Chapter 1339: Australia's Three Major Consortia

"Chairman, here is the specific investigation and the situation of the relevant companies.'

After the unexpected situation occurred, in less than a day, the situation was investigated and clarified, and Fok Kin-ning reported the results to Xia Yu.

'Okay, I'll take a look first, you go ahead, I'll call you if there's anything else.'

After sending Fok away, Xia Yu picked up the investigation report and read it.

Halfway through the report, he came across an Australian company called Toll.

It had invested HK$1.95 billion to take over all the shares held by the Marden family in Wheelock Shipping, totalling 21.1% of the total share capital.

Toll is an established Australian logistics company founded in 1888, which started with a small horse-drawn cart and has been working hard for nearly a century.

It is currently Australia's largest integrated logistics provider, with businesses including road fleets, warehousing, sea and air logistics, port operations and rail vehicle operations.

Of course, Toll is not the strongest in international shipping in Australia.

However, it is the largest private company in the field, second only to the state-owned Australian National Shipping Corporation.

In this acquisition of Wheelock Shipping, Toll did not act alone. Apart from having the local Shangjiang Rothschild & Co. as acquisition consultants, there was also financial support from several major banks, all of which were foreign banks.

They were the Australia Westpac Banking Corporation, Barclays Bank of the United Kingdom, and the National Westminster Bank of the United Kingdom, with Westpac being the biggest supporter.

This also involved Toll's background, which involved a consortium level higher than a single company.

Topland is a core company of the Sydney consortium, one of Australia's three major consortia, and a pillar in the logistics and transportation sector!

After reading the investigation report, Xia Yu couldn't help but sneer.

It's fine for Australian consortia to expand overseas, but they just snatched his prey, and they weren't modest about it, going straight for Wheelock Shipping.

Acquiring Wheelock Shipping is like acquiring the entire Wheelock consortium.

Xia Yu felt something was wrong, and after pondering for a long time, he re-recruited Fok Kin-ning.

'Kin-ning, I've read the investigation report. Tell the Guangming Fund to suspend contact with the major shareholder, and first attract some capital from the stock market to push up the stock price.'

'In addition, immediately find out everything you can about the Australian Sydney consortium, especially anything related to them in Hong Kong, and give it to me first.'

'Yes, I'll arrange it right away!'

Fok Kin-ning respectfully replied.

'Go, as soon as possible,'

Xia Yu said, waving Fok Kin-ning off.

After Top Leader had intervened, the plan to acquire Wheelock Shipping had been disrupted.

Top Leader had taken over the shares of the second largest shareholder and the controlling family, the Marden family. In an uncertain situation, rash competition was the stupidest thing to do.

For now, the first thing to do was to muddy the waters, create trouble for Top Leader, and hinder their acquisition.

After he has thought it through, with his strength and resources, there is always a way to deal with it.

...

It wasn't until I looked into it that I discovered the problem.

Three days later, detailed information about the Sydney Consortium was investigated.

The Sydney Consortium is one of Australia's three major consortia, with four core families: the Fairfax family, the Knox family, the Jonathan family, and the Johnston family.

The financial core of the Sydney consortium is Westpac Banking Corporation and Australia Insurance Company, which are currently Australia's second-largest bank and third-largest insurance company respectively.

The Sydney consortium has many companies under its umbrella, including large companies in industries such as mining, machinery, building materials, paper, chemicals, food, sugar, and retail.

For example, Queensland Sugar, which has a monopoly on 75% of the Australian market and is also the largest exporter, and New Zealand Sugar.

The top three Australian mining companies are Northern Mining.

In the mining sector, there are also companies such as John Laing Australia, Torbjørnmark Australia, Buchanan Bolderhall Coal Mines, Monte Gunson Mining, Gove Bauxite, and Pibara Iron Ore.

In the industrial and machinery manufacturing sector, there are also Clyde Industrial, Goodwin Materials, and Commonwealth Machinery.

In the paper and packaging sector, there is Carter Holt, one of the four giants.

The Fairfax Group, one of the four major newspaper groups.

The Westfield Group, a large real estate and retail company.

Lion Nathan, the second largest of the three major brewing companies.

In addition, there are Australian Quarry Company, Australian Chemical Company, and so on.

Many of these companies from the Sydney Consortium have already entered Xiangjiang.

For example, the Fairfax Group has successively merged and acquired two small newspapers in Xiangjiang, which have been renamed Xiangjiang News and East Asia News. They have been published for more than a year and have also adopted the strategy of free distribution in the early stages to grow rapidly. Currently, the daily circulation of the two newspapers is 25,000 and 37,000 copies respectively, which can be considered a success.

Fairfax Group also invested in Hong Kong TVB and currently holds 15.8% of the shares, making it the second largest shareholder after Shao Lao Liu.

Fairfax Group competes with Jiu Ding Newspaper Company and Global Satellite TV, although it is currently at a definite disadvantage.

Queensland Sugar Company, on the other hand, acquired Hong Kong Yinghua Trading Company, which is one of the main traders of Hong Kong Sugar Trading.

Queensland Sugar is also a competitor of Swire Sugar, a subsidiary of Swire Agriculture Group under Xia Yu's Jiuding Industrial Group.

Australia Insurance also entered the Hong Kong market in February 1983 and established a branch, developing insurance business in Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand, Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries, competing with Jiuding Insurance Group.

There is also the Westfield Group, which entered Hong Kong in April 1983 and is currently developing a shopping centre.

The Westpac Banking Corporation of Australia needless to say, had long since established a branch in Hong Kong.

Before beginning the acquisition of Wheelock Shipping Company, the Sydney consortium had already entered Hong Kong in six fields, basically competing with Xia Yu's Jiuding consortium.

Although they were all in an absolutely weak position and were unable to shake the position of the Jiuding consortium in various industries, competition is competition!

The rapid development of Hong Kong has had a siphoning effect on the Southeast Asian economy, and therefore has a huge impact on foreign capital consortia such as the Sydney Consortium.

Xia Yu has long been prepared for this.

The major consortia in Europe and the United States, as well as those in the island countries, have entered even more and earlier than the Sydney Consortium.

For example, in the insurance industry, Jiuding Insurance Company occupies the leading position in the market, and the remaining nine of the top ten in the market are in order AIA, Prudential, MetLife, Manulife, National Life of the Netherlands, AXA Life, Yasuda Life, Allianz Insurance and Fortis Insurance.

There are two British insurance companies, two American insurance companies, one French insurance company, one German insurance company, one Dutch insurance company, one Canadian insurance company and one insurance company from the island country.

Of course, since Manulife of Canada was acquired by Bright Fund, this insurance company is actually considered to be within the scope of the UK and also belongs to Xia Yu.

Think about Jardine Insurance, the predecessor of Jiuding Insurance Company. At that time, there was not a single local company among the top ten insurance companies in Xiangjiang.

That said, it is impossible for there to be no competition in each market.

When you become the leader in each market, you have to accept the competition from newcomers, and there is nothing to say about it.

Xia Yu also has no way to deliberately deal with each party's influence, nor is there a need to.

The economic take-off of Hong Kong also required a steady flow of foreign investment to help, and it was not possible to close the country off to the outside world.

But the Sydney consortium should never have snatched the food from Xia Yu's mouth in front of him.

What's more, according to investigations, the Sydney consortium also has close ties with the Rothschild family.

The Rothschild & Sons company in Hong Kong contributed a lot to the Sydney consortium's ability to quickly gain a foothold in Hong Kong, and the Marden family's willingness to so readily hand over all of its shares this time was also assisted by the Rothschild & Sons company in Hong Kong.

Within Australia, the Sydney Consortium is also an ally of the Rothschild family.

'It seems that I and the Rothschild family are old enemies indeed.'

'I have already decided to recuperate in Xiangjiang, but now this is being presented to me again. If I don't take a slice of it, I would be doing them a disservice, wouldn't I? Haha...'

Xia Yu shook his head with a smile, took out a piece of paper and pen, and fell into thought.

Merely making a fuss over Wheelock Shipping Company would make him seem too small-minded.

Someone has invaded his lair, which he worked so hard to build, and it is not his style to just defend without attacking...