Having made up his mind, Lin Haoran did not stay in Kang Le Building any longer. After saying goodbye to Ma Shiming, he left Kang Le Building.

“Let’s go to the headquarters of Hong Kong Electric Group.” After getting in the car, Lin Haoran said to Li Weidong.

“Good boss!”

Three small cars slowly drove out of the underground car park of Kang Lok Building, soon merged into the main road, and headed straight for the Hong Kong Electric headquarters building on Kennedy Road in Wan Chai.

Speaking of which, although Sze Hoon Road is not far from Kennedy Road, even less than one kilometer away, Lin Haoran has not been here for nearly a month.

The main reason was that for the past month, his mind had been focused on Jardine Matheson and the Hong Kong Land Group.

On the other hand, the Hong Kong Electric Group, under the management of Chen Shoulin, has been developing steadily and making progress.

Therefore, he never worried much about the Hong Kong Electric Group.

Along the way, the employees greeted Lin Haoran one after another, and Lin Haoran nodded in response.

It has been more than a year since Lin Haoran took over the Hong Kong Electric Group, and these employees have long since adapted to the new boss.

When he arrived at Chen Shoulin’s office, Lin Haoran discovered that Chen Shoulin was not in the company.

I asked the assistant to the president next door and found out that Chen Shoulin went to Lamma Island again today to inspect the progress of the new power station project.

As the most important engineering project of the entire Hong Kong Electric Group today, it is very normal for Chen Shoulin to visit and inspect it.

Lin Haoran had been there with him before.

Lin Haoran didn’t really care that Chen Shoulin was not in the company. After all, he didn’t come here today just to find Chen Shoulin.

So, Lin Haoran went to the accounting department’s office.

“Where is Director Huo?” Lin Haoran walked into the accounting department and asked an employee.

“Director Huo? Boss, are you talking about Deputy Director Huo Jianning?” the employee asked cautiously.

“Hey, Huo Jianning got promoted?” Lin Haoran really didn’t know about this.

Before that, after he transferred Fok Kin Ning here, Fok Kin Ning became the director of the accounting department and was considered a middle-level leader of the Hong Kong Electric Group.

The director is already considered a senior leader of the group, and the same is true for the deputy director.

“Boss, Director Huo was just promoted last month!” the employee replied.

Lin Haoran nodded. It can be seen that during the time when Huo Jianning was transferred to the Hong Kong Electric Group, he quickly gained the recognition of Chen Shoulin, and now he has been directly promoted and given a salary increase.

“What about others?”

“Boss, Director Huo went to the Finance Department half an hour ago.” The employee continued to answer.

“Okay, I got it, thank you!” Lin Haoran smiled gently.

“This is what I should do.” Hearing the boss being so easy to talk to, the female employee, who looked only twenty-four or twenty-five years old, immediately smiled.

After saying goodbye to the employee, Lin Haoran went to the Finance Department next door.

The finance department and accounting department of Hong Kong Electric Group are actually connected. Although they are divided into two large offices, there is a door connecting the offices. After all, the two departments are interdependent.

The accounting department provides basic data, and the finance department conducts analysis and makes decisions based on this data.

The work of the two is closely related and together supports the financial management and decision-making of the enterprise.

As soon as he entered the Finance Department, Lin Haoran saw Huo Jianning. At that moment, Huo Jianning was sitting at a workstation, discussing something with a senior executive of the Finance Department.

Lin Haoran approached gently and did not disturb them immediately, but listened quietly at the side.

From their conversation, Lin Haoran roughly understood that what they were discussing was the issue of renegotiating the interest rates of several loans that were about to expire for the financial company under the Hong Kong Electric Group.

As the Hong Kong Electric Group has developed in a diversified manner, its subsidiary Huize Finance Company is also an important member of the group’s current revenue and profit generation.

Hong Kong Electric Group is a listed public utility company with very strong cash flow. It receives huge amounts of cash every month. It would be a waste if this money were kept in the bank.

Therefore, as early as a few years ago, the Hong Kong Electric Group established a subsidiary, Huize Financial Company, and started a loan business in order to make use of these cash flows.

Especially in the past two years, with the booming real estate market in Hong Kong, bank interest rates have continued to rise.

For example, more than two years ago, when Lin Haoran borrowed money from Yumin Finance, he could negotiate an interest rate of 5%. But in the middle of this year, when Lin Haoran borrowed money from Huifeng Bank, even though he had Hong Kong Electric Group shares as collateral and Huifeng Bank gave Lin Haoran some discounts, the final interest rate was only 10%.

Now in November, the general interest rate of loans from major banks and financial companies in Hong Kong has already exceeded 11% and is heading towards higher interest rates.

Therefore, even if you are an old customer of Huize Financial Company and plan to continue to apply for a loan after paying off your loan, it is impossible to calculate it based on the last interest rate.

Lin Haoran listened quietly to the discussion between Huo Jianning and another senior executive of the Finance Department who Lin Haoran was not very familiar with, and couldn’t help but admire Huo Jianning’s professionalism and forward-looking thinking.

Just as Huo Jianning and the finance executive were discussing in full swing, Lin Haoran coughed lightly to indicate his presence.

The two looked up and saw that it was Lin Haoran, and quickly stood up to greet him.

“Boss, why are you here?” Huo Jianning asked in surprise.

“I have something to talk to you about. I think you have almost finished talking about your matters, so I can’t help but disturb you. Jianning, come with me. I have something to tell you.” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Okay, boss!” Huo Jianning nodded.

After saying that, Huo Jianning followed Lin Haoran out of the Finance Department office.

Chen Shoulin is not in the company now and probably won’t be back in the short term, so Lin Haoran simply borrows Chen Shoulin’s office.

Huo Jianning closed the office door at the back and then sat down opposite Lin Haoran.

“It’s been a while since you transferred from Qingzhou Cement Company to Hong Kong Electric Group. How do you feel? Are you adapting? I heard that you have been promoted to deputy director? Congratulations, Jianning!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Boss, all of this is inseparable from your cultivation and the opportunities you have given me. Without you, I would not have achieved what I have today. During my time at HK Electric, I have indeed learned a lot of knowledge and experience that I have never been exposed to before, which is difficult to learn at Qingzhou Cement Company.

I am very happy working here, and Mr. Chen is very caring towards me. He often lets me accompany him when he goes out to discuss cooperation, which allows me to learn more knowledge that I have never been exposed to before.” Huo Jianning replied gratefully.

Lin Haoran nodded and looked at Huo Jianning’s loyalty.

Last time, he remembered Huo Jianning’s loyalty was already 95.

Now, after a few months, it has increased again and has reached 96.

Such a high level of loyalty was indeed beyond Lin Haoran’s expectations.

This may be because Huo Jianning is deeply grateful to Lin Haoran for his kindness.

“I am very pleased that you can learn new knowledge here and apply it to your work and contribute to the company. I came here this time because I have a question I want to hear your opinion on.” Lin Haoran continued with a smile.

“Boss, please go ahead and tell me everything I know!” Upon hearing that Lin Haoran wanted to ask him for advice, Huo Jianning immediately straightened his sitting posture, put on a serious look on his face, and answered solemnly.

“You should also know that I am now in control of Jardine Matheson and Hong Kong Land Group, but I have recently faced a problem. The British financial group wants to seize the controlling rights of Jardine Matheson and is about to negotiate with me. I intend to take this opportunity to exchange for sufficient benefits for myself, especially I intend to privatize Hong Kong Land Group and make this largest real estate company in Hong Kong completely mine.

However, the problem I am facing now is that there is a big funding gap to privatize the Swire Group. Although I can get a loan, I don’t want to be burdened with too much debt in the next year because I have already borrowed HK$20 billion from Bank of Communications.

So, in this case, how should I privatize the Hong Kong Land Group at the lowest cost? By the way, I currently hold about 19% of the shares of Jardine Matheson, which can be cashed out. In addition, I plan to exchange the shares of Jardine Matheson and Hong Kong Land Group for each other when the time comes…”

Lin Haoran explained in detail to Huo Jianning the situation and plans he faced in Jardine Matheson and the Hong Kong Land Group.

After listening to Lin Haoran’s words, Huo Jianning sat on the chair and began to think.

Obviously, he needed to digest the news that Lin Haoran said.

However, it didn’t take too long to digest. Soon Huo Jianning took out a piece of paper and a pen and started writing on it.

After about two or three minutes, Huo Jianning raised his head, looked at Lin Haoran, and said, “Boss, according to my calculations, based on the current market value of Jardine Matheson, your 19% stake can be converted into about HK$15 billion, and your funding gap at Hong Kong Land Group is between HK$50 billion and HK$60 billion. As for how much, it depends on the price you finally negotiate.

So, actually, boss, your funding gap is about HK$40 billion, and the available funds you have now are around HK$13 billion, which means that the final gap is less than HK$ billion.

What you are worried about is that if you borrow so much at once, then in the end, together with the previous 20 billion loan, the debt you carry will be too much. In fact, I think you don’t need to worry about this problem at all!” Huo Jianning said with a smile.

“Oh? Jianning, please continue to tell me why I don’t have to worry about this problem?” Lin Haoran suddenly became curious.

Fok Kin Ning further elaborated: “Boss, you mentioned earlier that Hong Kong Land Group has HK$7.7 million in its account. Once the privatization of Hong Kong Land Group is completed, the entire company will belong to you, and you will naturally be able to use the funds at your disposal.

Furthermore, what does this mean regarding your plan to fully swap the cross-control shares between Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land, thereby completely dissolving the cross-shareholding relationship between the two companies?

This means that even if you acquire the 30.2% of Hong Kong Land held by Jardine Matheson through loan financing, the funds will eventually remain within Hong Kong Land. When you successfully privatize Hong Kong Land, the funds can still be used freely by you. These funds are equivalent to returning to your hands, and you can be said to have obtained this part of the shares for free.

Therefore, once the privatization of the Hong Kong Land Group is successful, you don’t have to worry about the funding problem even if there are billions of debts. The funds you borrowed from the bank can be repaid with the Hong Kong Land Group’s own funds at any time. Boss, do you understand my analysis clearly?” (End of this chapter)