"Mr. Sydes, please be seated. Xu Zhi greeted with a smile.

After serving tea to the two, the secretary left the office

Said Said: "Xu Sheng is polite. I have come to visit you today in the hope that Standard Chartered Bank will be able to undertake Hutchison Whampoa's fundraising plan. ”

Xu Zhi said with a smile: "Mr. Saidus, such a large fund-raising plan, will not choose any party at random, Hutchison Company has prepared to invite many securities companies to bid together, and the securities dealers who can propose the most effective and most beneficial to Hutchison Whampoa Company will get this opportunity." ”

Eddes nodded: "I understand this, but we Standard Chartered Bank have been cooperating with Mr. Xu for so long, Mr. Xu should also know that we will definitely consider the common interests of both you and me, in order to show sincerity, we are willing to reduce the interest of financing to 13 points." ”

"13 points?" Xu Zhi also pondered for a moment, because of the substantial increase in housing prices in the real estate market in Xiangjiang, the British government in Hong Kong has raised bank deposits several times, and the second oil crisis is still affecting the global economy, the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates several times, and under the influence of many parties, the loan interest rate in Xiangjiang has basically reached about 18%, and the 13% proposed by Standard Chartered Bank is indeed very favorable.

Xu Zhi thought for a while and said, "Mr. Said, in this way, I will discuss this matter with the management of Hutchison again, and if there are no other problems, I agree to this matter in principle." ”

Cydes smiled with satisfaction and said, "Thank you Mr. Xu."

Another thing, our board of directors is going to add two more directors after the proposal, I wonder if Mr. Xu is interested?"

"Director?" Xu Zhi thought for a moment and asked, "Does Standard Chartered Bank want to sell its shares?"

"This time we are only inviting non-executive directors, and Standard Chartered has no plans to bring in other capital," said Saides. ”

The directors of the company do not necessarily have the majority shareholders, and in many cases, the company's top management, or celebrities who come from the outside, are called non-executive directors.

Non-executive directors have no responsibility for the administration and management of the company, and under normal circumstances, they can participate in the formulation of some plans of the company, but they only have the right to know, but not the right to vote.

Xu Zhi smiled and said, "Mr. Saidus, I have another proposal here, since Standard Chartered Bank has long-term cooperative relations with many of my companies, I don't know if I can make a strategic investment in Standard Chartered." ”

Cydes was stunned for a moment and asked, "Mr. Xu wants to take a stake in Standard Chartered?"

Xu Zhi nodded and said, "Yes, but this is only a strategic investment, and we will not participate in the management of the bank." ”

"Mr. Xu, I invited you to join the board of directors before that, and you are a director of our Standard Chartered Bank in Heung Kong Branch. The headquarters of Standard Chartered Bank is in the UK, and if you want to take a stake, we can't be the master here. Said with a frown. Standard Chartered Bank's branch in Xiangjiang has a strong independent right, so there is also a board of directors here, but all the equity of the branch is controlled by the headquarters, and it is impossible to sell the equity.

Xu Zhi said with a smile: "I know this, but as far as I know, although Standard Chartered Bank has branches in hundreds of countries around the world, in fact, the most profitable bank in the whole bank is the branch in the city of Xiangjiang." ”

"These do exist, but there are many objective factors, and I only work for the Xiangjiang branch, so I have no right to intervene in the affairs of the headquarters. Said helplessly.

In the 70s, Standard Chartered Bank, headquartered in the United Kingdom, acquired two regional banks and entered the Middle East and South America markets in order to further internationalize. However, because of the lack of adaptation, these branch banks have been in a state of loss, and they need to ask the headquarters for money every year.

As the most profitable branch, the Xiangjiang branch naturally has to hand over more profits, which in turn leads to the inability of Xiangjiang to develop further, over the years, it is not HSBC's opponent, and even HSBC's subsidiary Hang Seng Bank has surpassed Standard Chartered in terms of scale.

Xu Zhi said: "Mr. Saids, several of my companies have large-scale investment plans and acquisition plans in the future, including Hong Kong, the mainland, Europe and the United States, and the capital needs are as high as billions of dollars, so I need to find a long-term partner among many international banks.

I hope this partner is Standard Chartered Bank, and if we can take a stake in Standard Chartered Bank, then this partnership will have a stronger guarantee. ”

"Billions of dollars?" said Saidus, his face changing slightly.

Xu Zhi said with a smile: "Yes, Evergrande's infrastructure investment in Shanghai is also involved in Standard Chartered Bank, you should know that in the mainland, any infrastructure project needs hundreds of millions of dollars, and large-scale ones are even more."

On this side of Xiangjiang, the construction cost of a large office building is also as high as hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars, and as long as the time is right, many of my vacant land will be built.

As for international investment, Midea will also carry out several mergers and acquisitions in the future to integrate the upstream and downstream industrial chains.

All of this requires a lot of money, billions of dollars is just a little more. ”

"What Mr. Xu means, I understand, I will report all this, and I will do my best to promote this matter. Eddes nodded in agreement, he already understood what Xu Zhi meant, that is, to exchange this huge loan in the future with Standard Chartered and seek shares.

Xu Zhi smiled and said, "Thank you, Mr. Saidus." ”

"You're welcome, Mr. Xu, I don't know what percentage of Mr. Xu's intention to invest in shares?" asked Saides.

"15%, what does Mr. Sides think?" Xu Zhi asked with a smile. This ratio is neither high nor low, Standard Chartered Bank has been established for more than 100 years, and the largest shareholders are some large trade unions or pension funds in the United Kingdom, which do not participate in the management, so the management of Standard Chartered has enough freedom, and the proportion of 15% is enough for the management of Standard Chartered not to have a strong sense of crisis, and at the same time can obtain certain benefits.

"Understood, if the British headquarters is interested, I will inform Mr. Xu as soon as possible. Sydes stood up and prepared to leave.

Xu Zhi shook hands and smiled: "Okay, I hope we can get closer to cooperation in the future." ”

After Edus left, Xu Zhi asked his secretary to contact Wang Liming and inform him to come over.

After Wang Liming came, Xu Zhi briefly described what had just happened.

After listening to this, Wang Liming said: "Xu Sheng, the efficiency of Standard Chartered Bank in recent years has not been very good, and it is unlikely that the British headquarters will give us any right to participate in the operation." ”

"I know that. Xu Zhi nodded and said, in 1986, Standard Chartered Bank was badly acquired by the British Rice Bank, and Bao Yugang and South Asian tycoon Qiu Teck Puat teamed up to save Standard Chartered Bank, and also obtained more than 30% of the shares.

Bao Yugang had a banking dream since he was a child, hoping to run a bank, and after acquiring a huge stake in Standard Chartered, in order to fulfill this dream, he also resigned as a director of HSBC on the grounds of a conflict of interest, but was eventually excluded by the management of Standard Chartered.

Xu Zhi continued: "Regardless of whether you can buy shares this time, from today onwards, you will mobilize our overseas funds and secretly absorb the shares of Standard Chartered Bank." ”

"Understood. Wang Liming nodded and said, he already knew the boss's intentions.

Xu Zhi continued: "The matter of Standard Chartered Bank is a long-term consideration, and at present, in Xiangjiang, I am going to buy a medium-sized bank separately, and you send someone to investigate which major shareholders of the bank are interested in selling shares, or the management is not in agreement." ”

Medium-sized banks in Xiangjiang actually a lot, generally refers to the bank with dozens of bank outlets, market value of hundreds of millions, deposits in billions of banks, the acquisition of a is actually very simple, but the bank is different from enterprises, forced acquisition will cause financial turmoil, the Hong Kong government will also intervene at any time, so the negotiation of the acquisition is the best choice, really no, just wait until the real estate crisis, a large number of banks into crisis, there are a few failures.

Wang Liming nodded and agreed: "Okay, Xu Sheng, I will send someone to investigate immediately." ”

......

In the afternoon, a yellow Ferrari sped down the winding road and quickly rounded the mountain road to the seashore on the opposite shore.

After the car stopped, Xu Zhi smiled and said, "Your level is good, have you been trained in this area before?"

He Chaoqiong said: "There is training, but it is not professional racing, but emergency avoidance training. For example, how to deal with emergencies while driving, my father attaches great importance to this aspect, and all the people in my family have been trained in this area.

Generally, after learning, there will be a lot of improvement in driving skills. ”

"Is there such an institution in Xiangjiang? I haven't heard of it?" asked Xu Zhi.

He Chaoqiong shook his head and said, "No, I trained in the UK, and you want to go too?"

Xu Zhi nodded and said, "I have this idea, but it's not just me, my drivers are also going." ”

He Chaoqiong opened the car door and said, "Okay, then I'll go back and find you the information." ”

Xu Zhi also came out, the sun was shining at the moment, and the breeze was blowing on his face, with a faint moisture.

He Chaoqiong took out the fishing rod from the "front trunk", handed it to Xu Zhi, and said, "This is the fishing rod I bought from Japan, how about you take a look?"

Xu Zhi took it, and the first feeling was that it was very light, and it would not feel very difficult to hold the corners after the rod was straightened, and the appearance looked very distinctive.

"It should be good, but if it's a donkey or a horse, you still have to fight once. Xu Zhi smiled and said, took out the bait from the glass, placed it on the hook, found a suitable position, and threw the fishing line out.

He Chaoqiong moved 2 small benches, and the two sat together, but she didn't fish, just accompanied Xu Zhi.

After chatting casually for a while, He Chaoqiong asked, "When we go to the United States the day after tomorrow, where are we going to play?"

Xu Zhi smiled and said, "Where do you want to play?"