Reborn Tycoon Rise

Chapter 194 Battle for Hutchison Whampoa (3)

"Li Sheng, Xu Sheng, the meeting is about to begin." A Chinese assistant came over to remind.

"Thank you, got it!"

Li Jiacheng then said to Xu Zhi: "Xu Sheng, no matter what happens to you and me in the future, Hutchison Whampoa is not under our control at the moment. How about we join forces to take over the board of directors first?"

In the original history, after Li Jiacheng first obtained 22.65% of the shares, he did not have any conflict with the current management of Hutchison Whampoa. Instead, he only sought a board seat and basically did not say a word on the board of directors. Managers who have publicly stated on many occasions that they respect Hutchison Whampoa and will not interfere at will.

No matter all this was just a temporary measure, his voting rights at that time were not enough to completely control Hutchison Whampoa. Two years later, in 1981, Li Jiacheng increased Hutchison Whampoa's shares by only 40% and completely took control of the company. Wei Li had to Leave the company that you run alone.

Xu Zhi smiled and said: "I don't think it's necessary. Wei Li is also considered a talent. He turned a profit in just a few years. If the loan interest rate hadn't been too high in recent years, Hutchison Whampoa would have completely restored its former glory! "

Relying on the current shares of Li Jiacheng and Xu Zhi, they can join forces to purchase some stocks or win over some shareholders. It is indeed possible to completely reorganize the board of directors and replace the British management. However, once this happens, there will be new problems. The vacant positions should be filled by Who will be responsible?

Obviously, as long as the other directors and shareholders are in their right minds, they will choose Li Jiacheng instead of Xu Zhi. After all, everyone can clearly see the development of Cheung Kong Holdings. Although Xu Zhi is worth more, he is obviously not suitable for running a company like Hutchison Whampoa. big company.

Moreover, Evergrande is just a start-up with only a few employees, while Cheung Kong has been operating for decades and has a large pool of talents. Li Jiacheng has an absolute advantage in this regard.

Li Jiacheng said: "It is a general trend for Chinese capital to expel British capital. Isn't it bad for Xu Sheng to do this?"

Xu Zhi said with a smile: "Since the British capital has been expelled, why are there so many ghosts within Yangtze River Industries?"

"This is different, they just work for Chinese companies!" Li Jiacheng explained.

Xu Zhidao: "The same goes for Wei Li and the others. Regardless of whether Hutchison Whampoa belongs to you or me in the future, Chinese capital has already taken over. This is the fact. If we expel Wei Li and others immediately, it will only cause chaos within the company. This is It’s not worth the loss!”

Li Jiacheng was silent for a while, and the two of them soon walked into Hutchison Whampoa's conference room together. Wei Li, who was sitting in the chairman's seat, immediately turned ugly when he saw Li Jiacheng, but when he saw that Xu Zhihou improved again, he A big team may appear majestic on the surface, but if it faces off against the major shareholders behind it, it will have inherent weaknesses.

He had worked so hard to run Hutchison Whampoa successfully. Just when he was preparing to develop rapidly and challenge the Jardine Matheson Group, HSBC sold all its shares to Li Jiacheng. However, God's will is unpredictable. Unexpectedly, another Chinese giant also took a fancy to it. Hutchison Whampoa, the two major shareholders are in conflict, so as a manager, I have the opportunity to have both sides.

At ten o'clock in the morning, all senior executives of Hutchison Whampoa were in place to attend the meeting.

Although Britain has declined, the concept of "nobility" is still reflected in their bones. Even if he is in a bad mood, Weili's face does not look bad at all. He sits on the chairman's seat and happily announces: "Congratulations to our Hutchison Company today. Add 2 more directors!”

Everyone applauded. Wei Li waited for the applause to disappear and asked Xu Zhi and Li Jiacheng respectively: "Xu Sheng, Li Sheng, you two attended the Hutchison Board of Directors for the first time today. Do you have any thoughts? Or maybe you have any thoughts about Hutchison?" If you have any opinions on the development of the company, you can express them directly!"

Xu Zhidao: "I have no objection. Wei Li, you can turn Hutchison Whampoa from losses to profit. I believe that the current management can lead Hutchison into a better tomorrow!"

"I don't know the specific situation of Hutchison at the moment. There is no problem for the time being!" Li Jiacheng did not have Xu Zhi's cooperation and could not target Wei Li on the first day, so like later generations, he chose to keep a low profile.

Wei Li nodded with satisfaction and said: "You two are humble. Xu Sheng and Li Sheng are both elite figures from the Chinese community in Hong Kong. If they can join us and Huang today, we will have many opportunities to cooperate in the future."

Seeing that neither of them spoke, Weili suddenly frowned, but he was still the host of the meeting and could only continue to hold the meeting.

The topic of the meeting was about the workers at the Hutchison Port terminal demanding a wage increase, as well as how to develop several pieces of land under its ownership.

After joining the board of directors, Xu Zhi obtained some internal information of the company, and only then did he know how rich Hutchison Whampoa's assets were as one of the four major foreign banks in Hong Kong.

At present, Hutchison Whampoa has 8 listed companies, namely Hutchison Properties, Watsons, Hutchison, Anderson Group, Junyicang, Whampoa Dockyard, Harbor Engineering and Capital Real Estate.

These eight companies are the core assets of Hutchison Whampoa. The number of direct employees alone exceeds 20,000. However, large scale also brings big problems. When Wei Li took over the Hutchison Whampoa team in 1975, Hutchison Whampoa owned a total of 315 companies. At the branch office, even Qi Dezun (Hutchison’s previous manager) may not be able to remember all the names.

After Wei Li came to power, 107 companies were sold or dissolved in the first year. Currently, there are still a total of 180 nominal branches.

But so far, Hutchison Whampoa still has short-term liabilities of HK$760 million and long-term liabilities of HK$570 million. Its subsidiaries have even more liabilities, and the largest seaport project has been suffering from serious losses. In order to solve the huge debts, Weili decided to develop Huangpu Dockyard owns a large amount of land, but the biggest problem is that the land is industrial land. If you want to build a commercial building, you have to pay the cost of converting it from industrial to commercial. This policy has almost blocked Hutchison Whampoa's idea of ​​developing huge amounts of land.

Halfway through the meeting, Wei Li asked Li Jiacheng: "Li Sheng, you are an elite figure in the Chinese real estate industry. In the past two years, your subsidiary Cheung Kong Industries has also cooperated with Wheelock, Xiangjiang Electric and other companies to develop real estate projects. Now you have We are Hutchison Whampoa’s shareholders, how about we also cooperate?”

Li Jiacheng shook his head and said: "Although the Yangtze River Company also cooperates with some British-funded companies, it basically develops their old land. Although the location is average, the nature of the land is commercial, and the industrial land is changed to commercial land. Hong Kong The Fu Na hurdle is a hurdle that no one can get around. Hutchison Whampoa owns commercial land and industrial land. If commercial land is developed, we, Cheung Kong Holdings, are happy to cooperate with us, but there is really nothing we can do about industrial land."

"Then we'll discuss it after the meeting!" Weili replied lightly, almost saying directly: What do I need from you for the commercial land?

Xu Zhi didn't say anything, but what Li Ka-shing said was indeed true. In later generations, Li Ka-shing also waited until the real estate crisis in 1983 when housing prices plummeted and the Hong Kong government's income dropped sharply to take advantage of the situation and solve the problem of Hutchison Whampoa's 200-year-old business in Hung Hom. Regarding the nature of the 10,000-square-foot land, currently, unless a large sum of money is given to the Hong Kong government, there is nothing we can do!

After the meeting, Li Jiacheng walked to Xu Zhi and asked, "Xu Sheng, how do you feel after attending this meeting?"

"I'm very unhappy!" Xu Zhi replied: "In our territory in Xiangjiang, English is actually spoken in meetings!"

I don’t know if it has always been like this or if it is just a show of force. Wei Li spoke in English throughout the whole process. Although Xu Zhi and Li Jiacheng could understand it, the meeting would involve too much unclear information. When it comes to an English meeting, Xu Zhi and Li Jiacheng could not understand it in many aspects. Zhi couldn't understand either, but he couldn't go and ask other people.

Li Jiacheng said: "Xu Sheng, actually I really don't want to have internal conflicts with you. We both know our strengths. You are good at creativity and I am good at management. As long as we join forces, we can run Hutchison Whampoa well."

"Li Sheng, you and I are both smart people. Do you really not know the true purpose of my acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa?" Xu Zhi said lightly.

Li Jiacheng frowned and said no more.

Xu Zhidao: "Li Sheng, this game has just begun. You can still quit now, but once you enter, I'm afraid the outcome will be out of your control."

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