We are all reborn, who wants to be the richest man?

Not long after the Spring Festival, a strange stock suddenly appeared on the Hong Kong stock market. It was the Hong Kong Island Telephone Company.

The Island Telephone Company was established in 1925 and obtained a fifty-year franchise on the local telephone network.

In 1968, the franchise was granted an additional twenty years starting in 1975.

On Hong Kong Island, services such as landline telephones and payphone booths are exclusively owned by the Island Telephone Company.

For example, Far East Communications only operates call services or marketing.

Just like Far East Group's IC card development, it cooperated with Hong Kong Island Telephone Company to build telephone booths that can swipe cards. Far East Communications also has an additional business of selling phone cards.

Luo Nianzhong was not in a hurry to start with Island Telephone before, but starting from the end of the year, Robert told him that Yunhua Investment had discovered that someone on the stock market was accumulating shares of Island Telephone.

Although it was very hidden and the fund-raising was very slow, Luo Nianzhong still didn't want to give the other party a chance and decided to win the company.

The market value of Hong Kong Island Telephone Company is not high, just over HK$7 million, and it is not popular among investors.

As usual, it is said that the Hong Kong Island Telephone Company is engaged in a monopoly business, and this should not be the case. This reflects the limitations of this company.

Even though it has the exclusive rights to Hong Kong Island’s telephone network, it is local to Hong Kong Island.

That is to say, this company only has the exclusive right to make telephone calls within Hong Kong Island. The exclusive right to make external calls to Hong Kong Island is owned by the British Great Eastern Telegraph Company.

Hong Kong Island is small in area and has a limited population.

If you only operate the telephone lines within Hong Kong Island, it will be easily saturated and there will be no room for development. This is why Hong Kong Island Telephone Company has become the most stable company on the Hong Kong Island stock market.

But for such a company, its stock price has unexpectedly risen recently.

Compared with before, the increase exceeded 10%, which puzzled investors. Even the Hong Kong-speaking monk couldn't figure it out.

Within the Hong Kong Island Telephone Company, Taipan Sanders was asking people to find out why the stock was rising.

This may be a good thing for other companies, but not for Island Telephone Company. It means that someone is trying to acquire this company.

"How about it, do you know which company it is?".

His deputy shook his head and said, "We are certain that someone is acquiring our shares, but we don't know exactly who it is, but we found that there seem to be two forces acquiring the company's shares."

The deputy's words made Sanders frown. "Two forces? When did our company become so popular?"

What about the board of directors? What did they say? "

The deputy smiled bitterly, "They will never use funds to repurchase the company's stock. Although our profits are stable, the stock is basically stagnant.

Not to mention repurchases, I think they are likely to sell their shares and invest in other industries when the time is right."

The deputy's words made Sanders sigh. This was what he expected. Reporting to the board of directors was just a fluke.

It feels really fucked to find out that the company I manage is being acquired by another company, but I can watch it.

Sanders was lamenting the sorrow of fate, and Yihe on the other side was not much better.

Since Newbikin took the blame for Wharf, Jardine's major shareholder Henry Keswick came back to take charge of the situation, and changed Jardine's cautious attitude in the past and began to expand outside Hong Kong Island.

The acquisition of Hong Kong Island Telephone Company is part of Jardine's expansion. It can not only increase the company's own stock price but also obtain a company with stable income. For Jardine, it can be said to be the best of both worlds.

However, what he didn't expect was that Cheng Yaojin, who originally wanted to save money by secretly operating to take over Island Telephone, suddenly showed up halfway. In just a few days, Island Telephone's stock price increased by 10%.

"Do you know who is buying Island Telephone?"

"According to the information we received from HSBC, the acquisition bank entrusted by another buyer is from Far East Bank, but the specific identity is still unknown."

Peter, once Newbigan's deputy and now Jardine's general manager, had some guesses.

"Could it be that no one entrusted Far East Bank to acquire Hong Kong Island Telephone?"

"You mean Luo Nianzhong is interested in this company?" Henry Keswick looked at Peter.

"Why not? Doesn't Far East Group like this kind of company?

If you were to say that he acquired a real estate company, I would think it was April Fool's Day, but Hong Kong Island Telephone, isn't Far East Group itself the biggest suspect? "

Henry Keswick thought for a moment and nodded in confirmation of Peter's statement, "You are right, it is indeed the case. As for whether it is Luo Nianzhong, you will know after a try.

If it was really him, even if the Hong Kong phone number was taken over by him, he would not be able to do so without paying some price."

The unusual calls on Hong Kong Island let investors know that someone was interested in this company, and they held on to their stocks even tighter.

With the bull market in the Hong Kong stock market lasting several years in recent years, many investors have made a lot of money.

Today the real estate company's stock price has risen sharply, and tomorrow the construction company's stock price has reached its daily limit.

The most typical representative is the Carining Group. In the past two years, the stock has really been going up and down, which makes the shareholders who hold the shares of the Hong Kong Island Telephone Company jealous.

Now it's finally our turn. If we don't take advantage of this opportunity and make a fortune, we will be sorry for the years of waiting.

As a result, Hong Kong Island Telephone Company has a very large number of shares in circulation. However, at the current price, neither HSBC nor Far East Bank can acquire too many shares, and the stock price continues to push up housing prices.

At the beginning of March, Jardine Matheson Group made its showdown and announced the acquisition of Hong Kong Island Telephone.

Announced that it already owns 11% of the shares of Island Telephone and acquired 10% of the shares of Island Telephone with a total market value of HK$30 billion.

This price is really not low, with a premium of almost 40%, which makes investors who have stocks in their hands very happy.

But before they could finish being happy, a bigger surprise hit them.

Just two hours later, Far East Communications launched the Hong Kong Island Telephone.

Not only did he announce that he held 8% of the shares of Island Telephone, he also raised the price to HK$13 billion, which is already nearly double the current market value of Island Telephone.

Luo Nianzhong also knew that this would consume a lot of money, but he didn't care about the extra two to three hundred million, what he wanted was to cut through the mess quickly.

If it drags on, given Jardine Keswick's hatred for itself, it is very likely that the price will be raised, even with a market value of HK$15 billion.

The purchase of Hong Kong Telephone at this price is a loss, but it is also a profit in the long run.

So in order to prevent this from happening, Luo Nianzhong chose to strike hard.

As soon as the announcements from both sides came out, the whole Hong Kong was excited, especially the media, which deliberately promoted this as a battle between British capital and Chinese capital to attract attention.

The British-funded leader Jardine Matheson Consortium confronts the Chinese-funded giant Far East Group. The title alone can attract many readers.

However, the top bosses all know that as long as the Far East Group wants to, there is no possibility for Jardine.

Financial resources are not of the same magnitude between the two parties.

In terms of influence, the government has a lot of connections with the British side, but it is of no use at all.

The current Far East Group has too much international influence. If the government dares to make small moves in this regard, its international credibility will plummet.

Especially for the local investment environment, foreign businessmen will give a big greeting, and there may even be a series of chain reactions.

Also, the current Prime Minister of Britain is Thatcher. Like Reagan, he believes in liberal economics. At this time, she will never allow government departments to interfere.

Not to mention Hong Kong Island, many state-owned enterprises in the UK have been privatized by her, so the possibility of failure in the acquisition of Far East Group is almost zero.