Li Jiacheng hurriedly found Lin Zhichao and said straight to the point: "I know that my strength is weak, and the strength of the acquisition of Wheelock is far less, and I hope to form a consortium with Cheung Kong to launch a counter-takeover of Wheelock." Zhang Yuliang has agreed to sell 34% of my equity, as long as you want, Cheung Kong Group can give priority to separating Wheelock's assets in the future! ”

He understands a truth, this is an acquisition case worth more than 2 billion Hong Kong dollars, no matter how willing Lin Zhichao is willing to help him, it is impossible to help him with all his might, after all, the two are not related.

Therefore, only by pulling Lin Zhichao into the consortium can there be hope of victory.

He lowered his attitude very low, saying that he could divide the assets of Wheelock Group in the future and let Cheung Kong Group choose first!

Sure enough, Lin Zhichao immediately glanced at Li Jiacheng, and if he was another tycoon, he probably agreed without hesitation. After all, Wheelock and its subsidiaries have a total of four buildings in Central, although in addition to Wheelock Building, the remaining three can only be regarded as the value of the 'Profit Sale Building' in the hands of Lin Zhichao (medium building), but it is also a rich asset, not to mention Lane Crawford.

is Wheelock Shipping, in fact, it is not to the extent of liquidation, because Little Madden also began to sell ships in 1983, which is more decisive than Zhao Congyan and the Dong family.

However, Lin Zhichao also had concerns, he said: "Zhang Yuliang and I have known each other for more than 30 years, and there have been some misunderstandings during this period!" ”

Li Jiacheng immediately said: "Lin Sheng, don't worry, in fact, I have heard a little, but now Zhang Yuliang is in a hurry to sell the shares, and he will transfer 34% of the shares to me tonight." I think so, this evening Changhe Real Estate announced an anti-takeover, but it is bound to usher in Qiu Depua's second bid, and it is justified for you to join in at that time. ”

Speaking of which, Lin Zhichao also seriously thought about it, does Wheelock Group have something he likes?

In fact, there is nothing else, a few buildings will be good Defeng Building, comparable to Hongkong Land in a few core buildings; At that time, Hongkong Land exchanged Jardine Matheson Building for Lane Crawford Building, which was actually a 'loss', but it was acceptable for the construction of Landmark Plaza.

As for Lane Crawford, this asset is not bad!

Thinking of this, Lin Zhichao said: "Okay, I will help you acquire the Wheelock Group, and in the future, you will sell Lane Crawford Department Store to me, and guarantee that the shares in my hands can appreciate!" ”

Li Jiacheng said without hesitation: "No problem! ”

In his opinion, Lin Zhichao can't ask for any assets too much, after all, without Lin Zhichao, he has no strength to swallow elephants at all.

Subsequently, Lin Zhichao arranged for Hang Lung Bank to provide Lee Kar-shing with a loan cheque of HK$1 billion, and Lee Kar-shing was immediately full of confidence.

As for Hang Lung Bank's deposits, it is natural that Lin Zhichao injected 500 million US dollars into it, and because of his credibility and influence, Hang Lung Bank's deposits have also skyrocketed.

In the evening of the same day (2.14), Khoo Teck Puat announced that his stake in Wheelock had increased to 23.5%, a picture of ambition.

However, immediately afterwards, Changhe Real Estate's Li Jiacheng announced that he had directly or indirectly obtained 34% of the shares of the major shareholder Zhang Yuliang's family, and would cooperate with the Zhang Yuliang family to carry out a reverse takeover, offering 6.6 A shares and 0.66 B shares, 10% higher than the Qiu Teck Puat consortium.

Now there's a good show!

As a result, many people who hold Wheelock shares in hand have taken a clever approach - to watch from the sidelines, and based on their experience, Wheelock will never be a "blue lantern" this time.

Hong Kong citizens who like to get to the bottom of it are interested in the background of this incident and the people involved:

Why did Khoo Teck Puat buy Wheelock? How could the Madden family sell their stake? How did Zhang Yuliang and Li Jiacheng carry out a reverse takeover?

Soon the media gave the answer:

Things have to start from the end of the 70s, when the world shipping industry was in recession, Lin Zhichao had foreseen and reduced the number of ships in time, but Madden was blinded by the temporary phenomenon of the "bulk carrier boom", and had the illusion that the climax of shipping in another world was coming, so he bought a large number of new ships, burying the bane of too much debt and insufficient cash.

Wheelock's woes sparked a conflict between Wheelock's two major shareholders, George Madden and Zhang Yuliang. It is generally believed that George Madden is the founder of Wheelock and naturally the largest shareholder. Not really. Back in the 70s, the position of Wheelock's largest shareholder had been taken away by Zhang Yuliang.

Zhang Yuliang is the fourth son of the famous businessman Zhang Zhushan in the 30s, during the Japanese invasion of H, Zhang Zhushan has died, his wife Guo Geng fled to Hong Kong with four sons, and later made a fortune by selling Western medicine, and through investment in real estate to make a fortune in a short period of time, the Zhang family joined the Hong Kong super-rich family.

The Zhang family has always been known for its unity and "cohabitation", and the power of the family business is in the hands of Zhang Yuliang. In the early 70s, Cheung Yuk Leung became the largest shareholder of Wheelock by exchanging shares with a number of properties, but few people knew about it because the Cheung family had always kept a low profile. It was not until the end of the 70s, when the main members of the Cheung family died one after another, the family infighting, and was exposed by the press, that Hong Kong people knew about this wealthy family and knew that Cheung Yuk Leung was the largest shareholder of Wheelock.

The conflict between Zhang Yuliang and Madden is said to have caused the Wheelock Shipping Company to make a request to the Real Estate Trust Company, which has 1 billion yuan in cash, to lend it 93.6 million Hong Kong dollars within three years, but the Real Estate Trust refused this request, forcing the Wheelock Shipping Company to borrow millions of dollars from Wheelock & Co. to solve its urgent needs. For this reason, Zhang Yuliang and Ma Deng Mustard were born.

For a long time, real estate and shipping have been Wheelock's two major investment projects, like Wheelock's two legs. By 1985, as the shipping industry had not yet seen any improvement, one of its legs had been broken. At this time, the issue of the return of Jiuqi arose, and the discord between the Madden family and Zhang Yuliang became increasingly obvious. By this time, the elder Madden was getting old, so he left his business in the hands of his only son, John Madden. He believed that the Madden family only owned 14% of Wheelock's shares, and in the event of discord with other shareholders, it was easy for others to take advantage of it.

A descendant of Borneo Chinese descent and one of the founders and major shareholders of Bank Malaysia, Khoo Teck Puat is a well-known figure in Southeast Asia due to his close association with King Booncai's father. His acquisition of Wheelock was to use Wheelock to enter the Hong Kong business community and establish its hegemony.

As for Li Jiacheng of Changhe Real Estate, although he has achieved remarkable results in recent years (rights issue at the peak, 1983~1984), the media still has not broken his confidence in acquiring Wheelock.

Three days after Lee Ka-shing proposed the reverse takeover, which was the eve of the Chinese New Year's Eve and the last trading day of the Year of the Rat, Qiu Depat announced that he would raise the purchase price again, at a price of 7 yuan for A shares and 7 jiao for B shares.

At the close of the day, Khoo announced that he held 24.57% of Wheelock's shares, while Lee Kar-shing announced that he held 34.15%. The difference is only 10 percentage points.

Next is the Lunar New Year, which is closed for five days.

For many stockholders, this is -

An unbearable silence.

A difficult New Year.

"Li Sheng, you didn't make it clear, it was Lin Zhichao who supported your acquisition of Wheelock!" On Chinese New Year's Eve, Zhang Yuliang couldn't help but ask Li Jiacheng and asked angrily.

The contradiction between him and Lin Zhichao is almost known to the rich people in Hong Kong, and Li Jiacheng will definitely know it, but he didn't expect Li Jiacheng to deliberately not say it, which made him very angry.

Li Jiacheng said with a smile: "Zhang Sheng, as far as I know, Lin Sheng is a righteous gentleman, although there has been a misunderstanding between him and you, he has always been in business, and he has never been out of the ordinary. So I didn't think there was anything wrong with it, so I didn't bother to mention it! ”

Zhang Yuliang suddenly had nothing to say, he couldn't shake out the grievances in his heart directly! Although Lin Zhichao did not 'viciously' hit their family, it was also a targeted measure, which caused the Zhang family to suffer a lot of losses three times.

"So what's next? The Khoo Teck Puat consortium has already bid 7 Hong Kong dollars and 7 cents, how much are you going to bid? ”

The matter has come to this point, and it should be a dumb loss. First wash away the shame in front of you, and beat the Qiu Teck Puat consortium away.

Unexpectedly, at this time, Li Jiacheng 'turned his face' and said: "Things have developed to this extent, after the beginning of the year, after all, the final word is made in one fell swoop." But it is already a place where my strength is not enough, and I have carefully analyzed with the consulting company, and the price of 7.4 Hong Kong dollars and 7.4 cents can make Qiu Deba retreat. And just in case, it is necessary to buy the joint venture for 11 Hong Kong dollars per share, because this company has 6.8% of Wheelock shares and cannot fall into the hands of Khoo Teck Put. And to do this, Zhang Sheng, do you have any other way? ”

He asked knowingly, Zhang Yuliang had already made it clear that he wanted to cash out.

Sure enough, Zhang Yuliang said: "Didn't you say that there is no problem with your funds? ”

Li Jiacheng immediately said: "There is indeed no problem! It's just that I plan to let Cheung Kong Group join the consortium to acquire together, so that the remaining shares in your hands can also be cashed out smoothly! ”

Zhang Yuliang's face suddenly turned blue and said, "Don't you have the support of other consortiums?" ”

Li Jiacheng said: "Zhang Sheng, since you have decided to fade out of Hong Kong, why bother with the past. What's more, now Lin Sheng is the first person in Hong Kong, you still have assets to develop in Hong Kong, why not let go of prejudices and put interests first! ”

Zhang Yuliang had no choice, after all, now that the shares were in Li Jiacheng's hands, he could only say: "Then you can do it yourself!" ”

Then turn around and leave!

Li Jiacheng shook his head helplessly, he had no way to do it, winning Wheelock could give him influence and credibility, and after becoming Guo Desheng, Zheng Yutong, and Lee Shau Kee all of a sudden, there was also the influence of Wheelock Group, which was also something he needed.

Without Wheelock, he would have been a 'real estate developer', but with Wheelock, he would have owned a conglomerate, and although he may have lost Lane Crawford, Wheelock still has businesses in trading, manufacturing, insurance, finance, etc. Even a few Central buildings can increase his influence.

What's more, Wheelock still has some talents that he can use to develop and grow.

Meanwhile.

Under the reporter's questioning, Li Jiacheng finally revealed his source of funds - Hang Lung Bank gave a loan for the funds of the acquisition.

Public opinion is in an uproar!

Although Hang Lung Bank was on the verge of collapse in 1983, it is now a rising star in the banking industry, just because the new owner of this bank is Lin Zhichao.

Only from the deposit amount recently announced by Hang Lung Bank - 8.2 billion Hong Kong dollars, it can be deduced that Hang Lung Bank's deposits at its peak were about 2 billion, and now they have soared to more than four times, obviously Lin Zhichao's reputation is excellent, of course, everyone also speculates that Lin Zhichao's own funds are put into a part.

Subsequently, many people were optimistic about Li Jiacheng!

Li Jiacheng was originally a 'new real estate tycoon' that emerged in recent years, and now he has been supported by Lin Zhichao, isn't it like a tiger?

On February 25, the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, the stock market resumed trading.

Sensitive shareholders have a hunch that Cheung Wo Real Estate and the Qiu Teck Puat consortium, which are "competing", will make some moves.

Sure enough, Changhe Real Estate announced the acquisition of the joint venture with 11 yuan per share in cash.

The joint venture is an associate of Wheelock and has net book assets of $17 per share, some of which are ships. At that time, the shipping industry was in a recession, and buying stocks related to the ship would only make a loss, how could Li Jiacheng not know this? He is interested in the 6.8% stake in Wheelock held by the conglomerate.

This is exactly what Lee Kar-shing is good at: he can prevent the joint venture from selling this part of the shares to Khoo Teck Put, and at the same time, he can increase the number of shares in Wheelock.

What made the shareholders even more unbelievable was the next day.

The joint consortium of Cheung Wo Real Estate and Cheung Kong Group announced the implementation of a reverse takeover of Wheelock Group, raising the purchase price to HK$7.4 for A shares and HK$0.74 for B shares, and at the same time, the combined company announced that it already held 38% of the equity of Wheelock (Zhang Yuliang sold 4% of the stake to the new consortium again).

Public opinion was in an uproar.

"With Lin Sheng joining, don't talk about Jiang Raptor, it's just a group of dragons crossing the river, and it can only be cleaned up by him, the head snake!"

"That's right! Lin Sheng defeated Jardine Matheson and Hutchison in a row, but he didn't expect to be involved in the third ocean bank now. It seems that it is time for the primeval to tremble! ”

"But you didn't find it, Lin Sheng is more like the foreign aid pulled in by Li Jiacheng, and he is not the protagonist of this acquisition!"

"That's right, I've heard that Lin Sheng likes to carry people, for example, Lee Shau Kee was his gold shop shopkeeper back then, and Guo Desheng was his zipper agent back then. The people who carry this have all become the riches of listed companies, it's amazing, it's amazing! ”

With the addition of Lin Zhichao, those who hold shares of Wheelock Group are looking forward to it even more. After all, Lin Zhichao's acquisition of Wharf back then made many people make a lot of money.

Therefore, everyone is looking forward to this Chudegen to fight back again, so that the stocks in everyone's hands are more valuable.

However, there was another silence, and Khoo was slow to react. Sophisticated investors have seen signs that Khoo Teck Puat will not offer any higher prices, and the stock market has finally calmed down. (End of chapter)