Chapter 781 A Fortress Is Often Breached From the Inside First!

In the mid-1970s, Wheelock had become one of the four major British foreign companies in Hong Kong, with 49 direct subsidiaries, including listed companies such as Real Estate Trust, Federal Development, Harriman Development, Lane Crawford, Wheelock Shipping, United Enterprises and Po Fook Development.

These subsidiaries have about 180 subsidiaries and 20 private companies, forming a large diversified comprehensive enterprise group.

During this period, Wheelock's operations have spread to investment holding, merchant banking, finance, securities, futures trading, shipping, trade, wholesale and retail, real estate, aviation, tourism, insurance and manufacturing, and the scope of investment has also extended from the Far East to Southeast Asia, Australia and North and South America.

However, in general, the core business of the group at that time was still real estate and shipping in Hong Kong.

In other words, the scale of Wheelock was very large.

Wheelock was able to rank third among the four major foreign companies in Hong Kong, and its strength should not be underestimated.

Before the bankruptcy and liquidation of Chen Songqing's Jianing Group, it was said to be the same size as Wheelock and Swire.

In fact, Chen Songqing's Jianing Group is just a pile of numbers on the surface, and it is still far behind Wheelock.

Historically, Wheelock was swallowed up by Bao Yugang of the Bao family.

This time, Yang Ming has had people prepare for Wheelock for four years.

Moreover, the plan to swallow up Wheelock was unknown to others except Yang Ming and Mai Lisi.

At this time, many people are paying attention to the safety of Chen Songqing and Jianing Group. For Yang Ming, it is the best opportunity to swallow up Wheelock.

The two major shareholders of Wheelock.

The Zhang family, the largest shareholder.

The second largest shareholder, John Ma Deng, is also the boss of Wheelock.

Since the 1970s, other consortiums have been trying to swallow up Wheelock.

But there has never been a chance.

The funniest thing is the two major shareholders of Wheelock.

In 1976, John MacArthur wanted to sell Wheelock & Co. because of the international and domestic influences at that time, which greatly affected the business and annual profit of Wheelock & Co.

In 1981, the Zhang family also wanted to sell the shares of Wheelock & Co. because of the internal dispute over the family property.

However, this did not succeed.

Instead, the Zhang family and John MacArthur have always controlled Wheelock & Co. through A shares and B shares.

After the mid-to-late 1970s and 1980s, the investment strategy of the Wheelock Board of Directors seemed to turn positive again.

At that time, the Hong Kong economy entered the rising stage of a new round of economic cycle, and the real estate market flourished again.

Wheelock's real estate companies such as Real Estate Trust, Federal Realty, Harriman Development and Po Fook Development have successively carried out huge real estate development businesses and have done well.

However, Wheelock's investment strategy was actually to dismantle and rebuild the land and properties owned by the group, sell them at high prices during the real estate boom, and then use the funds to actively develop the shipping industry, order a large number of bulk carriers, and expand the fleet.

Behind this strategy, Wheelock's boss John Madden still lacked confidence in the future of Hong Kong and was worried that Hong Kong would be returned to China sooner or later, so he implemented a strategic transfer of assets to make it "float on the high seas" to be safe.

It can be said that this is completely opposite to Bao Yugang's abandoning the boat and landing in history.

Bao Yugang abandoned the boat and landed.

John Madden abandoned the land and boarded the boat.

This also led to Bao Yugang's ability to swallow up Wheelock and Company in history.

According to statistics, by 1983, Wheelock's fleet, including only Wheelock Shipping, had increased to 29 ships with a carrying capacity of 1.39 million tons.

Unfortunately, in the 1980s, the world shipping industry had gradually fallen into recession, and the Wheelock Group was hit hard.

In 1981, Wheelock's pre-tax profit was HK$1.431 billion, but it dropped sharply to HK$368 million in 1983.

That year, John Madden announced solemnly in the company's annual report: "Wheelock Shipping International Limited, the main shipping subsidiary of the Group, has experienced the most difficult year."

In history, in 1984, Wheelock Shipping, which was heavily in debt and faced the threat of liquidation, was forced to sell its ships at a low price. The difficulties of Wheelock Shipping triggered the conflict between the two major shareholders of Wheelock Group, the Madden family and the Zhang Yuliang family.

It turned out that in 1981, Wheelock Shipping had ordered two cargo ships from Denmark, with a total value of more than US$400 million. However, while the ships were still under construction, global shipping had entered a recession, and Wheelock Shipping was under great pressure.

In 1983, Wheelock Shipping wanted to seek financial support of about 12 million US dollars from the same family's real estate trust, but was rejected by the real estate trust with Zhang Yuliang's family as the major shareholder, forcing Wheelock Shipping to borrow 4 million US dollars from the parent company to solve the urgent problem. As a result, the conflict between the two major shareholders of Wheelock intensified.

In 1984, an important member of the Zhang family took the initiative to resign from the position of director of Wheelock, on the grounds that he wanted to concentrate on the management of the real estate trust companies under Wheelock.

This formed the division of labor between the two families within the Wheelock Group. The Madden family was in charge of Wheelock, Wheelock Shipping, United Enterprises, Lane Crawford, etc.; while the Zhang family was responsible for real estate companies such as real estate trusts, Federal Realty, and Harriman Development.

Although this was the case on the surface, the two families were eyeing each other covetously, and gradually became enemies.

At that time, although a key member of the Zhang family had resigned from Wheelock's board of directors, the Zhang family still had considerable influence on the board of directors. In terms of voting rights, the Zhang family had 10% more voting rights than the Madden family.

At that time, John Horseman could no longer control Wheelock's board of directors. At the end of 1984, there were rumors in the market that the two major families would officially separate and Wheelock would be reorganized.

Because John Horseman lacked confidence in the future of Hong Kong, he invested all his energy in the shipping industry, trying to avoid political risks with a fleet registered overseas and with mobile assets.

Unfortunately, the calculus was not as good as the odds. The global shipping industry was hit by a downturn, which brought Wheelock Shipping to the brink of bankruptcy and triggered a conflict between the two major shareholders.

Frustrated and old, Ma Deng once again lost interest and began to think of quitting. He sold all his shares in Wheelock to Khoo Teck Puat, a consortium of wealthy Nanyang businessmen.

Now Wheelock & Company is actually even worse.

Because of the serious real estate crisis that broke out last year, Wheelock & Company suffered huge real estate losses. Basically, there was not much capital to withdraw, and there was no profit.

On the other hand, John Horseman invested many of the properties he sold before 1982 into the shipping industry. However, the global shipping industry has now been greatly affected by even the Bao family's global shipping.

As a result, in 1982, Wheelock & Company's annual profit exceeded 100 million Hong Kong dollars.

Annual profits dropped from nearly HK$1.5 billion in 1981 to HK$100 million in 1982.

In addition, he still owes more than 10 million US dollars in debt. He hopes that the Zhang family will support him. The Zhang family has long had great conflicts and has been very opposed to John Horseman's original focus on developing the shipping industry. Now he is in debt. , and even less likely to support it.

It is precisely because of this.

At this time, whether it was John Ma Shi or the Zhang family, there were deep conflicts between the two parties.

Moreover, both parties intended to withdraw from Wheelock & Company.

Yang Ming handed the information he collected to Meris. Meris was very surprised after reading it.

"Boss, it seems that the time is indeed ripe to acquire Wheelock & Company."

Chapter two!

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