Chapter 687 Hutchison Whampoa should move

Wang Liang's face showed reluctance as he spoke at length.

'Chairman, our Mannings Pharmacy is facing a problem that we cannot solve at our level, and it involves unfair competition.'

'Mannings Pharmacy was established during the Jardine Matheson era as a competitor to Hutchison Whampoa's Watsons. Later, with your full support, the company's store expansion was rapid, but in the markets of daily chemicals, health care, and beauty, Watsons has always ranked first, and we are now second.'

'Now the company has 48 stores, which should not be so few, but there were problems along the way.'

'When we were selecting and renovating the sites, some of them happened to be on Hutchison Whampoa's land. These locations were very good, but either they were not rented to us, or after renting them to us, there were always problems with the property, and the water and electricity supplies were unstable, which caused a series of impacts.'

'As a last resort, I closed three stores and reopened them at other locations, which caused a certain impact and delayed the company's store opening deployment.'

After Wang Liang finished speaking, 7-Eleven's general manager Fu Kai also raised his hand and said with Xia Yu's approval, 'Chairman, in fact, we also have this problem. Among the properties of Hutchison Whampoa, it is difficult for us to open stores. We discovered this problem at the beginning. In order not to affect the company's schedule, we adjusted the store opening plan. If we want to open stores in the future, we will inevitably have to do so within the properties of Hutchison Whampoa. At that time, I am worried that we will encounter trouble.'

'I see!'

Xia Yu said with a slight frown, knocking on the table to get the two to sit down.

'Is this a situation you guys have encountered?'

Xia Yu asked, looking at the others.

Everyone shook their heads, indicating that they had not encountered it yet.

For a moment, the atmosphere in the office became a bit stagnant.

Since it involved the British giant conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa, they really were not qualified to make decisions at this level, and could only count on the chairman Xia Yu.

'Haha!'

Xia Yu let out a light laugh, appearing amused and annoyed.

He had learned in his previous life that Hutchison Whampoa had also made use of this kind of unfair competition when it was in the hands of Li Jiacheng.

This was especially true in the field of supermarkets. Previously, Wal-Mart, Carrefour, and other companies had experienced frequent water and power cuts when they opened on Hutchison Whampoa's turf, and they had all eventually withdrawn from Hong Kong in a flurry, leaving Watson's to dominate the Hong Kong supermarket retail sector.

At that time, these foreign supermarkets and convenience stores did not spare any criticism of Hutchison Whampoa, but Hutchison Whampoa simply denied everything and passed the buck.

It was hard to determine the truth of the matter, and there was no evidence that could be used to incriminate Hutchison Whampoa. There was nothing they could do; Hong Kong was the territory of Lee, and they could only suffer the consequences.

Unexpectedly, Hutchison Whampoa, which was not acquired by Lee in this life, is also using this tactic.

But I have to say, although it is very annoying, this is just a form of business competition. With Hutchison Whampoa behind it, Watsons would not have grown to become the number one in Hong Kong if it did not know how to leverage its background.

Isn't it often the case that these large consortia rely on such measures to defeat their rivals in the same field and ultimately achieve a monopoly?

Even if it were Xia Yu, if he felt threatened by a company, he would not let the other party make trouble in his own territory.

That said, since Hutchison Whampoa has done this, Xia Yu definitely has to deal with it.

Come to think of it, it has been a long time since Hutchison Whampoa was set up, and it is time to close the net.

The Jardine consortium's blood has cooled, and I'm sure Kidston is not as vigilant.

And the Jiuding consortium has also digested almost all of Jardine's assets, so it should hunt again!

Although he was thinking this, Xia Yu had no intention of telling Wang Liang and the others, lest there be too many people talking and it be accidentally leaked, causing unnecessary trouble.

'I will handle this matter. For the time being, avoid developing in Hutchison Whampoa's territory,'

Xia Yu said indifferently.

Wang Liang and Fu Kai nodded and said in succession, 'Okay!'

'Are there any other questions?'

...

After the meeting was over, everyone followed Xia Yu's instructions and went to carry them out, while Xia Yu set off for Jiuding Securities Company.

He called Wang Qi into his office alone, closed the door, and asked, 'Wang Qi, what's the situation with Hutchison Whampoa?'

Upon hearing these words, Wang Qi's spirits lifted, and he immediately realised that the chairman was finally going to take action against Hutchison Whampoa.

He had been waiting for this day for a long time!

Thinking this, Wang Qi said, "Just a moment," and immediately opened the built-in safe inside a bookcase, took out a thick stack of materials, and presented them to Xia Yu.

'Chairman, please take a look. This is all the preparation we have done for the acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa, as well as the information we have collected.'

Xia Yu perked up and started reading from the beginning.

The first and most important piece of information was about the shareholding.

Hutchison Whampoa had a total share capital of 350 million shares, and there were two major shareholders on the surface.

The first major shareholder was Qi Dezun, who at the time held 34.8% of Hutchison Whampoa's shares, over 120 million shares.

Last year, before the Jardine Matheson Group was attacked by Xia Yu, Ki did not actually hold such a large stake, only a little over 20%.

After all, before the merger of Hutchison and Whampoa, Ki only headed Hutchison International and was not a founder of the company. He was just a latecomer who held more than half of the shares of Hutchison International through a series of acquisitions.

However, after Hutchison International merged with Whampoa Shipbuilding, his shareholding ratio naturally dropped significantly.

It wasn't until 1975 that his strategy failed and Hutchison Whampoa fell into a difficult situation. The company was taken over by HSBC, and he retreated to the background to control the company from behind the scenes.

However, although Keith held 34.8% of the shares at this time, more than a third of them had been acquired by leveraging loans in the past year, just to defend against takeover attempts.

In the past year, thanks to the influence of the rising Hong Kong stock market, the market value of Hutchison Whampoa also rose to 6.87 billion Hong Kong dollars.

However, Keith still lost a lot, because the leveraged stocks did not receive dividends, and Hutchison continued to lose money. The impact of this loss naturally had to be shared.

In addition, using the bank's capital to leverage the acquisition of stocks also incurred a considerable amount of interest.

In addition to Keith, the second largest shareholder was HSBC.

HSBC currently held a 31.75% stake, a decrease from last year's 33.65%, and the decreased stake went to Keith.

In this way, the two major shareholders, Qi Dezun and HSBC, hold a combined 66.55% of the shares, which is almost two-thirds of the total share capital.

Apart from these two major shareholders, there are a number of small shareholders and retail investors.

What outsiders don't know is that many of these small shareholders and retail investors are actually frontmen for Jiuding Securities.

All together, Jiuding Securities holds a combined 22.75% of Hutchison Whampoa's shares.

With Qi Dezun on high alert, it was no easy feat to complete these acquisitions in secret over the course of nearly a year.

The remaining shareholders are the real retail and small shareholders, with a combined shareholding of 10.7%.

These retail and small shareholders have the nature of a stubborn homeowner, and they will not easily sell their shares.

Moreover, these people are also very vigilant.

In order not to be exposed, Jiuding Securities did not make any further acquisitions.

After reading all this, Xia Yu was quite satisfied.

A stake of 22.75% already met the preconditions for launching an attack. As long as the operation was done properly, it would not be difficult to surpass Qi Dezun and become the largest shareholder!