Chapter 370 Privatizing the Land Group!
Holding the medal in his hand, Lin Haoran returned to his villa on Shixun Road, his mind weighed down with many thoughts.
Everything that had happened tonight far exceeded his expectations.
He had never imagined that the British consortiums would actually unite to force him to give up control of Jardines Matheson.
This scenario hadn't even crossed his mind when he first left for Government House. Even after having gained control of Jardines Matheson, these people still refused to accept reality.
However, Lin Haoran wasn't angry. On the contrary, he felt a trace of amusement inside.
Returning to his study on the third floor, Lin Haoran casually tossed the medal into a drawer.
To him, this medal was hardly a matter of pride.
The British government's attempt to win him over with a medal was a laughable miscalculation.
What disgusted him even more was the pressure they applied immediately after the award ceremony, trying to force him to give up Jardines Matheson's controlling stake.
This completely wiped out any goodwill he had toward the British government.
After all, Britain ultimately served the British people. To them, Hong Kong was merely a colony, and it was perfectly natural for them to look down on a Chinese person like himself.
But Lin Haoran didn't care in the slightest.
He knew that Britain's rule over Hong Kong would not last much longer.
In just over a decade, Hong Kong would return to its motherland.
When that day came, he would no longer need to bow to any British authority.
Even now, he wasn't inclined to humor them.
If their target had been the Land Group instead of Jardines Matheson, there would have been absolutely no room for negotiation.
As for Jardines Matheson, if the offer was tempting enough, Lin Haoran wasn't opposed to letting go.
But the benefits would have to be substantial enough to make him genuinely interested.
Otherwise, everything was off the table!
That was why he wasn't angry.
In Lin Haoran's eyes, Jardines Matheson's overseas investment projects didn't have much potential.
He had even planned, once Niu Bijian was ousted, to liquidate those unpromising overseas assets and reinvest the capital into more valuable projects.
Now that the British consortiums were so eager to regain Jardines Matheson, Lin Haoran thought perhaps he could use this opportunity to maximize his gains.
The future prospects for Jardines Matheson were grim in his view.
Even by the 2020s, despite owning the Land Group as a subsidiary, Jardines Matheson's market cap barely scraped $50 billion USD.
Now, without the Land Group, its value had been heavily discounted.
Lin Haoran estimated that, at best, Jardines Matheson might reach $20–30 billion USD in the future—a far cry from its former glory.
In contrast, HSBC, a similarly British-rooted company in Hong Kong, was expected to reach a market capitalization of 1.6 trillion HKD.
Thus, the future gap between Jardines Matheson and HSBC would be astronomical.
Given all this, Lin Haoran wasn't particularly attached to Jardines Matheson's control.
Still, if he was to give it up, he demanded proper compensation—no exceptions, even for the King himself.
Sitting in his study chair, Lin Haoran began to think carefully.
He considered what conditions he should set for Henry Keswick and his allies.
First, the cross-shareholdings between Jardines Matheson and the Land Group must be resolved.
Otherwise, if he gave up his Jardines Matheson shares, Jardines Matheson could still control the Land Group.
That was obviously unacceptable.
In fact, before selling off his 19% stake in Jardines Matheson, Lin Haoran needed to completely sever the ties between the two entities.
"Why not take this opportunity to fully privatize the Land Group?"
This idea suddenly flashed through Lin Haoran's mind.
The Land Group's fixed assets held immense future value.
If managed properly, its profitability could rival that of a mint.
The Land Group owned massive amounts of prime real estate across Central, Sheung Wan, Wan Chai, Causeway Bay, and Tsim Sha Tsui—all in core locations.
Even if it stopped expanding and merely collected rent, it would still amass enormous wealth.
Historically, backed by its British ownership, the Land Group had secured the choicest locations and developed a vast portfolio of prime properties.
Its nickname as the "Landlord of Central" was no exaggeration.
Moreover, the Land Group owned numerous high-quality subsidiaries. Dairy Farm International was one of them, controlling Hong Kong's most famous supermarket chain, Wellcome.
Additionally, it owned Mannings, the largest pharmacy chain in Hong Kong, and held a 50% stake in Maxim's Catering—the largest catering group.
Thus, in Lin Haoran's eyes, the Land Group's assets far outclassed those of Jardines Matheson.
Without the Land Group, Jardines Matheson was nothing.
Jardines Matheson was merely a parasite on the Land Group.
In another timeline, Jardines Matheson would later spin off Dairy Farm International to reclaim some control, but now, under Lin Haoran's management, everything was different.
Dairy Farm was 100% owned by the Land Group, and Lin Haoran wasn't about to let Jardines Matheson interfere.
The more Lin Haoran thought about it, the more determined he became.
Privatizing the Land Group was indeed feasible.
Currently, Lin Haoran controlled 47.3% of the Land Group's shares—close to a majority but still too low for comfort.
Given the Land Group's massive future value, he needed even greater control.
In the future, the Land Group would suffer primarily because Jardines Matheson would siphon off its profits.
Meanwhile, its loss of Dairy Farm would cripple its financials even further.
If left alone, just through property rentals and retail, the Land Group could earn hundreds of billions of HKD annually.
In Lin Haoran's view, its future value could rival HSBC.
"Privatizing the Land Group could be my main bargaining chip with the British consortiums. Excluding Jardines Matheson's 30.2% holding in the Land Group, the consortiums held about another 10%."
Lin Haoran's goal was to acquire all of it.
Adding the 30.2% from Jardines Matheson, he could control nearly 87.5% of the Land Group.
However, achieving that would require an enormous financial outlay.
Even if he used share swaps to acquire Jardines Matheson's 30.2% stake, he still needed to pay a certain amount—though it would go into the Land Group's own accounts.
Together with the 6% held by Hongkong Electric, he now controlled 47.3%.
But to fully privatize the Land Group, he needed to buy out the remaining 52.7%.
Assuming a rough valuation of 10 billion HKD, he would need over 5 billion HKD.
And that's just an estimate; the real figure could be much higher.
At the moment, he only had 1.385 billion HKD in available cash—a figure he knew from Huanyu Investment Company.
The gap was vast.
Complicating matters, he still owed 2 billion HKD in loans related to Jardines Matheson—with interest, the total liability was around 2.2 billion HKD.
Although the loan's due date was still seven months away, it was a looming burden.
Together, these debts created a colossal financial pressure.
Five billion plus two billion—that was nearly seven to eight billion HKD he needed to raise.
Reflecting on it, just two years ago, he had struggled to borrow even a few tens of millions.
Now he was planning for billions.
Still, the end of the year was near.
If needed, he could draw additional funds from subsidiaries like Wanqing Group and Hongkong Electric Holdings early next year—perhaps another billion or more.
Adding that to his existing funds and possible proceeds from selling some Jardines Matheson shares, he might gather two to three billion HKD.
But it would still fall short of what he truly needed.
Even scraping together five billion HKD would be tough.
There were too many variables at play.
Lin Haoran thought and thought, but no perfect solution emerged.
"Forget it—better to rest for now and gather my team for a meeting tomorrow," he muttered after glancing at the clock.
It was already past 10 PM.
After all, he had capable advisors and seasoned veterans at his side—there was no need to carry this burden alone.
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