The war has begun! In business practice, comprehensive acquisition is a term with more derogatory meaning than positive meaning. For a company that has been operating for many years, if another company wants to annex it, it can only be regarded as a win-win or a good-faith acquisition if it puts forward conditions that satisfy its management and majority shareholders. Once the other party's acquisition harms the interests of management and some shareholders, then this kind of acquisition is a "hostile acquisition" or "hostile acquisition." Obviously, the Goldstein family, which has controlled the management of Standard Chartered Bank for many years, is not willing to give up the management power of Standard Chartered Bank. In 1986, even banking giants like Lloyds, who were at the forefront of the UK's domestic strength, tried to acquire Standard Chartered, knowing that they were doing it. When one's own side is not strong enough to resist the other party's acquisition, they would rather let the senior management come forward with various favors, use the contacts established in the past to invite three powerful white knights, and sell most of the bank's shares to them, but also want to prevent Lloyd Regarding his own acquisition, he knew the attitude of Standard Chartered's senior management. So as soon as Kowloon Bank held a press conference, it officially announced to the outside world that it would launch an acquisition of Standard Chartered. Although they were panicking, they finally came to their senses. Zhuang Beisi held a press conference again, with a serious face and a tough attitude: "In the past few years, bank performance has been rising steadily, which has attracted countless questions. We had just experienced a hostile takeover a few years ago, but Standard Chartered did not welcome this kind of business behavior that harmed the interests of the bank and the vast majority of shareholders. Under our resolute counterattack, the other party was quickly repelled. . So after a few years, I still want to advise those who are thinking about Standard Chartered again. If you insist on doing it, this will be a war!¡± With Standard Chartered¡¯s tough press conference, this old British bank The top and bottom immediately started running at high speed. The Goldston family also raised nearly 200 million pounds in a very short period of time, and began to buy large amounts of Standard Chartered Bank shares in the London stock market, raising the stock price by 7% that day. At the same time, they were mobilizing all connections to circulate funds everywhere. At the same time, Standard Chartered executives are also taking action. Zhuang Beisi still has not given up convincing Kowloon Bank or the Lin family behind it to give up its plan to acquire Standard Chartered. He knows that Hong Kong is a human society. Although Kowloon Bank has not cooperated much with the Lin family and Standard Chartered in the past and has no direct contact channels, It was through the bank's deep connections in Hong Kong that I persuaded many Chinese businessmen who had close friendship with the Lin family to lobby the Lin family on their behalf. Sir Dalia, who was promoted to the chairman of the board of directors of Standard Chartered Bank just two years ago, personally took action and used the extensive contacts he had established as the president of Standard Chartered Hong Kong for more than ten years to contact small and medium-sized shareholders who hold a large number of Standard Chartered shares, or To persuade them not to sell their stocks to Kowloon Bank, and for some people who are unscrupulous for profit, he simply said that he also knew that the senior management of Standard Chartered did not hold many bank shares. There is also a certain gap with the Lin family, so while urging senior management to increase their stake in Standard Chartered, he also did not forget to prepare for the worst, that is, to repeat the strategy he used to defeat the acquisition of Lloyds Bank in 1986 - to find four for the bank. Five more loyal white knights came to guard Standard Chartered. White knight is a term in the securities industry. It means that when a company finds itself falling prey to another company and is unable to resist the other party's hostile takeover, it can find one or several friendly companies and forces on its own, and then Investors came forward to start a buying war with hostile acquirers. The emergence of a white knight can prevent weak prey companies from having to face hostile acquirers to engage in large-scale takeover and anti-takeover battles. However, not everyone can be a white knight, because the emergence of a white knight means many things. A major shareholder has emerged, and it is very likely that he will turn around and become another black knight coveting you in the future, so you need to be cautious when looking for a white knight. Even though Standard Chartered has been operating in Hong Kong for more than a century and has extensive and deep personal connections second only to HSBC, it is not easy to find several qualified white knights for the bank. In the past, Sir Delia persuaded Chinese shipping tycoon Bao Yugang, Singapore's richest man Qiu Teck Puat and Australian hotel tycoon Robert Home to serve as the white knights of Standard Chartered. In order for these three to work hard to keep Standard Chartered for them, they would not lose money. As for transforming into a black knight, he not only made countless promises, but also imposed certain restrictions on the three families. But what is the final result? Qiu Deba has been increasing his stake in Standard Chartered since the last acquisition. Everyone can see that he also has thoughts about Standard Chartered; Robert Home has sold off on highs several times and does not care at all. The rising stock price of Standard Chartered was knocked down; after Bao Yugang's death, the shipping king family even changed hands and, with the support of the Lin family, sold a large number of Standard Chartered shares to the opponent that threatened Standard Chartered this time All kinds of things, This has forced Standard Chartered to be more cautious when trying to choose a new white knight to deal with acquisitions. As for whyStandard Chartered Bank, which is stronger than Kowloon, is so passive when facing acquisitions. The main reason is to blame the Goldstein family, which has controlled Standard Chartered for half a century. Goldston was originally just an executive at Standard Chartered, but during his tenure, due to the war in mainland China, a large number of wealthy Chinese who could not escape made him make a lot of money. Shortly after the outbreak of World War II, Japan robbed a large amount of wealth from Standard Chartered and HSBC during its occupation of Hong Kong. However, after the war, Goldstein was recommended to reorganize Standard Chartered because of his close relationship with the Hong Kong Governor, and gradually controlled Standard Chartered in the following ten years. He gained management power from Standard Chartered and became a shareholder of the bank. Despite holding the management power of Standard Chartered for half a century, the Goldstone family's stake in Standard Chartered has never reached a majority. Especially after the bank's listing attracted many institutional investors, the family's shareholding in Standard Chartered has never exceeded 10%. It is difficult to control the huge Standard Chartered Bank with such a small amount of shares, not to mention that Standard Chartered is still a listed bank. Even if the bank is strong, it does not mean that the Goldstone family is also financially strong. As soon as Standard Chartered moved, Song Nianhui immediately felt the pressure. First, many media outlets, under Standard Chartered's public relations, turned their guns on Kowloon. Oriental Daily, which had always been at odds with Lin Xiaozhi, performed most eye-catchingly. It published four consecutive articles questioning the financial resources of the Lin family after just spending nearly 40 years. After Yi acquired the UCT cinema chain, it was no longer able to engage in a high-profile acquisition war with the wealthy Standard Chartered. Next Magazine, which has always been famous for reporting entertainment industry gossip, did not forget to join in the fun. It has been holding back for more than a year and has not dared to make waves. It almost accused Kowloon Bank of secretly misappropriating depositors' deposits to acquire Standard Chartered. There was no shortage of provocations in the article about Kowloon Bank. Cues such as depositors withdrawing their deposits to avoid losses. Not to mention, under the continuous media bombardment, many bank depositors who did not know the truth came to run on the bank. Fortunately, due to previous bank runs, Media Asia's external loans have been reduced to an absolutely safe level since Lin Xiaozhi took over. Therefore, Song Nianhui arranged for bank personnel to persuade and provide guidance, and if depositors insisted on withdrawing cash, they would be open to any means. He took it, but he didn't look panicked. If the plan fails, Standard Chartered has other methods. As an old British-owned bank, although Standard Chartered is not as powerful as the four major British banks, its influence on the British Hong Kong government has always been considerable. Following the activities of Standard Chartered¡¯s senior management, the Hong Kong government soon expressed its ¡®concern¡¯ about the acquisition. First, many officials from the Regional Municipal Council tactfully persuaded Lin Xiaoyi, who was serving as a district councilor, and repeatedly hinted that the Lin family would give up when things got better. Not long after, Financial Secretary McGrath personally invited Lin Kin-nien to attend a government reception. At the meeting, he had an opportunity to have a private interview with him for more than 20 minutes. He repeatedly pointed out that he hoped to maintain financial order and stability before Hong Kong's return! Fortunately, the Lin family has become a success, and the Hong Kong government is also somewhat wary of his influence. Secondly, it has not given up the idea of ????wooing him. Therefore, the people who contacted him did not directly persuade him to give up investing in Standard Chartered. They mostly persuaded him to give up as soon as he could get better. , just be the major shareholder of Standard Chartered with peace of mind, and stop fighting for control of the bank. As the news that Standard Chartered was acquired by a local bank in Hong Kong spread back to the UK, not only did many domestic media pay attention to it, but it soon also attracted the attention of the London authorities. The pressure on Kowloon Bank and the Lin family also increased. Soon after, The Standard reported that the British House of Commons was discussing the hostile takeover of Standard Chartered Bank. Richard Graham, a hawkish member of Parliament from Gloucestershire, said in a debate in parliament, " The UK has the responsibility to uphold the principles of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, ensure Hong Kong's freedom of speech and judicial independence under the rule of law in the future, and maintain its independent finances from being affected by any external factors." It also loudly appealed for the intervention of the London government to avoid the future collapse of the Hong Kong dollar. The distribution rights were taken away by the Chinese. Like a hornet's nest, a mountain of pressure quickly fell on Kowloon Bank and the Lin family. Thanks to these things beforehand, Song Nianhui and others also made speculations. Although they began to worry about the attitude of the London authorities, they first made various arrangements and counterattacks in Hong Kong to buy Lin Xiaozhi a few days, and then to avoid Standard Chartered. The senior officials were suspicious, so he personally led a delegation to Singapore to visit Qiu Deba, which bought Lin Xiaozhi about ten days. When he had enough soft nails in Singapore again, although Qiu Teck Puat did not express dissatisfaction with the Lin family for using him to attract the attention of Standard Chartered Bank, he repeatedly stated that he would not sell the Standard Chartered shares he held to anyone. When he led the delegation to fly to the UK, Lin Xiaozhi's contact with Schroeder Group was almost over, because the price he offered was much higher than Schroeder's original purchase price. In the end, he shouted out 397 million. When the pound price was high, the other party had already raised the white flag and agreed to sell him 7.62% of the Standard Chartered shares held. The next stage is to focus on Lloyds Bank, which still has some ideas about Standard Chartered, plusOver a period of time, they have been continuously absorbing shares from the secondary market. So far, Kowloon Bank has successively acquired 37.2% of Standard Chartered shares, and is getting closer and closer to controlling Standard Chartered. "Congratulations to Lin Sheng. Lloyds Bank seems to have realized that they have completely lost the opportunity to acquire Standard Chartered. Although they reluctantly shouted out a sky-high price, their attitude has changed. The rest This is a problem that can be solved through negotiation! In order to prevent Standard Chartered from reacting, I will try to win over Lloyds as soon as possible. The investment department is also snatching shares from retail investors in the secondary market with Standard Chartered officials. If we can take some more, we will We are not far away from controlling Standard Chartered!" Song Nianhui, who had persuaded Lloyds Bank just two days after arriving in London, was in a good mood. He opened a bottle of Petrus with Lin Xiaozhi in the hotel, his face full of excitement. Initially, Lin Xiaozhi had no idea of ??acquiring Standard Chartered, but it was his repeated persuasion that persuaded him to make such a large investment. So far, they have invested more than 2.2 billion pounds in it. They have seen that the secret accounts accumulated by Lin Xiaozhi in the past are almost empty, but they have finally seen some results. "What we have to do now is to pursue the victory. In addition to continuing the talks with Lloyd, I am also going to have a chat with Aberdeen Asset Management tomorrow." Lin Xiaozhi nodded, with joy in his eyes. Unable to bear it, "I'll leave the rest to you!" He was naturally willing to do it. In fact, he had been haunting the residences and companies of Standard Chartered shareholders every day for some time, not only to avoid media attention but also to He was careful not to be discovered by the senior management of Standard Chartered. In just ten days, he felt more tired than when he had been on the set for several months. He could only spare a small amount of time every night to supervise the filming he had just completed via international long distance. Post-processing of the upcoming new work "The Mummy". Fortunately, SESI and Media Asia special effects have been working together over the past few years and have begun to take shape. However, as a director and his head is full of ideas and creativity for the post-production of his new film, he cannot stay in Hong Kong to supervise the post-production of the film. , it was simply a kind of torture for him. Now that Song Nianhui is gone, he is now fully responsible for the acquisition plan of Standard Chartered, which finally allows him to breathe a sigh of relief.