Chapter 1365: A Dowry Worth Billions of Dollars

After making the decision, Xia Yu gave a call and summoned Huo Jianning over.

'Jianning, sit down and talk.'

'I've read the materials, and I have some ideas. I need you to gather the appropriate people to discuss them together.'

'Okay, Chairman!'

As soon as Xia Yu finished speaking, Huo Jianning was ready to take notes.

Seeing his appearance, Xia Yu smiled with satisfaction and said slowly, 'The depreciation of the US dollar is an established major trend, and it is estimated that it will officially begin around the end of next month, so from now on, a complete action plan needs to be formulated.'

'The goal of the action is to do more in all aspects of the British pound and the Japanese yen, while also doing more in the British and island stock markets...'

'We also need to consider the impact of the depreciation of the US dollar on our non-US entities, such as major domestic manufacturing companies and fishing companies in the island country. How should we respond to the crisis...'

'Based on what I have said, you go and gather people to form a special task force, and I will personally chair it...'

'Chairman, I have taken good note. Anything else?'

After taking good note, Fok Kin-ning looked up at Xia Yu and asked.

'That's all there is to this matter, but there is one more thing you need to arrange for someone to do,'

Xia Yu said with a light smile.

After saying that, Xia Yu took out the things he had brought and placed them on the table.

'These are the dowries my father-in-laws gave me when I got married. They are all shares in companies or company stakes, and together they are worth more than 3 billion US dollars.'

Fok Kin-ning did not say anything, and quietly looked at Xia Yu, waiting for the next part of the story.

'I need you to have someone set up an offshore fund, and call it the Xia Family Harmony Fund. The fund will be divided into six parts, with me holding 50% of the shares, and the remaining 50% equally divided among Li Qian, Elena and the other four.'

'After the Harmony Fund is established, transfer 3 billion US dollars from the Galaxy Fund as the original capital of the fund, and then let the Harmony Fund lend this 3 billion US dollars to the Galaxy Fund again, with a fixed lending rate of 10%. All the interest each year will be used for dividends.'

'Do you understand what I mean?'

After Xia Yu finished speaking, Fok Kin-ning immediately nodded to show that he understood.

'I understand.'

Isn't this saying that in the future, the dividends from this Harmony Fund will be the pocket money of all the matriarchs? According to this interest rate, it is equivalent to 30 million US dollars of pocket money per person per year.

Chairman, this is a fair deal, and Fok Kin-ning felt admiration rising in his heart.

However, he still had one more question.

He looked at the bag on the table and asked Xia Yu, 'Chairman, what about the disposition of the equity of these companies?'

Xia Yu opened the bag, took out a piece of paper from it, and handed it to Huo Jianning: 'The situation of the equity and the method of disposal are clearly written on it. You just need to follow what I have written.'

Huo Jianning took the paper with both hands, glanced at it, and then respectfully said, 'Okay.'

'Go ahead and complete these things as soon as possible, especially the first thing. Time is urgent, so gather the people as soon as possible.'

'Yes!'

'Chairman, I'll leave first then.'

After saying this, Huo Jianning picked up the things on the table and slowly exited Xia Yu's office.

Xia Yu then got up and walked back and forth in the office for a while to stretch his legs, before walking to the French windows and looking into the distance.

In fact, Xia Yu had been thinking about the way to deal with the dowries for several days before coming up with this solution, which was the fairest. After all, they were family members of the same family, and naturally they had to bear both the risks and the rewards together.

The reason why the dowries given by the fathers-in-law were not given to each person under their own name and shared with Xia Yu was that Xia Yu considered that although the dowries were of similar value now, their future potential was different.

In time, the assets that appreciate quickly will make someone's wealth under their name more, while someone else's will become less.

Alina and Cindy themselves don't mind, because they don't care about money. But people do change, especially after having children. As a mother, you start thinking about your children. This is when the problem arises.

That's why Xia Yu took over all the assets at the beginning, converted them into cash, and then arranged to receive the interest every year. Then the five of them receive the same amount of money, and it's up to them how much they can save.

Having said that, each of the fathers-in-law had used their best efforts when giving the dowries, mostly taking into account Xia Yu's actual situation.

Just as when Xia Yu gave the betrothal gifts, she had considered the situation of each family and given them things accordingly.

Sir Carter Howard gave a 9.4% stake in the Dutch National Life Insurance Company, which was worth a whopping 700 million US dollars!

Apart from the value, the director's seat in this large European insurance company would also allow Xia Yu's influence to enter the Netherlands, so it was clear that Sir Carter Howard had really put his heart into it.

The gambling king is relatively weak, so he gave a more miscellaneous gift, but it was also worth a whopping 600 million US dollars.

For example, 100% of the shares of the Macau Water Supply Company Limited, 100% of the shares of the Macau Power Company Limited, and 73.4% of the shares of the Malaysian Sime Darby Group.

The first two companies are the only monopolies of water and electricity in Macau, while the Malaysian Sime Darby Group is one of Malaysia's long-established multinational companies.

The Sime Darby Group has four subsidiaries: Sime Darby Plantation, a large-scale palm oil enterprise with a complete industrial chain; Sime Darby Property, which has a land reserve of tens of thousands of mu in Malaysia; Shun Cheong Machinery, which is Caterpillar's third largest agent in the world; and Sime Darby Auto, a leading automobile dealership group throughout Asia.

As Xia Yu knows, the majority of the shares of these companies were acquired by the gambling king using his own connections, except for a small portion owned by the He family.

Although Xia Yu didn't know how the gambling king had obtained these companies, the process was definitely not easy.

He gave a $500 million engagement gift, and the gambling king returned a $600 million dowry. Considering the actual situation of the He family, the gambling king was indeed being generous.

The dowry returned by the Sumitomo family was also very impressive.

What was given was a 12.8% stake in the large petroleum retailing Idemitsu Kosan Group in the island country, worth more than $600 million.

As Xia Yu knows, this company was founded in 1911 and has five major subsidiaries: Idemitsu Petroleum Development, Idemitsu Transport, Idemitsu Kosan Petroleum Retail, Idemitsu Petrochemical, and Apollo Services. Idemitsu Kosan Petroleum Retail alone has nearly 6,000 gas stations in the island country, and the lubricants produced by Idemitsu Petrochemical have been the number one brand in the island country for more than ten consecutive years.

Of course, the Idemitsu Kosan Group does not belong to the Sumitomo Foundation, and almost every major foundation has a stake in it, but it has not aligned itself with any side and is a relatively independent large company.

The Sumitomo family gave the company's shares as dowry, presumably also considering Xia Yu's foray into the oil sector.

The Mellon family, on the other hand, gave a dowry of 12.7% of Anheuser-Busch's shares, worth more than half a billion US dollars.

Anheuser-Busch is no small unknown company. Founded in 1852, it owns the world's largest brewing company and the second largest aluminium beer can manufacturer in the United States. Budweiser, Michelob, Busch and other beer brands are all owned by it. Since 1957, its beer production has consistently ranked first in the United States, and at its peak it once occupied 48% of the market.

In later generations, this company was acquired by the Belgian InBev Group for 52 billion US dollars in 2008.

Of course, Xia Yu also knew that this company was not owned by the Mellon financial group, but was acquired by the Mellon family from elsewhere as a dowry.

But in any case, this dowry did satisfy him, to the extent that he had his eye on Anheuser-Busch.

As for Li Xi's dowry, her situation was indeed special, and Ma Qianjun had also been working wholeheartedly for Xia Yu and had not enriched himself, so he could not be like other families.

Xia Yu gave Ma Qianjun the equity of the Jiuding Book Publishing Group as a dowry, and in addition to this, there was also nearly two tons of gold that he had accidentally obtained in his early years in Indonesia, which was now worth tens of millions of dollars.