Chapter 786: Use stillness to stop

After acquiring Starbucks Coffee, Xia Yu appointed Howard Schultz, who had been poached from Xerox Corporation, as Starbucks' general manager.

He also spent a day drawing the future Starbucks logo and wrote an essence version of the development plan based on the development of the future Starbucks.

After handing these things over to Howard Schultz, Xia Yu became a hands-off boss.

With the true soul of Starbucks at the helm, as well as his high-level guidance and funding, who will succeed if Starbucks doesn't?

Originally, Xia Yu was in a good mood because of the acquisition of Starbucks.

But after receiving a phone call from George Berkeley, Xia Yu's good mood was completely ruined.

'...Hey, boss, are you still there?'

George Berkeley on the other end of the line asked, sensing that Xia Yu had been silent for a long time.

Xia Yu, who was deep in thought, snapped out of it. With a gloomy look in the corner of his eye, he said in a calm tone, 'George, relax. Tell me about the acquisition of the two banks.'

George Berkeley's voice came over the phone again: 'Boss, before acquiring the two banks, I have already established connections, and the shareholders of the two banks have also helped us to smooth things over so that there will be no sudden changes. The Bank of England has already agreed.'

'So far, Standard Chartered Bank is already being privatised, and we have acquired 83.2% of its shares.'

'As for the Royal Bank of Scotland, because the right to issue British pounds is involved, there are more obstacles, and it has taken a lot of time to smooth things over. We have only acquired 62.5% of its shares now...'

Xia Yu had been listening quietly, and when he heard the percentage of the Royal Bank of Scotland's shares acquired, a flash of regret crossed his eyes.

If only the percentage of shares exceeded 66.7%!

But things had already happened, and the smooth sailing during this period of time had almost made him lose his vigilance. Now that something unexpected had suddenly happened, it seemed real and normal instead.

Now that Barclays, the dominant British bank, had made a move, there was basically no need to think about it, and that was basically the most that could be acquired of the Royal Bank of Scotland's shares.

'Boss, what should we do now? We have absolute control of Standard Chartered Bank. If Barclays Bank doesn't sell its stake, should we inject capital to dilute their stake? Except that I don't know Barclays Bank's intentions yet...'

Listening to George Berkeley on the phone, Xia Yu thought more deeply. Unlike George Berkeley, he knew exactly who the real owner of Barclays Bank was.

Barclays Bank acquired stakes in both banks at the same time. He didn't believe it was an accident, and it was very likely a premeditated move, and the Rothschild family was plotting against him.

Thinking about this, Xia Yu became even more calm. He thought about it and instructed George Berkeley, 'George, calm down, continue to acquire stakes according to plan, there is no need to dilute the stakes, and there is no need to contact Barclays Bank to see their reaction, I will not go over there, as soon as you have news, you immediately notify me.'

'Oh yes, and be careful not to leak the news of the losses of the two banks. Barclays Bank is getting involved, and the benefits of the two banks exploding will not fall to us. There is no need to reduce the acquisition cost for Barclays Bank.'

...

After hanging up the phone, Xia Yu stood with his arms folded in front of the windowsill, looking out at the blue sky, taking a deep breath, and various speculations arose in his mind.

'Forget it, let's just wait for them to make a move and see what they're up to!'

After a long while, Xia Yu muttered to himself.

Shaking his head, he cleared his thoughts of the cluttered ideas, made a few calls back to Hong Kong, and ordered his subordinates to be on high alert in the near future and report to him immediately if anything unusual happened.

As the saying goes, it never rains but it pours.

Early the next morning, Peter Lynch also reported some bad news to him.

It seemed that the plan of Polaris Capital to acquire Abbott had been leaked, and an unknown institution was doing long Abbott, forcing the stock price of Abbott to rise.

This disrupted the acquisition plan of Polaris Capital, and the possibility of a full acquisition was declining.

The entrusted acquirer Merrill Lynch reported to Peter Lynch that the acquisition plan had to be adjusted and the cost needed to be increased.

Despite the trouble, Abbott was the most suitable company for the Jiuding consortium to establish a foothold in the biopharmaceutical field, so the determination to acquire it would not change.

Even if the cost increases, it doesn't matter, the fear is that you can't spend the money!

Therefore, Xia Yu commanded Peter Lynch to discuss with Merrill Lynch and, even if the commission is increased, ask Merrill Lynch to help take Abbott Corporation down!

A series of accidents made Xia Yu realise that something was wrong.

Because of his knowledge of the Rothschild family, he couldn't help but link the Abbott Corporation acquisition accident to the Rothschild family.

Although this connection seems far-fetched, it is not impossible!

Next, Xia Yu's job is to stay calm and let the enemy lose their patience and reveal themselves.

Of course, the necessary intelligence gathering work still needs to be done.

...

London, Rothschild family.

After reading the data brought back by Evelyn Rothschild, Jacob Rothschild asked, 'Evelyn, the Bright Foundation now knows our actions, and they haven't responded?'

Evelyn Rothschild's eyes flashed with a strange light, and she shook her head and said, 'No. Someone from our bank had a head-on confrontation with them. The Bright Foundation must have found out about us, but the strange thing is that they haven't done anything about it, as if it never happened.'

Jacob Rothschild's eyebrows twitched, and the corner of his mouth curled up in a smile. 'Interesting, they can stay calm about this, they're too calm, which is not good.'

'The United States?'

Evelyn Rothschild said, 'Someone has already been assigned to buy shares in Abbott. It won't be easy for him to buy them if he wants to.'

Jacob Rothschild nodded with a smile, 'That's good. Since he doesn't want to move, then we'll take the initiative. It's also time to go out and test him.'

'The shares of the Royal Bank of Scotland have almost been bought out. Less than 1% will be in the hands of retail investors. The rest should be in the hands of the Bright Fund. As planned, send someone over to make an offer to buy them.'

Although RBS is a listed company, in many cases, bank stocks are different from ordinary stocks in that retail investors do not hold much of them because they simply do not have the chance to buy them.

Over the years, the shareholding of RBS has undergone countless changes and is no longer in the hands of the founding family.

There will not be much public shareholding either, as most of the shares are concentrated in the hands of large and small institutions. The shares held by these institutions are also circulating shares, depending on whether they are willing to sell.

It is precisely because of this situation that the shares of the Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered Bank can be acquired so easily.

'OK, I'll arrange for Barclays Bank to go there tomorrow morning.'