Chapter 192: Counter-Attack

At this moment, at the Yan Family Villa.

Yan Chengkun, sitting in the center position, although his expression remained unchanged, felt a bit of regret in his heart.

After the acquisition battle for China Motor Bus, he should have promptly increased the Yan Family's moat.

"Henry, have your uncle and the others arrived?" After taking a sip of hot tea, Yan Chengkun checked his watch.

Yan Henry shook his head and said, "No."

"Never mind, let's start first." Yan Chengkun waved his hand: "Regarding the severe situation currently faced by China Motor Bus, what countermeasures do you all have?"

Yan Chengkun was, after all, advanced in age, so the Yan Family's representative in charge of specific matters at China Motor Bus was the eldest son of the Yan Family, Yan Jieqiang; this man was in his forties, exactly at the stage of being experienced and shrewd in his dealings.

"Wei Li just proposed that so-called innovation plan, and then impatiently threw out an acquisition plan; without a doubt, Asia Investment Company has long been plotting this."

"I, along with our financial advisor, Bao Yuan Company, have recalculated the assets of China Motor Bus."

The net asset value per share of China Motor Bus is 42.51 dollars, while Asia Investment's offer is only 37 dollars, which is far from enough."

"Tomorrow morning, I will urgently convene a board meeting, and starting from this point, stabilize the hearts of the China Motor Bus shareholders; at the same time, we will suspend trading."

"The Chairman of the Board of Asia Investment Company is Wu Guangzheng, the son-in-law of Bao Chuanwang."

The eldest son of the Yan Family, Yan Jieqiang, replied in a deep voice.

Yan Chengkun nodded in approval: "Your work is very solid."

"However, this might still be far from enough."

"Dad, we should also utilize resources from the government side to expose that Asia Investment Company only wants to seize the land of China Motor Bus and has no intention of developing the bus business, so as to win sympathy points from the government and public opinion. Additionally, it would be best if we also come up with a genuine anti-acquisition plan."

Yan Jieqiang thought for a moment and added.

Yan Chengkun nodded slightly and turned his gaze to his daughter, Yan Jieling: "Do not drag out the negotiations with the labor union regarding the salary increase anymore; satisfy their demands."

Yan Jieling understood and said: "Dad, I understand. I will win over a few union representatives and launch a public opinion offensive immediately."

Seeing that his daughter, who was a lawyer, understood his intentions, Yan Chengkun then instructed Yan Jieqiang: "At tomorrow's board meeting, you can make a promise that this year's dividend per share can be increased from last year's 29 cents to 45 cents."

"Before the board meeting tomorrow, you should pay a visit to your uncle, and I will contact some old friends on my side to help."

Seeing Yan Chengkun in command and composed, the members of the Yan Family also felt at ease and went out to handle their respective tasks.

After the Yan children had all gone out to handle their affairs, Yan Chengkun first paid a visit to Li Zhaoji of Henderson Land Development.

Li Zhaoji was the fourth-born in his family, so in the business world, he was known as "Si Shu".

In '63, he, along with Guo Desheng and Fung King-hey, founded Sun Hung Kai Properties.

Sun Hung Kai Properties quickly stood out among a group of Chinese real estate groups, becoming one of the top five real estate groups in Hong Kong, and the three of them were dubbed the Three Musketeers.

In '75, Li Zhaoji established his own real estate company, and in '81, the Hong Kong stock market surged again; Henderson Land Development successfully went public, raising one billion in capital in one fell swoop, becoming one of the top ten real estate groups in Hong Kong.

The future Li Zhaoji was once the richest man in Hong Kong, and he was currently engaged in massive development in Shatin, New Territories.

"Kun Ge, you have been through life and death for decades. Now that Yan Jieqiang is in the prime of his life, you should also enjoy life."

Li Zhaoji walked around his desk, took a cup of tea from his assistant, and placed it in front of Yan Chengkun.

"A-Ji, where is there time to retire when doing business? You must know that the waves of the Yangtze River push the waves ahead, and the waves ahead die on the beach. If you aren't careful, the son-in-law of the Bao Family will launch an acquisition battle against China Motor Bus Group."

Yan Chengkun shook his head with a bitter smile and went straight to the purpose of his visit:

"A-Ji, I came here this time because I want to obtain capital support from Henderson Land Development. I am prepared to join hands with you to buy back China Motor Bus shares; when the time comes, we will jointly develop the factory site of China Motor Bus on King's Road in North Point."

Sitting beside Yan Chengkun, Li Zhaoji handed over a cigar and shook his head with a bitter smile: "Kun Ge, you know that I have been developing Shatin for the past two years, right?"

"Is your project in Shatin still successful?" Yan Chengkun took the cigar and asked with concern.

"It's not going well; all my capital is tied up. You also know that the real estate business has become increasingly difficult to handle over the past two years, and there are more and more competitors; it's difficult upon difficult."

Li Zhaoji shook his head again.

Actually, it couldn't be said that it was unsuccessful; the project had already been built, but sales were not up to Li Zhaoji's expectations, so Li Zhaoji simply bought back all the floor plans that had already been sold, preparing to sell them later.

His boldness was not insignificant, and the series of events that happened later proved that Li Zhaoji's choice was correct.

Yan Chengkun nodded: "Since you have difficulties with your capital, then it is not easy for me to make things difficult for you. Then, have you considered selling your shares?"

"Kun Ge, if I were to sell the shares, I would definitely choose your Yan Family."

Li Zhaoji stated his position immediately, but in reality, Li Zhaoji had no intention of selling the shares at all.

Why?

Before Yan Chengkun arrived, Wei Li and Wu Guangzheng had already visited him many times.

Li Zhaoji knew deeply that he could not afford to offend Yan Chengkun, this old senior in the business world, and of course, he could afford to offend Bao Jueshi and Chen Jiajun even less.

As for the reason?

Li Zhaoji wanted to continue massive development in the New Territories in the future, and to develop in the New Territories, he could not offend the Lu Family, and behind the Lu Family was Chen Jiajun.

Simply put, he prepared to continue holding the China Motor Bus shares, selling to no one and offending no one.

After visiting Li Zhaoji, Yan Chengkun lost no time in finding Ye Gengnian of Hsin Chong Construction.

In terms of fame, Hsin Chong Construction was certainly not as loud as Sun Hung Kai Properties, Hang Lung Properties, You Rong Group, or Cheung Kong Holdings.

But being low-key did not mean lacking strength, just like the sensational inheritance dispute of the Zhang Zhushan family; if it hadn't been highly exposed by the media, the common people would never have known that the Zhang Family was the largest shareholder of Wheelock and Co—one of the four major British trading houses in Hong Kong—nor would they have known that the Zhang Family owned properties on several streets in Causeway Bay, or even that in the fifties and sixties, the Zhang Family held the greatest say in the entire Hong Kong Western medicine industry.

And they would not have known that Zhang Guorong's godmother was a member of the Zhang Zhushan family...

The father of Ye Gengnian of Hsin Chong Construction—Ye Yu'an, had a sworn brother Ye Chengzhong, and Ye Chengzhong was a great merchant in the late Qing Dynasty, known as the "Five Gold King", who could be considered a pioneer in the modern hardware industry and contributed much to the cause of education.

The content of the discussion between Yan Chengkun and Ye Gengnian was that the two sides would establish a new company to target Asia Investment Company for an anti-partial acquisition, and after China Motor Bus survived this crisis, the Ye Family would naturally share in the benefits of the China Motor Bus land development.

Hsin Chong Construction went public around Christmas of '80, but the listing process could be described as having many twists and turns, going public through Wardley, with the subscription amount accounting for only 55% of the total.

As for why the subscription amount was so low?

It was simply because Hsin Chong Construction lacked strength and did not have much of a reputation in the real estate industry.

Today's Hsin Chong Construction was lacking some powerful projects to boost the confidence of shareholders.

And the land owned by China Motor Bus Group was enough to make the vast majority of real estate developers in all of Hong Kong drool.

China Motor Bus Group owned a total of 200,000 square feet of high-quality land scattered across Hong Kong Island.

The Ye Family and the Yan Family have been close friends for many years, with a deep foundation of mutual trust, and coupled with tangible profit returns, Ye Gengnian naturally agreed to this act of providing timely help.

"A Kun, time waits for no one. I have now handed all the business over to my son Mouzun to manage, so these specific matters must be left to him to handle."

"It just so happens that the specific affairs at China Motor Bus are handled by Jieqiang; it is the perfect opportunity for these young people to fully display their talents."

Yan Chengkun laughed heartily, a rare occurrence.

In fact, Yan Chengkun's excellent mood was not solely because Ye Gengnian had agreed to help.

A White Knight for a Hostile Takeover must certainly have strength, but if they are too strong, it is easy to invite a wolf into the house.

The strength of Li Zhaoji's He Kee Real Estate was simply too formidable.

After all, in the business world, friendship may not necessarily withstand the test of profit; what if He Kee Real Estate turned against them and drove the Yan Family out of the Zhongba Group?

Yet the strength of the Ye Family was exactly within a range that Yan Chengkun could accept.

After the two men secretly finalized the agreement, the second generation of the families quickly put it into concrete action.

The next day, Yan Jieqiang announced that Asia Investment Company was acquiring the Zhongba Group, which involved a major transfer of equity, and therefore the board of directors of the China Motor Bus company applied for a one-day trading suspension.

Ye Mouzun, Chairman of the Board and General Manager of Sun Hung Kai, announced that as a long-time close friend of the Yan Family, the Ye Family would step forward to act as a White Knight.

Both parties have already established the Snowspark company and announced the acquisition of 10.4 million shares of China Motor Bus stock at a price of 42.51 dollars per share.

When this news was announced.

Wei Li and Zhan Peizhong arrived together to meet with China Motor Bus shareholder Huang Yaonan, who was Yan Chengkun's brother-in-law, preparing to acquire the shares held by Huang Yaonan.

"Mr. Huang, tea or coffee?" Lo Yuk-sui said.

"I am not used to drinking tea; coffee, please," Huang Yaonan said.

As a high-achieving student who returned from studying abroad, Huang Yaonan had already grown accustomed to the taste of coffee.

And after Huang Yaonan returned from the United States having completed his studies, he originally wanted to make a great display of his talents, but the global shipping business plummeted, and consequently, the Huang Family's main business, the shipping industry, also failed.

After his father, Huang Pingsun, passed away, the other children of Huang Pingsun in Hong Kong sold off their China Motor Bus shares one after another, investing the capital into their own main shipping business in an attempt to bring it back to life, but they all failed.

Only the 8.35% of China Motor Bus shares in Huang Yaonan's hands remained; Huang Yaonan was not happy at China Motor Bus, and the reason was simple: he wanted to make a great display of his talents at China Motor Bus, but his brother-in-law—Yan Chengkun—would not agree at all.

He even proposed that his own son, Huang Ren, join the board of directors of the Zhongba Group, but all of these were rejected by Yan Chengkun.

Yan Chengkun's ruthlessness filled Huang Yaonan's heart with infinite Evil Qi.

After all, in his view, his sister had married down to Yan Chengkun back then; Yan Chengkun was nothing more than a sedan chair bearer, and if it weren't for the Huang Family supporting Yan Chengkun back then, how could Yan Chengkun have his current status?

"Waiter, two coffees and one tea, please!" Zhan Peizhong said: "Mr. Huang, I won't beat around the bush either; I want to acquire the China Motor Bus shares you hold."

"Mr. Zhan, please don't joke. The China Motor Bus shares were passed down by my late father; they are ancestral property, and we have never had any intention of selling them," Huang Yaonan said.

Zhan Peizhong and Wei Li looked at each other and smiled; Wei Li shook his head and laughed: "Mr. Huang, I don't have the energy to go around in circles with you. I will give you two options: either we acquire your stock."

"Or, you take your stock now and join our Asia Investment Company; after we successfully complete the acquisition, we will give your son a position on the board of directors."

As soon as Wei Li's words were spoken, Huang Yaonan looked as if he had been deflated.

Because his weak spot had been struck by Wei Li.

Huang Yaonan drank more than half a cup of coffee, and after a moment of silence, he said: "I ask you, how much certainty do you have in acquiring the Zhongba Group?"

Zhan Peizhong smiled and said: "If our Asia Investment Company truly wants to launch a Hostile Takeover, in all of Hong Kong, except for a few major foreign firms, the others are all just a piece of cake."

This was not Zhan Peizhong bragging; he knew his Boss's strength too well. If the Boss withdrew all the capital from the Japan stock market, even the Keswick family behind Jardine Matheson would have to tremble.

"With the support of Bao Jueshi, you are arrogant enough."

Huang Yaonan took out a Luotuo cigarette and lit it, smoking it to himself.

"You are wrong; the mastermind behind this acquisition of the Zhongba Group is not Bao Jueshi."

Zhan Peizhong shook his head and said.

"Guojun Group, Chen Jiajun?"

Exhaling a deep puff of Luotuo smoke, Huang Yaonan immediately realized.

(End of this chapter)