Chapter 781 A fortress is often breached from within first!

In the mid-1970s, Wheelock had become one of the four major British-owned foreign banks in Hong Kong, with 49 direct subsidiaries, including listed companies Real Estate Trust, Commonwealth Real Estate, Harliman Development, Lane Crawford, and Wheelock Shipping. services, joint ventures and Baofu Development, etc.

These subsidiaries in turn own about 180 subsidiaries and 20 private companies, forming a huge diversified comprehensive enterprise group.

During this period, Wheelock's operations have covered investment holding, merchant banking, finance, securities, futures trading, shipping, trading, wholesale and retail, real estate, aviation, tourism, insurance and manufacturing, and its investment scope has also extended from the Far East. To Southeast Asia, Australia and North and South America.

However, overall, the group's core business at that time was still real estate and shipping in Xiangjiang.

In other words, Wheelock \u0026 Company was very large.

Wheelock can rank third among the four major foreign banks in Hong Kong, so its strength cannot be underestimated.

Before Chen Songqing's Jianing Group went bankrupt and liquidated, it was said to be the same size as Wheelock and Swire.

In fact, Chen Songqing's Jianing Group only has superficial numbers. Compared with Wheelock, it is still far behind.

Historically, Wheelock was swallowed up by Bao Yugang of the Bao family.

This time, Yang Ming had been preparing for Wheelock and Company for four years.

Moreover, except for a few people such as Yang Ming and Melis, no one else knew about the plan to swallow up Wheelock \u0026 Company.

At this time, many people are paying attention to the safety of Chen Songqing and Jianing Group. For Yang Ming, this is the best opportunity to swallow up Wheelock \u0026 Company.

Two major shareholders of Wheelock \u0026 Company.

The largest shareholder is the Zhang family.

The second largest shareholder, John Horseman, is now the chief executive of Wheelock \u0026 Company.

Since the 1970s, there have been other financial groups trying to swallow up Wheelock \u0026 Company.

But there was never a chance.

The funniest thing is Wheelock’s two major shareholders.

In 1976, John Horseman wanted to sell Wheelock \u0026 Company because of the international and domestic influences at that time, Wheelock's business and annual profits were greatly affected.

In history, in 1981, the Zhang family also wanted to sell its shares in Wheelock \u0026 Company due to internal disputes over family property.

However, this was unsuccessful.

Instead, through A shares and B shares, the Zhang family and John Horseman have been controlling Wheelock \u0026 Company.

After the mid-to-late 1970s and 1980s, the investment strategy of Wheelock's board of directors seemed to become active again.

At that time, Xiangjiang's economy entered the rising stage of a new economic cycle, and the real estate market was booming again.

Real estate companies such as Wheelock Real Estate Trust, Commonwealth Real Estate, Harlem Development and Baofu Development have successively launched huge real estate development businesses and have done very well.

However, Wheelock's investment strategy is actually to dismantle and rebuild the land and properties owned by the group, sell them at high prices while the real estate market is booming, and then use the funds to actively develop the shipping industry, ordering bulk ships in large quantities to expand the fleet.

Behind this strategy, John Madden, chief executive of Wheelock, still lacked confidence in the future of Hong Kong and was worried that Hong Kong would be returned to the country sooner or later. Therefore, he implemented a strategic transfer of assets to make it "floating on the high seas" to ensure safety.

It can be said that this is completely opposite to Bao Yugang's abandoning ship and landing in history.

Bao Yugang abandoned his boat and landed.

John. The horse stool is abandoning the land and embarking on the boat.

This also led to the fact that Bao Yugang in history was able to swallow up Wheelock \u0026 Company.

According to statistics, by 1983, Wheelock Shipping was the only shipping company under Wheelock, and its fleet had increased to 29 ships with a deadweight of 1.39 million tons.

Unfortunately, in the 1980s, the world shipping industry has gradually fallen into recession, and Wheelock Group has been deeply hit.

In 1981, Wheelock's pre-tax profit was HK$1.431 billion, which fell sharply to HK$368 million in 1983.

That year, John Madden solemnly announced in the company's annual report: "Wheelock Shipping International Co., Ltd., the Group's main shipping subsidiary, has experienced the most difficult year."

Historically, in 1984, Wheelock Shipping, which was heavily in debt and faced the threat of liquidation, was forced to sell its ships at low prices. The plight of Wheelock Shipping triggered a conflict between the two major shareholders of Wheelock Group, the Madden family and the Zhang Yuliang family.

It turned out that Wheelock Shipping had ordered two cargo ships from Denmark in 1981, with a total value of more than US$400 million. However, the ships were still under construction, and global shipping had entered a recession, putting Wheelock Shipping under pressure.

In 1983, Wheelock Shipping wanted to seek financial support of approximately US$12 million from the real estate trust of the same family, but was rejected by the real estate trust with the Zhang Yuliang family as the major shareholder, forcing Wheelock Shipping to borrow 4 million from the parent company. US dollars to meet urgent needs. For this reason, the conflict between Wheelock's two major shareholders intensified.

In 1984, an important member of the Zhang family voluntarily resigned from his position as a director of Wheelock on the grounds that he wanted to concentrate on the management of Wheelock's real estate trust companies.

This forms the division of labor between the two major families within the Wheelock Group. The Madden family is in charge of Wheelock, Wheelock Shipping, United Enterprises, Lane Crawford, etc.; while the Zhang family is responsible for Real Estate Trust, Commonwealth Real Estate, Xiali, etc. Wen Development and other real estate companies.

Although this seems to be the case on the surface, there is a fierce eye on the inside, and the two families gradually become in conflict.

At that time, although a key member of the Zhang family had resigned from Wheelock's board of directors, the Zhang family still had considerable influence on the board of directors. In terms of voting rights, the Zhang family had 10% more voting rights than the Madden family.

At that time, John Horseman could no longer control Wheelock's board of directors. At the end of 1984, there were rumors in the market that the two major families would officially separate and Wheelock would be reorganized.

Because John Horseman lacked confidence in the future of Hong Kong, he invested all his energy in the shipping industry, trying to avoid political risks with a fleet registered overseas and with mobile assets.

Unfortunately, the calculus was not as good as the odds. The global shipping industry was hit by a downturn, which brought Wheelock Shipping to the brink of bankruptcy and triggered a conflict between the two major shareholders.

Frustrated and old, Ma Deng once again lost interest and began to consider quitting. He sold all his shares in Wheelock to Khoo Teck Puat, a consortium of wealthy Nanyang businessmen.

Now Wheelock \u0026 Company's situation is actually even worse.

Because of the serious real estate crisis that broke out last year, Wheelock \u0026 Company suffered huge real estate losses. Basically, there was not much capital to withdraw, and there was no profit.

On the other hand, John Horseman invested many of the properties he sold before 1982 into the shipping industry. However, the global shipping industry has now been greatly affected by even the Bao family's global shipping.

As a result, in 1982, Wheelock \u0026 Company's annual profit exceeded 100 million Hong Kong dollars.

Annual profits dropped from nearly HK$1.5 billion in 1981 to HK$100 million in 1982.

In addition, he still owes more than 10 million US dollars in debt. He hopes that the Zhang family will support him. The Zhang family has long had great conflicts and has been very opposed to John Horseman's original focus on developing the shipping industry. Now he is in debt. , and even less likely to support it.

It is precisely because of this.

At this time, whether it was John Ma Shi or the Zhang family, there were deep conflicts between the two parties.

Moreover, both parties intended to withdraw from Wheelock \u0026 Company.

Yang Ming handed the information he collected to Meris. Meris was very surprised after reading it.

"Boss, it seems that the time is indeed ripe to acquire Wheelock \u0026 Company."

Chapter two!

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