the Chinese Liu Zhicheng can give HSBC enough benefits to make HSBC change its previous practices and support Chinese companies in acquiring British companies.

Liu Zhicheng nodded and smiled faintly: "Mr. Michael, I have no intention of competing for the management rights of China Power. I just hope that according to our shareholding,

It is reasonable to arrange for three directors to join the board of directors. In the future, our two companies will cooperate and jointly develop China Light and Power."

Michael raised his eyebrows and said, "No! Your style of doing things is rapid and rapid, which is very different from our style of taking things step by step.

Moreover, you are strong and we are weak, so joint management is just your one-sided statement and a temporary solution.

Moreover, you two are the richest Chinese in Southeast Asia. Even if you are targeting my Kadoorie family, there is no need to destroy all our family businesses, right?"

"Family business?" Liu Zhicheng said with a faint smile: "The Kadoorie family is able to become one of the top ten families in Hong Kong today. How many other people's businesses have they destroyed in the past few decades?
You have acquired quite a few Chinese companies, right? And decades ago, the legal environment was not as good as it is now.”

The development process of Hong Kong's local financial groups is a history of acquisitions. During this process, some were willing to sell and some were unwilling to sell.

During the British era, Chinese investors often had no choice but to watch their companies being acquired.

The most famous acquisition was the Hong Kong Milk Company. At that time, the milk company was still a large enterprise, and those small Chinese companies were even more helpless.

Among the major British financial groups in Hong Kong, who didn’t drink blood during their development?
Today's acquisition of China Light and Power and Grand Hotel is nothing more than the law of the jungle in the business world.

After listening to this, Michael Cahill also fell silent.

Seeing this, Liu Zhicheng smiled and said, "I asked Mr. Michael to come here today because I want to end this peacefully. Otherwise, we will suffer heavy losses.
But I'm afraid you will suffer even greater losses, and even your entire family may be ruined. It's better for you to accept our agreement now.

As long as you give up the management rights now, we can buy out your hotel and China Power shares at a suitable price in the next six months."

Liu Zhicheng's shareholding in China Light and Power has given him a veto power, which has forced the Kadoorie family to come to the negotiating table.

If the negotiations are successful, Shanfeng Investment can take over China Power peacefully, and the total cost may be lower.

After all, China Light and Power's shares have entered a soaring phase. Otherwise, if the two sides continue to fight, even if they are sure to win, they will suffer greater losses.

"This is impossible. We will not sell our shares and will continue to hold them for a long time," said Michael Kadoorie.

Liu Zhicheng smiled and said, "We welcome it, but we cannot guarantee the interests of the Kadoorie family."

"Mr. Liu, I think we should talk about all this after the shareholders' meeting." Michael said with a smile.

At the end of the negotiations, as Liu Zhicheng had expected, the meeting between the two sides ended in a bad mood.

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(End of this chapter)