Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 396 made him restless and unable to eat or sleep.
Queen's Road Central, Central, Hong Kong.

The majestic Yangtze Group Center, standing at 280 meters tall, is precisely at the optimal limit of building core tube efficiency.

Completed in 1999, it faces the HSBC Building and its height is deliberately higher than the tangent of the adjacent Bank of China Tower (315 meters) to avoid "inauspicious energy".

The Bank of China Tower was completed earlier, in 1990. It was designed by I.M. Pei as the headquarters of the Bank of China's Hong Kong branch. The building is a triangular prism, like three sharp knives, pointing to HSBC, Government House, and the British garrison in Hong Kong respectively.

In Feng Shui, this is called "the direct impact of inauspicious energy".

The year the Bank of China building was completed, HSBC's performance plummeted and its stock price dropped. The following year, HSBC erected two 17-meter-long steel cannons on the roof, directly facing the Bank of China.

Therefore, the Li Ka Shing Cheung Kong Center, which was later built next to it, was designed in the shape of a four-sided shield, with a steel frame lightning rod on top to relieve the feng shui pressure.

The Lippo Centre, located northwest of the Bank of China, is designed as a "robot holding a shield." The Citibank Tower, sandwiched between the Bank of China and HSBC, is designed to rotate 45° to avoid a direct confrontation with the Bank of China's sharp angles, forming a "fan turning away evil spirits."

A battle of feng shui among skyscrapers.

These buildings hold many stories of Hong Kong.

A new story is unfolding at the Cheung Kong Group Center today.

The 60th floor, Li Ka-shing's private meeting room.

The glaring red waterfall line (-2.2%) on the electronic screen's intraday chart was reflected on the floor-to-ceiling windows, filling the space with a sense of low pressure.

Mr. Li's blood pressure was a bit high.

His wrists and heart were connected to numerous tubes, and his private doctor squatted beside his sofa, monitoring the equipment.

Although his expression was calm, his Cantonese accent, as he pointed at the screen, was full of murderous intent: "Move all 80 billion in working capital here, can we turn the tables on him and make him liquidate his position?"

The assistants beside him looked somewhat troubled. One of them said, "Mr. Li, according to our investigation, the other party is using a shotgun tactic, with each order not exceeding 800 lots. We've detected this unusual transaction being conducted by the UBS account—"

He then displayed a string of data on the screen.

"This tactic bears the mark of mainland speculative capital, but they are very cautious. They only used double leverage and were merely stirring up panic in the market. We cannot raise the price by double to make them liquidate their positions."

Li Ka-shing frowned: "So you mean he's not shorting for profit?"

Zhou Kaixuan, a close confidante standing nearby, immediately added information: "Wu Jiaqing called me the day before yesterday and said that this person speaks very rudely and said that he wanted to retaliate against us for taking his No. 3 plot in the High-tech Zone. I have already collected information on him. He has deep ties with Chongqing and Anhui, is good at political diplomacy, and his funds mainly come from the mainland A-share market. He is very accurate in his investments and can mobilize more than 10 billion yuan. This action is completely beyond his capabilities. It may really be retaliatory. He originally had no grudge against us, and we have not reported them. He may have been deliberately used by someone."

"Skilled in political maneuvering, yet still taken advantage of? What a fool!" Li Ka-shing retorted.

An assistant interjected quietly, "Some nouveau riche in mainland China are like that—arrogant, irritable, and even more so after gaining connections with the government. If they believe we've reported them, they will..."

Chen Xuebing's concerns are valid.

Regarding his provocations, Li Ka-shing's team of assistants unanimously concluded that it was "the irritability of a nouveau riche." To protect Mr. Li's blood pressure, some of the provocative remarks were not even relayed to him.

To this day, Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings have not retaliated against Gu An, not because Mr. Li is magnanimous, but because the team has calmly digested these trivial emotions.

In other words, the team also believed that Gu An was not an opponent that should be provoked, and instead investigated who had provoked Gu An's emotions.

They have found this group of people; the source is called "Tomorrow Holdings," and they sent people to report the incident at Plot 3 in the High-tech Zone.

Tomorrow Holdings definitely has ill intentions. When they reported it, they had someone recommend Hutchison Whampoa to Chengdu for bidding, which is how they received the land bidding notice and sent Huo Jianning there.

Li Ka-shing's phone suddenly rang. His assistant saw the caller ID, answered the call, said a few words, and then handed the phone to him.

Li Ka-shing answered the phone, grunted in response, and then heard his eldest son's voice: "Dad, the three BVI accounts of Credit Suisse Channel have been targeted. It seems that the other party anticipated our market support strategy and only used a small amount of the existing funds of these accounts. I am preparing to use the British Water Company's account to counterattack them and see what their bottom line is."

Li Ka-shing frowned, looked up and saw that the stock price on the screen had changed to 98.99 (-2.50%), and the number had been stuck at the "99 yuan" line.

While he was still hesitating, the assistant received another call. He discovered it was from an encrypted line belonging to a law firm, so he didn't dare answer it and handed it directly to Li Ka-shing.

Li Ka-shing immediately answered: "That's me."

“Mr. Li, there were unusual inquiries about Neptune Company in the British Virgin Islands this morning. We heard that someone is shorting Cheung Kong Holdings. We sent people to find the government staff who made the inquiry. The person did not admit it, but we suspect that someone paid a targeted scanning fee to illegally access Neptune’s information.”

These words made Li Ka-shing suddenly tense up, and he felt a chill run down his spine.

In recent years, he has transferred tens of billions of Hong Kong dollars to the UK through complex transactions to acquire Cambridge Water, Fristow Port, and the UK power grid. These companies all rely on the continuous supply of funds from the Hong Kong stock pool.

If the transfer chain is exposed, he will be forced to disclose the beneficiaries, and China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange may cut off the offshore channel. His investment in the UK is also not legal, and his operation to evade the 35% property tax through the "non-resident beneficiary" loophole may also be exposed.

Public outrage, regulatory crackdown, billions in tax evasion fines in the UK.
He composed himself, picked up the Tieguanyin tea from the coffee table, and warmed himself up.

When the Tieguanyin tea rippled twice, his emotions completely calmed down.

“Tell this staff member that no matter how much money the other party paid, we will double our price. We will not report him, but I want to know who bought this report.”

After hanging up, he immediately picked up the other phone and gave instructions to Li Zeju on the other end: "Someone is investigating us. Don't touch the British Water Company's investment account. Don't get involved in this matter. I'll handle it." He then hung up decisively again.

He turned his head and looked at the mist over Victoria Harbour, a hint of anger rising in his eyes.

A few seconds later, he suddenly raised his hand and smashed the Qing Dynasty doucai chicken cup in his hand onto the stock price display screen.

"boom!"

The chicken cup shattered, and the display screen was smashed, leaving half of it scratched and broken. The incomplete numbers displayed on it no longer seemed to matter.

"They're insane, insane!" he muttered, his voice rising. "They're all idiots!"

"You treat him like a fool, and he treats you like fools!"

Mr. Li's low growl made everyone around him stand up straight. They realized their serious mistake from those few words and dared not move.

Li Ka-shing, however, valued time exceptionally and immediately issued an order:
"Investigate! Investigate the mole! Who told the enemy about the British situation! Investigate everyone who has been in contact with British investors!" He finished speaking, raising three fingers that trembled violently.

"Three things: First, cut off all BVI funding; second, launch the 'Blue Shield' media matrix to cover all negative news; third, have HSBC representatives in my office within half an hour."

The assistants immediately sprang into action, quickly heading out to handle the matter while also avoiding Mr. Li's wrath.

The reaction was unusually rapid.

Within one hour.

The funding team has frozen all BVI accounts for transfers to Hong Kong.

The intelligence team traced the short-selling positions in reverse and discovered 15 unusually active client accounts.

The legal team drafted the complaint documents to the China Securities Regulatory Commission and submitted them before 10:30 a.m.

The CEO of HSBC Asia Pacific also called personally:
“Mr. Li, the Securities and Futures Commission has agreed to hold an emergency meeting at 10:30, but at the same time requires us to provide compliance proof of our BVI market stabilization funds.”

Li Ka-shing narrowed his eyes and instantly made the decision to abandon a batch of overseas BVI accounts.

“Tell them that all our overseas investments have been registered with the State Administration of Foreign Exchange. For those that have not been registered, we will go and complete the registration now. We made some small overseas investments in these accounts without prior registration, and we will accept the penalties that should be imposed.”

It's better to proactively expose each small issue than to have the purpose of setting up an account fully exposed.

Seeing that things were gradually calming down, Zhou Kaixuan bowed slightly to President Li and said, "Although this person is not simple, his hatred for us was brought on by someone else. I think if we want revenge, we should first find the person who caused the trouble."

Li Ka-shing took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. The alerts from the electrocardiogram monitor next to him disappeared, indicating that he had completely calmed down: "Don't rush to investigate these things. First, we need to resolve this matter thoroughly, find the person who leaked the information, and find out exactly how many accounts he checked."

Shanghai.

A covert battle suddenly reached a stalemate.

"A sell order of 3 lots was placed at 99.50! That's 3 million!"

"We only have 30 million chips left!"

"However, the sentiment remains, and there is a lot of selling pressure. Should we increase our leverage and short sell to launch another attack?"

Teng Kai consulted Kan Zhidong over the phone.

At that moment, Chen Xuebing was also receiving a phone call from Cai Zhijian in Hong Kong.

"The agency said that someone had found the staff member who helped us scan the information and offered double the price to leak the information we found. They asked if we wanted to pay more to keep it confidential."

Cai Zhijian's words made Chen Xuebing take a deep breath.

The other party wasn't one to be trifled with either; they discovered this so quickly and even found the person in charge.

"How many have you found so far?" he asked.

"None of the three companies have significant cash flow."

Chen Xuebing's face darkened, and after a moment of contemplation, he said, "Tell them a flat price of $500 million, and don't reveal how many companies we've investigated."

"Isn't that too high?"

Chen Xuebing grinned slightly: "Don't worry, we don't need to spend this money. The agency will go to the other side and ask for a higher price. As long as the agency hangs up and calls back, we'll deny everything and let them leak it. We've offered this confidential price of $500 million. No matter what they get, they'll be suspicious."

"I'll make him restless and unable to eat or sleep."

(End of this chapter)