Chapter 46: The Formal Declaration of War Between Bao Chuan Wang and Jardine Matheson

Inside the office, only Lin Haoran and Su Zhixue were present.

At this moment, Su Zhixue had respectfully handed over the meticulously compiled data report to Lin Haoran.

"From tomorrow onwards, we need to continuously monitor the movements of Wharf Holdings' stock," Lin Haoran said as he took the report. He did not rush to flip through it, but instead addressed Su Zhixue. "If its share price maintains an upward trend, we will maintain the status quo and avoid excessive intervention. However, if the price drops again, I will have new deployments and arrangements in place."

After a brief pause, Lin Haoran continued, "Furthermore, we cannot allow any slack in our monitoring of Qingzhou Emerald's stock. I have the goal of bringing Qingzhou Emerald under our control, and this is of paramount importance."

Hearing this, Su Zhixue nodded immediately in response. "Understood, President Lin. I will arrange it immediately to ensure that all information collection regarding Wharf Holdings and Qingzhou Emerald is foolproof. In that case, I will head off to handle other matters first."

"Mhm."

Watching Su Zhixue close the office door, Lin Haoran finally turned his gaze to the data report.

He was already well aware of Wharf Holdings' stock. Throughout the day, he had absorbed a total of 521,000 shares; had he continued to accumulate, the number would have been even higher.

Due to the influence of high-priced shares later in the day, his average acquisition price for today broke through 30 HKD, reaching 30.27 HKD per share, with a total expenditure of 15.77 million HKD.

As of now, the total number of Wharf Holdings shares held by Lin Haoran had reached 1.478 million shares. Influenced by the low prices acquired earlier, his overall average cost was dragged down to 27.7 HKD per share.

In other words, he had spent a total of 40.94 million HKD on Wharf Holdings.

Originally, he had planned to be satisfied with spending over 30 million HKD on Wharf Holdings; exceeding 40 million HKD was already beyond his expectations.

Based on today's final closing price of 40.8 HKD, his current 1.478 million shares were worth 60.3 million HKD, yielding a direct pure profit of 20 million HKD.

Of course, he was naturally not satisfied with this price.

What could a mere 20 million HKD accomplish?

Given the current situation of Wharf Holdings, doubling the growth seemed like no difficult task.

Why not take a leap of faith and let this thoroughbred horse gallop even further?

The next move for Wharf Holdings was already obvious, and Lin Haoran's gaze quietly shifted toward Qingzhou Emerald.

Due to his aggressive accumulation of Qingzhou Emerald recently, the circulating shares in the market had significantly decreased, and the order book volume had dropped markedly.

Today, under Dai Shi's precise operations, Lin Haoran successfully secured 382,000 shares of Qingzhou Emerald at an average transaction price of 5.19 HKD per share, costing a total of approximately 1.98 million HKD.

With this, the number of Qingzhou Emerald shares held by Lin Haoran reached 9.036 million shares. If all went according to plan, in two or three days, his holdings would reach 10 million shares, representing approximately a 20% stake.

In contrast, looking at today's market performance, the total trading volume for Qingzhou Emerald was only 929,000 shares. Since Li Jia Cheng's intervention last week, the average daily trading volume had stabilized at over 1.2 million shares; in other words, the trading volume had begun to decrease.

This phenomenon aligned perfectly with Lin Haoran's strategic intent—he did not want Li Jia Cheng's team to rapidly accumulate a large amount of Qingzhou Emerald stock through the secondary market in a short period.

This layout both maintained a delicate market balance and secured more operational space and strategic advantage for Lin Haoran himself.

Finally, Lin Haoran calculated his available funds.

Originally, through additional loans, his available funds had been expanded to over 31 million HKD.

However, today's operations on the two stocks cost him 17.75 million HKD, reducing his remaining available funds to approximately 14 million HKD.

This capital would likely not be used for Wharf Holdings anymore; instead, it would most likely be spent on Qingzhou Emerald.

This would allow him to continue contending with Li Jia Cheng's team.

At the current share price, this amount of capital could allow Lin Haoran to increase his holdings of Qingzhou Emerald by another two million-plus shares.

Just as Lin Haoran was intensively planning his next strategic move, Wharf Holdings' staggering trading volume and price surge today acted like a heavy bomb, instantly sweeping through the entire Hong Kong business community and causing widespread tremors.

Sharp-eyed journalists and media outlets quickly gathered, their lenses and microphones simultaneously aimed at two industry giants—the helmsman of Global Shipping Group, Bao Yugang, and the leader of the Jardine Matheson Group, Alexander Chisholm.

After all, everyone knew that the current major shareholder of Wharf Holdings was Bao Yugang, while the actual controller was Hongkong Land, a subsidiary of Jardine.

Clearly, anyone could see that the commotion in the stock market must have been orchestrated by these two titans.

Lin Haoran's actions had completely misled both sides, as well as everyone else.

However, Bao Yugang was in Singapore at the time and was naturally unable to respond promptly to the eager attention of the Hong Kong media.

As for Mr. Wu, the son-in-law of the "King of Ships" Bao, who was directly responsible for the Wharf Holdings acquisition within Global Shipping Group, although he was in Hong Kong at the group headquarters, he remained silent and refused to comment because he had not received explicit instructions from Bao Yugang.

Faced with such a deadlock, the journalists were not discouraged. They adjusted their direction, swarming toward the headquarters of Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land, desperate for more information.

Unexpectedly, Alexander Chisholm showed an extraordinary openness, readily accepting numerous media interviews.

Surrounded by a barrage of camera flashes and recording devices, he spoke eloquently, his core message being concise: Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land would not relinquish their controlling interest in Wharf Holdings; even if the opponent was powerful, they would go all out to compete!

In Chisholm's eyes, today's frantic accumulation of Wharf Holdings stock must have been the work of Bao Yugang's team, undoubtedly sending a clear signal that their target was the control of Wharf Holdings.

Faced with such a direct challenge, he believed there was no need for many words—only a frontal confrontation was the right path!

This tense situation spread like wildfire through major media outlets such as TVB and Hong Kong Radio, reaching every corner and drawing widespread public attention.

The battle for Wharf Holdings felt like a bomb about to explode, making the entire Hong Kong business community feel an unprecedented atmosphere of tension. A great war was imminent!

Sensing the urgency of the situation, the "King of Ships" made a decisive move. He abandoned his itinerary in Singapore and flew back to Hong Kong overnight.

Upon arriving in Hong Kong, he did not rest for a moment, convening an emergency press conference at the Global Shipping Group headquarters the following morning.

Standing on the stage, facing the dense crowd of journalists and media below, the King of Ships felt a complex mix of emotions.

Originally, he had meticulously planned a quiet campaign, intending to let the market cool down naturally while he gradually increased his holdings of Wharf Holdings in silence.

But no one knew what had possessed the Jardine-Land side to directly drive up the stock price.

In the King of Ships' view, today's surge in Wharf Holdings' stock price and trading volume was absolutely the work of Jardine.

The reason was simple: his Bao family could not yet control Wharf Holdings. By driving up the stock price now, Jardine was ensuring that if the Bao family wanted to seize Wharf Holdings, the cost would be extremely high.

An open scheme—a true open scheme!