In December 1984, after 22 rounds of arduous negotiations, the Chinese and British governments finally formally signed the Joint Declaration on the future of Hong Kong in the mainland capital.

Since then, Hong Kong has entered a transitional period of return to the motherland in 1997, and some people have regained confidence in Hong Kong's economy, but many people, especially some British-owned companies, have decided to transfer their assets and leave Hong Kong out of distrust of the Chinese government.

Hongkong Headquarters Connaught Building:

"Mr. Madden, you may be seated. Xu Zhi greeted politely, the person who came was John Madden of the Wheelock Group, a few years ago, Xu Zhi also acquired two federal and international buildings from his hands, although now he has land, these two buildings are irrelevant, but at that time it was the first time Xu Zhi owned the property assets in Central, and the price was also very cheap, the cheapness was outrageous, and I don't know what John Madden thinks now.

John Madden smiled: "Mr. Xu is polite, I haven't seen him for a few years, Mr. Xu has already controlled Hutchison and acquired Land, and now he is majestic." ”

Xu Zhi smiled and said, "I don't know if Mr. Madden is looking for me, what's the matter?"

After being silent for a moment, John Madden said, "Mr. Xu, you have already controlled the two largest British-funded foreign firms in Xiangjiang, I wonder if you are interested in acquiring another one?"

"Do you want to make a move on Huidefeng?" Xu Zhi frowned.

When he learned that John Madden wanted to meet him, he guessed that it was very likely that the other party wanted to sell the Wheelock shares in his hand. In the original history, the Madden family sold their shares to the Southeast Asian billionaire Khoo Teck Puat in early 85, and then the most famous business merger and acquisition battle in the history of Hong Kong - the battle for Wheelock broke out.

Now, however, John Madden seems to be his first target, or he may want to add a potential buyer to compete with Khoo Teck Put, from which the Madden family can profit.

Although he already knew, Xu Zhi was still surprised and asked, "I don't know why Mr. Madden wants to shoot Willtak Feng?"

"What is the reason? Mr. Xu still doesn't know?" asked John Madden rhetorically.

"Okay, I understand. Xu Zhi smiled, several major foreign companies in Xiangjiang, except for Swire & Co., the others are very unfriendly to the mainland, even before, they are all making money in Xiangjiang, based on overseas, and now Xiangjiang is about to return, this kind of person is naturally ready to run away, so the stocks and real estate in their hands have become assets that need to be sold.

As early as the 70s, the "prescient" Madden family lacked confidence in the future of Hong Kong, fearing that sooner or later Hong Kong would return to the mainland, and they would also be hit.

In 1976, Wheelock had intended to sell itself to Hongkong Land, but the news leaked and HSBC intervened, and Jardine Matheson was also worried that Hongkong Land's share swap with Wheelock would cause instability in control of Hongkong Land, and the deal could not be completed.

In the late 70s, when Heung Kong Real Estate recovered, Wheelock saw the opportunity to sell off its land assets, including the sale of two Central buildings with Evergrande, raising huge sums of money to invest in the shipping industry.

John Madden, like many Chinese ship kings, believed that ships were moving assets, and even if there was a problem in the Hong Kong River, there would be no danger if the ships were all over the world.

But the "political crisis" may have been avoided, but the "financial crisis" could not escape, a global "shipping industry crisis" hit the entire Wheelock Group hard, and in 1984, Wheelock had to sell ships to solve the financial problem, and at the same time owed huge debts, including once ordered two giant freighters from a Danish shipyard, with a total value of 400 million US dollars, but could not get the goods because of lack of money, and if it dragged on, the shipyard would appeal to the court of appeal to force the auction, and at that time, Wheelock would lose even more.

John Madden said directly: "Mr. Xu, Wheelock is indeed mired in some problems at present, but it still holds a lot of high-quality assets, and now that the Sino-British negotiations have ended, and the economy of Xiangjiang is about to recover, as long as it is managed well, Wheelock will be able to return to the top sooner or later!"

"Acquisition or not, don't talk about it, does the Zhang family know about it?" asked Xu Zhi.

Wheelock used to be one of the four major British foreign firms, although the scale is at the bottom, but it should not be underestimated, even after a few years of property sell-off, but the current Wheelock still holds a lot of industrial office buildings, hotels, shopping malls and so on in Hong Kong.

It's just that although the person in charge of Wheelock is John Madden, the largest shareholder is not, but a Chinese family, the Zhang family, but the Zhang family has always been low-key, except for some wealthy people in Xiangjiang, most ordinary people do not know the existence of this family.

But two years ago, an elder of the Zhang family died, causing the family to compete for the inheritance and go to court, so that the ordinary melon eaters in Xiangjiang knew how the Zhang family was rich and that the largest shareholder of Wheelock was actually a Chinese family.

The Zhang family finally couldn't help jumping out, intending to fight for control of Wheelock, and John Madden naturally couldn't agree, but the Madden family's equity was not enough, and in the end, John Madden chose to sell the shares in his hand and cash out of Hong Kong at the same time.

"The Zhang family didn't know about it, and I just had a stock in my hand this time!" John Madden said.

Xu Zhi smiled: "That means that if I take over the shares in your hands, do I still have to have an acquisition war with the Zhang family?"

"Although the Zhang family and I don't agree, they also want to leave Xiangjiang, and I think as long as Mr. Xu is willing to offer a suitable price, the Zhang family will not refuse. John Madden replied.

Xu Zhi glanced at John Madden and said, "In that case, it's better for the Madden students to go back and talk to the Zhang family first, and the two of you can talk about a price together, I think it's no problem, then you can make a deal immediately." ”

"This ......" John Madden was a little embarrassed after hearing this, and said helplessly: "Mr. Xu, I'll tell you the truth, although the Zhang family also wants to leave Xiangjiang, but they want to run Wheelock by themselves, and then move the business overseas, if the Zhang family knows in advance that I intend to sell the shares in my hands, I'm afraid he will be prepared, in this way, Mr. Xu, even if you can still forcibly buy, I'm afraid the cost will increase greatly." ”

"That's right!" Xu Zhi nodded and asked, "Then how many stocks do you have in your hands and how much are you going to sell?"

"Mr. Xu is just refreshing. John Madden said with a smile: "I have a total of 21.035 million A shares and 53.549 million B shares in my hands, with a current market value of about HK $1.05 billion.