MC Bookstore Chapter 94 Helping the Dog Cast a Net to Catch the Thief
Chapter 94 Helping the Dog Cast a Net to Catch the Thief
Prince's Building, Jardine Matheson headquarters.
Chen Guanjiang, carrying a lunchbox, chuckled and said, "Henry, good afternoon! This is a freshly baked sponge cake with strawberries picked this morning. Give it a try!"
Henry Keswick looked at the cake and was speechless.
As the eldest son of the Keswick family, born with a silver spoon in his mouth, he received countless gifts throughout his life.
Especially after he became the head of the Jardine Matheson Group, the gifts he received from visitors became extremely valuable.
It's not that we expect Chen Guanjiang to give us an expensive gift, but it always seems very perfunctory to just bring up some desserts from downstairs.
Fortunately, Henry Keswick didn't care about any of that, and snorted, "Jackson Land has already taken care of the dairy company, when are you going to take over the cattle farm?"
"I'm here to report this to you..."
Chen Guanjiang sighed and said, "All my money is invested in the stock market, and I'm having trouble cashing it out. I'm asking for your help..."
Could this statement be any more false?
Henry Keswick knew that Chen Guanjiang had become quite famous in the past three months.
The "horse poisoning case" was exposed at the "Opening Cup," making it known to everyone in Hong Kong.
With HK$300 million invested in the stock market in advance, the potential profit would be at least 50% based on the current index.
The news agency acquired the film rights to Bruce Lee, making him the youngest chairman of a listed company.
Having trouble cashing out? You'd better be believable!
The reason for this is not hard to guess.
It's simply because Jardine Matheson is eager to get rid of its cattle farming business and develop land, so it's been dragging its feet on not buying land or building farms, waiting for a price reduction to acquire the land.
You know what, it was surprisingly accurate.
Hongkong Land acquired Dairy Farm through a share swap, but the paper shares were not delivered to Dairy Farm shareholders for a full month.
With the bursting of the financial bubble and Jardine Matheson's cashing out, Hongkong Land's stock price plummeted from a high of HK$145 per share to HK$42 per share just one month later, a dramatic drop.
Those original shareholders of the milk stock who swapped shares but couldn't sell them felt like committing murder, but unfortunately, it was no use.
The share swap agreement clearly states that an audit is required to verify the share capital of both parties, and the paper share certificates will be delivered one month later.
Fortunately, the inflow of foreign capital boosted the overall share price, which calmed down the original shareholders of Milk Company who wanted to kill him. Hongkong Land has now recovered to HK$62 per share.
Even if Hongkong Land's share price were to surpass its pre-acquisition level with Dairy Farm, it would still be extremely hostile to the original Dairy Farm shareholders.
Injustice has its head, and debt has its owner.
After the original shareholders of Milk Company were incorporated into Hongkong Land, their feedback at the board meetings was that they were constantly going against the Keswick family, and there was a hint that they were trying to unite with the original shareholders to overthrow the chairman and seize power.
Henry Keswick needed to retain the original milk shareholders, which required him to make up for the losses caused by the forced lock-up with substantial profits.
Where do the profits come from?
Of course, it's about developing the land in Causeway Bay and Pok Fu Lam owned by Dairy Farm Group.
So here's the question!
To develop the land, you have to sell the dairy cows and equipment to Chen Guanjiang first, but that idiot hasn't even bought the land yet.
It's too late to resell them to Australia now. Livestock need to be quarantined for 30 days before being shipped, and they won't be able to be transported until April.
Dairy cows are cold-resistant but heat-sensitive. The temperature in the ship's cabin exceeds 30 degrees Celsius. High temperature and humidity can cause heat stress, and bacteria and viruses can easily breed and spread diseases in summer. The transportation cost is so high that it is better to slaughter the cows and sell them for meat.
That is to say!
They can either sell it to Chen Guanjiang at a low price, negotiate with Australia to sell it next year, or slaughter the dairy cows and sell them as beef cattle.
Given the current attitude of the original Dairy Farm shareholders, if he dares to throw a business worth nearly HK$3000 million into the trash, they would dare to vote to overthrow the Keswick family.
"hehe…"
Henry Keswick laughed out of exasperation: "How much is Mr. Chen planning to offer? How about HK$1600 million?"
The dairy company's net profit was HK$1440 million two years ago, while the dairy farms sold dairy products such as fresh milk, ice cream, butter, and cheese, with a net profit of HK$906 million.
In other words, Chen Guanjiang could recoup his investment of HK$1700 million in just two years, while the actual value of the cattle farm was HK$3152 million.
Needless to say, with the US dollar about to depreciate by 10%, the asset value would naturally increase by 10%, making a HK$1870 million acquisition reasonable.
At this point, trying to negotiate a price is simply too unseemly, and even made him feel humiliated.
Upon hearing this, Chen Guanjiang immediately realized there was a misunderstanding and quickly explained, "Henry, I'm really in trouble. The company's finance department has run off with my money to Argentina."
"As long as you help me find the right people, I'll buy the land and build the factory immediately, at the price we agreed on, without hesitation."
He can't tell the whole truth, but he can tell half the truth and half the truth. He holds a large number of shares in Hong Kong Antenna, and it wouldn't be a problem to call it "company finance." It seems that this Jardine Matheson tycoon doesn't care about such a small matter.
"Really?" Henry Keswick was somewhat skeptical.
"I swear to the sparrows, Scotland Yard, Hong Kong people don't lie to foreigners!" Chen Guanjiang patted his chest and guaranteed.
“…………”
Henry Keswick couldn't understand what he was saying at all, and it took him a while to finally realize what he was talking about.
Scotland Yard sounds like "losing everything," meaning someone swears on the mahjong tiles that they've tricked you into losing all your money playing cards.
Henry Keswick knew some slang and understood the humor in Hong Kong dialect, but was it really appropriate to use such tired jokes on a Scotsman?
"I can help you with this."
Henry Keswick paused for a moment and then said, "However, you must take all the cows with you before July."
"no problem!"
When the two parties made the verbal promise last time, Hongkong Land had not yet completely acquired Dairy Farm, so an agreement could not be signed, let alone a specific acquisition time. Chen Guanjiang could still pretend to be stupid.
Now that we've sought your help and set a deadline, it would be unreasonable to keep delaying.
Fortunately, after the stock market crash, both the stock market and the real estate market suffered a double blow.
Buying land to build a cattle farm would significantly reduce costs, and Chen Guanjiang had no intention of delaying any further. He simply marveled at how the Jardine Matheson Group truly deserved its reputation as the top of the four major trading houses.
The company acquired the dairy company in November, completely absorbed it in February, and was preparing to develop it in July, provided that the planning, approval, demolition, and "agricultural to commercial" conversion were completed within four months.
Having connections in the central government makes things easier, but the speed at which things were done demonstrates the influence of the Jardine Matheson Group on various Hong Kong government agencies.
After the two sides reached a consensus, Henry Keswick made a phone call to the Argentine Ministry of Agriculture in front of Chen Guanjiang, and surprisingly, he spoke fluent Spanish.
In the 70s, there weren't many Asians traveling all over the world, and even fewer single women with children traveling to South America.
Given the high level of facial recognition and the fact that the other party had only arrived in the Falkland Islands three hours earlier, orders were immediately given to keep a close watch and search in the three cities closest to the Falkland Islands' coastline.
As expected, the mother and child were found in Rio Gallegos six hours later, and Zhang Xingjue, who arrived later, began to monitor them without any attempt to conceal it.
At this point, having left the jurisdiction of the British Commonwealth, it is no longer meaningful to talk about where the embezzled funds went. In addition to the net inflow model, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority also has a net outflow model.
Coincidentally, only one huge sum of money flowed into Banco Galicia, Argentina's second-largest bank, in the past month!