Chapter 145: Rumors About Hongkong Electric Group
At three in the afternoon, Lin Haoran met Fok Kin-ning in the chairman's office of Qingzhou Yingni Company.
At this moment, Fok Kin-ning was dressed in a suit and leather shoes, looking very formal.
Besides Lin Haoran and Fok Kin-ning, Burton, the general manager, had also come to the office.
“Mr. Fok, let me introduce you. This is Mr. Burton, the general manager of our Qingzhou Yingni Company. He is a very outstanding corporate manager, and you can learn some management experience from him.” Lin Haoran introduced Burton to Fok Kin-ning.
As for Burton, after Lin Haoran received Fok Kin-ning's call, he had already told him about Fok Kin-ning's situation, so naturally there was no need for much further introduction.
After Burton and Fok Kin-ning greeted each other, Burton also began telling Fok Kin-ning about the current situation of Qingzhou Yingni Company.
Upon learning that Qingzhou Yingni Company had already begun pursuing an international path and was doing quite well, successively securing parts of the markets in the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, and other places, Fok Kin-ning was extremely surprised.
From childhood to adulthood, he had always known the Qingzhou Yingni Company brand, but he also knew that Qingzhou Yingni Company had actually only dominated the markets in Hong Kong and Macau. Places such as the Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore all had their own cement brands, and he had never heard any news that Qingzhou Yingni Company had entered the Southeast Asian market.
He had not expected Qingzhou Yingni to have developed so well by now.
Only at this moment did he realize that Qingzhou Yingni was not as simple as it appeared on the surface.
Annual profits of tens of millions, yet its previous total stock market value was only a little over HK$200 million?
It was completely undervalued!
Look at those listed companies that could earn tens of millions in profits a year, which one did not have a market value of at least four or five hundred million, and some were even more outrageous.
Seeing the surprised expression on Fok Kin-ning's face when he learned about the company's profits, Burton smiled and explained, “In previous years, Qingzhou Yingni Company's annual profits were only around ten to twenty million Hong Kong dollars. It was only after our boss became chairman that the profits became so high.”
Naturally, he would not explain that the previous chairmen had taken the company's profits to make “investments,” which was why the profits had been low.
There was no need to explain
Afterward, Fok Kin-ning also discussed some of his own views with Burton, quickly earning Burton's approval.
This young man really did have genuine ability.
Fok Kin-ning of course knew that although he had personally been invited by the chairman of Qingzhou Yingni Company to serve as financial director, if he wanted to have a good career here, without the necessary abilities, sooner or later he would have no face to stay.
So showing some of his abilities and gaining the other party's recognition was very necessary.
Seeing that Fok Kin-ning had indeed not disappointed him and had gained Burton's approval so quickly, Lin Haoran was also very satisfied.
While Burton and Fok Kin-ning were discussing the company's affairs, Lin Haoran also called the human resources department and asked them to prepare two copies of the employment contract and bring them up.
As for the salary, everything could simply follow that of the previous financial director.
As for the issue that Fok Kin-ning currently did not yet have the ability to take charge of the company's entire finance department, Lin Haoran had also discussed it with Fok Kin-ning.
Next, Fok Kin-ning would have one month to adapt to his position. During this period, he would follow the current deputy financial director to learn and gradually integrate into the finance department.
Only after one month would he completely take charge of all authority over the finance department.
After Fok Kin-ning signed the employment contract with Qingzhou Yingni Company, Lin Haoran was surprised to discover that his loyalty had directly reached 85.
Although this was not the highest among his many employees, it was definitely a high level of loyalty.
Moreover, in reality, the two sides had only met twice, and being able to have this level of loyalty was enough to prove that Fok Kin-ning took his career seriously.
After Fok Kin-ning successfully joined Qingzhou Yingni Company, Lin Haoran also handed the matter over to Burton, asking him to do his best to cultivate this young man.
Because Lin Haoran knew that although Fok Kin-ning would certainly become a great talent in the future, he was only 27 years old now and still needed a certain period of growth.
And Qingzhou Yingni Company was temporarily a small platform for his growth.
With another future great general under his command, Lin Haoran's mood improved even further.
However, he also knew that it would take at least two or three years for Fok Kin-ning to mature. Although he was talented now, he was ultimately still too young and lacked sufficient corporate management experience.
In the blink of an eye, another week passed, bringing the date to July 17.
During this period, everything in Hong Kong had developed normally, and there was nothing that required his attention.
As for gold prices, they were rising continuously every day, just as he had expected.
It had already been a month since he returned from the United States.
Over the course of that month, there had only been three days when prices fell, and the declines were all extremely small, followed by sharp rises the next day.
In just one short month, the price of gold had risen from US$250/ounce to US$320/ounce.
However, Lin Haoran knew that this increase was still considered slow. It would not be until the end of the year that everyone would know just how crazily gold prices would rise.
Citibank in the United States also contacted him regularly from time to time, giving him some suggestions. His broker even suggested that he take his profits, because he had already made quite a lot.
However, Lin Haoran naturally ignored his suggestion, after all, he knew how fiercely gold prices would rise next.
In fact, he was very confident in the rise of gold prices through January of the following year, so there was no need to worry about this matter at all.
Since the villa on Severn Road was still being renovated, Lin Haoran could only temporarily stay at the Deep Water Bay villa for now.
As for the apartment in Hengfeng Building, he would only occasionally go there to stay when he and Guan Jiahui did some adult things, and normally he rarely stayed there.
At 10 in the morning, after leaving the Deep Water Bay villa, Lin Haoran had Li Weiguo drive directly to the Wan'an Group Building.
Nowadays, neither Wan'an Group nor Qingzhou Yingni Company required him to worry too much.
Unlike his father Lin Wan'an's approach to corporate management, Lin Wan'an would personally handle all kinds of matters within the group, whereas Lin Haoran would hand more matters over to general manager Yang Mingyi.
As for Qingzhou Yingni Company, with Burton, a capable and dependable assistant, there was no need for him to worry too much.
As for Aimeigao Company, he only needed to wait for the dividends. He still had great confidence in Lau Luen-hung's management abilities.
This future business tycoon had risen in his previous life almost as if he had activated a cheat, with everything going smoothly along the way.
Since Lin Haoran was already riding the ship of his rise and using him to help make money, why would he need to worry about anything.
After arriving at the Wan'an Group Building, he went directly to the office of Universal Investment Company, because at a little after nine in the morning, Lin Haoran had received a call from Su Zhixue, who told him that there was something that might be useful to him.
“Boss.” Upon entering the office, everyone greeted him one after another.
Lin Haoran nodded, called Su Zhixue over to general manager's office.
“How is the situation with Hongkong Electric Group?” Lin Haoran asked.
He had asked Universal Investment Company to secretly accumulate shares of Hongkong Electric Group, and it had already been a month.
Every so often, Lin Haoran would come over to check on the progress.
“The stock market performance of Hongkong Electric Group has been pretty good all along, and the trading volume has also been very good, but compared with the stocks of those real estate companies, it is slightly inferior.
After this period of accumulation, as of yesterday we held a total of 47.9 million shares of Hongkong Electric Group, with total expenditure reaching HK$115.53 million, at an average price of around HK$2.412 per share.
Hongkong Electric Group has a total of 630 million shares issued, so its per-share price is not considered high. The current market price is maintained at HK$2.4 to HK$2.5/share, slightly higher than when we first began accumulating Hongkong Electric Group shares.
To prevent causing too much disturbance in the market, we have never made large-scale purchases, instead accumulating shares cautiously. Although the pace has been somewhat slower, so far no one has noticed our actions, and therefore Hongkong Electric Group's share price has not been pushed up excessively!” Su Zhixue reported the current situation in detail.
As for the accumulation situation on the Wan'an Group side, there was no need to report it at all, because the shares they controlled had already exceeded 90% in one move, and they had already applied to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for delisting. Universal Investment Company had stopped accumulating Wan'an Group shares, and the closing-out work had also been handed over to Wardley Company under HSBC.
Lin Haoran nodded. Accumulating nearly 50 million shares in one month, while operating cautiously, was already a very good result.
Based on total shares of 630 million, he had already secretly controlled 7.6% of Hongkong Electric Group.
According to the shareholder information currently disclosed by Hongkong Electric Group, he had already surpassed the original second-largest shareholder and secretly become Hongkong Electric Group's second-largest shareholder.
As for the largest shareholder, he was also about to surpass them, because Hongkong Electric Group's largest shareholder held only 8.4% of the shares. Lin Haoran had already learned about this previously.
In other words, if Universal Investment Company was given a few more days, barring any accidents, it would surpass the current publicly known largest shareholder of Hongkong Electric Group and become the largest shareholder in the true sense.
The fact that Universal Investment Company could accumulate 7.6% of Hongkong Electric Group's shares in just one month also had a lot to do with the current bull market.
Precisely because trading volume had surged, they were able to accumulate shares very comfortably. Under the cover of the many retail investors, their results on every trading day were extremely impressive.
“By the way, you called me and said there was some news I might be interested in. What news is it?” Lin Haoran asked.
“Boss, it's like this. We collected a piece of market gossip. It is said that Mr. Percy, the second-largest shareholder of Hongkong Electric Group, intends to sell his shares while the Hong Kong stock market is currently doing extremely well. This matter has already spread on a small scale.
I also learned about this through a foreign trader at the stock exchange whom I regularly contact. However, I heard that this shareholder wants to sell at 10% above the market price, so currently none of the British capital interests are interested in the shares he holds. After all, in everyone's view, it would be better to accumulate shares on the stock market.
Since British people generally like to sell their shares to other British capital consortiums when disposing of shares, and rarely sell them to Chinese, I cannot guarantee the authenticity of this piece of news either. As for whether the news is true, Boss, you will need to use higher-level connections to verify it.” Su Zhixue quickly reported.
Collecting information on their targets was also one of their daily objectives. Otherwise, blindly operating the market was a major taboo for an investment company.
When Lin Haoran heard this, he knew it was good news.
Although he did not yet have the strength to control Hongkong Electric Group, he could use this opportunity to substantially increase the Hongkong Electric Group shares he controlled, which would be very beneficial for subsequent operations.
Once his funds were sufficient, he could take down more Hongkong Electric Group shares in one move and thereby gain control of Hongkong Electric Group.
“Good, you did well to keep an eye on this matter. As for whether it is true, I will investigate it myself. Thanks for your hard work, go back out and continue working.” Lin Haoran said to Su Zhixue with a smile.
It was fortunate that Su Zhixue had paid attention to these rumors. Otherwise, if he missed this opportunity, it would truly be a great pity.
Regardless of whether it was true or false, he had to investigate it. If it turned out to be true, he would do his best to acquire these shares.
Foreigners had always disliked conducting equity transactions with Chinese. These British people spent all day thinking they were superior and disdained cooperating with Chinese-funded consortiums.
But now, times were different. The decline of British capital consortiums and the rise of Chinese capital consortiums were already an unchangeable fact.
At present, Hongkong Electric Group should not have attracted the attention of any major forces.
Jardine Matheson only set its sights on Hongkong Electric Group after failing at Wharf.
But now, Jardine Matheson was still fighting it out with Pao Yue-kong, so even if it was interested in Hongkong Electric Group, it did not have the energy to fight on two fronts.
(End of Chapter)
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