Chapter 4 The Opportunity to Make Money Has Arrived
In the blink of an eye, another day had passed.
The next morning, Lin Haoran woke up as early as usual.
A few days ago, he had already instructed Lin Si to bring him copies of Hong Kong's mainstream newspapers each morning along with his breakfast.
Papers like Oriental Daily, Ta Kung Pao, Hong Kong Economic Times, Sing Tao Daily, Hong Kong Commercial Daily, and so on.
The purpose of this was to better understand the current situation in Hong Kong.
At the same time, he was trying to find any useful information through the newspapers.
A calendar prominently hung on the wall, clearly marking today's date as September 5, 1978.
After finishing breakfast, Lin Haoran half-lay on his bed and picked up a copy of Hong Kong Economic Times to read.
The front-page headline immediately caught his attention.
"The King of Shipping Publicly Declares Having Acquired 15%-20% of Wharf Holdings' Stock, Becoming Wharf's Largest Shareholder!"
The article detailed the King of Shipping's public speech and the background behind this acquisition.
The King of Shipping stated he had no intention of buying more Wharf Holdings stock.
Reading this news, Lin Haoran's heart stirred. From his past life's knowledge, he knew all too well that the King of Shipping's public statement was just a smokescreen designed to create a false image.
It was a strategy meant to deceive opponents and shareholders, aiming to drive Wharf's stock price from a high point back down to a low one.
Otherwise, the King of Shipping would find it difficult to continue increasing his stake.
Originally, it was Li Jiacheng who had set his sights on Wharf Holdings. He had secretly acquired 18% of Wharf's stock over time, but eventually, news of this leaked out.
Naturally, the controlling party of Wharf, the Jardine Matheson Group, was unwilling to lose control so easily, so they enlisted Shen Bi, the head of Huifeng Bank, to persuade Li Jiacheng to abandon his acquisition plan.
In the end, under Shen Bi's mediation, Li Jiacheng did give up on acquiring Wharf Holdings.
However, all the Wharf shares that Li Jiacheng had secretly purchased were then sold—with Huifeng's support—to the King of Shipping. It was considered a favor to both the King and Huifeng and also paved the way for Huifeng later agreeing to sell Hutchison Whampoa's shares to Li Jiacheng.
In short, Jardine Matheson ended up exchanging one strong adversary for an even stronger one—an absolute loss.
This explained how the King of Shipping suddenly became Wharf's largest shareholder.
During the recent events surrounding Li Jiacheng's secret acquisitions, Wharf's stock price had soared to as high as 49 HKD per share following Jardine's counter-acquisition efforts.
Although the King of Shipping had now become Wharf's largest shareholder, he was still quite far from gaining full control.
After all, most of Wharf's shareholders were British consortiums. Although individually they held fewer shares than the King, if they united, the King of Shipping wouldn't be able to seize controlling power easily.
Previously, Lin Haoran had been wondering how to find an opportunity to make big money.
Now, here it was!
Excited, Lin Haoran's heart pounded.
As long as he could leverage this Wharf Holdings acquisition battle properly, he could earn himself a massive initial fund.
Lin Haoran knew well that within a few months, Wharf's stock price would skyrocket insanely.
"I can't believe that after transmigrating, I get to witness such a classic acquisition war firsthand. What a pity… If only I had transmigrated a few years earlier, I might have had the chance to acquire Wharf myself," Lin Haoran thought wistfully.
If he had landed in the 1970 timeline, he would have had plenty of time to make preparations. He even had confidence he could compete against the King of Shipping.
Unfortunately, it was already the second half of 1978.
The King of Shipping had already become the largest shareholder, and Lin Haoran currently only owned a cement factory.
But he quickly calmed himself.
Right now, the most important thing was to gather enough seed capital and use the Wharf acquisition battle to gain profits.
Even if he couldn't acquire Wharf, he could at least sit by and reap the benefits.
Moreover, he was still young and would have plenty of opportunities in the future.
As for how to obtain the initial capital—seeing this news had already sparked an idea in Lin Haoran's mind.
No matter what, he had to seize this opportunity.
If he succeeded, winning the competition to become Wanan Group's successor would be as easy as flipping his hand.
Lin Haoran continued reading several more newspapers.
It was clear that today's biggest headline across Hong Kong was the news about the King of Shipping becoming Wharf's largest shareholder.
Every paper reported and analyzed the event from different angles.
After all, Wharf Holdings was a long-established British-owned enterprise, strong in both market value and prestige.
For a long time, British enterprises had dominated Hong Kong. Although Chinese business consortia were rising, there was still a big gap compared to the British powers.
Thus, for a Chinese tycoon to become the largest shareholder of such a powerful British firm was truly historic.
No wonder the media were competing to report on it.
After finishing all the newspapers, Lin Haoran finally stepped out of his room.
Today's sun was particularly fierce.
Standing on the third-floor corridor, Lin Haoran gazed at the turbulent waters of Pengcheng Bay just dozens of meters away, feeling especially cheerful.
Downstairs, workers bustled about.
Although business was not as booming as before, there were still many clients whose contracts Lin Haoning couldn't interfere with.
Thus, even though many old clients had left, Huafeng Cement Factory still had considerable business and would not lose money in the short term.
Lin Haoran went down from the third floor to the second, heading straight to Huafeng Cement Factory's finance office.
His purpose was simple: to check how much cash the company had.
When Lin Wanan had handed Huafeng Cement Factory over to him, knowing Lin Haoran was at a disadvantage in the succession competition, he had intentionally left one million HKD in the company's accounts.
This was something his elder brother Lin Haoning was unaware of.
It showed just how much Lin Wanan doted on his youngest son.
"Miss Lin, could you please give me a copy of the company's financial report?"
Upon entering the finance office, Lin Haoran directly addressed the finance manager.
At the same time, he glanced at the top of Miss Lin's head.
Lin Xiya: [Loyalty: 75/100]
Lin Haoran was slightly surprised—he hadn't expected the finance manager to have such a high level of loyalty.
Miss Lin had also been assigned by his father to assist him.
Clearly, she could be trusted—at least she hadn't been infiltrated by Lin Haoning and was loyal to the company.
"Of course, Boss. Please wait a moment."
Soon, Lin Haoran had the August financial report for Huafeng Cement Factory in his hands.
Upon receiving it, Lin Haoran's first move was to check the company's available cash.
Next, he needed to use some funds to profit from the Wharf Holdings acquisition battle—the more capital he had, the more he could earn.
Thus, he had come to the finance office today with the primary purpose of understanding exactly how much liquidity he currently had available.
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