The mess in Australia? It was no longer worth mentioning in his mind! Control of the core assets of the Jardine Matheson Empire was the sword of Damocles hanging over his head! Panic, for the first time, took over his mind so clearly.
In this suffocating silence, the hotline on the desk suddenly rang. The sharp and rapid ringing sounded like a death spell!
At the same time, on the other side of Victoria Harbour, at the Longteng Newspaper Office.
Gao Qiaohao stared at the HK$136.50 on the trading screen, his voice cracking with excitement. "Boss! It's 136.5! Jardine Matheson can't even cover their position. We've taken the entire second 2%! Add to that the 1.5% we intercepted earlier, and we've taken a total of 3.5% of their holdings!" He quickly pulled up the latest shareholding report. "Of the Hutchison Whampoa shares we hold, the ones that officially belong to Longteng Newspaper and your personally affiliated accounts now exceed 7.5%! Far more than 5%!"
Lin Huowang sat calmly in the large leather seat, his eyes as calm as the deep sea.
He looked at the straight upward price curve of the Hutchison Whampoa, and saw that Newbigin's strategy of aggressively selling to make a profit and then lowering the price to cover the position was destroyed by himself. Finally, a cold and determined smile appeared on the corner of his mouth. Everything was under his control.
He picked up the intercom on the table and spoke in a steady voice, with a kind of settled majesty:
"Notify all media partners, notify the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and issue an announcement."
"Longteng Newspapers, Kobayashi Tenmo, and related parties acting in concert have reached and exceeded 7.5% of Hong Kong Land Holdings' shares as of 3:15 PM today! We have formally applied to join the Hong Kong Land Holdings' board of directors! In principle, we will no longer be increasing our holdings of Hong Kong Land Holdings' shares, and may even sell approximately 2% to maintain our 5% stake."
The news was like a nuclear bomb, accurately dropped at the center of the storm!
The next day, the front pages of major financial newspapers in Hong Kong were filled with shocking headlines:
Shocking reversal! Kobayashi buys over 7.5% of shares, knocks on the door of Hong Kong's board of directors!
Jardine Matheson and Newbidding suffered the consequences of their own actions, failing to achieve arbitrage and suffering heavy losses.
The battle for control of Hong Kong's land holdings begins! Is the foundation of the Jardine Matheson empire shaken?
HSBC mortgages may face huge risks, will market panic re-emerge?
In the evening, after the stock market closes.
Newbigin took the newly delivered newspaper and read the blood-red headlines. Every word hit him like a hammer. His hands trembled, and the newspaper rustled. His eyes were fixed on the number "7.5%," then on "HSBC," "mortgage," and "risk"... Not only had the fortress he carefully constructed been breached, but the enemy had directly strangled him!
He jerked his head up and gazed out the window. The Victoria Harbour view, which he had felt so completely in control just yesterday, now distorted and swayed before his eyes. For the first time, fear, a cold, heavy dread, completely enveloped the financial tycoon.
He recalled the HK$300 million he'd borrowed from HSBC, the 20% stake he'd pledged as collateral. Back then, Hong Kong's share price was over HK$100, and he'd been confident the loan was as secure as a rock. But now?
Due to his continuous "arbitrage" operations and Kobayashi Tenmo's aggressive stock accumulation, the stock price fluctuated violently like a roller coaster, shaking the market's confidence in him! More importantly, Kobayashi Tenmo's 7.5% stake, coupled with his imminent attack on the board of directors, not only meant that Newbijian's control over Hong Kong Land was significantly weakened, but also meant that the value of the 20% Hong Kong Land shares pledged to HSBC was facing huge uncertainty and downside risks! The market knew that if Kobayashi Tenmo, the biggest bull, did not acquire Hong Kong Land shares but instead sold them, Hong Kong Land's stock price would inevitably plummet.
If Hong Kong's share price were to fall below HK$60... even for just a few minutes... HSBC would never sit idly by and watch its loan risk soar! A margin call? Newbigin only had HK$250 million on hand, a drop in the bucket? A forced liquidation? That would be like Jardine Matheson dumping Hong Kong's most valuable assets onto the market at rock-bottom prices, handing them over to someone else!
It’s over!
Newbigin's vision darkened as a vast, cold, overwhelming sense of despair gripped him. For the first time, he realized with such clarity that the "harvesting game" he had personally initiated might ultimately yield Jardine Matheson's control over Hong Kong, and even the foundation of the century-old Jardine Matheson Empire! The so-called "crisis" in Australia now seemed so insignificant and ridiculous.
"James..." His voice was dry and hoarse, with a barely perceptible tremor.
"President?" James' voice was also frightened, and he cautiously leaned half of his body in.
"Immediately..." Newbigin's Adam's apple rolled with difficulty. "Immediately prepare all the funds you can mobilize... all of them! Contact all your partners, no matter what method... You must raise as much funding as possible... Do everything you can to stabilize the price after tomorrow's market opens! Then, immediately contact the media to release the announcement of our Hong Kong Land's year-end dividend. No matter what, keep the stock price up! Keep it above HK$60!"
This order was no longer an offensive move, but a desperate defense! It was the trapped beast's last struggle! What an ironic reversal compared to his previous "crying wolf" tactics? Now, it was his turn to stop the stock price from falling at all costs! He would use real money to support the precipice that could collapse at any moment!
However, once the giant wheel of the capital market starts moving, how can it be completely stopped by the will of just one or two players?
…
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
