Chapter 1238: A funding gap of nearly 100 billion yen

"President Haneda, there has been progress on the matter you asked me to investigate.'

The first thing the subordinate said after entering the room stirred up Haneda Yohei's emotions. He put down his pen and asked in a stern voice, 'What is the extent of the investigation?'

The subordinate immediately replied, 'The enemy is using anonymous accounts in the stock market, so it is very difficult to detect. The reason we discovered it so quickly is that we benefited from the offline acquisition team. As you instructed, they are closely monitoring the movements of major shareholders and discovered that someone was secretly contacting the minority shareholders of Suntory. Then they tracked it down and found that these people ended up going to Jiuding Securities.'

'Jiuding Securities Company!'

'They've already approached the shareholders...'

Hada Yohei's brow furrowed, and a sense of urgency rose in his heart.

In the previous few months, Jiuding Securities Company had been in the limelight, and its strength was obvious to all. Companies in the financial industry were aware that it was a fierce financial giant.

Unexpectedly, Suntory, which Mitsui & Co. had commissioned them to acquire, had also been targeted by Jiuding Securities, and the other party had even entered the market first.

It was not at all clear what level Jiuding Securities had reached.

On their side, together with the equity stake in Suntory held when the investment was made, they now only held a 4.72% stake in Suntory.

In this kind of competition, the difficulty for Mitsui & Co. to complete the acquisition target would increase exponentially.

The current largest shareholder is the Torii family, with a disclosed cumulative shareholding of 21.7%.

According to the original plan, Mitsui Securities was to acquire more than 22% of the shares, surpass the Torii family, and then transfer all the shares to Mitsui & Co., Ltd., and use the power of the consortium to pressure the Torii family and keep Suntory in their hands.

'Now the plan has been disrupted, and it is uncertain how much equity Jiuding Securities has acquired. There is less and less room for choice...'

Hada Yohei sat in his seat for ten minutes, deep in thought, before suddenly getting up and leading his subordinates to the operations room where the action team responsible for the takeover was located.

'President Hada.'

'Well, how is the takeover going?'

Hada Yohei asked the person in charge of the operation, Kameda Ichiro, but kept his eyes on the electronic board.

Kameda Ichiro looked ashamed and reported, 'President Hada, the results of the acquisition are not very good. At present, the daily trading volume of Suntory's stock is getting smaller and smaller, and there are also opponents competing with us for shares, so it is quite troublesome.'

'So far today, only 264,000 shares have been purchased.'

Even though Hada Yohei was already mentally prepared, he still felt disappointed when he heard this figure, and his heart sank.

Suntory was a large listed company with a market value of nearly 400 billion yen, and the company's total share capital was as high as 420 million shares. Now that the trading volume was so low, it was very likely that a large number of shares had been bought by Jiuding Securities.

It was no longer possible to turn the tide by grabbing shares on the stock market, and the cost would also be extremely high, with no upper limit.

'Is the momentum of the opponents' price increases fierce?'

Haneda Yohei asked again.

Ichiro Kameda shook his head: 'Not very fierce, just average.'

Haneda Yohei narrowed his eyes slightly and guessed the intentions of Jiuding Securities.

It seems that Jiuding Securities also does not want the stock price to be too high, which would affect the acquisition outside the stock market.

He decisively ordered Ichiro Kameda, 'We will also reduce the intensity of the acquisition. If the opponent does not increase the intensity, then we will cooperate and try to keep the stock price of Suntory as stable as possible. It would be best if it can fall.'

'The day after tomorrow is Friday, hold out for two more days!'

'Yes!' Kameda Ichiro was puzzled, but dutifully accepted the order.

Hada Yohei turned and left the operations room, immediately summoning the capable people in the investment and mergers and acquisitions department. After a short meeting lasting twenty minutes, he gave the order to attack the shareholders with all one's strength, and broke the task down into groups, setting a time limit.

After the meeting, the employees of each group left Mitsui Securities angrily.

...

Mitsui Securities was ultimately a step behind Jiuding Securities.

Before they started their move, Jiuding Securities used money to persuade six shareholders to sell their shares, spending a total of 52.74 billion yen to buy 35.4 million shares, an average premium of 58%.

As a result, Jiuding Securities' stake in Suntory soared to 16.43%.

However, after Mitsui Securities got involved, the other acquisitions that were in the negotiation process suddenly became a hot topic.

With two parties competing, the news could not be kept secret.

One of the shareholders, in order to obtain higher profits, took the initiative to spread the news:

Mitsui Securities and Kyuden Securities are competing for the shares of Suntory!

The news was so shocking that it immediately attracted countless eyeballs.

Many fast-reacting institutions and investors immediately rushed into the stock market, sending the share price of Suntory soaring.

As the only victim, Suntory's president Keizo Torii felt very frightened at this time. He immediately called all shareholders to inquire about the situation and gathered his family members to discuss countermeasures.

2:12 pm.

'Father, I'm home.'

The last important figure, Torii Nobutada, the son of Torii Keizo, arrived at the family council chamber, dusty and tired. After reporting to his father at the head of the table, he took the only vacant seat to the right of Torii Keizo.

Opposite Torii Nobutada was his cousin, Torii Shinichiro, nine years his senior and vice president of Suntory.

'Alright, everyone is here, the meeting can begin. I will first tell you the situation,'

Torii Keizo's face was very grave as he said in a low voice, 'Today, our family has encountered the biggest crisis in history. Two large securities companies, Mitsui Securities and Jiuding Securities, have opened their blood-thirsty mouths wide and want to take away the company that our family has run for 84 years!'

'At present, the extent of the crisis is still unknown. We don't know how many shares Mitsui Securities and Jiuding Securities have bought from the stock market and shareholders respectively, nor are we sure of their actual shareholding ratios.'

'After so many years of mergers and acquisitions and listings, at present our family only holds 21.7% of the company's shares. This percentage, in the overall context, is already considered relatively high.'

'But!'

'Both Mitsui Securities and Jiuding Securities have a consortium behind them. The former is our domestic Mitsui consortium, and the latter is a large foreign consortium. No matter which one, their strength far exceeds our family!'

Hearing this, everyone felt a heavy heart and felt the suffocating sense of oppression coming at them.

They didn't know much about the foreign consortium behind Jiuding Securities, but how could they not be aware of the power of the Mitsui Group?

As competitors, they were well aware of Mitsui's ambitions in the alcohol market, and now that Mitsui Securities had launched such a blatant takeover, they could easily associate it with Mitsui changing its strategy for the alcohol market.

This also meant that they had no room to retreat, and the price of submission was to give up some or all of their shares, while the company would no longer be run by their family.

'In this time of crisis, we must stand united. Currently, Suntory's shares are scattered among everyone, so I propose that we set up a family fund and exchange everyone's shares for shares in the family fund according to their value.'

After saying this, Torii Keizo looked at everyone.

His son Torii Nobutada did not hesitate to support his father and raised his hand, saying, 'I agree.'

The others subconsciously looked at Torii Shinichiro, because he was actually the eldest grandson of the Torii family.

Torii Shinichiro did not disappoint Torii Keizo. He raised his hand and responded loudly, 'I agree as well.'

'Agree!'

'Agree!'

...

The others agreed one after the other, and Torii Keizo then revealed a smile, which soon faded.

At this critical moment, the family's stake in Suntory could be consolidated, eliminating a lot of risks.

Although he didn't believe that any family member would betray the family either...

'I'll have someone register the family fund right away. We can work out the rules and regulations later. I'll control the fund for now.'

'But even if we set up the family fund, our crisis is not over.'

'We only own 21.7% of the shares, which means 78.3% are still out there. Whether Mitsui Securities or Kyodo Securities acquires the 33.4% stake, we will lose control of the company.'

'At that time, our current corporate governance system and board structure will be easily changed.'

'The best way is to increase our family's shareholding in the company to more than 33.4%, with the right to veto, so that we can gain a foothold.'

As Torii Keizo just finished speaking, Torii Shinichiro, who was sitting to his left, couldn't help but speak up.

'Uncle, the family shouldn't be able to raise that much money.'

'The company's stock price has already broken through 1,000 yen and is continuing to soar. The competition between Mitsui Securities and Kyuden Securities has just been revealed, which means it's just the beginning. According to past cases, it's very likely that the stock price will rise several times.'

'Conservatively speaking, if we increase our shareholding to the target line at 2,000 yen per share, we still need to buy 49 million shares, which will cost 98 billion yen. This is a huge amount of money!'

'And this is just a conservative assumption!'

'The most valuable thing in our family is the Suntory stock. At other times, we can use the stock as collateral for a bank loan when we need money, but now we absolutely dare not do so. Apart from the stock, where else can we raise funds?'

Torii Shinichiro looked at his uncle Torii Keizo with a serious expression and pointed out the biggest problem.

The others nodded in agreement with Torii Shinichiro's view.

For a moment, the atmosphere in the council chamber once again froze...