Chapter 1035: The tide of bank runs is coming

'The Hang Seng Index has fallen below 1,700 points!'

As soon as the stock market opened, with a scream, the market once again plummeted, and the path of a full-scale decline began again.

'Swire Pacific Holdings has put in a buy order and started a buyback. Look at Swire Pacific Shipping.'

'Swire Pacific Storage has also put in a buy order. Everyone, sell quickly...'

Soon, many investors who had heard about the press conference held by the Swire Group at noon discovered something unusual: the Swire Group was really repurchasing its shares!

This made these investors very excited, and they scrambled to adjust the prices of their sell orders in an attempt to close out their positions.

As for restoring confidence and continuing to hold on to their shares?

This thought at most flashed through the minds of the more greedy investors.

The stock market crash is definitely not over yet. Who knows how much capital Swire Pacific is prepared to spend on buying back its shares? If you don't seize the opportunity to sell now, and wait until Swire Pacific runs out of money to give up buying back, then you won't be able to cash in on the shares you hold.

This choice by investors has led to very active sell orders for the listed companies in the Swire group, leaving Swire Finance, which is responsible for handling the buyback, flustered and Norman Shiawai, who has been keeping a close eye on the situation, feeling anxious.

However, in any case, Swire Finance has basically temporarily maintained the stock prices of the Swire group of companies.

The only price is the rapid depletion of funds.

Fortunately, Norman Shi Yahuai received news from London that his eldest son has already borrowed funds in an emergency, and he is confident that at least 50 million pounds can be borrowed today, which is nearly 400 million Hong Kong dollars when converted to Hong Kong dollars.

Together with the original Swire Finance's more than 300 million Hong Kong dollars, there is a working capital of more than 700 million Hong Kong dollars, so he is more confident.

Although continuing to borrow money now would result in an even greater loss if it failed, if it failed now, it would also cause the Sze family to lose everything and go bankrupt. Since the outcome would be more or less the same, it was better to take one more chance and fight for survival!

The share prices of the companies in the Swire group temporarily held up, but the Carrian Group once again took centre stage.

The Carrian Group has a total of three listed companies, namely Carrian Realty, Vinda Shipping and the Kee Cheong Life Insurance Company, which was just acquired more than two months ago.

The morning's rumours were all fatal, and the stock prices of the three listed companies plummeted.

And at lunchtime, Chen Qingsong, the legendary chairman of the Carrian Group, was taken away by the police, as was the person from Yumin Finance. These two pieces of news convinced everyone of the truth of the 'rumours'.

After many investors had filled in the blanks, they also solved their doubts about the legendary rise of the Carrian Group, and they all sentenced the Carrian Group to death in their hearts.

In the stock market, the share prices of the three companies plummeted, and investors posted sell orders at increasingly low prices, in a situation of fire sale.

But others were not stupid. The possibility of Carrian Group going bankrupt was extremely high. Even if someone took over, it would be after liquidation, and it would be the big bosses who took over, not these simple financial institutions and retail investors.

...

In the operations room of Jiuding Securities Company, the atmosphere was not at all serious, but rather very relaxed and carefree. Even the employees were doing nothing, gathering in groups of two or three to analyse the stock market while joking around.

Next to Xia Yu stood Wang Qi and Song Bo. However, while Xia Yu and Wang Qi were chatting and laughing as usual, Song Bo's smile was forced, and he looked preoccupied.

Seeing that the share price of the Swire Pacific Group had temporarily held up, Xia Yu laughed.

'Haha, I didn't expect Norman Shih Yaohuai to fight so hard so quickly. It seems that I overestimated his strength.'

Wang Qi nodded in agreement and laughed, 'Yes, now the market value of the Swire Pacific Group has not fallen to the market value before our action, and Norman Shih Yaohuai has already started to repurchase, so he must have pledged a lot of shares for loans.'

'I just don't know how much money Norman Shih Ya-Huai has left to buy back the shares!'

'Logically, there shouldn't be much left. How can he afford to take a gamble?'

Song Bo suddenly said, 'Mr. Xia, the president of Swire Pacific proposed to buy back shares to stabilise the stock price. I directly vetoed it, but it's hard to say about other companies.'

'It doesn't matter. The more you buy back, the faster you die.'

Xia Yu smiled faintly and said lightly, 'Since he is so rich, then Swire Finance will have to pay the money back.'

Wang Qi was taken aback and heard the deep meaning in Xia Yu's words. He took the initiative to ask, "Chairman, are you going to encourage investors in Swire Finance to demand their investment money?'

Xia Yu gave Wang Qi an appreciative look and said with a faint smile, "That's right, Norman Shi Yahuai has been using Swire Finance's public funds for personal use without regard for the interests of investors. This kind of behaviour must be stopped.'

Wang Qi immediately smiled, imagining Norman Shi Yahuai and Cedric Quincy being cornered by investors and being in a difficult situation.

Xia Yu gave Wang Qi a look, and the latter immediately nodded in response before leaving the control room directly.

Xia Yu looked at Song Bo again and said with a smile, 'Mr Song, the plummeting share price of Swire Pacific is good news for you. Just wait for the price to drop and you can pick it up.'

Song Bo forced a smile and replied, 'Yes, that's good.'

Seeing that Song Bo's smile was still a bit forced, Xia Yu raised an eyebrow and asked, 'Mr Song, it seems like you're not happy?'

'It's not that you don't have enough funds, is it?'

Seeing Song Bo's smile freeze, Xia Yu understood that he had indeed guessed correctly.

But he didn't care if Song Bo had enough funds or not, he had already reminded him several times anyway.

In order to prevent Song Bo from asking him for money to make the acquisition, he said in a joking tone, 'Mr Song, I have reminded you several times, try to find another way to raise the funds. This is a rare opportunity, so you can rest assured and make the acquisition. I will underwrite the rest anyway, so it won't go to someone else.'

Song Bo was a little taken aback, and suppressed the words that were difficult to say directly to the bottom of his heart. He nodded with a low mood, 'Okay, I will think of another way.'

...

After Wang Qi had someone release the news that 'Taikoo Financial had used the majority of investors' funds to acquire Taikoo Holdings and Taikoo Shipping...junk stocks with a high risk of bankruptcy,' all investors in the funds under Taikoo Financial moved at the sound of the news, and they all headed towards Taikoo Financial with their investment agreements.

Norman Shi Yahuai, who was sitting in Taikoo Financial, directing the repurchase of shares, felt a sudden dizziness when he heard the news.

Swire Finance had raised a total of 1.54 billion Hong Kong dollars from investors through its various funds.

If all the investors came to demand their money now, Swire Finance simply couldn't pay them.

And if it couldn't pay them...

At the thought of the dire consequences, Norman Sze Ya-wai felt the future darken.

Once he had regained his footing, Cedric Quincy anxiously asked, 'Chairman, the company will definitely be besieged by investors in a moment. What should we do?'

Norman Shiyaohuai's expression changed rapidly, and with a final resolve, he said hatefully, 'Agree to let them get their investment back, but deprive them of the income on the grounds that they have actively breached the contract, and delay the refund as much as possible!'

Norman Shiyaohuai was planning to use stalling tactics.

Cedric Quincy understood immediately, and nodded emphatically in response, 'Understood, I'll go arrange it.'

However, he stopped just as he took a step and turned back to Norman Shiyawei, asking, 'So Chairman, are we continuing the repurchase?'

Norman Shiyawei said in a cold voice, 'Continue the repurchase!'

If he was going to die anyway, he would drag the investors down with him so that they could bear some of the losses for him. The agreement between Swire Finance and the investors clearly stated that fund investments had the risk of failure and that the risk would be borne by the investors.

Cedric Quincy's heart trembled at the sight of Norman Shiawei's bloodshot eyes, and he immediately nodded and said, 'Okay.'

After that, he quickly left, wanting to hurry and arrange for his subordinates to deal with the upcoming wave of refunds.

...

Just as Cedric Quincy had finished making the urgent arrangements, a large group of investors stormed into Taikoo Financial, waving their investment agreements and clamoring to get their investment funds back.

And with these investors came a large group of reporters, who excitedly filmed the chaotic scene.

It was just that Swire Finance Company had easily agreed to refund the investors, which disappointed the reporters a little.

However, as time passed, these reporters discovered that Swire Finance Company was not only exceptionally slow in making refunds, but that investors would not be able to receive their funds on the spot. They would have to wait until a batch of refund materials had been collected and then go to the bank together to make the refund.

Some clever reporters discovered the irregularities and became excited again. They already started to conceive sensational copy in their minds.

At 4 pm that afternoon, the stock market closed again.

The Hang Seng Index closed at 1,523 points, a plunge of more than 500 points that day, a bigger drop than the previous day!

The temporary closure of the stock market was not the end, but rather the beginning of something else.

Retail investors coming out of the exchange began to rush to the many securities companies, private and public funds in Hong Kong, and... banks!