Chapter 815: Allies are for sale

Despite his anger, Norman Shi Yuhuai had to force himself to hold back.

Charles Lochiel dared to say this, so he must be able to do it, and the consequences he triggered were consequences he did not want to bear.

With the power of the Shiawai family, offending the Rothschild family would not end well. Even if the Rothschild family did not deliberately target them, it would block the Shiawai family's path to the top.

In the past two years, having witnessed the Jardine Matheson Group being eliminated and Hutchison Whampoa being plundered, leaving only two of the four major British-funded consortia in Hong Kong, and Wheelock currently not faring well either, Norman Shiawai had to find a way out for himself.

In Hong Kong, there are major Chinese capital groups that are rising by the day, and there is also the aggressive and powerful Jiuding Capital Group. It was destined that there would be conflicts between the Swire Group and Chinese capital in the future, and Norman Shiawai asked himself if he had enough strength to withstand it.

Not to mention the unstable political factors.

If the future of Hong Kong is bleak and the way out for the UK is blocked, the Swire Group will really be in trouble.

It can be said that Charles Rothschild gave him a choice between life and death.

If he agreed, the Swire Group would open up new opportunities and be able to avoid further conflict with the Jiuding Group. The disadvantages were losing face and a series of negative effects, such as betraying the Kadoorie family and the previously concluded Anglo-Chinese alliance becoming defunct.

If he didn't agree, he would offend both the Jiuding Group and the Rothschild family...

Forget it, the poor will never die out. With this unexpected situation suddenly arising, he had no choice but to sell out the Kadoorie family.

With the Rothschild family meddling in it, and the Jiuding Group specifically targeting it, the Kadoorie family might not be able to withstand it, and even if they did, their strength would be drastically reduced.

With their strength drastically reduced, the Kadoorie family could only hold their animosity towards the Swire Group in check.

An ally, isn't that something that is only brought out to be sold at a critical moment?

After making the decision, Norman Shiawei looked at Charles Lochiel, whose face had turned a little pale, took a deep breath, forced a forced smile, and said with difficulty, 'Mr. Lochiel, shall we discuss the details?'

Charles Lochiel was not surprised to see Norman Shiawei decisively give in. He nodded with a faint smile and said, 'No problem...'

...

Norman Shiawei wisely gave in, and naturally the negotiations were simple.

One day later, at the headquarters of the Swire Group, Charles Lochill and Norman Shiawei signed and exchanged the agreement, symbolising the official completion of the acquisition and the transfer of 27.8% of the shares of Hong Kong Telephone Company to Lochill & Sons Hong Kong Limited.

Of these shares, except for the 24.5% originally held by the Swire Group, the remaining 3.3% were acquired from the secondary market. Half of these shares were originally to be given to the Kadoorie family, but since Sir Lawrence Kadoorie had already made it clear that he did not want them, they naturally went to the Swire Group.

'Mr. Rothschild, next up is North Sea Container and Supply Company, and I will need your help,'

Erase the reluctance in his heart, Norman Shiawei's face was full of a smile as he said to Charles Rothschild, 'Mr. Rothschild, next, with regard to North Sea Container and Supply Company, I will need your kind attention.'

The two parties had already signed a cooperation agreement. Swire Pacific would first transfer the equity of Hong Kong Telephone Company, and then Rothschild & Sons Hong Kong Limited would be responsible for helping Swire Pacific acquire North Sea Container and Supply Company.

Of course Norman Shiawai was not stupid, and it was also stated in the agreement that if Rothschild & Sons Hong Kong Limited was unable to complete the acquisition, then Swire Pacific would not recover the shares of Hong Kong Telephone Company, but Charles Rothschild's company would need to compensate for a breach of contract of 100 million Hong Kong dollars.

As for the transaction of the shares of Hong Kong Telephone Company, it was a different matter. The money would definitely be settled, but there was only one month to operate.

The requirement was that within one month, the Loheirs' Hongkong Co. Ltd. would help the Swire Group complete the acquisition of North Sea Container and Supply Company. If the deadline could not be met, the money would have to be settled, and the deal would be re-negotiated after the acquisition was completed.

In short, Norman Shiawai was very cautious when working with Charles Loheir. Although he had already bowed, he still held fast to his bottom line.

Charles Rothschild also saw the good in it and agreed to Norman Shi Yawai's several reasonable and normal demands.

'Mr. Shi Yawai, please rest assured, our family places the utmost importance on integrity. Since we have promised you something, we will definitely do it. You just need to prepare to take over the company,'

Charles Rothschild said with a smile.

'Then I look forward to hearing good news from Mr. Rothschild!' Norman Shi Yawai smiled.

Just when he thought it was over, Charles Locher put away the agreement and made a new request.

'Mr. Shiawai, this cooperation is over. I have one more thing I want to discuss with you.'

Norman Shiawai's smile froze instantly, and a bad feeling rose in his heart again. With a somewhat forced smile, he said, 'Please go ahead, Mr. Locher.'

Charles Rothschild smiled naturally and said with a smile, 'Doesn't the Swire Group hold an 11% stake in China Light and Power? We are interested in this stake and hope that Mr. Norman Shih will be willing to sell.'

'Fortunately...'

Norman Shih was first taken aback, then secretly let out a sigh of relief and secretly felt glad.

Fortunately, it wasn't a core company of the Swire Group, just a partial stake, so even if it was lost, it would only be a pity. After all, the company was owned by the Kadoorie family, not the Swire Group.

Norman Shi Yahuai only felt sorry for Sir Lawrence Kadoorie in his heart.

What Sir Lawrence Kadoorie feared had indeed happened. First, he lost the Shangri-La Group, and now he was being targeted by China Power Company.

Rothschild & Sons Hong Kong Limited is just a simple financial institution, and one of its core businesses is corporate mergers and acquisitions, so it was obviously acquired for the Jiuding consortium this time.

Since the alliance with the Kadoorie family had already been betrayed, and it was irreversible, he might as well do everything possible to make the Kadoorie family fall into a state of complete disarray, so that even if they wanted to retaliate, they would not have the strength to do so.

This would also save him the trouble of raising another 200 million Hong Kong dollars in cash for the Kadoorie family.

He could also recover some of the funds, improve the Swire Group's ability to withstand risks, and increase the freedom of investment.

'Mr. Rothschild, as long as the price is right, this equity can also be transferred.'

'Then let's talk some more...'

After some intense negotiations, the CLP shareholding was finally transferred at a price equivalent to a 10% premium.

In addition, Charles Rothschild signed a secret agreement to temporarily entrust Swire Pacific to hold it on his behalf.

Norman Shiawei didn't know what Charles Rothschild's intentions were, but he didn't want to know, as long as the money was in his hands.

...

The next day, Charles Rothschild called Xia Yu and invited him to come again to complete the closing procedures.

Xia Yu immediately brought his subordinates with him and signed the contract at Rothschild & Sons Hong Kong Limited, taking 5.56 million shares of Hong Kong Telephone Company at a price of HK$42 per share, with a total investment of HK$233.52 million.

At this point, together with the 20.3% stake held by Jiuding Securities and the 5.1% stake held by Standard Chartered Bank, the Jiuding consortium already effectively held 53.2% of the shares, and Hong Kong Telephone Company was already in their hands.

However, considering the special circumstances, Xia Yu did not intend to privatise Hong Kong Telephone Company at the moment. After all, the Hong Kong government was involved, and at this juncture, the whole of Hong Kong was watching. At this sensitive juncture of the issue of user privacy, the Hong Kong government was not necessarily willing to let Xia Yu privatise Hong Kong Telephone Company.

Moreover, the Hong Kong stock market has already exceeded 1,000 points, and although it will continue to rise, Xia Yu knows that there will be a stock market crash.

'Mr. Rothschild, thank you for your help!'

After instructing his subordinate to keep the contract, Xia Yu shook Charles Rothschild's hand in thanks.

'Mr. Xia, this is what we should do. I am very happy to be able to help you, and I look forward to our future cooperation,' Charles Rothschild said with a smile.

In just a few days, he had earned 20 million Hong Kong dollars, won Xia Yu's favour, and completed the family's mission. How could he not be happy?

What's more, he would be able to make a fortune with China Light and Power next. Xia Yu was definitely his god of wealth and his biggest client this year.

'Of course. I look forward to our future cooperation as well!' Xia Yu laughed.

Afterwards, Xia Yu pondered for a moment and asked, 'By the way, Mr. Lochhead, may I ask how you got Swire Group to transfer its equity?'

Charles Rothschild did not hide it, quite showing the strength of his family, and said, 'It so happened that Swire Group had suffered a setback in the North Sea oil sector, and we were able to help them acquire a company, just as a quid pro quo.'

It really was like this!

Xia Yu understood in his heart that this was the advantage of a large consortium, with countless internal resources or amazing connections, and they could easily offer something that others would be extremely interested in, in exchange for obtaining what they wanted. It was precisely because of this that the strong could remain strong.

Of course, this is also the reason why he is relying on the Rothschild family, using their resources to accelerate his own growth.

After a few more idle words, Xia Yu proposed to take his leave.

After returning, Xia Yu re-dealt the shares of the Hong Kong Telephone Company, allowing Jiuding Industrial Group to hold 33%, Jiuding Securities 5%, Tiangong Electronics 5%, Jiuding Bank 5.1%, and Standard Chartered Bank, which had not revealed its relationship, also holding 5.1%.

After the division, the Jiuding consortium had ten director seats on the board and was able to control Hong Kong Telephone Company, not to mention that the Hong Kong government would definitely give him face and support his rule.

Subsequently, Xia Yu immediately sent someone to the stock exchange to update the shareholding information.

When the latest shareholding information of Hong Kong Telephone Company was disclosed, there was an uproar in Hong Kong.

They were waiting to see the fun, but who knew that the Jiuding consortium had quietly made the Swire consortium bow to their will and completed their domination of Hong Kong Telephone Company in record time.

The most shocked person was Lawrence Kadoorie, who was trying his best to secretly buy shares in China Light Power Company. He couldn't believe that Norman Shiawai would give in so easily.

Feeling that something was wrong, he immediately called the Swire Group and the Shiawai family, but was told that Norman Shiawai had already left for London and was no longer in Hong Kong.

Realising that he had been tricked, Lawrence Kadoorie cursed Norman Shih Yawei and immediately launched a takeover bid for Swire Pacific's 11% stake in CLP Power.

Once the news was reported, the disappointed netizens immediately realised that there was an even more exciting follow-up, and they turned their attention to the Jiuding consortium, as if they had been pumped up with adrenaline.

Sure enough, Xia Yu did not disappoint the netizens.