Chapter 4: The Opportunity to Make Money Has Arrived

In the blink of an eye, a day had passed.

The next morning, Lin Haoran woke up exceptionally early, as was his habit.

A few days prior, he had instructed Lin Si to bring along a selection of mainstream Hong Kong newspapers and periodicals every morning when delivering his breakfast.

These included the *Oriental Daily News*, *Ta Kung Pao*, *Hong Kong Economic Times*, *Sing Tao Daily*, *Hong Kong Commercial Daily*, and so on.

He did this, naturally, to better understand the current state of Hong Kong.

At the same time, he hoped to find information within the papers that might be of use to him.

A calendar hung prominently on the wall, clearly marking the date as September 5, 1978.

After finishing his breakfast, Lin Haoran reclined on his bed and began by picking up a copy of the *Hong Kong Economic Times*.

The headline on the front page immediately grabbed his attention.

"Shipping Magnate Pao Publicly Declares He Has Acquired 15%-20% of Wharf Shares, Becoming Wharf's Largest Shareholder!"

The article contained detailed remarks from the Shipping Magnate himself, as well as the background of the acquisition.

Shipping Magnate Pao stated that he had no intention of purchasing any more shares of Wharf.

Seeing this news, Lin Haoran’s heart stirred. In his past life, he had learned about the Wharf acquisition battle and was well aware that this public statement by the Shipping Magnate was merely a smokescreen intended to create a false impression.

All of this was to confuse his opponents and the retail investors, causing Wharf’s stock price to fall from its high point back to a low.

Otherwise, it would be difficult for the Shipping Magnate to continue increasing his stake in Wharf.

Originally, it was Li Ka-shing who had set his sights on Wharf first. He had secretly acquired 18% of Wharf’s shares over time, but eventually, the news leaked.

Jardine Matheson, the actual controlling party of Wharf, was naturally unwilling to lose control of the company just like that, so they sought out HSBC’s "Big Taipan" Michael Sandberg, hoping that HSBC could persuade Li Ka-shing to abandon his acquisition of Wharf.

However, in the end, through the mediation of Michael Sandberg, Li Ka-shing did indeed give up on acquiring Wharf.

But the Wharf shares he had secretly acquired were all sold to the Shipping Magnate with the support of HSBC. It was considered a favor to both the Shipping Magnate and HSBC, and it also paved the way for him to later persuade HSBC to sell him their shares in Hutchison Whampoa.

Jardine Matheson had essentially traded one opponent for a much stronger one, a move that did more harm than good.

This was the reason why the Shipping Magnate was able to suddenly become the largest shareholder of Wharf.

During this period, after the news of Li Ka-shing’s secret acquisition leaked and Jardine Matheson launched a counter-acquisition, Wharf’s stock price had risen to a high of 49 HKD per share.

And while the Shipping Magnate was currently the largest shareholder of Wharf, he was still a long way from gaining total control.

After all, the major shareholders of Wharf were primarily British-funded consortia. Although their individual holdings were no longer as large as the Shipping Magnate’s, if they united, the Shipping Magnate would have no way to seize control.

Originally, Lin Haoran had been wondering how to find an opportunity to make a fortune.

Now, hadn't that opportunity just arrived?

Thinking of this, Lin Haoran was incredibly excited.

As long as he took advantage of the Wharf acquisition battle to make a killing, he would have enough startup capital.

Lin Haoran knew exactly how crazily Wharf’s stock price would rise in the coming months.

"I didn't expect that after transmigrating, I would be able to personally experience such a classic acquisition battle right away. It’s a pity, though—if I had transmigrated a few years earlier, perhaps I would have had a chance to acquire Wharf myself," Lin Haoran thought with a touch of melancholy.

If he had transmigrated to the 1970 timeline, he would have had plenty of time to lay his plans; he would have even been confident enough to compete with the Shipping Magnate.

Unfortunately, it was already the second half of 1978. The Shipping Magnate had already become the largest shareholder of Wharf, while he, Lin Haoran, only controlled a cement factory.

However, he quickly calmed his mind.

His most important task now was to obtain sufficient startup capital and then use the Wharf acquisition battle to secure his own interests.

Even if he couldn't acquire Wharf, so what? At the very least, he could sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight, waiting for an opportunity to profit from the situation.

Besides, he was still young; there would be plenty of opportunities in the future.

As for how to obtain that startup capital, Lin Haoran already had an idea the moment he saw the news.

Regardless, he had to seize such a good opportunity.

When the time came, winning the competition for the heir to the Wan On Group would be as easy as turning over his hand.

Next, Lin Haoran read a few more newspapers.

It was clear that the headline for all of Hong Kong today was the fact that the Shipping Magnate had become the largest shareholder of Wharf.

Every newspaper reported and analyzed the event from different angles.

After all, Wharf was a long-established British-funded enterprise with significant strength and market capitalization.

Hong Kong had always held British-funded enterprises in high regard. Although Chinese-funded consortia were gradually rising, there was still a large gap compared to the British-funded consortia.

For the Shipping Magnate to become the largest shareholder of a powerful, long-established British-funded enterprise was truly historic.

Therefore, the Shipping Magnate becoming the largest shareholder of Wharf was a highly controversial and hot news topic, and these media outlets were naturally scrambling to report on it.

After finishing all the newspapers, Lin Haoran finally left his room.

The sun was very intense today.

Standing on the third-floor corridor, looking at the turbulent waters of Shenzhen Bay a few dozen meters away, Lin Haoran felt exceptionally good.

The workers downstairs were busy at work.

Although business wasn't as brisk as it used to be, there were still quite a few clients that Lin Haoning couldn't interfere with.

Therefore, even though the number of old clients had dropped significantly, the Huafeng Cement Factory still had plenty of business, and it wouldn't be losing money in the short term.

He went straight from the third floor to the second, arriving at the Huafeng Cement Factory’s finance office.

His purpose was simple: he wanted to see how much money was in the Huafeng Cement Factory’s accounts.

When Lin Wan'an handed over the Huafeng Cement Factory entirely to Lin Haoran, knowing that Lin Haoran was at a disadvantage in the competition, he had specifically left one million Hong Kong dollars in the company's account.

This was something Lin Haoran’s older brother, Lin Haoning, did not know.

From this, it was clear that Lin Wan'an was quite fond of his youngest son, Lin Haoran.

"Miss Lin, please give me a copy of the company's financial statements."

After entering the finance office, Lin Haoran spoke directly to the person in charge of finance at Huafeng Cement Factory.

At the same time, he looked above Miss Lin's head.

Lin Xiya: [Loyalty: 75/100]

Lin Haoran was somewhat surprised; he hadn't expected a finance manager to have such high loyalty to him.

This Miss Lin had also been sent by his father to assist him.

Clearly, she was much more trustworthy; at the very least, she hadn't been infiltrated by Lin Haoning and should be loyal to the company.

"Alright, Boss, please wait a moment."

Soon, Lin Haoran had a copy of the August financial statement for Huafeng Cement Factory in his hands.

Upon receiving the statement, the first thing Lin Haoran looked at was the company's financial account balance.

He would need a sum of capital to profit from the Wharf acquisition battle, and the more capital he had, the more he could earn.

Therefore, Lin Haoran had specifically come to the finance office with the primary goal of understanding the total amount of capital he currently had at his disposal.