Chapter 1143: The Political Shackles Are Unlocked

Two days later, on August 16th.

Inside the lobby of Barclays Bank's headquarters in the City of London, there were fifteen billion pounds worth of banknotes on display, and the BBC was invited to film the event.

By noon, the news of Barclays Bank had spread throughout the UK.

The Rothschild family mobilised all their forces to carry out positive publicity, trying to boost the confidence of depositors as much as possible.

It did have a certain effect, and even the rate of decline in Barclays Bank's share price slowed down, and the pressure of a run on the bank eased considerably.

But Xia Yu had schemed for so long to take advantage of the Rothschild family, so how could he just sit back and watch the Rothschild family get out of the crisis so easily?

After receiving George Berkeley's phone report, Xia Yu gave four instructions.

First, manipulate behind the scenes, let other factions of the media continue to report on dialectical analysis, focusing on publicising Barclays Bank's ultra-high-risk loans in Latin America, which amount to 25.62 billion US dollars, accounting for 27.8% of the bank's total assets. With just 1.5 billion pounds in cash, it is equivalent to less than 12% of the ultra-high-risk loans, and Barclays Bank is not out of the risk of bankruptcy.

Second, the agreed investment of £2.5 billion in the UK this year, even with the acquisition of the British record company, there is still a certain gap that has not been implemented. He will inject another $1 billion into the Bright Fund, with the aim of buying in at the bottom and gaining at least a 10% stake in Barclays, sending in two directors to Barclays and infiltrating the enemy's ranks, so that the Rothschild family can also experience the feeling of being tied down.

Third, take the initiative to short sell and buy in the shares of HSBC Holdings.

Fourth, do your best to give Standard Chartered Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and Bahrain Bank positive publicity during this crisis, absorb as many depositors' deposits as possible, and seize the opportunity to grow rapidly.

After giving the orders, Xia Yu left the matter entirely in the hands of George Berkeley, believing that George Berkeley could do a good job without him having to worry about it.

As for Hong Kong, Xia Yu was also maximizing his interests.

One of these targets is HSBC.

HSBC Holdings plc is listed in the UK, while its subsidiary, HSBC Bank, is listed in Hong Kong.

During the previous stock market crash, Xia Yu ordered Wang Qi and Liu Tianci to cooperate in buying up HSBC shares at the bottom of the market, increasing the shareholding to 18.6%, making it the second largest shareholder of HSBC after its parent company HSBC Holdings.

However, Xia Yu is not satisfied with this, and hopes to further infiltrate HSBC and even control it like Standard Chartered Bank.

As a meeting point between the East and the West, Hong Kong has the mainland as its hinterland and its sights set on becoming an international financial centre in the future. The potential market for the banking industry is therefore huge, and the amount of bank deposits in Hong Kong is expected to reach nearly 20 trillion Hong Kong dollars in the future.

Although he now owns a series of banks such as Jiuding Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Hang Lung Bank and Sun Hung Kai Bank, and has also invested in many other banks, he has become the real leader of the banking industry in Hong Kong.

However, this does not mean that he occupies an absolute leading market position in the banking industry in Hong Kong.

After all, there are more than 150 licensed banks in Hong Kong alone, many of which are branches of multinational banks.

If he can also bring HSBC under his control, then his Jiuding consortium's market share in the Hong Kong banking industry will be able to occupy about 30-40%, and this market share will be more suitable.

After all, in the future, starting in the 1990s, there will be a wave of bank mergers around the world, and one multinational banking giant after another will emerge.

Not to mention the five major banks on the mainland.

Once Hong Kong has really been established as an international financial centre, then the huge capital flows and financial markets in Hong Kong will be targeted by all the banks in the world, and the competition in the banking market in Hong Kong and the surrounding Southeast Asian region will be fierce.

Therefore, Xia Yu had to plan ahead and strengthen his own power in the banking sector as much as possible, so that he would not dominate the booming Hong Kong economy and have most of the cake taken away by others.

Wouldn't that be frustrating?

...

Fortunately, this time, the Latin American sovereign debt crisis also affected Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.

Now Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation has become the centre of a banking storm, with depositors rushing to withdraw their money. In less than a year, Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation has once again experienced a run on its deposits.

This is because Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation holds a total of 1.83 billion US dollars in Latin American sovereign debt and more than 1.57 billion US dollars in loans to domestic companies in Latin America.

Since Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation is a subsidiary of HSBC Holdings, these loans are included in the debt statistics of HSBC Holdings in the UK.

After the outbreak of the Latin American sovereign debt crisis, Wang Qi and Liu Tianci followed Xia Yu's orders and manipulated the attacks on HSBC from behind the scenes.

In just ten days, HSBC's market value evaporated by a quarter, plummeting from HK$16.97 billion to HK$12.15 billion.

HSBC's published financial report for the first half of the year showed that the bank's net profit for the first half of the year was HK$883.2 million.

So in fact, HSBC's current price-to-earnings ratio has fallen below seven times.

This price-to-earnings ratio is completely inconsistent with HSBC's current status as the banking industry's number two. Normally, HSBC's price-to-earnings ratio would have to be at least ten times or more.

Although the renewed run on HSBC would cause some damage to Hong Kong's financial industry, Xia Yu didn't care and had no intention of stopping.

After all, this run on HSBC was the only one, and the major newspapers and media had already written clearly about the cause. Apart from HSBC, no other banks in Hong Kong were involved in the Latin American sovereign debt crisis.

There was some initial chaos for a day or two, but it soon subsided.

Although the Hang Seng Index fell due to the plummeting market value of HSBC, the fall was not serious, and at least it managed to hold onto the 1,000-point mark.

Compared to the Hang Seng Index plummeting to just over 600 points in August and September last year when the stock market crash broke out, it has recovered quickly after almost a year.

In the following days, the share price of HSBC continued to fall. At the close of trading on Friday, 20 August, the market value was fixed at more than 9.54 billion Hong Kong dollars, a decline of more than 40%.

On 22 August, a sudden news broadcast by Global TV sent shockwaves through Hong Kong, spreading rapidly to countries around the world.

Because on this day, the Chinese and British governments finally signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration!

The issue of Hong Kong's sovereignty has been settled!

The British government is willing to peacefully return Hong Kong to the mainland on July 1, 1997. The declaration also clearly defines the mainland's basic policy towards Hong Kong, and confirms that after Hong Kong's return, Hong Kong's own system and lifestyle can remain unchanged for 50 years...

After this news report, it can be said to have given all Hong Kong people a peace of mind.

For a time, there was universal celebration, and the entire country was enveloped in a festive atmosphere.

Thanks to his efforts, this political shackle that had been weighing on Hong Kong was removed more than two years early, and there were fewer repercussions than in previous lives. Xia Yu was finally able to devote all his energy to leading Hong Kong to prosperity.