Chapter 23: Formulating a New Plan

Lin Haoran scrutinized his current stock holdings, estimating the cash flow from the past month.

During this month, he had not only invested 1.5 million HKD of his personal funds into the stock market but had also raised 50 million HKD through loans.

After withdrawing 500,000 HKD for miscellaneous expenses, the remaining 49.5 million HKD had been fully deposited into the bank account linked to his brokerage account.

Therefore, his total capital input into the stock market was actually 51 million HKD.

Specifically, regarding Qingzhou Yingni, he had successfully purchased 6.45 million shares over the past month. As the average share price rose to 4.96 HKD, this portion of the investment had consumed approximately 31.99 million HKD.

As for Wharf Holdings, although he had only begun accumulating shares five days ago, he had already purchased 387,900 shares at an average cost of 23.05 HKD per share, totaling approximately 8.94 million HKD.

Adding the investments of these two stocks together, his total expenditure to date reached approximately 40.93 million HKD.

This meant that Lin Haoran's actual remaining available funds were approximately 10.07 million HKD.

This mere ten million HKD was clearly insufficient given his grand subsequent plans.

After all, his investment blueprint was not limited to continuing to increase his holdings in Qingzhou Yingni; he also aimed to control more shares of Wharf Holdings.

Considering that he would need to rely on trading Wharf Holdings shares to earn enough profit to repay that massive loan, his existing capital felt stretched thin.

Therefore, how to efficiently utilize every cent would be a problem Lin Haoran had to consider carefully moving forward.

How could he raise more funds?

Lin Haoran quickly came up with an idea.

His gaze focused on the Qingzhou Yingni shares in his hands.

Recalling his previous agreement with Yang Changdao, he had promised in the contract that after acquiring a sufficient number of shares, he would pledge stocks worth approximately 20 million HKD to Yumin Finance Company.

However, that agreement set a six-month term, meaning he still had ample time to operate.

Since the six-month deadline was still far off, Lin Haoran was in no hurry to immediately pledge his shares to Yumin Finance Company.

Instead, he saw an opportunity to use these shares as leverage to further increase his loan capacity, thereby absorbing more stocks.

Based on the original owner's knowledge of the Hong Kong stock market, the current market did not yet have the model where one could rely on held shares to obtain leveraged financing, a model that would likely not emerge until the late 1980s.

Since the stock market itself did not provide direct leveraged investment opportunities, Lin Haoran decided to create the leverage effect himself.

He planned to use his current shares as collateral to raise more funds through financing from financial institutions or private investors to expand the scale of his stock investments.

In this way, he could indirectly achieve the effect of leveraged investment—using a smaller amount of his own capital to control a larger scale of assets.

To others, this strategy carried certain risks.

But Lin Haoran, having studied the history of the Wharf Holdings accumulation battle, knew there was absolutely no risk involved.

In a massive market like Wharf Holdings, the tens of millions of HKD he was about to invest were merely a drop in the ocean, hardly capable of shaking its stable market position or the overall trend.

Therefore, he decided not to rush into fulfilling the agreement with Yumin Finance Company. Instead, he would utilize the price fluctuations and potential growth during this period to maximize his existing resources, laying a solid foundation for his future market layout.

Since the Wharf Holdings shares were to be sold in the coming months based on actual circumstances, they were clearly unsuitable to be used as collateral for loans.

Given this reality, Lin Haoran could only use the Qingzhou Yingni shares as collateral.

Currently, the market value of his Qingzhou Yingni shares exceeded 30 million HKD. With these high-quality stocks as security, he expected to easily obtain a loan of over 30 million HKD from a financial institution.

Once this strategy was formulated, the concerns in Lin Haoran's heart vanished.

He planned to advance the investment plans for both Wharf Holdings and Qingzhou Yingni simultaneously; the two would complement each other, jointly promoting his wealth growth.

Lin Haoran was very confident that through meticulous planning and steady operations, he could achieve ideal returns on both stocks.

Putting down his notebook, Lin Haoran noticed that Su Zhixue had not yet left, so he said gently, "Zhixue, you should head back first. Your son is at a critical stage of recovery; having more people at home to look after him will help him recover faster. Go back early so the two of you can accompany him together; that would be better."

Recalling that two weeks ago, Su Zhixue's son had undergone surgery—which went very smoothly—and had immediately entered a meticulous recovery process.

In light of this, Lin Haoran had been very understanding during this period, specifically advising him to leave early every day after the stock market closed at 4:00 PM so that he could devote himself entirely to caring for his family.

Since he had not yet formally established a company or implemented strict corporate regulations, there was no need to be overly rigid in management.

"Mr. Lin, then I will head back first. Thank you," Su Zhixue said to Lin Haoran with gratitude.

After Su Zhixue left, Lin Haoran began to reflect in his office.

Next, since he clearly could not go to Yumin Finance Company to use his Qingzhou Yingni shares for a loan, where should he go to borrow from a bank or financial institution?

Undoubtedly, the largest financial institution in Hong Kong at present was HSBC.

To establish a foothold in Hong Kong, he certainly had to build a good relationship with them.

Furthermore, obtaining a loan from HSBC would be more convenient, as they possessed stronger cooperative resources.

Of course, their loan regulations would be more rigorous and complete. The model used by Yumin Finance Company—lending 50 million HKD based on only 10 million HKD worth of collateral—would be impossible at HSBC.

Additionally, there was another consideration: the stock Lin Haoran was currently focused on, Qingzhou Yingni, was also a British-funded enterprise.

If he went directly to HSBC to apply for a loan to increase his holdings in Qingzhou Yingni, his intention to become a major shareholder might be leaked, bringing unnecessary risks.

Currently, Lin Haoran had no intention of publicly announcing that he had become a major shareholder of Qingzhou Yingni. He chose to keep a low profile to avoid attracting excessive market attention and unnecessary volatility. Such a strategy would help him advance his investment plan more steadily and announce it at a more appropriate time in the future.

However, if he could negotiate personally with the high-level executives of HSBC, especially the Taipan, Sir S.Y. Chung (Shen Bi), perhaps he wouldn't need to worry excessively.

High-level executives of that caliber typically kept business secrets strictly. For a company of Qingzhou Yingni's relatively modest scale, they were unlikely to compromise their professional ethics and reputation for such news.

The only uncertainty was whether this 30 million HKD loan would be enough to catch the attention of Sir S.Y. Chung.