Chapter 1001: Eat the big cake of BT privatisation

Facing Jason Gregg's worries, Xia Yu instead gave a light smile and said nonchalantly, 'Jason, you don't need to worry about this. I've made a comprehensive plan, just follow what I say and execute.'

Jason Gregg was taken aback, but then nodded thoughtfully: 'Okay.'

Next, Xia Yu let Jason Gregg show him around the company for twenty-odd minutes, focusing on the strategic plan he had described for external mergers and acquisitions and expansion. Overall, he was satisfied with what he saw and heard.

Before leaving, Xia Yu reminded Jason Gregg, 'Jason, when implementing the merger and acquisition expansion plan, if you are sure that the potential company is of high quality, you can be more aggressive as long as it does not go against the company's main development model. You can strive to become a top-notch insurance company in Asia within three years. If you run out of funds, you can apply to me, provided that your application can stand the test.'

Jason Gregg's face flashed with joy, and he quickly nodded and replied, 'Thank you, Chairman, I will follow your instructions!'

'Hm!'

'You can go back, I will come back when I have time.'

After saying this, Xia Yu got into the car, closed the door, and then the car started and drove away from Jiuding Insurance Co., Ltd., leaving Jason Gregg, who was full of fighting spirit.

After leaving Jiuding Insurance Co., Ltd., Xia Yu did not return to the group headquarters, but went to Xiangjiang Telephone Company to inspect and guide the work.

In terms of business development, he only made one request, which was to temporarily refrain from competing with the Hong Kong branch of Datong Telecom and focus on optimising and improving their own business.

The reason for this request was because the Hong Kong branch of Datong Telecom already partially belonged to him.

Yesterday afternoon, Xia Yu received a congratulatory phone call from George Berkeley in London, regarding the privatisation of British Datong Telecom that he had reported nearly a month ago.

Just yesterday afternoon, the British Parliament finally passed the privatisation plan for British Cable & Wireless, offering a total of 51% of the equity to private capital.

The distribution of equity had already been decided in secret, and Xia Yu became the party with the greatest profit.

Of the 51% of equity released by the British government, the Bright Fund took 7%, Standard Chartered Bank took 12%, and the Bahrain Bank took 20%.

The remaining 12% of equity was taken by other families.

There were various reasons why Xia Yu's side was able to take so much.

One was the support of the Duke of Howard and Prince Philip, who directly removed political obstacles. Even possible obstacles became help under their connections.

The second was the Bright Fund's own enormous influence in the upper echelons of the UK, coupled with George Berkeley's efforts to do the right thing according to Xia Yu's wishes.

Third, they offered the highest price! The Bright Fund and Standard Chartered Bank offered the highest price and submitted a highly operational reform and business plan, which made the British government very tempted.

Therefore, the Bright Fund and Standard Chartered Bank were able to obtain a combined 19% stake in Cable & Wireless, which was already the limit for the two companies.

As for the Bank of Bahrain, which got the biggest slice of the pie, although it bought the most, 20%, it was the smoothest.

Who let the Bank of Bahrain have the two mountains of the Duke of Howard and Prince Philip?

Therefore, in the face of such a telecommunications company with great influence in the existing or former British colonies, but little influence in the UK and on the verge of losing money, the major families in the UK did not feel the need to compete.

When George Berkeley reported the good news to Xia Yu, even with Xia Yu's calm mentality, he still felt exhilarated.

The telecommunications sector is an important part of the public service sector, and its influence is unquestionable. Although the main business of Cable & Wireless plc is not in the UK, how could he, who is familiar with the previous reform of the British telecommunications sector, not know that there will be great opportunities ahead?

Apart from its significance, the shareholding ratio is also a reason for Xia Yu's joy.

Although Standard Chartered Bank is not wholly owned by his party, the accumulated shareholding ratio has secretly reached 84.6%, giving it absolute control. Therefore, the 12% of the equity that Standard Chartered Bank has acquired has gone into his pocket.

And the 7% stake taken by Guangming Fund goes without saying.

As for Bahrain Bank, Guangming Fund holds 20% of the shares, and Jinding Bank holds 25%. In fact, Xia Yu holds a total of 45% of the shares.

Therefore, the 20% stake taken by Bahrain Bank this time means that 9% of it actually belongs to him.

Simply adding the three figures together gives him 28% of the shares in the privatisation of Da Dong Telecom, which is more than half of the pie.

After hearing George Berkeley's good news yesterday afternoon, Xia Yu knew that the long-awaited opportunity to completely monopolise the Hong Kong telecommunications market had finally arrived.

Xia Yu then instructed George Berkeley to immediately proceed with the second phase of the plan, which was to find a way to have the Hong Kong branch of Cable & Wireless spun off.

If this could be done successfully, then Bright Fund would be able to hold 45.7% of Cable & Wireless's shares and become the de facto controller.

This shareholding ratio, Xia Yu was of course not satisfied, so he planned to start with the stock market.

Because Wang Qi has been heavily tasked recently, Xia Yu assigned the task to Jason Gregg of Jiuding Insurance Co., Ltd., which led to the incident this morning.

After deploying the task, Xia Yu returned his focus to the layout of the aviation industry.

Five days after the extraordinary board meeting of Cathay Pacific Airways, the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders was reconvened.

Knowing that they could no longer block the deal, the Shih Yahuai family decided not to attend the meeting, which was a waste of time. So this time, Swire Pacific did not send any representatives to the extraordinary general meeting, much to the regret of the journalists.

The proposal for the private placement was naturally passed without a hitch.

After the passing, it was immediately submitted to the Securities and Futures Commission for approval.

According to the current Hong Kong Securities Law, private placements of unlisted companies do not require approval from the Securities and Futures Commission.

But since Swire Pacific Limited, the parent company of Cathay Pacific, is a listed company,

With this connection, the CSRC's approval and approval process cannot be avoided.

The Shi Yahuai family is trying to see if they can turn the tables in this process.

However, Xia Yu had already considered this, so when the private placement was made, the share price of Cathay Pacific Airways was only HKD 1.8 billion instead of HKD 800 million, simply because the net assets of Cathay Pacific Airways were around HKD 1.72 billion.

As long as the valuation is not lower than the net assets, then the CSRC will be able to justify the situation, and the rest will depend on the respective skills.

In this regard, Xia Yu had long since made thorough preparations.

So when Cathay Pacific's plan for a private placement was submitted to the Securities Regulatory Commission, it would normally take three to six months for the review to be completed, but this time it was only a week before the plan was approved. The Securities Regulatory Commission issued an approval in accordance with the procedures, approving the plan as legal and reasonable and allowing it to be implemented.

After obtaining the approval, Wei Li immediately implemented the plan according to the plan, and Cathay Pacific's share capital changed from 200 million shares to 300 million shares!

Jiuding Industrial Group's shareholding in Cathay Pacific finally increased to 69.33% on paper!

After Wei Li's successful move, Wang Qi, who had long been preparing, immediately ordered someone to issue another takeover offer to Swire Pacific, which finally reached Wade Schiaway.

Nowadays, things are different. Wade Schiaway, who had lost his way, could only rush back to the family with the takeover offer and find his uncle Norman Schiaway to report the matter to him.

Taiping Mountain, the hall of the Kadoorie family mansion.

'Uncle, Xia Yu is extremely greedy and has now launched an acquisition against us. What should we do?'

Wade Shiyahui looked at his uncle with a grave expression, wanting to know his decision.