Chapter 832: Acquiring Sheffield Company!

Li Yi, who was in London, had no idea that his wife had already decided to travel thousands of miles to find him. At that moment, he was in the process of delivering the final blow to the Sheffield Company.

The growing public outcry quickly caught the attention of British authorities. Given the importance of the Sheffield Railway Company, officials immediately announced they would conduct a thorough investigation to reveal the truth to the public.

Soon, government officials sent Sheffield Company documents requesting their full cooperation with the investigation.

For Sheffield Steel and the shareholders behind it, this came as a bolt from the blue; given the company’s current crisis, it was nothing short of adding insult to injury.

As everyone knows, these large conglomerates and corporations are particularly vulnerable to investigations—who knows how many skeletons might be uncovered!

More importantly, the company and its shareholders had originally planned to resort to extreme measures to force Li Yi to abandon his short squeeze.

But with the authorities stepping in, they immediately backed down and abandoned that idea.

Some matters must be handled discreetly; they cannot be discussed openly, and certainly must not involve official intervention.

If the authorities were to take notice of this matter, the consequences would be unimaginable.

The company’s top brass and shareholders understood this logic, and so did the retail investors and shareholders. Everyone knew that if the authorities got involved, Sheffield Company would be finished!

As a result, the company’s stock price plummeted.

Before the short squeeze began in early May, Sheffield United Steel Company’s stock price stood at 35 pounds per share, with a total market capitalization exceeding 11.8 billion pounds, ranking fourth on the London Stock Exchange.

After the first short squeeze, the stock price dropped to £30 per share, wiping out over £1.7 billion in market value.

During the second short squeeze, the company lost over 6 billion pounds in a single blow; its share price fell another 5 pounds, leaving its market capitalization at just 7.2 billion pounds.

Now, during the third short squeeze, in just two days, United Steel’s share price has fallen to £18 per share—nearly half of its peak value.

The company’s market capitalization is also evaporating at a visible rate, currently standing at less than 6 billion pounds.

Watching the share price plummet, coupled with the official intervention, many could no longer sit idly by.

On one hand, the short squeeze led by Li Yi continues, and the exchange is on the verge of collapse.

Once the exchange approves the opposing side’s request for physical delivery, default is virtually a foregone conclusion, given that they cannot raise enough steel.

What’s even more baffling is that while the company’s stock price is plummeting, its debt is growing by the day.

As Sheffield Steel found itself mired in a quagmire with no way out, steel prices on the London futures market surged, reaching 378 pounds per ton.

This means that the short futures positions Sheffield Steel has opened require even more capital to cover.

This left the company’s shareholders completely numb; everyone knew the company was likely headed for bankruptcy…

On the afternoon of June 24, after holding on for two days, Dolsons, representing the family behind the company, approached Li Yi once again.

This time, their position was clear: they agreed to sell their 56% stake to Li Yi.

Li Yi did not refuse. Since the other side had already raised the white flag, he saw no reason to press his advantage.

It wasn’t just a matter of not kicking a man when he’s down; more importantly, the Sassoon family’s main battleground was Europe—specifically the financial sector.

The steel industry was merely a small part of their family’s broader business empire. Even if he crushed them mercilessly, it would at most cost the Sassoon family some money—it wouldn’t uproot them entirely.

Since a single, decisive blow was out of the question, he would take a more gradual approach—a slow, steady process of cutting into their flesh with a blunt knife!

After a series of intense negotiations, both sides finally agreed that Li Yi would assume all of the company’s debts in exchange for acquiring all of the Sassoon family’s shares for 1.8 billion.

The moment the news broke, the entire Sheffield company was thrown into chaos.

Everyone had been waiting for the Sassoon family to step in and resolve the crisis, but they never expected the major shareholder to pack up and flee overnight. What were the small shareholders supposed to do now?

Soon, other shareholders approached Li Yi, all hoping to transfer their shares to him.

Li Yi responded with generosity and goodwill; as long as they faced reality and didn’t demand exorbitant prices, he gladly took over their shares.

Over the weekend of the 25th and 26th, Li Yi finally completed the acquisition of Sheffield Steel Company.

This major acquisition cost Li Yi a total of 2.6 billion pounds, securing 71% of Sheffield Steel’s shares.

Of the remaining 29%, 5% was held by the family behind General Manager Sandy, while the final 24% consisted of the company’s publicly traded shares.

In addition, Li Yi had to assume nearly all of the company’s debt, totaling 4.2 billion pounds.

However, 90% of this debt consisted of short positions sold by the company, which were essentially all in Li Yi’s hands.

According to calculations by Zhang Qiusheng and others, Li Yi used 3.1 billion pounds in funds plus over 10 million tons of short contracts to secure a 71% stake in Sheffield Steel.

The average purchase price for those 10 million tons of steel contracts was approximately £210 per ton, totaling £2.1 billion.

In other words, he acquired this century-old steel giant for a mere 5.2 billion pounds.

Once the share transfer agreement was officially signed and took effect, all team members—including Li Yunbao, Zhou Xinghua, Zhang Qiusheng, Pang Feiyan, and Liang He—jumped for joy.

They had truly done it—they had actually acquired this steel giant.

Although, based on the company’s current market value, it didn’t seem like they had gotten a particularly good deal, everyone knew that Sheffield Steel’s true worth was far greater than that.

Once they sorted out the internal issues, the company was bound to rise again.

To put it simply, the company’s massive mining operations around the world were worth a fortune on their own—and these mines were scarce resources that money alone couldn’t buy.

So, no matter how you look at it, this deal is a win!

However, while some rejoiced and others grieved, as Li Yi and his team celebrated securing controlling interest in Sheffield Steel, the Henry family behind Sandy was plunged into despair.

As the former fourth-largest shareholder—and now the second-largest—of Sheffield Steel, their family suffered the heaviest losses in this futures battle.

They had originally believed that, relying on intelligence relayed by their eldest son in the military, they could easily fleece a batch of small investors in the futures market and make a huge profit.

But they never imagined that after Li Yi threw a wrench in the works, the company’s market value would plummet by half, leaving it on the brink of bankruptcy.

What they found even more baffling was that while nearly all shareholders had sold their shares to that Eastern buyer, the buyer was the only one unwilling to acquire the 5% stake held by their family. Even after they offered to sell at 80% of the market price, the buyer remained unmoved.

In their fury, the Henry family’s leadership realized that the buyer’s refusal might stem from the fact that Sandy, as the company’s general manager, had orchestrated the futures battle.

Furthermore, the buyer may have discovered that Sandy had previously attempted to collude with the Sassoon family to employ underhanded tactics, and was therefore holding a grudge, refusing to acquire their shares.

In that case, the other party would only need to inject capital or split the shares to easily dilute the Henry family’s stake.

That man from the East intended to oust the Henry family at the lowest possible cost.

Faced with this conclusion, the Henry family was thrown into a panic.

Unlike the Sassoon family, they were not a massive conglomerate; the entire Henry family’s assets amounted to just over a billion pounds, most of which was tied up in Sheffield Steel.

With the company on the brink of bankruptcy and its stock price plummeting, the impact on their family far exceeded that on the Sassoon family.

If that man from the East were to use his influence to oust them, it wouldn’t just be the company that went bankrupt—it would be the entire family.

In light of this, the head of the Henry family had no other choice but to personally bring his “wayward son” to Li Yi and the others’ residence, hoping to grovel for forgiveness…

………