Chapter 1476: Investing in China Merchants Bank

In the future, China Merchants Bank will definitely be one of the top banks.

Founded in 1987, this bank's future market value will exceed one trillion yuan, and it will often rank second or third in the country.

It can be said that China Merchants Bank is one of the recognized achievements of the reform and opening up!

And the purpose of establishing China Merchants Bank on the mainland is, as Qiao Rui said, to have a bank to serve the reform and opening up.

It is also an experiment!

There was no other way. The big domestic banks were all state-owned, and their main purpose was not to make a profit, but to fulfil the tasks and policies of the state.

For example, the Agricultural Bank of China was set up to support policies in the agricultural sector.

The Bank of Communications was set up to support domestic transport infrastructure.

But China Merchants Bank was different. It was a joint-stock commercial bank whose main goal was to make a profit.

The deeper reason behind this was that China Merchants Bank was being used as a pilot to explore the direction of further opening up of the mainland banking industry.

If you want to try something out, you naturally want to ensure its success as much as possible, so that the experience gained is useful and can have a stronger impact.

Xia Yu guessed that this was the reason why someone from above had sent someone directly to find him.

Knowing this, Xia Yu still pretended to be interested and asked Qiao Rui and the others for more information.

'Mr Qiao, please go ahead, I will answer any questions you may have,'

Qiao Rui's face lit up with joy, and he continued, 'Mr Xia, this bank was established with funding from our China Merchants Group, and the director next to you, Liu Fumin, is the person who will be in charge of the bank...'

Qiao Rui spoke at length for ten minutes, taking a few sips of tea along the way, finally giving Xia Yu the full picture.

And Qiao Rui's account confirmed Xia Yu's thoughts.

The positioning of China Merchants Bank had been clearly defined: to become the first joint-stock commercial bank in mainland China to be wholly owned by corporate legal persons, and also the first pilot bank for the country to promote reform from outside the system.

It also had a unique mission – to contribute a truly commercial bank to China!

Of course, none of this was the most important thing to Xia Yu.

The most important thing was!

Qiao Rui bluntly proposed to Xia Yu that he hoped Xia Yu could participate in the creation of China Merchants Bank.

Xia Yu looked at Ma Jianmin of the BOC and saw that his face was as usual, so he looked at Qiao Rui again and said, 'Mr Qiao, to be honest, I am very surprised and honoured that the mainland can invite me to participate in the establishment of China Merchants Bank.'

'But let's talk business.'

'To put it bluntly, if I invest in China Merchants Bank, the resources on my side can definitely play an important and continuous role for China Merchants Bank.'

'This includes management, strategic development, connections, financial support, etc., no problem.'

'But how much of an effect it can have depends on how much equity you give me.'

As Xia Yu finished speaking, Qiao Rui hurriedly said with a smile, 'Mr Xia, what you said is very reasonable.'

'The higher-ups have also taken this into consideration.'

'And the higher-ups have also made it clear that you are our best friend, so we can't make unreasonable demands on our friends. We all have to interact as equals.'

'So the higher-ups have also done research on the equity structure of China Merchants Bank.'

'We can give you 30% of the equity, and everyone can just contribute according to their shareholding ratio.'

'The main reason for not giving more is that later on, China Merchants Bank will need to continue to raise external financing, and there is also the possibility of stock securitisation in the future. All these actions require the continuous contribution of equity.'

Xia Yu nodded with a smile: 'Mr Qiao, I understand all of this, and 30% of the equity is more than enough.'

Qiao Rui's smile grew even wider: 'Mr Xia, thank you for your understanding.'

'Let me take the liberty of saying one more thing.'

'In fact, later on, if you wish to obtain more equity, there is no problem with that, and the authorities will definitely not deliberately obstruct you.'

'Haha, I definitely don't have any concerns in this regard,' Xia Yu laughed and waved his hand.

Just joking.

Although China Merchants Bank is a joint-stock commercial bank, even in the future, the combined shareholding of state-owned assets will be less than one-third, but it is still a state-owned enterprise.

Unlike a wholly state-owned enterprise, it is a state-controlled commercial bank.

Therefore, from beginning to end, Xia Yu had a clear attitude towards investing in China Merchants Bank, which was to make money and use it to expand his influence in the mainland.

As for controlling it?

Xia Yu didn't even think about it, too lazy to bother.

The mainland system was destined to make this impossible.

With that kind of energy, it would be better to wait until private banks were liberalised later, or to focus on building Jiuding Bank, which had already entered the mainland.

'Mr Qiao, what do you think?' Xia Yu said to Qiao Rui after taking a sip of tea.

'Please go on, Mr Xia!' Qiao Rui sat up straight a little and looked at Xia Yu solemnly.

Xia Yu said slowly, 'I will ask my Jiuding Bank to take a stake in China Merchants Bank. In terms of management experience, Jiuding Bank will not hold back on China Merchants Bank. If there is anything that Jiuding Bank cannot provide, you can report it to me. If I can call on resources from other parties to help, I will definitely do my best.'

'Of course that's no problem, thank you so much,' Qiao Rui nodded without hesitation.

Xia Yu smiled and nodded: 'That's fine.'

'I'll ask Liu Tianci to come over, let's have some tea and wait a while.'

After saying that, Xia Yu picked up his phone and called Liu Tianci, asking him to drop what he was doing and come over as soon as possible.

Ten minutes later, Liu Tianci arrived, looking a little tired.

After that, Liu Tianci naturally took charge of the follow-up, so Xia Yu didn't need to worry about it.

Although the future of China Merchants Bank is broad, for now, it is only a small player. It is only because of the mainland's positioning of it that it has been given a different colour.

In terms of registered capital, the proposed registered capital of China Merchants Bank is 1 billion yuan, while Xia Yu's Jiuding Bank needs to contribute 300 million yuan.

Only 300 million yuan, for Xia Yu, it's a drop in the bucket.

After Qiao Rui and the others had left, Xia Yu temporarily put the China Merchants Bank incident behind him.

However, just as he was trying to remotely coordinate plans for Europe,

Fok Kin-ning came to him with urgent news.

'Chairman, this is important news from the island country, regarding the island country's railway transportation sector. This is the market research report compiled there.'

'Okay, I'll take a look.'

After receiving the materials, Xia Yu flipped through the important information after throwing out a sentence.

Just after reading the first paragraph, Xia Yu's mouth couldn't help but lift slightly.

However, after reading for a long time, Xia Yu's smile faded, and his expression became even more inexplicable.

'Haha...'

'The Shinkansen in the island country has been in operation for more than 20 years, and this big piece of cake will finally be divided.'

'The right-wingers still want to take this opportunity to destroy the trade unions and the left-wingers. They have quite a pretty thought, haha...'