Chapter 195: Blocking Wheelock

On December 12, the draft negotiation was signed, and the deal was finalized. From then on, Hong Kong's prospects became more stable.

However, due to the restriction on land supply, real estate developers in Hong Kong took the opportunity to speculate and house prices continued to rise.

The real estate market will also drive the stock market, creating another bull market.

Anyway, the impression that Hong Kong gives people from now on is that it is thriving.

Thursday, March 2th.

We have to go to work even on Valentine's Day. This is what Liu Zhicheng said to Yang Minli in the morning.

Of course, maybe he can get off work earlier, which Liu Zhicheng should be able to do.

When I arrived at the Sailboat Tower in the morning, the assistants greeted me warmly and everyone seemed to be in good spirits.

It is probably related to giving everyone a generous year-end bonus. Liu Zhicheng plans to give each member of the assistant team 5 Hong Kong dollars.

The news has been released. This is a huge sum of money for an ordinary assistant, and they can spend a happy and lively New Year.

Secondly, the real estate market price in Hong Kong has begun to rise steadily, and the market value of the group's subsidiaries has also increased.

Although they cannot benefit directly, if the company performs better, their year-end bonus next year will definitely be higher.

When I arrived at my office, the assistants had prepared the newspapers for that day and placed them neatly on my desk.

Before Liu Zhicheng had time to read the newspaper, Han Chunxi hurried in.

"Boss, something big happened."

"what happened?"

"Today, a group called 'Khoo Teck Puat Group' published an advertisement in the newspaper: it announced that it had purchased 14% of Wheelock's shares from the Madden family and started to fully acquire Wheelock's shares from other shareholders."

There were rumors in the past that the charter king had a very good relationship with the Madden family, but when Madden Jr. sold his stocks, he didn't even say hello to the charter king.

Although the charter king was somewhat angry, the person who was most angry about this matter was probably not him, but Zhang Yuliang.

Zhang Yuliang's father, Zhang Zhushan, started his business with Western medicine and later began to get involved in real estate.

At that time, there was only one British-owned stock exchange in Hong Kong: the Hong Kong Club.

It is extremely difficult for Chinese companies to go public.

Therefore, Zhang Yuliang's family decided to go public through a backdoor listing, exchanging real estate for the Madden family's shares in Wheelock and became its major shareholder.

Zhang Yuliang is a major shareholder of Wheelock Group, and his opinion was not sought when the company made major equity changes.

Zhang Yuliang also learned about the transaction between Qiu Debao and Ma Deng from reading in the newspaper.

Zhang Yuliang was so angry that he was fuming. I am a major shareholder of Wheelock Group. How could you do such a big thing behind my back?

This was not a very decent thing to do, and it also laid the seeds for Qiu Delu's defeat.

The battle of Hutchison Whampoa is about to break out, and some smart investors will not hand over their stocks immediately.

Even if some shareholders hand over their stocks, it will not affect the overall situation.

The Zhang Yuliang family holds 34% of the shares of Wheelock Holdings. Logically, they are not afraid of anyone's obstruction and can simply acquire part of the shares to block Qiu Depu's malicious takeover.

But Zhang Yuliang also had the intention of fleeing with the capital, so it was impossible for them to come up with funds for a counter-takeover.

A tree lives by its bark; a person lives by his face.

Selling it to Khoo Teck Puat was even more impossible. Although he could cash out at a high price, it would be embarrassing.

Therefore, he had to seek external help to take over his shares, and emphasized that the external help must defeat Tan Tok Puat.

Zhang Yuliang believed that the best candidate was the charter king, as only he had the ability to stop Qiu Delu's brutal behavior.

Although he didn't know the boat charter king, he knew Liu Bancheng, so he had to find Liu Bancheng.

Liu Zhicheng didn't dare to act rashly. First of all, shipping was currently in a trough, and secondly, he was not familiar with shipping at all.

But this is also a good opportunity for Liu Zhicheng to truly enter the shipping industry. If he misses it, he will have to start from scratch.

Liu Zhicheng and the charter king were old friends, and the two of them jointly operated a shipping company (five 5000-ton bulk carriers), so they had to ask the charter king for advice.

Today is Thursday, and because Wheelock has a major announcement, it announced a one-day suspension of trading.

With only one trading day left this week, not many investors are bound to hand over their shares as they will wait and see for a few days to see if any consortium will join in.

Wheelock is a famous "blue lantern", which means that Wheelock's stock price is sluggish and its market value does not even reach its net asset value, so you will make a profit if you sell it.

……

In the afternoon, Liu Zhicheng came to the charter king's office and the two made an appointment to meet.

"Mr. Liu, welcome. What can I do for you?" the boat charterer asked with a smile.

Liu Zhicheng smiled and said, "Bao Sheng, shall we do another job together?"

The charter king said indifferently, "Which company has Mr. Liu chosen?"

"This time it's a shipping company." Liu Zhicheng said lightly.

The charter king pointed at the newspaper and said, "You're not saying you're planning to acquire Wheelock, are you?"

The charter king had also read the news this morning. After all, Wheelock was a shipping company in Hong Kong, and it had close ties with the Madden family.

The charter king was selling shares for Wheelock in the morning without saying hello to him, so he got angry.

Kuok Teck Puat was a wealthy man from Southeast Asia, but he wanted to acquire one of the old foreign companies in Hong Kong. This matter caused quite a stir.

Liu Zhicheng shook his head and said, "Mr. Bao, Qiu Debao is a large financial group in Nanyang. Now they want to acquire the four major foreign companies in Hong Kong. This shows that they don't take us seriously.

Zhang Yuliang came to me today. He was angry that Madden was secretly selling his shares, and also angry that Qiu Delu wanted to take over Wheelock.

But Zhang Yuliang, like the Madden family, is wary of the mainland and will not launch a counter-takeover, so he came to me to sell his shares.

Hong Kong is our base, so I would like to invite you to join us in taking over Wheelock."

The charter king nodded in agreement and said, "It's just that I just spent 29 billion Hong Kong dollars in cash to buy Hong Kong Electric. How can I compete with the Qiu Depu Group?"

“Mr. Bao, Wheelock’s assets are not bad. Not only does it have a fleet, it also has good fixed assets, and it owns the high-end retail department store brand Lane Crawford.

If we acquire it and then split it up and sell it, we will have a very high profit, which will be a good deal. "Liu Zhicheng smiled knowingly and said.

The charter king admired Liu Zhicheng for being able to analyze things to this extent at such a young age. His vision was already ahead of most businessmen in Hong Kong. No wonder he could make money.

"If we work together to take it, then tell me, what assets do you want to get?"

The charter king knew that Liu Zhicheng was very cunning and would not acquire Wheelock without a reason. This guy must be eyeing some assets of Wheelock.

Liu Zhicheng smiled and continued, "Bao Sheng, I want Lane Crawford. I can give you the property, and we will continue to operate the fleet together.

If we don't like the other parts, we can sell them to raise funds. What do you think?" After listening to this, the charter king began to think about it. He had finally reduced the number of ships and landed, and he didn't want to bring in a large number of ships now.

But at the same time, we can also purchase fixed assets in large quantities at one time. For a moment, I feel a bit caught in a dilemma.

"Mr. Bao, can you use our joint venture Oriental Shipbuilding Company to purchase the company? I can increase my stake to 50%, but Mr. Bao will still be in charge of the business?"

Seeing that the charter king was a little hesitant, Liu Zhicheng continued to persuade him.

The charter king nodded and said, "Mr. Liu, I already own Global Shipping, and I plan to retire. How about you be the majority shareholder of Oriental Shipping, and I will take 40% and you 60%?"

Liu Zhicheng knew that the charter king wanted to bind himself closely with "Liu Bancheng" for the "financial prospects" of his sons-in-law.

Who says he is so young? He can still take care of his sons-in-law for several generations.

Liu Zhicheng didn't hesitate and said with a smile: "Sir, you must recommend me a talent in shipping management."

The charter king was of course happy to do so and nodded in agreement.

The two reached a consensus and began to discuss the acquisition plan.

"Zhang Yuliang holds 34% of the shares. We have taken the lead. Now everyone's attention is on Wheelock's shares.
They forgot the big pie, and that big pie is conglomerate.”

The charter king was also confused and asked, "United Enterprise? Whose company is it and what is its relationship with Wheelock?"

Liu Zhicheng smiled and said: "It is a listed company under the Wheelock Group (unlisted). A considerable part of the assets of this enterprise are ships. The shipping industry is in a recession and the value of ships has depreciated.

So its stock was devalued to a ‘bad stock’. But this company has one great thing, which is that it holds a large number of Wheelock shares.”

The charter king suddenly realized, that's what it was!

The outcome of the Wheelock battle will depend on who reaches 51% of the shares first. In that case, the Wheelock shares held by the conglomerate will be a decisive factor.

"You mean we buy the shares of United Enterprises, but if United Enterprises sells the shares of Willy's to any party, wouldn't the investment be in vain?"

"If we controlled the joint venture or had a veto power, wouldn't there be no problem?"

To be honest, the move of acquiring a joint venture is really a smart one.

It not only increased its own bargaining chips, but also prevented the joint venture from selling Wheelock Holdings shares to Qiu Depu.

The joint venture owns 6.8% of Wheelock's shares, plus the 34% held by Zhang Yuliang's family, theoretically Oriental Shipbuilding owns 40.8% of Wheelock's shares.

Moreover, Liu Zhicheng knew that the highest price in the previous life's battle for Hutchison Whampoa was the acquisition price of HK$7.4 per share proposed by the ship charter king after the New Year.

At the same time, the exchange price once reached 7.5 Hong Kong dollars per share. It was not until mid-March that Charter King announced the successful acquisition and acquired 3% of Wheelock's shares.

“Bao Sheng, the market value of the United Enterprise is only over 5 million Hong Kong dollars. We asked the broker to quietly buy million Hong Kong dollars and get a veto power.

It will only take three days to resolve, because shareholders have not yet discovered the benefits of the joint venture. "

"Okay, but we still have to take it slow. After all, we only need to acquire a little more than 1% of the shares in the market."

Liu Zhicheng also agreed with the charter king's opinion that one should save as much as possible.

After saying this, Liu Zhicheng stood up and said goodbye. Both parties had reached an agreement on the general direction, and the rest of the matter would be left to his assistant team.

No one will discover this move by United Enterprise tomorrow, Friday. They have one day’s worth of time and two days to grab shares.

On the 15th, Hutchison Whampoa resumed trading and its share price rose to HK$6.4 per share, exceeding the purchase price of Yau Tak Puat.

On the 16th, Saturday, the 'Sihui' was closed and the profit-making representative Oriental Shipbuilding issued an announcement.

Oriental Shipbuilding already owns 34% of Wheelock's shares and is now launching a full takeover offer for Wheelock at HK$6.6 per A share and HK$0.99 per B share. The offer period is one month.

This offer announcement was posted in the "Sihui" market and was also published in newspapers under Tiantian Newspaper Group.

As soon as the news came out, shareholders holding Wheelock's shares were excited. In a company's acquisition battle, two major shareholders stood aside and watched, leaving the battlefield to two "barbarians".

This is the first time in the history of corporate acquisitions in Hong Kong.

There was no way the media would let this go, so they all jumped in to join in the fun and dug up Oriental Shipbuilding's bottom line.

“Who is Dongfang Shipbuilding?” This is the title of most media.

He also introduced the past and present of Oriental Shipbuilding, which had only two shareholders, Bao Chuanwang and Liu Bancheng.

On the 18th, Wheelock suspended trading again for one day, but Oriental Shipbuilding did not stop its acquisition of the joint venture.

As a large amount of funds flowed into the bank, the stock price appreciated, and Oriental Shipbuilding only acquired 1% of the shares with HK$18 million.

But it is enough. There is already a veto power. No matter what, at least the decision to support Tan Tok Kok will not be made.

As Qiu Dehua came to Hong Kong with huge capital this time, he was naturally prepared for a tough battle. Even though his shareholding was lower than that of Oriental Shipbuilding, he was not afraid at all.

On the 19th, New Year's Eve, Luo Fuqi, on behalf of the Qiu Depu family, raised the purchase price to HK$7 per share for A shares and HK$0.7 per share for B shares.

The funds involved in the entire acquisition also rose to HK$24.3 billion.

The small shareholders of Wheelock were ecstatic again, while those who sold their shares first were furious.

Foreigners don’t celebrate the Spring Festival, but Hong Kong also has holidays during the Spring Festival, and they are 5 days long, but the holiday starts on the first day of the Lunar New Year and people go back to work on the sixth day of the first lunar month.

On the fifth day of the first lunar month, Liu Zhicheng visited the ship charter king again to discuss the acquisition of Wheelock.

On the sixth day of the first lunar month, Hong Kong's 'Four Associations' opened for trading, and Wheelock's share price rose as high as HK$7.5 for A shares and HK$0.75 for B shares.

Without waiting for Qiu Debao to respond, the profit-making representative Oriental Shipbuilding raised the price of Wheelock again: A shares at HK$7.4 and B shares at HK$0.74.

At the same time, Yingliduo announced to the media that Oriental Shipbuilding already had 38% voting rights in Wheelock.

Excluding the voting rights of the joint venture, only 46.6% of the voting rights are needed to obtain a majority.

If the consortium supports Oriental Shipbuilding, Oriental Shipbuilding's voting rights will now reach 44.8%.

There is not much time left for Kuok Teck Puat!
Investors have been waiting for Kwong Teck Puat to speak again, but have yet to hear from him.

Reporters even called Luo Qifu's company to find out what happened, but only received ambiguous responses.

The financial media judged that Qiu Dehua knew that he had no hope of winning and was ready to give up.

Upon seeing this, stockholders also went to register to sell their Hutchison Whampoa shares in order to make a profit.

After the one-month tender offer period ended, Oriental Shipbuilding, a representative of Profitable, announced that its general tender offer failed as it held 53.7% of the voting rights of Wheelock.

I heard that Kuo Teck Puat also sold his stocks, made a huge profit, and returned to Nanyang to develop his business in disgrace.

Liu Zhicheng once again made a name for himself in Hong Kong and officially owned Wheelock and Company, one of the four major trading companies.

This caused the Hong Kong media, led by the Tiantian Daily, to praise it heavily again.

But the next move stunned the media again, because Liu Zhicheng and the boat charter king began to divide the fruits.

(End of this chapter)