Reborn as a tycoon in Hong Kong

The acquisition entrusted to Goldman Sachs is still in progress and has not been completed.

The formation of the Golden Fleece Company was led by Haruko Mori and Vivien Kelly, with assistance from Isabella and Bill Harveys.

There were no important matters in the United States for Lin Baicheng to handle personally, and something happened in Xiangjiang, so Lin Baicheng took a flight back to Xiangjiang on the afternoon of November 13.

Due to the jet lag and the dozen or so hours of flight time, it was already past seven o'clock in the evening of the second day when Lin Baicheng returned to Xiangjiang.

On the morning of the 15th the next day, Lin Baicheng went to Hutchison Whampoa.

Lin Baicheng called Wei Li, Cheng Yufeng, Xia Boyin and Wei Peter to his office.

"How about it? Have you found out whose funds are short selling Hutchison Whampoa in the past two days?"

Lin Baicheng asked aloud. The reason why he came back to Xiangjiang this time was because Wei Li and Cheng Yufeng reported to him that they found a fund shorting Hutchison Whampoa. Lin Baicheng, who holds almost half of Hutchison Whampoa's shares, will of course come back. .

As time enters November, not only the international gold price plummets, but also the Hang Seng Index in Xiangjiang has experienced an even greater decline after the rebound a while ago. The low of 602 points adjusted last time has long been broken. Now the Hang Seng Index is only There are about 520 points left.

More importantly, there is no end in sight. The Hang Seng Index may continue to fall, and the 500-point position may not be sustainable.

With the Hang Seng Index plummeting, Hutchison Whampoa was certainly not immune. The previous breakthrough of HK$60 in stock price had already been broken down again. Not only that, the stock price fell below the key price of HK$50 a few days ago, and Hutchison Whampoa's total market value fell below HK$20 billion.

If Hutchison Whampoa's stock price is a normal adjustment and decline, Lin Baicheng will not pay attention to it. He will not sell the stock no matter how it falls. But if someone is short-selling, it will be different.

Although no matter how short sellers short Hutchison Whampoa's stock price, as long as Hutchison Whampoa operates normally, the company's stock price will rise back sooner or later, and Lin Baicheng's interests will naturally not be affected. However, the other party knew that Hutchison Whampoa was a company controlled by him, but he went short without even informing him. He did not take him seriously. How could he watch the other party steal money from Hutchison Whampoa? The company makes money through short selling.

Therefore, Lin Baicheng returned to Xiangjiang and decided to take certain countermeasures.

"Already checked."

Weili replied: "The other party basically didn't hide much, so we found it out easily. The funds came from Singapore and Malaysia. We don't know who these funds belong to yet. The other party borrowed securities from HSBC , borrowing stocks to sell short.”

"Funds from Singapore and Malaysia?"

Lin Baicheng frowned slightly. He was not very familiar with these two Southeast Asian countries, but he was not unfamiliar either. However, he couldn't figure out whose funds were short selling now, and there was no need to think about it.

"HSBC is also our major shareholder in Hutchison Whampoa, so it actually lends out Hutchison's shares to others for short selling. It's really quite impressive."

Wei Li immediately explained: "Mr. Lin, HSBC is a bank, and margin trading is HSBC's business. Not to mention our Hutchison Whampoa stocks, even HSBC's own stocks, as long as someone is willing to short-sell, HSBC will not mind Lending stock.”

Lin Baicheng raised his eyebrows: "HSBC holds 15% of Hutchison Whampoa's shares. Is it possible that HSBC just watches Hutchison's stock price fall and the shares they hold continue to depreciate?"

Wei Li replied: "I have already contacted HSBC's senior manager Shen Chou. Shen Chou said that everything will be subject to Mr. Lin's arrangements. HSBC will advance and retreat together with you."

"Hopefully he will be able to keep his word by then."

Lin Baicheng snorted and felt a little relieved, then changed the subject and said: "Yesterday's closing price of Hutchison Whampoa was 44.6 Hong Kong dollars. What Hong Kong dollar do you think is a reasonable range for Hutchison's stock price? It is neither overvalued nor undervalued?"

"This is it"

Wei Li and the others immediately started thinking after hearing this.

"Everyone, think about it."

Lin Baicheng didn't push, but started discussing with them.

Before Lin Baicheng acquired Hutchison Whampoa, Hutchison Whampoa's net assets were less than one billion Hong Kong dollars. That is to say, liabilities of more than 1.3 billion Hong Kong dollars, assets of about 21.2 billion Hong Kong dollars, and net assets of about 7.8 billion Hong Kong dollars after the two are offset.

After Lin Baicheng took over Hutchison Whampoa, he brought two major changes to Hutchison Whampoa. One time, Hutchison Whampoa was involved in going long on its own company's stocks and made a profit of HK$310 million and 10 million shares; the other time was when investing in long gold futures brought a profit of 1.8 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Combined, after Lin Baicheng took over Hutchison Whampoa, he brought more than 2.1 billion Hong Kong dollars in profits and 10 million company shares to Hutchison Whampoa. Although part of the 10 million shares has been used for equity incentives, and there will be incentive plans in the future, it can now be counted in the net assets, and the value of this part of the stock is about 400 million Hong Kong dollars.

With the sale of a large number of non-performing assets of Hutchison Whampoa and the increase in land and house prices this year, Hutchison Whampoa's net assets have increased again and now exceed 3.5 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Based on Hutchison Whampoa's stock price exceeding HK$60, its total market capitalization exceeded HK$24 billion, and its price-to-book ratio reached nearly 7 times. This price-to-book ratio is indeed a bit high. Generally speaking, the stock price is about 3 times the net assets, that is, a price-to-book ratio of 3 times is relatively normal.

Of course, this is a general situation. If a company develops quite well, and its annual operating income and profits increase at a considerable rate, then this company is certainly worth holding by the majority of shareholders. It is quite normal for the stock price to be overvalued. In this case, the market will The net rate will naturally be on the high side.

Just like Hutchison Whampoa before, many investors are optimistic about Hutchison Whampoa because of the huge profits made from investment, so the stock price continues to rise, and both the price-earnings ratio and the price-to-book ratio are very high.

If it is considered a normal and reasonable valuation now, of course it cannot be overestimated.

After discussion, Lin Baicheng and others believed that Hutchison Whampoa's reasonable market value was between 12 billion and 15 billion Hong Kong dollars. When the stock price fell below 40 Hong Kong dollars, it would be within the range of the company's reasonable market value.

Of course, this is because executives such as Lin Baicheng and Wei Li are full of confidence in the future development of their companies, so they believe that this range is a reasonable valuation. Others will definitely have different ideas from them, so the range of reasonable valuations will naturally vary. Same.

However, what others think has nothing to do with Lin Baicheng and the others. It is still important to determine the reasonable valuation range of the company's stock price, because only by determining the reasonable valuation can he determine when to fight back.

If the short-seller can stop selling before the stock price falls below the reasonable market value range, then the other party is considered capable and the other party will make money. Otherwise, they will face Lin Baicheng's counterattack.

Before this, it was actually difficult for Lin Baicheng to take action, because he held almost half of the company's shares, and there was no way to increase his stake unless he wanted to fully acquire Hutchison Whampoa.