Chapter 968: Full-scale war with the Swire consortium?

Just then, Xia Yu glanced over and suddenly remembered that Fok Kin-ning's acquisition proposal was still on the table.

He had been so engrossed in his thoughts that he had forgotten about it.

I wonder what Fok Kin-ning's plan is for this tricky situation?

Thinking about this, Xia Yu picked up the acquisition plan and looked it over.

The acquisition plan listed four acquisition plans.

The first plan was the worst option, which was to directly acquire the shares of Swire Pacific Limited, the largest subsidiary of Swire Pacific Limited, from Swire Pacific Limited. If this could be negotiated, and then the shares of the other shareholders could be acquired, then not only would the entire Swire Pacific Airlines be obtained, but also the two highly promising companies Swire Properties and Swire Beverages would be bought.

However, this method has a very low success rate. There is a high possibility that the Swire family will not accept the acquisition offer at all, without even giving the offer a chance to be evaluated. It is even possible that the plan will alert the Swire family, and they will not even find the slightest chance in the future.

The second plan is to attack the source. The parent company of the Swire group, John Swire & Sons, is already listed in London, and the Swire family does not have absolute control over John Swire & Sons. They can attack John Swire & Sons in the London market.

This method requires a huge amount of capital, and because it is in the UK, it involves the British aristocracy, making it very difficult to execute and with a very low success rate.

If the acquired equity does not reach a certain amount, it is impossible to use the Swire Pacific Group's shares to replace the Swire Pacific Group's shares.

Because the Swire Pacific Group is not listed, if you do not control two-thirds of its equity, then you will not be able to pass the board of directors' discussion and you will not be able to take over Cathay Pacific.

The third option is also relatively simple. It is to 'dance with a sword in mind' and directly launch a takeover bid for Swire Pacific, acquire the shares of the listed company Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company, then secure 8.4% of the shares of HSBC, and then acquire more than 3% from the secondary market, thereby controlling two-thirds of the voting rights of the chairman.

At the same time, covertly acquire the shares of Cathay Pacific held by HSBC and the Soong family, and then transfer the 4% stake in Cathay Pacific held by Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company to oneself, in order to control more than 51% of the shares of Cathay Pacific.

Even if the two-thirds threshold is not reached, but more than 51% is, one can still wield significant power and take certain initiatives, and then look for opportunities later.

The fourth option is very similar to the third, but it is a different approach. And because it does not involve a public company and the target is also Chinese, the success rate is a bit higher.

This plan starts with the unlisted Hong Kong Airport Ground Services Company, and tries to buy more than 12% of the shares from Swire Pacific. Then it buys the shares of Cao Guangbiao and Fok Ying Tung, and with the original 15% of the shares, it reaches the two-thirds holding line and forcibly passes the 5% of Cathay Pacific shares it holds.

At the same time, he also had to settle the Cathay Pacific shares held by HSBC and the Soong family. Together with the shares he originally owned, he could also achieve control of 54% of Cathay Pacific's shares. He would figure out the rest later.

The success rate of these four plans was incremental, although it could not be increased much...

But in any case, in the face of the Swire consortium's such a tight shareholding structure, Fok Kin-ning still came up with these four action plans. Regardless of whether they could be implemented, he had really put his heart into it and deserved praise.

Xia Yu gave Fok Kin-ning an appreciative look and said with a smile, 'Kin-ning, you've put in a lot of effort with this plan, haven't you?'

Fok Kin-ning smiled modestly and said a little embarrassed, "Chairman, I've put in a lot of effort, but I have to admit to you that the few plans I've come up with are pretty average, but for the time being, we really can't think of any other solutions.'

Xia Yu smiled and shook his head, saying, "I understand. The Swire Group is being overly cautious, and anyone else would find this tricky.'

'If we do the math, the source of this situation is actually with me. I scared the Swire Group, and I remember that they weren't as strict with their shareholding control before.'

For more than ten years, the Swire Group, like the Jardine Group, took advantage of the situation to acquire Chinese companies. The Jardine Group acquired more than 200 companies, and the Swire Group acquired at least 150 to 160, although fewer.

The Swire Group could not have made these acquisitions with pure cash, and it did not have all the cash either.

So many companies were acquired by means of a combination of cash and equity, or by means of a direct re-expansion of shares.

As a result, the equity of each company under the Swire Group is not so concentrated, and many of them only hold 20% to 30% of the shares, even in the case of listed companies.

The reason why the shareholding ratio is so high now is that the British-funded consortia such as Hutchison Whampoa and Jardine Matheson were surrounded and hunted, making the Swire family have to increase their shareholding at a high cost.

But where did the money to increase the shareholding come from?

Xia Yu believed that the Swire family could only come up with a small part of it, and the vast majority of the money must have been borrowed.

Thinking about this, Xia Yu asked Fok Kin-ning, 'Kin-ning, have you checked the debt situation of the Swire family and the various companies of the Swire Group?'

Fok Kin-ning shook his head and said honestly, 'Chairman, in the past three days, I have only collected information related to Cathay Pacific Airways. I have not collected information on the entire Swire Group. However, I remember hearing that the Swire Group and the Sze Ah Wai family have relatively high debts.'

Xia Yu nodded in understanding, but in his heart, he was thinking of asking Liu Tianci and Giles Liddell to do this. They are the presidents of Jiuding Bank and Standard Chartered Bank, respectively, and they will have a better understanding of this matter. Collecting information from other industry peers will also be more efficient.

Xia Yu put the information on Cathay Pacific and the acquisition plan aside, and asked Fok Kin-ning, 'Kin-ning, it's been more than a month since you were last asked to acquire a stake in Island Pioneer Electronics. What's the situation now?'

Fok Kin-ning was taken aback, and without thinking about why the chairman had stopped talking about Cathay Pacific, he reported according to the actual situation: 'Chairman, at present we have acquired a total of 9.75% of the shares. All the shares were acquired from various stock markets, and the shares are under the ownership of multiple companies and have not been disclosed to the public.'

'Because the news has not been exposed, the stock price of Island Pioneer Electronics is rising at a normal rate. Yesterday, the market value of Island Pioneer Electronics was 182.1 billion yen.'

Facing the multinationally listed Island Pioneer Electronics Company, this is a very fast progress for what has been achieved in a month.

Xia Yu smiled and emphasised after his comment: 'Not bad, you just need to keep a good grasp of the situation. Speed is not the most important thing, the key is the number of shares acquired.'

Fok Kin Ning replied solemnly: "I understand!'

His performance this time involved whether or not he could get rid of the word "agent' above his head, so he could not afford not to pay attention.

'Do you have anything else?'

'Not at the moment.'

'Okay, you go ahead!'

'Yes, Chairman, I'll leave now.'

Xia Yu smiled as he watched Fok Kin-ning exit the office and gently close the door behind him.

He picked up the Cathay Pacific information and acquisition plan lying on the desk, walked away from the desk and sat down in a comfortable position on the leather sofa. He opened the information again and read it, stopping from time to time to think.

There were now only two major British consortia in Hong Kong, namely the Swire Group and Wheelock.

As Xia Yu knows, Wheelock is currently embroiled in fierce internal struggles, with the Marden family and the Cheung family on very bad terms. If it weren't for the good development of its real estate business, Wheelock would have long been dragged into the quagmire by its loss-making shipping business.

The Swire Group, as a British-owned enterprise, is a benchmark apart from HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank, and its influence is even greater than that of the four major British consortia at the time.

And neither the British government nor the Hong Kong government would necessarily want to see the Swire Group fall like the Jardine Matheson Group and Hutchison Whampoa.

Therefore, even though Xia Yu was confident that he could handle the pressure from the British government, he did not want to fight the Swire Group on all fronts for the time being.

Unless it was a last resort.

He was preparing to collect information on the debts of the Swire family and the Swire Group, more as a precaution.

In the best case scenario, the battle would be confined to the acquisition of Swire Pacific Airlines.

Of course, if things really got out of hand, he wasn't afraid to fight.

After a long while, Xia Yu once again finished reading all the information.

On the laptop on the table, he wrote down three words in order of perceived difficulty: Swire Pacific Airlines, the Soong family, and HSBC.

He frowned and thought for a moment, then wrote again.

Fok, Tsao.

After deliberating for a long time, he wrote the two characters 'Lao Bao' at the bottom.

'I can only try it first. Whether it will work depends on whether the Sihua family is greedy enough and whether they are really that vigilant...'

'I hope it goes as smoothly as possible...'