Chapter 1346: Short-term or long-term benefits? (Part 2)
"Chairman, I understand what you mean.'
'The work in this area will be very stressful and time is relatively short. As far as I know, in the past, several companies only released their financial reports in February or March.'
'We now have to advance the release time of the financial report to early January. I am not absolutely sure if we can rely on the financial personnel of each company alone.'
'I suggest hiring a third-party accounting firm to assist and speed up the work efficiency,'
Myron Marjorie solemnly replied.
Justin Kyle immediately approved and once again reminded, 'You handle it yourself. I will fully delegate it to you and I only need the result.'
'The company's financial report must be released as soon as possible after the dividends have all been received. Procrastination will not do us any good!'
Myron Marjorie nodded in agreement: 'I understand. I will urge each company to prepare the financial report as soon as possible.'
'That's all for now. If you don't have anything else to do, get back to work.'
'Then, Chairman, I'll be going now.'
With that, Myron Marjorie got up and left the office.
Justin Kyle, on the other hand, continued to work busily. He had to sort things out and see if he could find suitable assets. He planned to rely on selling some of the assets to increase the company's income and make the financial report look better.
Of course, this required finding the right assets, and it was also necessary to find the right buyer, which was not easy.
...
Half a month passed quietly.
With the assistance of a third-party accounting firm, the annual financial reports of many companies under the Wheelock Group were completed one after the other.
In January 1985, companies such as the United Dockyards, the Real Estate Investment Trust, the Lane Crawford retail company, the Federal Realty Company, and the Xiangjiang Undersea Tunnel Company all released their 1984 annual financial reports.
All five companies had achieved profits.
Even the United Dockyards, which had the worst profit situation, had maintained a profit.
At the same time as releasing the financial reports, each listed company also released a preliminary dividend announcement plan, and indicated that the process would be carried out in the near future.
In order to distribute dividends, in addition to announcing a dividend forecast, the proposal must first be considered and resolved by the board of directors, and then submitted to the shareholders' meeting for approval before it can be formally implemented.
After the news broke, it did not cause a heated debate.
Because it is very common for Hong Kong-listed companies to pay dividends every year, and the stock exchanges have very strict requirements for dividends. Unlike the previous life of the Greater A, it is all tears when talking about it.
However, although it did not cause a heated debate, it attracted Xia Yu's attention.
More accurately, Xia Yu had long ago had someone keep an eye on these companies, and he had been waiting for this moment.
The financial reports of these five companies were the first to be collected by the people below and delivered to him.
Xia Yu sipped his tea while watching the annual financial reports of these companies with interest.
United Dockyards Company: annual turnover for 1984 was HK$1.372 billion, net profit HK$121 million, net profit margin 8.82%.
The Real Estate Investment Trust Company had a turnover of HK$1.457 billion in 1984, a net profit of HK$269 million and a net profit margin of 18.46%.
The Lane Crawford retail company had a turnover of HK$981 million in 1984, a net profit of HK$148 million and a net profit margin of 15.09%.
Federal Realty, annual turnover for 1984 was HK$1.689 billion, net profit was HK$257 million, and net profit margin was 15.22%.
Hong Kong-Zhuhai Tunnel Company, annual turnover for 1984 was HK$854 million, net profit was HK$177 million, and net profit margin was 20.73%.
After a quick calculation, Xia Yu concluded that the combined turnover of these five companies reached 6.353 billion Hong Kong dollars, with a total profit of 972 million Hong Kong dollars and an average net profit margin of 15.3%.
This net profit margin is considered to be average among all companies in Hong Kong, and at least it beats the current bank interest rate.
These five companies are definitely not comparable to Xia Yu's companies, which are worth billions or even hundreds of billions of Hong Kong dollars.
However, companies like Galaxy Studios, the Jiu Ding Shangri-La Hotel Group, and the China Gas Company are leaders in their respective industries and are only a very small minority.
Instead, companies like the United Dockyards Company and the Real Estate Trust Company are the backbone of the stock market.
The Hong Kong stock market is a pyramid, with Wheelock Shipping Company at the top one or two floors, and these five companies in the middle and upper reaches of the pyramid, with the bottom basically being companies with a market value of a few hundred million Hong Kong dollars.
'What is Wheelock's shareholding percentage in these companies?'
He asked, rummaging through the drawer and finding the previous materials.
He wrote down Wheelock's shareholding percentage in these companies on a piece of paper.
27.8% of United Dockyards.
38.2% of Land Trust.
42.7% of Lane Crawford Retail.
44.5% of the shares of the Federal Realty Company.
27.9% of the shares of the Xiangjiang Undersea Tunnel Company.
Xia Yu then took the calculator on the table and kept pressing the buttons, calculating the results and recording them on paper.
According to Wheelock Shipping's shareholding ratio in these five companies, multiplied by the annual net profit of these companies, the amount of dividends Wheelock Shipping would receive if all the profits of the five companies were taken as dividends can be obtained.
After some calculations, five results were obtained.
A dividend of 33.64 million Hong Kong dollars was received from Associated Dockyards.
A dividend of 102.76 million Hong Kong dollars was received from the Real Estate Trust.
A dividend of 63.2 million Hong Kong dollars was received from Lane Crawford Retail.
A dividend of 114.37 million Hong Kong dollars was received from Realty Development Corporation.
A dividend of 49.38 million Hong Kong dollars was received from the Xiangjiang Undersea Tunnel Company.
A total of HK$363.34 million!
This is the ideal situation, and the amount of dividends that Wheelock Shipping Company can receive!
"The Wheelock Group is involved in nearly 200 companies. Although more than 100 of them only hold a minority stake, and some of them are small companies, if these companies also pay dividends, even if they don't pay out all their profits, it will still enable Wheelock Shipping Company to receive a considerable amount of money.'
'A conservative estimate would be more than HK$50 million!'
'In that case, it seems likely that Wheelock Shipping will receive more than HK$400 million in dividends, which is likely to offset the losses of the flagship shipping business.'
'But without the dividends from these five listed companies, Wheelock Shipping's losses will be unavoidable.'
'Everything is in the plan.'
Thinking about this, Xia Yu's mouth curled up in a smile.
The next thing to do was to shatter Wheelock Shipping's dream at the critical moment.
He secretly held 33.4% of the shares in each of the five listed companies.
With this shareholding ratio, he could surpass Wheelock Shipping Company and become the largest shareholder in United Dockyards and Xiangjiang Undersea Tunnel Company, stealing the limelight the moment the announcement was made.
In the other three companies, he was still a little short, but he would still be extremely threatening.
However, company dividends are not considered extremely important matters, so whether it is in the board of directors or the shareholders' meeting, in the absence of special requirements of the Company Law, most matters are ordinary resolutions.
Therefore, the veto power of more than one-third of the votes does not work here.
As long as the board of directors and the shareholders' meeting pass with 50% of the votes, they can be voted through.
Because it is very troublesome to re-elect the board of directors, Wheelock Shipping Company also dominates the boards of directors of these companies.
Therefore, Xia Yu does not intend to intervene in the board of directors, as the final decision still rests with the shareholders' meeting.
If the shareholders' meeting votes against it, it will be useless even if the board of directors unanimously approves it. Of course, a unanimous vote is absolutely impossible. The original directors, who now hold the voting rights on behalf of Xia Yu, will always vote against it, otherwise it would be abnormal.
'Next, a lot of work needs to be done in private.'
'Immediate interests or long-term interests?'
'Go with the Jiuding consortium or go with the Wheelock consortium?'
'I think as long as you're not stupid, you should know how to choose. Haha...'