Reborn in 1970, I thrived in Hong Kong.

On August 25, when Li Huai-ren appeared again in the office of Zhong Wei-kang, the general manager of YNM Securities Investment Company, YNM Securities Investment Company had already closed out all its short positions in the Hong Kong stock market, making a total profit of HK$260 million.

Li Huai-ren and Zhong Wei-kang held a private discussion for over an hour before leaving YNM Securities Investment Company and heading to Hang Seng Bank.

In Li Guowei's office at Hang Seng Bank, Li Guowei brewed Kung Fu tea while reporting to Li Huai Ren:

"Boss, the shares of Tao Tai that Hang Seng Bank's securities department bought this week, plus those transferred from YNM Securities Investment Company, now account for 23.8% of the shares."

In addition, I have reached an agreement with several minority shareholders of Taoda Company to acquire their shares, totaling 17.6%, and the transaction has just been completed.

"23.8%, 17.6%, so that means we already hold 41.3% of the shares?" Li Huai-ren calculated in his mind and said:

"Since it's already at 41.3%, let's not wait any longer and proceed as planned!"

Prior to 1974, Hong Kong had no disclosure threshold and had not yet implemented the Securities Disclosure Rights Ordinance, meaning that off-exchange acquisitions of more than 5% of shares did not require public announcement.

There was no crime of insider trading, and before 1980, market manipulation was not a criminal offense, so securities companies faced no legal risk in spreading rumors.

Li Huai-ren naturally had to exploit these two loopholes in a compliant manner.

Following Li Huai-ren's order, rumors detrimental to Taoda Company spread throughout the market.

On the same day, rumors circulated in the market that Amoy Plaza's Singapore factory was under investigation by the Department of Health;

Then it was reported that Taoda Company's soybean inventory contained the carcinogen aflatoxin.

At the same time, some people have begun shorting Taoda's stock and selling off a large number of its shares.

In less than an hour, Taoda's stock price plummeted from HK$1.8 to HK$0.9, a loss of more than half, and its market value shrank to HK$1500 million.

The market immediately panicked and sold off, with institutions and retail investors scrambling to sell their shares in Taoda Company.

Li Guowei, who was in charge of the acquisition, acted decisively and immediately ordered the securities department of Hang Seng Bank to quickly buy up the shares at rock-bottom prices. He also made a phone call to Zhong Weikang, the general manager of YNM Securities Investment Company, asking YNM Securities Investment Company to also help buy up the shares at rock-bottom prices and continue the charade.

Tao Tai Company mainly deals in soy sauce and canned food, and owns a factory in Kowloon City, Hong Kong, and a distribution center in Singapore. Its annual profit is approximately HK$500 million, and its market capitalization is approximately HK$3000 million.

Its shareholding structure is as follows: the founding family, the major shareholder Chen family, holds 45% of the shares, and the public shares account for 55%. It is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Due to the expansion of the Singapore factory at the beginning of this year, the debt ratio exceeded 70%, resulting in a very tight cash flow.

Even more critically, a major internal power struggle erupted within the founding family, the Chen family, with the second-generation heirs vying for power, the shareholders' meeting splitting into several factions, and the people's hearts being divided.

For example, right now, the family business is on the verge of collapse, yet the Chen family members are still passing the buck and ignoring the crisis facing Taoda Company.

Seeing that things were developing exactly as he had predicted, Li Huai-ren immediately instructed Li Guo-wei to increase the short selling of Taoda's stock and accelerate the bottom-fishing process.

In fact, what others did not know was that Li Huai-ren exploited loopholes in the Hong Kong stock market, such as manual trading and unclear rules, to allow Hang Seng Bank's securities department and YNM Securities Investment Company to secretly transfer Tao Da Company shares from one hand to the other.

Both sides sold off their shares, which were then bought up by the other, with no shares flowing out of the company. Yet, the share price plummeted dramatically, while Hang Seng Bank's securities division and YNM Securities Investment Company only had to pay some extra stamp duty.

When Taoda's share price fell to HK$0.9 per share, Li Huai-ren held as much as 49.3% of Taoda's shares.

As agreed with Li Huai-ren, Li Guowei immediately called Chen Xiwen, the Chen family's second son who had lost power, and arranged to meet him to launch a partial tender offer at HK$1.5 per share to acquire the 15% stake in Taoda held by him.

Currently, Taoda's share price has fallen to HK$0.88 per share, and Chen Xiwen's 15% stake in Taoda has been pledged to Hang Seng Bank to finance other projects.

He had no choice. Seeing that Li Guowei's offer was acceptable, he sold 15% of Taoda's shares, which just paid off his loan from Hang Seng Bank. The transaction was completed that afternoon.

By acquiring the 15% stake in Taoda Company held by Chen Xiwen, and adding the 49.3% acquired in the stock market, Li Huai-ren now holds 64.3% of Taoda Company's shares, just 2.7% away from absolute control.

The Chen family currently holds only 30% of the shares, while the remaining 5.7% are public shares held by some institutions and individual investors.

Before the stock market closed that day, YNM Securities Investment Company and Hang Seng Bank Securities Department jointly acquired another 3% of Taoda's shares. At this point, Li Huai-ren held 67.3% of Taoda's shares, becoming the absolute controlling shareholder of Taoda.

Instead of having Li Guowei launch a takeover bid for the Chen family, Li Huai-ren went directly to Li Zhao-ji for help, asking him to negotiate with the Chen family on his behalf.

After all, although Hong Kong is a capitalist society, it is also a society based on personal relationships. People see each other all the time, and the Chan family are not foreigners. If you can avoid offending them to the death, you should give them face and a way out.

If the other party is ungrateful, then it's simple: just mold them however you want.

Li Zhaoji had already held Li Huai-ren, his cousin, in very high regard, but he still underestimated him. Li Huai-ren had just acquired Hang Seng Bank and gained absolute control of Tao Da Company.

But he had a broad perspective and never envied his nephew. On the contrary, he felt that it was a great thing that one of his family's nephews had achieved great success.

It's very simple; he is now one of the biggest beneficiaries of Li Huai-ren's rise to power.

Not to mention that his construction company undertook Phoenix Plaza projects all over the world for Li Huai-ren, allowing him to perfectly avoid the real estate downturn since the beginning of the year.

After Li Huai-ren acquired Hang Seng Bank, he had his construction company and New World Development open accounts at Hang Seng Bank.

If he needs funds in the future, he won't need to ask the British at HSBC or Standard Chartered anymore; he can just go to Hang Seng Bank.

Most importantly, don't forget Li Zhaoji's nickname—Hong Kong's stock market god.

After Li Huai-ren acquired Hang Seng Bank, he would naturally invest in stocks through Hang Seng Bank's securities department, which would ensure absolute confidentiality of his stock transactions.

If you need financing or leverage in the future, it couldn't be more convenient, right?

Upon learning that Li Huai-ren wanted him to visit the Chen family, Li Zhaoji readily agreed and praised him for being sensible and for considering things very thoroughly.

That evening, Li Zhaoji personally went to the Chen family to negotiate on behalf of Li Huai-ren with them to acquire the 30% stake in Taoda Company held by them.

Upon learning that Li Huai-ren had absolute control of Taoda Company, the Chen family was stunned. They quickly realized that someone in the family had sold shares to Li Huai-ren, and that person was Chen Xi-wen!

Currently, the Chen family only holds 30% of Taoda Company's shares, and Li Zhaoji has made it very clear that Li Huai Ren wants full ownership of Taoda Company.

After discussing it, the Chen family members felt that instead of being a minority shareholder in Taoda Company, they should sell their shares and invest in other things. Therefore, they agreed to sell 30% of Taoda's shares to Li Huai-ren.

The following day, on the morning of August 26, Li Huai-ren bought the 30% stake in Tao Tai Company held by the Chen family at HK$1.5 per share and promised Hang Seng Bank to provide as much assistance as possible for the Chen family's future financing and loans.

At this point, Li Huai-ren held 97.3% of Taoda Company's shares.

He immediately instructed Li Guowei to go to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to apply for a mandatory general offer to take over Taoda and delist it.