Chapter 206 This Spending Speed Is Truly Astonishing
After He Zhenxing received intelligence that Jardines Matheson intended to secretly sell their China Gas Company shares through the stock market, Lin Haoran soon received a report from He while at home.
"Jardines Matheson plans to offload shares through the market?" Lin Haoran was a little surprised, not expecting them to take that route.
Thanks to his intelligence network, Lin Haoran had already learned the full details of Jardines Matheson's high-level meeting.
That path was not going to be easy. After all, China Gas Company's daily trading volume had plummeted, making it extremely difficult to unload 40.7% of the shares.
As for whether the HK$100,000 spent on this intelligence was worth it—Lin Haoran felt it absolutely was.
After all, intelligence gathering always burns money. If you're not willing to spend, you won't get anything valuable.
Moreover, he hadn't expected He Zhenxing to be so capable—managing to recruit a senior Jardines Matheson manager as an informant was already a huge success.
Lin couldn't help but admire the general manager of Oriental Press Group as a master at handling espionage work.
Even if the informant was only a mid-level manager, it was enough to yield important information.
In fact, since Jamieson had tried to pressure him into buying Jardines Matheson and Hongkong Land's shares, Lin Haoran had been seriously considering whether to privatize China Gas.
China Gas was different from most companies. As long as it was properly managed and avoided reckless investments, it was a cash cow—steady and highly profitable.
Other listed companies typically went public to raise funds, expand, allow founders to cash out, or spread risk.
China Gas needed none of that. It had zero risk of loss, fully monopolized the Hong Kong market, and provided stable monthly returns.
Something few other listed companies could boast.
Thus, privatizing China Gas would be highly beneficial for Lin Haoran.
However, Jamieson had demanded he pay based on an inflated HK$800 million valuation, which Lin had no intention of accepting.
Now, after receiving intelligence that Jardines Matheson had no intention of holding onto their shares and was eager to sell, Lin Haoran reconsidered.
Should he privatize?
If he didn't, Jardines Matheson offloading their shares back into the market would actually benefit him.
Once the shares were scattered among numerous small shareholders, none could challenge his control.
But if he wanted to privatize, the most efficient way would be to buy Jardines Matheson's 40.7% stake directly.
Currently, Lin Haoran controlled 49.9%, Jardines Matheson and Hongkong Land controlled 40.7%, and Li Mingze held 2.9%—totaling 93.5%.
With that, privatization would be easy. The small remaining 6.5% could be handled later.
Yet he still refused to pay HK$800 million.
According to He Zhenxing's intelligence, Jardines Matheson was desperate to liquidate and recoup cash.
This was the best news possible.
The second-largest shareholder didn't even want to hold shares anymore, meaning no interference in management.
Thus, Lin Haoran decided to set aside the privatization issue for now.
The night passed quickly.
The next morning, Lin Haoran woke to find the maids had already prepared the day's newspapers: Oriental Daily, South China Morning Post, Hong Kong Commercial Daily, Hong Kong Economic Times, and more.
He sipped soybean milk and munched on fried dough sticks as he browsed the papers.
Although yesterday's incident had been announced on TV and radio, the detailed proceedings had been witnessed by only four newspapers.
Today's papers, however, reported everything in depth.
Reading the detailed articles, Lin Haoran couldn't help but laugh.
Jamieson had been thoroughly humiliated.
He had repeatedly and arrogantly declared victory—only to lose face spectacularly.
Jardines Matheson and Jamieson had once again become the laughingstock of Hong Kong's business world.
Just as Lin Haoran had predicted, the public reacted with great enthusiasm.
Although yesterday's television reports had hinted that Lin Haoran had triumphed, many hadn't known the full story.
Today, after reading the full details, citizens realized just how chaotic it had been—and how utterly Jamieson had lost.
People were delighted.
Later that morning and into the afternoon, Lin Haoran visited both Hong Kong Electric Group and the former Federal Building, now the new Wan An Building.
This skyscraper, once Hong Kong's tallest, had resumed renovations on February 18th.
Progress was good; by mid-March, the work would be complete.
Then, Wan An Group and Huanyu Investment Company could move in.
After inspecting the building, Lin Haoran arrived at Huanyu Investment Company an hour before the market closed.
"Boss, we've noticed something: someone is aggressively buying China Gas shares again, while sell orders are decreasing. The stock price is rising rapidly," Su Zhixue reported.
Although they were no longer buying China Gas stock themselves, they kept monitoring the situation.
This sudden surge caught Su Zhixue's attention.
"Hmm?" Lin Haoran frowned.
Hadn't he heard that Jardines Matheson planned to sell?
"Is it possible they are the ones buying? But why would they do that?" he wondered aloud.
"It's not difficult to understand," Su Zhixue explained. "They are driving up the stock price and increasing volume to lure naive retail investors into buying.
Once enough suckers join, they'll start unloading their shares at high prices.
This is a common tactic among market manipulators."
Lin Haoran suddenly understood.
Unlike the stealthy, low-key accumulation he had done while acquiring Cheung Chau Cement, Jardines Matheson was manipulating the market openly.
They weren't in a rush to sell yet—they wanted the price even higher first.
And so, their actual holdings might have increased beyond 40.7%—possibly reaching 45%.
But that didn't concern Lin Haoran. Even if they held 45%, it changed nothing.
"Will they start selling today?" Lin Haoran asked.
"No, Boss," Su Zhixue replied. "They'll need several more trading days to attract enough buyers before they can start dumping shares."
Lin Haoran nodded.
There was no rush to decide whether to privatize China Gas.
An hour later, the market closed.
Su Zhixue handed him a detailed report.
Lin Haoran skimmed through it carefully.
Since the New Year, he hadn't really checked the progress of his other stock accumulations.
Now he reviewed them:
Hongkong Land: 6.51% stake, HK$463 million spent.Jardines Matheson: 2.91% stake, HK$125 million spent.Kowloon Motor Bus: 7.39% stake, HK$41 million spent.
Compared to before the New Year, the progress was good.
He was particularly surprised at how quickly they had acquired Kowloon Motor Bus shares—it was now ahead of Hongkong Land.
As for Jardines Matheson, progress was slower, but that was fine. His main focus was on Hongkong Land.
Kowloon Motor Bus, though the smallest company among the three, still had a market cap exceeding HK$500 million.
Still, 7.39% was far too low for control.
For now, he would leave it to Su Zhixue to continue buying slowly.
He had complete trust in him.
Checking his overall finances, Lin Haoran calculated:
After returning from the U.S., he had over HK$5.7 billion.Plus HK$30 million dividends from Amigo.After buying Hong Kong Electric shares, injecting HK$200 million into Wan An Group, purchasing the Federal and International Buildings (HK$1 billion), buying Oriental Press (HK$200 million), and acquiring China Gas shares (about HK$200 million), plus other stock investments (about HK$630 million)...
He realized he had already spent over HK$2.8 billion!
Incredibly, in just a few months, he had burned through half his fortune.
Now, he had less than HK$3 billion cash left.
This spending speed was truly astonishing.
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