1977: The beginning of the blind date with the daughter of the king

Chapter 558: Lao Li wants to start an all-out war?
"Mr. Li, these are the resignation letters that were handed in over the past few days, a total of twenty-five."

In Hutchison Whampoa's office, the secretary placed resignation letters in front of Li Jiacheng.

In fact, normally these people’s resignations do not need to be reviewed by Li Jiacheng, and the new president Ma Shimin can approve them.

But there were too many people and Ma Shimin was speechless.

"Why are there so many?"

Li Jiacheng was also a little shocked. More than 20 senior executives resigned at once, which was definitely a serious blow to Hutchison.

No matter how many companies Hutchison Whampoa has, the resignation of so many senior executives is a big problem for it.

"Call Mr. Ma over."

At this time, Li Jiacheng said seriously to the secretary with a gloomy face.

Seeing this, the secretary hurried out.

It was the first time she saw Mr. Li look so unhappy.

Soon, Ma Shimin walked in with a determined look on his face, holding a newspaper in his hand.

"Li, you look for me."

At this time, Li Jiacheng had completely put away the ugly expression on his face and replaced it with a gentle smile.

"Simon, I'm a little surprised to receive so many resignation letters at once, so I came to discuss it with you."

Ma Shimin shook his head: "These people should have planned to leave. They all have one thing in common. They were recruited into Hutchison Whampoa by Werley."

"I guess this time, it was also Wei Li's trick."

“You can look at this!”

Ma Shimin then pushed the newspaper in front of Li Jiacheng, and Li Jiacheng opened it and took a look.

There is a piece of news circled by Ma Shimin.

"It is rumored that Hong Kong Land is about to acquire a stake in Modern Container Shipping, and the Pao uncle and nephew will join forces to take over the shares of Modern Container Shipping."

"Modern container cargo?"

Li Jiacheng looked at the news, then frowned slightly.

"So, Bao Zeyang took over the shares of Maersk and Yinglun Company?"

He had plotted to take over Hutchison Whampoa in the past, so of course he knew about some of the companies under Hutchison Whampoa.

Modern Container Shipping is actually a relatively important company under Wharf Holdings because it was the British company that controlled the Hong Kong Island terminals at that time.

In addition to Jardine Maersk, Modern Container Line's shareholders include Maersk, IMCO, Swire and HSBC.

It can be said that it is actually a share of the British-owned companies in Hong Kong Island, making it convenient for these British shipping companies to use the port terminals.

Although it operates under Jardine Matheson's Wharf Holdings, Jardine Matheson actually only holds about 25% of the shares.

"I don't know much about Bao Zeyang's skills, but according to the information I know, Jardine Matheson does have this idea."

"Some of these people who resigned are from the retail system, while others are actually from the shipping port system."

"It is possible that Wei Li poached them in order to use them to enter the modern container cargo industry."

Ma Shimin said with a serious expression.

The dock was actually the direction he wanted to develop next after taking over Hutchison Whampoa. However, now that the executives of these companies have been poached, his plan will be delayed a lot.

After all, the most important thing at the moment is to fill the gaps in the company's personnel.

After listening to this, Li Jiacheng did not relax his frown, but picked up the phone on the table.

"Well, I'll ask HSBC!"

HSBC is also a shareholder of Modern Container Shipping. If there are any changes in the internal equity of Modern Container Shipping, the other party must know about it.

But just when Li Jiacheng was about to broadcast the number, Ma Shimin reached out to stop him.

"Li, I think you should probably go talk to Shen Bi directly."

"In addition to modern container cargo, we have another point. We are under great financial pressure now and need financial support from HSBC."

"Due to the suppression of Hong Kong Land, many of Hutchison Whampoa's businesses are shrinking, especially the retail sector, where performance has declined significantly."

It was only after Ma Shimin sorted out various materials on Hutchison Whampoa that he discovered that in just half a year, the retail business of Hutchison Whampoa had actually experienced a substantial decline.

The reason is very simple. Wellcome's sudden attack squeezed the original market of Hutchison Retail.

With the model of big stores leading small ones, Wellcome quickly established customer stickiness in many commercial areas of Hong Kong Island. Customers could go to Wellcome stores for large items, while small daily necessities could be purchased directly from 24-hour convenience stores.

At the same time, Wellcome changed its strategy and began to focus on service quality, which also improved its reputation a lot.

As a result, the performance of Hutchison Whampoa's ParknShop markets, in areas where there is direct competition with Wellcome, is inevitably declining.

The most important thing is that this downward trend is explosive.

"A sharp decline? Why is this happening?"

Li Jiacheng was also puzzled. He had looked at some of the financial statements before and the performance was not much different.

Ma Shimin sighed: "Li, we were caught off guard."

"In the beginning, Dairy Farm International only expanded the Wellcome stores, but they deployed all the 24-hour convenience stores around Wellcome in a unified manner, and then opened them all after everything was ready."

"So at first, Wellcome's expansion didn't cause much of an impact on us until those convenience stores opened."

"Dairy Dairy's 24-hour convenience stores opened around Wellcome Market and then spread across the entire region, that is, they expanded region by region."

"This linkage model can easily increase customer stickiness. After all, if they are used to Wellcome's 24-hour convenience stores, they will naturally go to Wellcome Market for shopping."

"In fact, our real market share loss has occurred in the last few months."

"At first, the group did not react, which may have been related to the management fluctuations of Hutchison Whampoa at that time. It was not until our quarterly statistics came out that we discovered the seriousness of the problem."

"The most important thing is that if we don't take countermeasures, their expansion will get faster and faster until we are squeezed out of Hong Kong Island."

Compared to hypermarkets, this type of 24-hour convenience store is very quick to operate. You just need to find a store that is neither too big nor too small, rent it, do some simple renovation, put up the shelves, and open for business.

The most important thing is that the directly-operated convenience stores in a region can operate simultaneously. Once they are renovated and opened together, they can immediately join forces with Wellcome to capture the consumer market in this area.

With the expansion of Wellcome, this type of convenience store has exploded in exponential terms.

After listening to Ma Shimin, Li Jiacheng sighed.

"Li, our best option now is to take out funds and adopt the same approach as Wellcome to quickly expand in places where Wellcome has no layout."

"This way, at least we can keep some of our existing areas in the market, while squeezing out Wellcome's sales areas."

"That's why I hope you can talk to HSBC. We need financial support now."

Ma Shimin looked at Li Jiacheng and continued.

Li Jiacheng then said softly, "I understand. I'll have someone send over ParknShop's information first."

"But if it's just pure capital investment, it's not actually an advantage for us."

"We have already lost the initiative. If it turns into a capital war with Hong Kong Land, it will not be a good thing for us."

"Bao Zeyang has a lot of idle funds in his hands now. Even if HSBC supports us, we may not be able to surpass him in terms of funds." Li Jiacheng knew that Bao Zeyang had pledged a large sum of money from several major banks in Hong Kong Island.

Although they have announced to the public that they are going to make overseas investments, this kind of talk is enough for people to just listen to. Who would tell their real business plan?

"I know, so I have another way."

"Li, I know that you Chinese have a saying, all is fair in war."

"From the perspective of the battlefield, the Landlords have now broken through our defense circle. If we want to counterattack, then in addition to sending reinforcements, we also have another trick, which is to eat up their advance team."

"For Wellcome, their vanguard is those 24-hour convenience stores."

"These convenience stores provide sufficient retail services to customers around them during the closing time of the shopping malls, which in turn increases their recognition of Wellcome."

"If we want to fight back, we must first eradicate these convenience stores."

"Li, I know there are many community organizations in Hong Kong Island, and the activity hours of these people actually overlap with the business hours of 24-hour convenience stores like Wellcome."

"I think we can appropriately close these convenience stores for a period of time to buy us some time."

Ma Shimin said in a deep voice.

He used to be a mercenary, so he was naturally very familiar with this.

He didn't have any psychological burden, because Ma Shimin knew very well that real business either relies on fists or politicians.

The reason why Jardine Matheson and Swire built up the four major trading companies in Hong Kong Island was not because of their own business ethics, but because of British warships and cannons.

Conversely, the same is true for wealthy Chinese businessmen in Hong Kong Island.

The early Chinese tycoons got their start with the help of gangs, and later on became super-rich with the help of the British, starting with the four major comprador families. This was true for anyone who made a living on Hong Kong Island.

Let’s just talk about the real estate in Hong Kong Island. In many cases, it is not enough to have money. Without the participation of community forces, many projects cannot be done at all.

Every year, many buildings under construction in Hong Kong Island catch fire. It is not because of dry weather or lack of fire prevention standards.

Ma Shimin believed that Li Jiacheng would definitely understand what he said.

As expected, after listening to this, Li Jiacheng looked at Ma Shimin.

"Simon, if we do this, it will mean an all-out war with Landmark."

Of course Li Jiacheng has social influence.

After all, he is from Chaoshan.

You should know that among the largest community forces in Hong Kong Island in the early years, two were Chaoshan forces.

Moreover, Lui Lok, one of the four chief inspectors, is also from Chaoshan.

If you say that Li Jiacheng has no influence in this regard, that's nonsense.

However, Li Jiacheng also understood very well that social organization power was a double-edged sword. If used properly, it could be very effective, but if used improperly, it could also be a big trouble.

Although on the surface, the Bao family does not have much resources in this regard, and Bao Yugang's business power in the early years was all on the sea, but this does not mean that the Bao family has no ability to fight back.

Zhejiang businessmen, or more accurately, Ninghai businessmen, are an important force in Hong Kong Island, and they actually support a group of people.

Otherwise, with so many Zhejiang businessmen from the same place rising up, from Shao Yifu in the entertainment industry, to wool spinning tycoon Cao Guangbiao, and then to cotton yarn tycoon Chen Tinghua of Nan Fung Group, it would be impossible for there to be no one behind them.

So on this point, Li Jiacheng is not as unscrupulous as Ma Shimin. He needs to consider whether to use the power of this part of the society.

"Well, I'll meet with Shen Bi first and get some information."

Li Jiacheng thought it would be better to meet with Shen Bi first to understand the situation.

What Li Jiacheng didn't know was that Shen Bi actually wanted to see him at this moment.

The reason is very simple. At this time, Shen Bi had already learned that Li Changhe had arranged for Bank of America and Wells Fargo to cooperate with Standard Chartered.

HSBC naturally received an invitation to the banquet that evening. Although Shen Bi did not go in person, he still arranged for a senior executive of HSBC to go.

Therefore, he naturally saw the scene where James was chatting with Matthews and Ron.

After returning to report to Shen Bi, Shen Bi used his connections and made some inquiries, and he got the general idea.

In fact, Shen Bi doesn't care about the cooperation between Standard Chartered and Bank of America.

Standard Chartered's strategy is just that. To put it bluntly, if HSBC was not unsuitable to dominate Hong Kong Island, it would have squeezed Standard Chartered out long ago.

The fact that Standard Chartered has survived until now has a lot to do with HSBC keeping it, otherwise the bosses in London would definitely target HSBC.

But Shen Bi was very concerned about the closeness between "Bao Zeyang" and Standard Chartered.

If Bao Zeyang's Hutchison Whampoa and its overseas assets cooperate with Standard Chartered in all aspects, it will definitely be a huge boost to Standard Chartered Bank.

The other party will definitely be able to develop rapidly.

This gave Shen Bi a headache.

He is willing to keep Standard Chartered, but he certainly does not want to see it grow bigger because that would impact HSBC's leadership position in Hong Kong Island.

The most important thing is, there is Bao Zeyang’s choice.

Why isn't this kid as close to HSBC as his uncle?

unless?

Shen Bi had some vague guesses in his mind.

Could it be that this young man wants to build a huge consortium like the Rockefeller and Rothschild families?

After all, the other party has such a close relationship with the Rockefeller family, so he must know a lot about the Rockefeller family's industries.

And he has such a strong business talent.

For Bao Zeyang, simply becoming a world-famous billionaire is no longer challenging, after all, he is one now.

So the other party's hidden intention might be to build an Eastern consortium?

The core of the consortium is the bank!
So this guy has never readily accepted the olive branch thrown by HSBC and him, but has maintained an ambiguous attitude. Perhaps it is because he knows that there is no hope of acquiring HSBC?

Now they are turning their attention to Standard Chartered?

Shen Bi sat there, the more he thought about it, the more he felt it was possible.

He had never really understood Bao Zeyang's way of doing things before, always thinking that he was too imaginative and his industries were flourishing everywhere.

But now, he suddenly realized that he seemed to have grasped the other party's intentions. If he looked at it from the perspective of a consortium, many of the other party's business trajectories could actually be traced.

"Jingle Bell"

At this moment, the phone on the table suddenly rang, interrupting Shen Bi's thoughts.

"Hey"

"Mr. Li Jiacheng from Hutchison Whampoa is here and said he has an appointment to meet you."

On the other end of the phone, the secretary outside asked softly.

Shen Bi nodded: "Yes, bring him in!"

(End of this chapter)