Chapter 174: Jardine Land, Hong Kong's Largest Foreign Company!

When the Chinese and British capital in Hong Kong thought that Yang Ming was satisfied and was going to digest Wharf Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa, Yang Ming's pace never stopped.

Except for Marley, no one else knew about this.

Yang Ming's real target was Jardine Matheson Land, the largest foreign company in Hong Kong.

Jardine Matheson.

The largest foreign company in Hong Kong.

In addition to Wharf Holdings, which was swallowed up by the Empire Group, the most important company under its umbrella was Hong Kong Land, which was known as the pearl in the crown of Hong Kong and the largest real estate company in Hong Kong.

In 1972, Hong Kong Land launched the famous "Bull War" and finally successfully won the Dairy Farm.

The Dairy Farm was originally built by British capital in Hong Kong to raise dairy cows and squeeze fresh milk for sale.

This would not have sold for much money in Hong Kong.

However, the Dairy Farm acquired a large amount of land in Pokfulam and Causeway Bay in the early days.

Those lands were originally used for raising cattle.

In the past, these lands were not worth much.

Over the years, the land in Pokfulam and Causeway Bay has become more and more valuable.

For example, the Lee family had acquired a lot of land in Causeway Bay in the early years, so much so that they were called the King of Causeway Bay by Hong Kong citizens.

In fact, the Dairy Farm also had a lot of land in Causeway Bay.

After the Dairy Farm was swallowed up by Hong Kong Land, it became a subsidiary of Hong Kong Land, just like Wharf Holdings.

In other words, Hong Kong Land can be regarded as the jewel in the crown of Hong Kong and the largest real estate company in Hong Kong. It has a lot of reserve land and newly built properties in Hong Kong.

In addition to Hong Kong Land, there are also hundreds of companies under Jardine Matheson.

There is also construction, such as Kinmen Construction.

Shipping, Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminal, Jardine Airport Services, Hong Kong Container Terminal.

Retail, Wellcome Supermarket, 7-11, Pizza Hut, Maxim's Catering Group.

Investment banking.

Hotel, Mandarin Oriental.

Insurance.

. . .

And so on, with a total number of employees exceeding 100,000.

In addition to Hong Kong, Jardine Matheson also has other investments in Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States.

Jardine Matheson's industrial chain is large and wide.

But.

Before that.

The Joseph family, the largest shareholder of Jardine Matheson.

In the early days, the Joseph family only had 5% of Jardine Matheson's shares, and controlled Hong Kong Land through Jardine Matheson's 10% stake in Hong Kong Land.

In addition, like Wharf Holdings, Jardine Land also only had 10%.

It was precisely because of that, the small number of shares in Wharf Holdings attracted the attention of Li Jiacheng and others.

In 1975, Henry Joseph was ultimately defeated in the internal struggle with Niu Pik-kin on the board of directors. Niu Pik-kin, as the managing director of Jardine Land, succeeded Henry Joseph Joseph.

The Joseph family has never given up.

Until 1983, in the struggle between shareholders and management of Jardine Matheson, including Jardine Matheson boss Niu Pik-kin, General Manager of Jardine Matheson, Bo Fu-ta, had to resign. The Joseph family, the major shareholder who had lost the boss for 13 years, returned to the power center of Jardine Matheson Land.

Henry Joseph recommended his younger brother Simon Joseph to replace Niu Pik-kin.

Before that.

Niu Pik-kin made great contributions to save Jardine Matheson Land.

Historically, in the 1980s, after Qingzhou Cement, Hutchison Whampoa, Wharf Holdings and other old British companies were swallowed up by Chinese financial groups, the myth of the invincibility of British financial groups has been completely shattered.

After growing stronger and swallowing up those acquired foreign companies, Chinese tycoons began to turn their eyes to the next target.

Jardine Matheson's Land Company.

Land is very tempting to Chinese real estate developers.

It has a huge portfolio of high-end commercial buildings in the prime location of the Central Bank District, the heart of Hong Kong's economy.

It is known as the "crown jewel" of Hong Kong real estate.

Only by controlling Hong Kong Land can one truly be called the "king of kings" in the Hong Kong real estate industry.

At that time, various rumors were spread in the market. Some said that Li Jiacheng was secretly acquiring Hong Kong Land shares, and some said that Li Jiacheng and Bao Yugang jointly challenged Hong Kong Land.

There were even rumors that Chinese capital joined forces to take over Jardine Matheson and then controlled Hong Kong Land through Jardine Matheson.

In this situation, the Joseph family of Jardine Matheson and even Niu Bijian, the boss of Jardine Matheson, became nervous.

At this time, the Joseph family only held 10% of Jardine Matheson's shares, and Jardine Matheson and Jardine Securities only held about 20% of Hong Kong Land's shares.

In other words, the largest shareholder of Jardine Matheson Land controlled Jardine Matheson Land with a small bet for a big gain.

It was precisely because of this situation that not only the Joseph family was afraid, but Niu Bijian was also afraid.

Jardine Matheson increased its shareholding in Hong Kong Land by injecting assets.

Jardine Matheson injected real estate, listed company stocks and other assets into Hong Kong Land, increasing its shareholding ratio to 27.8%.

Secondly, Jardine Matheson bought Hong Kong Land's shares through high-priced increase in the secondary market, and its shareholding ratio increased to 40%.

During the same period, Hong Kong Land also bought Jardine Matheson shares in the secondary market, holding a total of 40% of Jardine Matheson shares.

By 1980, Jardine Matheson and Hong Kong Land formed a "40%-40%" cross-holding structure.

Niu Bijian used this method to protect Jardine Matheson Land from being coveted by Chinese capital.

However, with the collapse of Hong Kong real estate in 1983 due to the 1997 issue, the mutual control of Jardine Matheson and Hong Kong Land became a burden for the Jardine Matheson system.

In January 1984, Hong Kong Land allocated 72 million shares of Jardine Matheson at HK$12.3 per share, cashing in HK$860 million, reducing Hong Kong Land's stake in Jardine Matheson from 42.6% to 25.3%.

At the same time, Jardine Matheson also reduced its stake in Hong Kong Land from 30% to 25%.

In March 1986, Jardine Securities purchased 12.5% ​​of Jardine Matheson shares from Hong Kong Land, further reducing Hong Kong Land's stake in Jardine Matheson to 12.5%.

Historically, in addition to the Joseph family and Niu Bijian, Jardine Matheson Land was saved through this method.

There is another foreign company, Swire.

It was also around that time that the Swire family controlled more shares to save Swire through cross-holding or buying more shares.

Today.

These are all historical events that happened to Jardine Matheson Land.

It is now 1978.

Yang Ming has just swallowed up Wharf Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa for nine months.

Niu Bijian of Jardine Matheson Land was shocked by Yang Ming's successive acquisitions, but not as bad as in history.

In addition, Niu Bijian didn't know how much liquidity Yang Ming had.

In the eyes of Niu Bijian and other British investors, Yang Ming paid a great price to acquire Wharf Holdings, Hutchison Whampoa, and even to invest in Huifeng Bank. He must not have so much liquidity to acquire other companies.

It was precisely because of that that Yang Ming knew that the longer the time, the more the Joseph family and Niu Bijian would react.

At the right time, he would swallow up the largest foreign company in Hong Kong.

Jardine Matheson, Hong Kong Land.

That is, Jardine Matheson Land.

Except for Mai Lisi who knew about Yang Ming's shocking plan, Ma Shimin, Wei Li, and even Kayla, Tang Shilian, Lin Xiuzhi and others did not know.

They heard Yang Ming's plan to swallow up Jardine Matheson Land for the first time.

"Boss, are we strong enough to swallow up Jardine Matheson Land now?" Wei Li asked in disbelief.

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