Chapter 1052: Original value of over 100 billion yuan of bargain-hunting assets

'Chairman, this is the summary of the results reported by each company.'

Inside Xia Yu's office in the Jiuding Building, Huo Jianning entered holding a folder and presented it to Xia Yu's desktop.

'Well, you can put it down. Go do your thing first, and I'll call you if there's anything.'

Xia Yu looked up, glanced at Huo Jianning, then at the folder on the desk, before continuing to bury his head in writing the planning proposal for the joint stock exchange.

'Okay!'

Huo Jianning obediently replied softly, and in order not to disturb Xia Yu, he walked lightly, and when he left, he gently closed the door behind him.

Half an hour later, Xia Yu put down his pen, stretched, and let out a long breath.

Looking at the planning proposal, which was already several pages long, a smile curved the corner of his mouth.

After stretching, he poured himself a cup of tea and leisurely sipped it, while leafing through the folder handed over by Fok Kin-ning.

The folder contained a list of assets acquired from the Swire Group and the Carrian Group, which Xia Yu simply skipped over.

He focused on the assets other than those two main bodies, such as

25% of the shares in Hang Seng Bank.

10.8% of the shares in Bank of East Asia.

18.6% of HSBC Holdings.

35% of Wing Lung Bank.

100% of Chong Hing Bank.

100% of Heung Kong Wing Hang Bank.

100% of Malaysia Kwong Li Bank.

24.5% of Heung Kong Telephone Company.

31.3% of Hong Kong branch of British Cable & Wireless.

...

These assets are all high-quality assets, especially those of the three banks: HSBC, Hang Seng Bank and Bank of East Asia.

And Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company was also privatised during this period of low stock prices.

Apart from a few percent of the shares of Hong Kong Telephone Company that were still in the hands of the public, and excluding the 20% that the Hong Kong government held as a fixed asset, the rest had all been acquired, and absolute control of Hong Kong Telephone Company had been achieved.

Apart from the shares held by the parent company and the Hong Kong government, the Hong Kong branch of British Cable & Wireless had also been basically acquired. As long as the parent company could be dealt with, and the shares of the Hong Kong branch divested, absolute control of the branch could be achieved.

In this way, Xia Yu will completely monopolise the telecommunications market.

At the end of the list, Xia Yu saw a series of summary figures.

225,474,500,000 Hong Kong dollars!

This is the total amount of money spent on all the assets that have been acquired!

If this were a few months ago, let alone whether these assets could be bought, even if they could be bought, it would be at a high premium, and you wouldn't even think about it without tens of billions of Hong Kong dollars!

Not to mention the bright future of these companies.

As expected, bargain hunting is the perfect way to achieve explosive growth!

And the bargain hunting is still going on, with the entire consortium spending over 20 billion Hong Kong dollars.

But before the stock market crash, Jiuding Bank and Standard Chartered Bank had already withdrawn nearly 15 billion Hong Kong dollars in capital.

Jiuding Securities had even more, with liquid capital reaching 26.783 billion Hong Kong dollars before the crash.

These three companies had a combined liquid capital of over 40 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Other companies also have considerable liquid capital.

The entire Jiuding consortium has only spent a total of more than 20 billion, which is just the beginning. More eye-catching assets have already been looted, and the remaining valuable companies and assets are even more concealed and smaller in size. The rate of capital consumption will continue to slow down.

But it doesn't matter, because even if the outbreak of the stock market crash is over, as long as Xia Yu does not take the initiative to stimulate it, there will still be a long period of economic downturn, which is enough time to slowly acquire assets!

After looking over the list of assets, Xia Yu thought for a moment, then made a phone call to Jiuding Bank. He had something he needed to explain to Liu Tianci in person.

It takes some time to get from Hong Kong Island to the Kowloon Peninsula.

After about 25 minutes, Liu Tianci arrived at Xia Yu's office, looking a little tired.

'Chairman, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting.'

'That's fine, just make yourself comfortable!'

'Okay, Chairman, here is the information you asked for on the three banks,'

Liu Tianci replied, then opened his briefcase and handed over the materials that Xia Yu had asked him to bring over on the phone.

'Well, let me take a look!'

With that, Xia Yu leafed through the materials on the three banks.

They were Chong Hing Bank, Wing Hang Bank and Malaysia Kwong Lee Bank, all well-established medium-sized banks that had been implicated in this crisis and were wholly acquired by Jiuding Bank.

Chong Hing Bank, formerly known as Liu Chong Hing Bank, was founded in 1948 by the late banker Liu Baoshan. However, during the 1961 stock market crash, it was on the verge of collapse due to a run on the bank. It was then acquired by a British company, which took a majority stake. However, twenty years later, due to another run on the bank, the British company retreated, and the bank was acquired in its entirety by Jiuding Bank.

Wing Hang Bank was founded in 1937 in Yangcheng by the veteran banker Feng Jingyao, and then moved to Hong Kong after World War II. However, it fell into crisis during the 1973 stock market crash and was acquired by the American Irving Trust Company of New York, which bought half of its shares. This introduced advanced banking technology and international banking connections, and it has a significant business market in Southeast Asia. The year before last, Wing Hang Bank demolished its old headquarters and rebuilt it into a magnificent 20-storey head office building.

However, this time Wing Hang Bank was dragged down by the Carrian Group and became the focus of a run on the bank. Bank of Nine Dragons seized the opportunity to buy back all the shares from the Hong Kong branch of Irving Trust Company of New York and then bought shares from other shareholders, making it a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bank of Nine Dragons.

The final Malaysian Kwong Li Bank, formerly known as Kwong Li Mortgage and Remittance Company, was established in Kuching, Sarawak in 1905 and changed its name in 1934. It is the oldest financial institution in Malaysia, except that it began to expand its business in Hong Kong on a large scale two years ago, and was caught by Chen Qingsong's Carrian Group, which took out a large loan, which caused Kwong Li Bank to lose more than half a billion in loans. Several branches of Kwong Li Bank in Hong Kong were emptied of their deposits by Hong Kong citizens.

Although Kwong Lee Bank had a long history, it was not as well supported as the Yue Min Bank behind Yue Min Finance, which was backed by the Malaysian government. As a result, Kwong Lee Bank fell into crisis, and Jiuding Bank spent a lot of effort to acquire it.

Xia Yu knew about this bank. Historically, it was acquired by the Malaysian business magnate Malayan United Industries Group and renamed Malayan United Bank. Later, it was acquired by the Hong Leong Group of the Guo family in Star City and renamed Hong Leong Bank. It became the fourth largest bank in Malaysia and also had a significant market share in other Southeast Asian countries.

Jiuding Bank spent HK$395 million to acquire Chong Hing Bank, HK$457 million to acquire Wing Hang Bank, and HK$523 million to acquire Kwong Li Bank.

If these three banks were to be bought a few months ago before the run on them, each would have cost at least ten billion Hong Kong dollars. Now, after the crisis, they were bought at a bargain price.

He had promised Chiu Tak-pat that he would offer a bank worth more than ten billion Hong Kong dollars in exchange. The bank would also have to cover Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.

Xia Yu decided to use these three banks to trap the Qiu family of Star City, his chosen ally.

After putting down the information, Xia Yu instructed Liu Tianci, 'Tianci, now that you have all three banks, spend some time and effort merging the three banks into one.'

Liu Tianci knew about the chairman's promise to Debert Qiu, and nodded in response, 'Okay, I'll get right on it when I get back.'

Xia Yu shook his head and said with a smile, 'You don't need to spend too much effort for now. Just let the people below handle it. And don't merge too quickly. Just complete it before June next year.'

Liu Tianci was taken aback by this strange order from the chairman, but he didn't question it. He obediently nodded and said, 'Okay.'

Xia Yu smiled and explained, 'The combined purchase price of the three banks is less than 1.4 billion Hong Kong dollars. If we fulfil the contract now, the Qiu family will get more than 40% of the shares, which is too much. There is no need for the Qiu family to reap the rewards of our bargain-hunting. By June next year, the banking industry will gradually recover, and the effectiveness of the merger of the three banks will be evident. It will be more cost-effective to fulfil the promise after the value has increased.'

Liu Tianci suddenly understood, nodded with a smile, and said, 'Chairman, you are still more thorough in your thinking. I will follow your instructions and strive to maximise the effectiveness and value of the three banks before June next year.'

'Mm!'

'Just do whatever you think is best,'

Xia Yu said with a smile and a nod of his head.

Afterwards, Xia Yu reminded Liu Tianci of some precautions for the acquisition, and also talked to him about the establishment of the United Stock Exchange, before letting him return to Jiuding Bank.