Chapter 1015: Two consortia go to war

After breakfast, Xia Yu arrived early at the Jiuding Building and met with Fok Kin-ning, who was waiting for him on the sofa in his office.

'Good morning, Chairman!'

'This is the confidential document that President Liu of Jiuding Bank, President Liddle of Standard Chartered Bank, President Gregg of Jiuding Insurance Company, and President Wang of Jiuding Securities brought over yesterday afternoon. It is about the statistics of the acquired equity, and I was asked to give it to you first thing this morning!'

After rising and respectfully saying hello, Fok Kin-ning immediately handed Xia Yu the kraft paper document bag in his hands.

'Well, you've worked hard, waiting here so early.'

Xia Yu patted Fok Kin-ning on the shoulder and said kindly before taking over the document bag.

'It's no trouble, it's what I should do,'

Fok Kin-ning said modestly before immediately going to make tea for Xia Yu.

Because they had to rush to Jiuding Securities before the stock market opened and time was of the essence, Xia Yu didn't have time to deal with Fok Kin-ning and simply opened the document bag, took out the documents and read them.

The year before last, he had already ordered Jiuding Securities to continuously absorb the equity of companies related to the Swire consortium. At that time, he was indeed optimistic and also considered it a precaution.

Then, when Jiuding Insurance Company, Jiuding Bank and Standard Chartered Bank came into being, Jiuding Bank and Jiuding Insurance Company also deliberately purchased companies affiliated with the Swire consortium.

As for Standard Chartered Bank, it goes without saying that after acquiring it, Xia Yu instructed Giles Liddell that none of the Swire Group's shares could be sold.

After laying out the plan, he told the four companies to take the initiative to collect the corresponding shares, so now all four companies hold a considerable number of shares, and the companies involved are also very numerous.

However, after browsing through them, Xia Yu has remembered some of the more important shares in his mind.

The first was the core Swire Pacific, which Jiuding Securities originally invested in and recently acquired secretly, holding a total of 7.4% of the shares. Standard Chartered Bank held 4.6%, Jiuding Insurance 4.3%, and the three companies together held 16.3% of the shares.

The Qiu family's 7.8% of the shares in Star City had also been obtained, and the Song family's 6.7% was in the bag and ready to be taken at any time.

If these two stakes are added, Xia Yu will control 30.8% of Swire Pacific's shares.

Then there is the stake in Swire Properties. With Stanley Ho as the go-between, Jiuding Securities took over 5.6% of the shares held by the Ho family's Ho Group, and Feng Jingxi of Sun Hung Kai Securities also gave Wang Qi face by transferring 3.4% of the shares he held.

In addition to the shares acquired secretly from the secondary market, in fact, Jiuding Securities Company holds a total of 17.4% of the shares.

Standard Chartered Bank originally held 5.1% of the shares, and at the weekend, it took over 4.1% of the shares held by the Harilela Group.

Adding the 5.2% of the shares bought from the Kuala Lumpur Kepong Group last weekend, in fact, Xia Yu already holds 31.8% of the shares of Swire Pacific.

Then there are the shares of Swire & Maclaine, Swire & Maclaine (H.K.) Limited, Swire Pacific Shipping Limited...the number of companies is very impressive.

Overall, the preliminary preparations here have been done very well, which is also thanks to the accumulation of equity over the past two years.

These shares are enough to be used as shells to destroy the Swire consortium!

When Xia Yu finished reading, it was close to nine o'clock.

Presumably Song Bo was already waiting at Jiuding Securities. Xia Yu immediately left the office with the information and took a taxi to the headquarters of Jiuding Securities.

Sure enough, when Xia Yu arrived, he saw Song Bo observing next to Wang Qi.

Upon seeing Xia Yu, Song Bo's old face immediately filled with a warm smile, and he came towards Xia Yu, saying, 'Mr Xia, good morning!'

'Mr Song, good morning!'

After shaking hands and exchanging greetings, Xia Yu said apologetically, 'Mr Song, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting. I was dealing with something at the headquarters and it took a little longer than expected.'

Song Bo laughed heartily and said nonchalantly, "It wasn't long at all. I only just arrived myself, and as soon as I arrived, Mr Wang Qi came over to entertain me in his busy schedule.'

After saying this, Song Bo couldn't help but ask, "Mr Xia, I heard from Mr Wang Qi that you went to Southeast Asia the other day. You must have gained a lot, right?'

After saying this, he looked at Xia Yu with a look of expectation.

Xia Yu smiled and nodded, saying, 'I did have some good gains. Mr Song, let's go to the office and talk.'

'Okay!'

Song Bo said, and hurriedly went to the office with Xia Yu.

As soon as Song Bo sat down, Xia Yu spoke first, before Song Bo could take the initiative to ask.

'Mr Song, what progress have you made?'

Song Bo did not hide anything, and with a wry smile, he shook his head and said, 'Mr Xia, I haven't made much progress with the takeover. For Swire Pacific, I have only acquired 4.3% of the shares held by the Bank of East Asia, and together with our original shares, we only own 9.7%.'

'For Swire & Maclaine, I have only acquired 5.4% of the shares held by Dah Chong Hong, and together with our original shares, we own 17.8%.'

'With these shareholdings, it is simply too difficult to achieve our goal.'

'Mr Xia, I can only count on your help.'

Xia Yu smiled lightly and said, 'Mr Song, your family already has a lot of shares. Together with the shares I have acquired, Swire Pacific will be enough to give you a firm foothold.'

Song Bo's eyes lit up, and he had infinite expectations in his heart. He couldn't wait to ask, 'Mr Xia, just how much is it?'

Xia Yu gave a faint smile and explained the true situation: 'At present, I own 31.8% of Swire Pacific Limited, and together with your own shareholding, we already own more than 40%.'

Song Bo's eyes widened in surprise, and he said, "Really?

Xia Yu smiled and nodded.

After laughing heartily, Song Bo asked anxiously, "Mr Xia, what about Swire Pacific Limited?'

There had indeed been little success with this company. Xia Yu said calmly, 'Mr Song, I have only taken over the shares in Swire & Maclaine held by Hysan Group. As for Stephen Company and Wheelock Company, I am still having someone work on them, and I don't know when there will be a result.'

Although he regretted that the amount of shares in Swire & Maclaine was far less than those in Swire Pacific, Song Bo did not dare to show the slightest dissatisfaction. He still said with a grateful smile, 'Mr Xia, thank you!'

After thanking him, Song Bohou cheekily asked again, 'By the way, when can I transfer this equity to me?'

Xia Yu thought for a moment and said, 'The stock market is more important, so let's wait until after the market closes at 4 pm. You can bring the equity of all Swire companies except Swire Pacific and Swire & Maclaine, and we will calculate the value and then exchange it for the same value.'

'No problem, just do as you say,'

Song Bohou happily nodded in response.

Time passed slowly, and soon it was time for the market to open.

At the end of trading last Friday, the Hang Seng Index had reached a new high of 18,612.5.

However, over the past two days, as the media continued to interpret and fuel the flames, the impact of the HKAB's interest rate hike had eventually spread widely.

Investors had voted with their feet.

As soon as the stock market opened, the Hang Seng Index immediately dropped to 18,383.0, and almost all the stocks on the entire exchange were in a downward trend.

When investment institutions and investors saw that the Hang Seng Index had indeed fallen sharply, their state of mind was affected, and they began to flee with their capital. There were many more sell orders for stocks in the market, and prices generally trended lower.

At the order of Wang Qi, who had been preparing for this for a long time, many buy orders were placed for the stocks of listed companies affiliated with the Swire consortium at the closing price of the previous Friday.

Some investors who did not understand the situation immediately sold the stocks they held, thinking that an institution had placed a high price order that it had not been able to respond to in time.

More and more stocks entered the account of Jiuding Securities.

But as time passed,

the Hang Seng Index continued to fluctuate violently, but the buy orders for the shares of the Swire group of listed companies never decreased. Some smart investors and institutions began to realise that something was wrong.

There was definitely a problem!

The investment institutions launched investigations using their contacts, and Jiuding Securities did not hide the accounts this time, so it was easy to find out. The investigators were shocked. With the Swire Pacific Airlines battle that had happened some time ago, the investigators subconsciously believed that the Jiuding consortium was preparing to target the Swire group again.

After making this judgement, the institution immediately stopped selling shares and began placing buy orders to buy them back.

When the overall market was falling, the share prices of Swire Pacific, Swire Pacific Industries and other companies began to rise against the market trend. Even the slowest person realised that something was wrong.

Before long, a shocking piece of news spread through the exchanges:

Jiuding Securities Company was in the process of acquiring a large stake in a number of companies affiliated with the Swire Group.

The two consortia are going to fight again!