At the end of the 70s, Mr. Bao Yugang, the Hong Kong ship king, decided to abandon the boat and land, so he pulled his teeth from the hands of Jardine Matheson and forcibly acquired the Wharf Company. At that time, Jardine Matheson lost an arm because of its low shareholding in Wharf.

As a result, Niu Bijian, who was the head of Jardine Matheson at that time, began to reorganize the entire Jardine Matheson system, allowing the two core companies, Jardine Matheson Holdings and Hongkong Land Group, to carry out large-scale cross-shareholding. The two companies each hold nearly 40% of each other's shares, making it difficult for the outside world to have a chance.

However, as soon as he completed the mutual control of Zhiyi, he suffered the collapse of Hong Kong's real estate industry in 1982. Hongkong Land suffered heavy losses as a result of its previous aggressive investments. The mutual control model between Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land has created a situation where they drag each other down and lose both. When Jardine Matheson's share price was at its lowest point, the market value of the entire company was once below HK$3 billion.

For a time, there was a variety of gossip about the merger and acquisition of Jardine Matheson Holdings by Chinese investors in the Hong Kong market. At that time, the market value of Hongkong Land was about 10 billion Hong Kong dollars, but the total market value of Jardine Matheson, which held 40% of Hongkong Land's shares, was only 3 billion Hong Kong dollars. It can be said that the value of Jardine Matheson is seriously undervalued, which will naturally attract the prying eyes of other predators.

Since 1874, when William Keswick became the head of the Jardine Matheson & Co., the Keswick family has been associated with Jardine Matheson for more than 100 years. But in fact, in the entire Jardine family, the Keswick family actually only holds shares in Jardine Matheson Holdings, and the shareholding ratio is not high, less than 20%.

So Simon Keswick took advantage of Hongkong Land's huge losses to kick out the former Taipan New Bijian. After he returned to the overall management of Jardine Matheson. The first task was to secure the Keswick family's control over Jardine Matheson.

And Jardine Holdings, tied to the coveted Hongkong Land Group, is clearly vulnerable to attacks by other capitals. However, after the mutual control of Zhiyi was unlocked, Jardine was more secure. But its grip on Hongkong Land is also declining.

Hongkong Land has long been a leader in Hong Kong's real estate industry. Although it was hit hard by the property crisis in '82, Hongkong Land's market value remained above HK$10 billion. Especially after Simon Keswick took office, through drastic debt write-offs and reforms, Hongkong Land has begun to stop the bleeding.

The real estate industry is a profiteering industry, which has created a large number of wealthy families in Hong Kong. But the profitability of the Oriental Group is not inferior in the slightest, so Li Xuan has never considered entering the real estate industry. But Jardine Matheson is a very special company for Hong Kong. It and HSBC are known as the two flags of British capital in Hong Kong.

Hongkong Land is the main asset of Jardine Matheson in Hong Kong, and if Hongkong Land can be snatched from Jardine Matheson, it will cause much more shock than Li Jiacheng's acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa and Bao Yugang's acquisition of Wharf. Especially at a time when people are fluctuating in Hong Kong and people are emigrating overseas. It will definitely play a role in stabilizing people's hearts!

However, there are by no means a few Chinese businessmen who secretly peep at Hongkong Land, but Hongkong Land's plate is too big, and if a forced acquisition requires the mobilization of a large amount of funds, most people with ideas are powerless. Li Xuan may be the only person in Hong Kong who does not have any problems with funds. But he will not arbitrarily mobilize nearly 10 billion Hong Kong dollars. Go and buy a company that doesn't have much to do with your main business.

However, Li Xuan didn't make a move himself, but he could encourage others to make a move. His friends Lin Yuhao and Xu Jiankui's families are all real estate tycoons. However, the momentum of the Xu family and the Lin family is still a line behind the top giants such as Li Jiacheng and Bao Yugang.

If he can support the two companies that are closest to him to step up to a higher level, it will also be extremely beneficial for Li Xuan to expand his influence among the upper class in Hong Kong! Therefore, after Zhuang Yuhai mentioned this matter to him, Li Xuan also began to think about the pros and cons of acquiring Hongkong Land.

Of course, even if the acquisition action is really launched, Li Xuan will at most beat the side drum on the side. And in order to avoid shaving the head, pick a hot head. He had to inquire about the thoughts of the Lin family and the Xu family first.

"Acquire Land, even if it is at the current market price, I want to take over the shares in the hands of Jardine Matheson. It also costs nearly 4 billion Hong Kong dollars in cash! It is impossible for my family to raise so much money!" Xu Jiankui squirted out a sip of tea that had not yet been swallowed, he didn't expect Li Xuan to invite him to dinner today and make such a shocking suggestion.

The outside world values the Xu family's property at about 5 billion Hong Kong dollars, but most of them are fixed assets, and it is not easy to discount them. The acquisition of Hongkong Land is far beyond the scope of the Xu family's ability, which is why Xu Jiankui's reaction is so big.

"I didn't say to let your family act, Ah Hao, are your Lin family interested? Hongkong Land's Mandarin Oriental is one of the best-run hotel groups in Hong Kong!" Li Xuan glanced at his college roommate Lin Yuhao again.

The main business of the Lin family is hotels in addition to real estate, although Lin Yuhao gave up the inheritance of the family property early and went to the Deep Sea Special Zone to work hard. But through his outstanding performance in the past few years, his voice in the Lin family is getting bigger and bigger!

"Even if we do send a takeover offer to Jardine Matheson, is Jardine really willing to give up control of Hongkong Land?" Lin Yuhao said with a frown. After all these years of training, he is no longer the young man who spoke a little shyly at the beginning, but has transformed into a thoughtful businessman.

"Since we have made up our minds to acquire, even if Jardine Matheson does not agree, what does it matter, just forcibly acquire it directly! We are ready for 12 billion cash, are we afraid that we will not be able to take it!" Li Xuan said very heroically.

"It's worthy of the 'God of Wealth Li', and when you open your mouth, it's tens of billions of cash! But where does this money come from?" Xu Jiankui asked with a pout.

"I can come forward to persuade Jiahua Bank and Standard Chartered Bank to provide HK$5 billion in credit support for the acquisition. LH Investment Fund under my personal name will contribute 2 billion Hong Kong dollars to participate in the action. The remaining 5 billion funds have to be raised by yourself, if the strength of the two of you is not enough, you might as well pull one or two more people into the gang!" Li Xuan said with a chuckle.

With his light words, he solved more than half of the funds, which made Xu Jiankui and Lin Yuhao become much more solemn all of a sudden. Although they still had some doubts about whether they really needed to use HK$12 billion to buy Hongkong Land, which had a market value of only HK$15 billion, they began to seriously consider the feasibility of this matter.

If one or two more capital companies were brought in, then each of them would only need to raise more than a billion Hong Kong dollars in cash, and it would suddenly become easy to operate! However, for such a major matter, the two juniors would naturally not be qualified to make a decision, and they also needed to pass on Li Xuan's words to the elders in the family to make a decision. (To be continued......)