On November 20th, in the conference room hall on the third floor of the Cultural Oriental Hotel, the staff of Jardine Matheson Group was carefully checking the people who came to attend the shareholders' meeting and their stock holding certificates.

"Shareholder" is a broad concept, from the controlling shareholder to a certain amount of stock holders, is called a shareholder of the company, this time Jardine Matheson Group and Hongkong Land Group held a general meeting of shareholders, there is no worth of 1 million shares, is not eligible to enter here.

In addition to the shareholders, some important company employees and media reporters can also enter, and at this moment, almost all the Xiangjiang media rushed over. Shareholders' meetings are not uncommon in Hong Kong, and even if Jardine Matheson is held, it is unlikely that it will attract so many media to come, and the reason for this is naturally today's management struggle.

The Hong Kong government, the Jockey Club, Jardine Matheson, and HSBC are known as the four major forces that control Hong Kong, although Jardine Matheson is currently in decline, but it is still one of the most influential consortiums in Hong Kong.

After more than an hour of stock verification, hundreds of shareholders entered the venue, not that Jardine Matheson is the only eligible shareholder, many others just did not come to participate.

This is also where the management of Western companies is strong, and it is difficult to recruit all the shareholders even in a shareholders' meeting, unless they make a big mistake in management, it is difficult to gather enough shareholders to threaten their management rights.

As the current top management of the Jardine Matheson Department, the two members of the company were naturally responsible for the holding of the conference, and the first task of the conference was to publish the financial statements for the first three quarters of 1983:

"The loss is 1.583 billion Hong Kong dollars, the total debt is currently 18.03 billion, and the short-term debt is 2.57 billion. ”

This is Hongkong Land's report, and Jardine Matheson's operating business is mostly normal, but because of Hongkong Land's huge shares, the company has also formed a huge loss on its books.

Even if Niu Bijian has been in the mall all his life, he is extremely embarrassed to say such a performance at this moment.

However, Simon Keswick, who was sitting in the same row, obviously had no such concerns, and the more the current Jardine Matheson management failed, the higher the probability that he would be able to regain Jardine Matheson.

Under the rostrum, countless shareholders, even if they have been psychologically prepared, when they hear such data, they can't help but talk about it, among them, many of them are at a high price to start the land stocks, now the performance is not good, the company has serious losses, and the net worth has been trapped, naturally very dissatisfied with this result.

Seeing the dissatisfaction gradually spreading below, Simon Keswick asked: "Niu Bijian, Jardine Matheson and Land's losses are so serious, as a senior of the Jardine Matheson Department, you don't know what kind of responsibility to pay?"

"Of course, I have responsibility. Niu Bijian quickly recovered, saying: "But the most important thing at the moment is not to hold anyone responsible, but to do our best to solve the debt problem of Hongkong Land, and only by saving the company first can it be held accountable." ”

"Is there any way you can solve the problem of Hongkong Land's debt?" asked Simon Keswick with a frown, which was also a matter of concern to him, after all, if he drove out New Bijian, he would have to face this huge debt of nearly 20 billion next.

Niu Bijian did not answer directly, but waited for a while, and after the meeting room was a little quieter, he said: "Shareholders, the debt problem faced by Hongkong Land has threatened the normal operation of the company, so I hope that through a share increase financing today, both Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land can obtain sufficient funds to get out of this predicament." ”

"I disagree. Simon Keswick immediately vetoed, and at the same time couldn't help but curse in his heart, thinking that this guy could come up with some good way, but it turned out that he actually wanted to raise money in the stock market again.

The first way to solve a company's huge debt crisis is through a bank: you can persuade the creditor bank to lower the interest rate or defer the repayment, or you can find another bank to provide long-term low-interest funds to meet the short-term debt.

The second trick is to sell assets to reduce debt, but this trick does not work at all, if the property is sold, then Hongkong Land is not called Hongkong Land.

The other method is to refinance through some channels, the common is the stock market, the common method is to issue bonds, but whether it is through banks or the issuance of bonds, it is only a symptomatic method, similar to tearing down the east wall to make up the west wall, but it can alleviate the urgency of the moment, and the total debt has not changed.

However, this method does not increase the company's debt, and at the same time, it can also obtain a large amount of money to reduce the debt ratio of the entire company.

This method is also a favorite of management, both to obtain funding and to further dilute the equity in the hands of major shareholders, killing two birds with one stone.

"Chairman, it seems that you guessed correctly, this Niu Bijian promised us to release the shares of Yizhi Mutual Control last time, just to prevent the Bank of East Asia from continuing to collect debts, so that Jardine Land can temporarily get out of the crisis, so that he can also calmly deal with the Keswick family. Wang Liming said with a smile.

Xu Zhi nodded and said: "Yes, now he is also taking advantage of the debt crisis of Hongkong Land to take the opportunity to dilute the shares of the Keswick family through the share increase plan, and at the same time, the shares in our hands will also be diluted." ”

Wang Liming frowned and asked, "But, isn't he worried, will we join forces with Keswick and abolish his class first?"

"No, it won't. Xu Zhi shook his head and said, "Simon Keswick doesn't know the shares in my hands, once he knows, his enemies will immediately change from Niubijian to us."

At this time, Simon Keswick needs Niu Bijian to stand in the position of Jardine Taipan, because if he steps down, we will also be very likely to take advantage of the situation and immediately join the Jardine Group, after all, the shareholders here are mostly Chinese, Simon Keswick He didn't dare to bet at all, once the bet was lost, then Jardine and the Keswick family would no longer have anything to do with it.

At the same time, it is the same on our side, if Niu Bijian steps down, we are not absolutely sure that we will be able to defeat the Keswick family, which has been in business for a hundred years, and once the Keswick family returns to the top management of Jardine Matheson, it will inevitably use the authority in their hands again to increase shares for their family, so that if we want to acquire Jardine and Hongkong Land, the difficulty will become very high, almost impossible.

The two of us control close to 35% of the shares, which is essentially the decisive voting power for a large group like Jardine Matheson, and we are not completely sure of it, so we can only maintain the situation as we are in case for the future. ”

Wang Liming said: "So Niu Bijian is using this balance to achieve his goal of continuing to serve as the Taipan of Jardine Matheson, the Keswick family will join forces with him to fight us, as long as Jardine Matheson faces the threat of being annexed by Chinese capital one day, he can calmly sit in this Taipan." ”

"As a non-equity management with two strong major shareholders, Newbijian's approach is good, at least in the short term, he can still use this balance to keep his position, and as long as he finds a way to turn the company around, he has a better chance of continuing to control the entire Jardine Matheson system. Xu Zhi said with a smile.