Video Game Empire

Chapter 468: Purpose achieved

ps: I haven't had time to correct the typo, you can watch it again after ten minutes!

There are 7 executive director seats in Standard Chartered's board of directors, of which 4 shareholders with more than 5% of the shares each occupy a seat. + Small, the remaining three seats are Lord Roberts, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Standard Chartered, Mr. Bonet, CEO of the company, and Mr. Talang, the financial director of the company.

Standard Chartered Chairman Roberts was not appointed by a major shareholder, but because of his outstanding performance in the position of CEO, he received a high vote of support from shareholders at the shareholders' meeting and was promoted to chairman of the board.

He and the current CEO Bernat, there is no small difference in the direction of Standard Chartered Bank's business. There has been a heated debate recently between the two sides over whether to issue new shares to the market.

Among them, o Bonnet hopes to increase the capital adequacy ratio of Standard Chartered Bank through rights issue, thereby accelerating the global expansion of the group. But in the opinion of the chairman of the board of directors, Roberts, the reason for the recent sluggish profit of Standard Chartered Bank is because of the rapid expansion.

For example, Standard Chartered previously acquired Union Bank of California, and took the opportunity to gain access to the Brazilian and Venezuelan markets. But instead of opening new markets quickly, Standard Chartered suffered heavy losses in the U.S. market. This has greatly dragged down the overall profitability of Standard Chartered Bank.

In recent years, Standard Chartered's main source of profit has always come from mature markets such as Hong Kong and Southeast Asia that have been operating for hundreds of years. Therefore, in Roberts' view, Standard Chartered's current focus should not be on continuing to expand disorderly, but instead need to dig deep into the existing market.

The fierce infighting between the chairman of the company's board of directors and the CEO also caused Standard Chartered Bank to be unable to come up with it. Important reasons for new programs to improve company performance. Originally, Roberts was actively seeking the support of the company's major shareholders to put pressure on Bonnet, who was in charge of specific operations.

But Lloyds Bank suddenly jumped out and asked to buy Standard Chartered. Let the originally hostile two quickly put down their prejudices and unite to resist the common enemy. But the unexpected is. After holding 17.9% of Standard Chartered's major shareholder, he expressed his acceptance of Lloyds Bank's takeover offer. Mr. Talang, the financial director, even chose to defect.

Talang has always been regarded as the right-hand man of Robles, chairman of the board of directors, and he has always been a **** of Robles, constantly criticizing the financial control level of the Standard Chartered management headed by Bonnet. But it was such a person on the board of directors who was most aware of the specific financial situation of the entire Standard Chartered Company that was persuaded by Lloyds Bank without a sound.

Li Xuan guessed that the reason why Mr. Talan defected was probably because of the reconciliation between Roberts and Bonnet. The two sides quickly reached a compromise, which also meant that some of the abandoned sons would definitely be sacrificed. Taran probably thought he would be one of the sacrificed outcasts. So I just don't do it again and again, and choose to change the family to protect myself.

Although the debate on the board was fierce, Robles and Bonet had successfully persuaded the directors of the other two major shareholders to oppose the Lloyd's takeover proposal long before the board meeting.

Therefore, despite Li Xuan's abstention, the Lloyds Bank takeover bid was successfully rejected with 4 votes against, 2 votes in favor and 1 abstention. However, the mutiny of the financial director Talang still caused a lot of influence among the shareholders of Standard Chartered.

After Lloyds Bank opted to forcibly buy shares in Standard Chartered from the open market. Many small and medium shareholders who lost confidence in the management of Standard Chartered Bank chose to liquidate and leave. So in just half a month of launching the takeover war, the Standard Chartered shares held by Lloyds Bank quickly exceeded 25%.

"Li Sheng. I hope to accept an exclusive interview with ATV's "Three People" column, and on behalf of the group headquarters, I will give a detailed and open elaboration on the future development strategy of Standard Chartered Bank in Hong Kong!"

A month after Lloyds Bank's acquisition of Standard Chartered Bank broke out. Mr. Goldstein, a Taipan of Standard Chartered in Hong Kong, finally called Li Xuan again. After Li Xuan put down the phone. There was a smile on his face.

In fact, before Goldstone called, he had already received a call from London. The senior management of Standard Chartered fully agreed to a series of conditions that he had set out before. Because Lloyds Bank has acquired more than 33% of the shares of Standard Chartered, if Li Xuan chooses to support Lloyds Bank now, then this acquisition battle will be directly decided.

In fact, the Smith director of Lloyds Bank has arrived in Hong Kong again to lobby Li Xuan. As long as the prices offered by the two parties are similar, Li Xuan is more willing to continue to cooperate with the current management team of Standard Chartered. After all, his cooperation with Standard Chartered has been very pleasant over the years.

As for Lloyds Bank, Li Xuan was completely unfamiliar, and he could not guess what business strategy the other party would adopt after acquiring Standard Chartered. In addition to the Hong Kong market where he is determined to win, Li Xuan actually hopes that the Oriental Group will continue to maintain close cooperation with Standard Chartered Bank in Australia, Asia and Africa.

"Ahui, when I made an announcement, I said that I support Standard Chartered's existing team to continue to manage the bank. At the same time, I rejected Director Smith of Lloyds Bank, and apologized to him on my behalf!"

Li Xuan quickly called Zhong Jinghui, an assistant outside the office, and made a series of decisions. After that, instead of putting down the phone, he dialed another number.

"Akui, please do me a favor this time! Jiahua Bank has prepared 62 million pounds in cash. You announced the acquisition of 7.8 million shares of Standard Chartered Bank at a price of 780 pence per share!" Li Xuan said. Xu Jiankui on the other end of the phone said.

"Why make it so troublesome, you can just buy it yourself! It is said that many people are preparing to make a white glove in the past few days!" Xu Jiankui asked with some disapproval.

"The Bank of England has added a new rule to its White Paper on Banking Supervision published in December last year. Any investor who is ready to acquire more than 15% of a UK bank must obtain approval from the Bank of England!

My current stake is as high as 17.5%. If I continue to increase my holdings on a large scale, I also need to obtain approval from the Bank of England. I don't want to go for the 5% stake. A special trip to London! Moreover, my personal shareholding ratio is too high, which can easily lead to the suspicion of Standard Chartered management. They always thought I would suddenly launch a general buyout one day! "Li Xuan explained to his friend.

"Haha, the halo of the world's richest man on your head is too dazzling. Others have to be afraid of three points! Standard Chartered's stock was only 637 pence, but now it has risen to 770 pence! After the failure of the Lloyds Bank acquisition, the stock price will definitely plummet again! I don't want the hard work of running errands for you, I can't afford it if there is a loss in the stock price, you have to be responsible for the bottom line!" Xu Jiankui said half-jokingly and half-seriously.

"You can rest assured. If you lose, I will be responsible. If you make a profit, the profit is yours!" Li Xuan also replied with a smile. It seems that the other party is also very concerned about the acquisition of Standard Chartered Bank recently.

Lloyds Bank has started to suffer setbacks in the past few days after playing out its initial three-pronged approach. For example, the assets of Standard Chartered Bank include three banks previously acquired in the United States. The state Federal Reserve Banks, where the three U.S. banks are located, have called for a review of the merger to ensure that the interests of U.S. savers are not harmed.

Although the largest shareholder of Standard Chartered Bank has transferred its equity to Lloyds Bank, this does not mean that there are other competitors in the market bidding for it. In fact, the first white knight appeared as early as a week ago.

Mr. Coote, a big financier and takeover expert from Australia. Public bidding for 12 million shares of Standard Chartered. He already held nearly 3% of the stock, and if this part of the new holding plan is included, then Coote will eventually hold more than 10% of Standard Chartered shares.

The management of Standard Chartered has done a very good job of promoting the image of Lloyds Bank in the counterattack of this acquisition. The market generally accepts that Lloyds Bank has no overseas business experience. This directly led to the original overseas customers of Standard Chartered Bank, who opposed the merger plan.

Coote's Bell Group, for example, is itself waging a merger battle in Australia. Standard Chartered Bank provided up to A$2 billion in credit support for his operation. Kurt naturally does not allow changes in the ownership of Standard Chartered Bank to affect his own acquisition plan. So he chose to support Standard Chartered's existing management team with practical actions.

And those wealthy Hong Kong businessmen who Xu Jiankui just mentioned are ready to enter the market and compete with Lloyds Bank for Standard Chartered shares, just like the wealthy Australian businessman Kurt. They must all have close business dealings with Standard Chartered Bank. Everyone does not want to have a good cooperative relationship with Standard Chartered, because of the mergers and acquisitions, they become unsure!

"The senior representative of Lloyds Bank was photographed by a British reporter yesterday, going to the airport to take a flight to Hong Kong. The life and death of Standard Chartered is now in your hands. Isn't it a good feeling to decide the fate of others?" Xu Jiankui said again asked jokingly on the phone.

It has long been known that Li Xuan holds 17.5% of the shares of Standard Chartered. Thanks to the hard hype of Fleet Street in the United Kingdom, the representative of Lloyds Bank did not have time to interview Li Xuan, and Standard Chartered immediately accepted Li Xuan's conditions in full.

"What benefits did Standard Chartered promise you?" Xu Jiankui didn't wait for Li Xuan's answer, so he continued to ask curiously.

He just heard that Li Xuan asked him to buy 5% of the smashed stocks on his behalf, and he immediately guessed that Li Xuan chose to support Standard Chartered instead of Rice. Because the equity in Li Xuan's hands is enough to allow Lloyds Bank to obtain an absolute controlling position, there is no need to continue to increase its holdings.

It only makes sense for Li Xuan to continue to increase his stake in Standard Chartered if he chooses to support the current management of Standard Chartered. Because the more shares in his hands, the greater the bargaining chips he will have with Standard Chartered's management in the future, and it will also continue to increase the difficulty of Lloyds Bank's mergers and acquisitions.

"You will naturally know when the time comes!" Li Xuan did not disclose the final agreement he reached with the management of Standard Chartered.

Xu Jiankui actually just asked casually, and didn't really want to go to the bottom of it, but he knew that with Li Xuan's appetite, he would definitely gain a lot this time.

"Since you don't support Lloyds Bank's M&A plan, I'll make it a bit louder this time, and help you pull some more white gloves by the way!" Xu Jiankui smiled and assured Li Xuan before hanging up the phone.

One of the reasons why Li Xuan asked Xu Jiankui to increase his shareholding in Standard Chartered on his behalf was because he was interested in his long-sleeved connections. To prevent Lloyds Bank from acquiring Standard Chartered, it must prevent the other party from holding 50% of the shares within the specified period.

Li Xuan has the ability to stand up and bid for Lloyds Bank, because the total market value of Standard Chartered is actually not high, only 1.2 billion pounds. He now has a 17.5% stake in his hand, and he can take full control with another £500 million.

It's just that he wants to acquire Standard Chartered Bank, not just because he has money. First, he has to get the approval of the British government, and secondly, he has to win the support of Standard Chartered's management. Li Xuan could not meet these two conditions. In fact, the management of Standard Chartered Bank had long been wary of Li Xuan, for fear that he would launch a comprehensive acquisition war.

Even if he joins the battle with a high profile now, the management of Standard Chartered, who is now fighting to the death of Lloyds Bank, is likely to turn his **** again and start supporting Lloyds Bank's mergers and acquisitions. Because in the eyes of many British guys, it is better to support British banks than to support an Asian face to join Standard Chartered!

So now the only people who can be mobilized to compete with Lloyds Bank are the customers of Standard Chartered Bank all over the world. Taking Hong Kong as an example, Standard Chartered Bank has huge credit in many large real estate companies~www.readwn.com~ Let these real estate tycoons spend one or two billion to buy Standard Chartered shares, as a measure to the management of Standard Chartered for a long time. The reward for supporting their cause is naturally no problem at all. If these forces are integrated together, it is no problem to absorb 10% of Standard Chartered's equity.

As far as Li Xuan knows, Goldstone has been in frequent contact with the rich in Hong Kong as early as a week ago, and I hope everyone can lend a hand at this critical time. It's just that everyone still chooses to wait and see, because once the wrong treasure is pressed, the Lloyds Bank M&A is finally successful, and the new management team after Standard Chartered changes is likely to retaliate.

At this time, it is natural for someone to come out and raise their arms to play a role model and take the lead. The Xu family has just acquired Hongkong Land Group with Li Xuan, and it is impossible to easily raise a large amount of cash in the short term. And Xu Jiankui suddenly took out 62 million pounds, equivalent to 700 million Hong Kong dollars in cash to acquire the shares of Standard Chartered.

It is easy to think that Xu Jiankui's funds did not come from the Xu family, but from Li Xuan. In addition, Li Xuan made a timely statement to support Standard Chartered's rejection of Lloyds Bank's merger proposal. The concerns of other wealthy businessmen in Hong Kong should almost be dispelled. Li Xuan is now in Hong Kong, but the shadow of the famous tree of people is admired and trusted like a needle in the sea! (To be continued..)

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