Chapter 844: Li Yi’s Track Record!
Tai Ping Shan. Cloud Peak No. 1!
Upon returning to the villa, Li Yi did not immediately convene a meeting with the bigwigs of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce to report his achievements.
Instead, he first ordered Zhang Ziqiang, Zhou Wen, and the others to immediately conduct a thorough search of the large conference room on the third floor, to prevent anyone from installing listening devices in the house again.
Although security at Cloudtop No. 1 had been reinforced—with at least a 12-person security detail stationed at the villa regardless of whether Li Yi was residing there—
Normally, planting listening devices in his home wouldn’t be as easy as it used to be.
But Li Yi was an extremely cautious man—better safe than sorry—so it was best to check just in case.
After a thorough inspection confirmed everything was in order, Li Yi finally invited everyone into the conference room.
Seated at the head of the table, Li Yi surveyed the room, his gaze sweeping over each person.
All 32 members of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce were present today; not a single one was absent.
It was clear that they were all giving him the respect he deserved!
Seeing everyone looking at him with anticipation, Li Yi knew exactly what was on everyone’s mind.
Immediately, he cleared his throat and said, “Thanks to your support, this investment initiative has achieved excellent results. I’ll now brief you on the basic details of this investment…”
“Clap, clap, clap!!!”
Before he could finish, the conference room erupted in enthusiastic applause!
As the applause died down, Li Yi continued, “For this investment campaign, we deployed a total of 60 billion Hong Kong dollars over a period of three and a half months, conducting investments simultaneously in both Hong Kong and London, and achieved exceptionally substantial returns in both locations.”
“In Hong Kong, we invested 3 billion Hong Kong dollars and emerged victorious in the equity battles for Huifeng Bank and Hang Seng Bank, generating a total profit of 5.6 billion Hong Kong dollars!”
“Let me clarify: the subsequent acquisition of Hang Seng Bank was an exclusive investment by Star Investment Company. The same applies to my acquisition of Sheffield Steel in London—these transactions are not included in this investment campaign. I hope everyone understands!”
No sooner had he finished speaking than Li Futiao immediately chimed in, “We certainly understand. Mergers and acquisitions involving such large sums carry too much risk; we wouldn’t want to get involved either!”
He Dongying added, “What we’re really interested in is how much Brother Li Yi has made in the futures market—and how much of that we’ll get!”
“Hahaha, exactly—that’s what we’re interested in…”
…….
Li Yi smiled and said, “Since that’s the case, I’ll cut to the chase. On this trip to London, we invested 3.56 billion pounds. After deducting various taxes and funding costs, the net profit was 6.496 billion pounds…”
“Clap, clap, clap…”
Loud, sustained applause once again filled the conference room.
As they clapped, everyone’s faces lit up with excited smiles, and they spoke up one after another to express their joy:
“Hahaha, I knew Brother Li Yi wouldn’t let us down. Nearly 6.5 billion pounds in profit—that’s almost as much as all of us are worth combined! Impressive!”
“Mr. Li’s single investment is worth more than five generations of the He family’s business. The title ‘Stock God’ truly lives up to its reputation!”
“You guys don’t know this, but when I heard those foreigners say that Dolsen made over 30 billion Hong Kong dollars, I was a little worried that Brother Li might not measure up to him. Now it turns out I was overthinking it!”
“Dawson may be impressive, but compared to my brother Li Yi, he’s just a nobody…”
……..
No wonder the members of these Chinese business associations were so delighted—even Li Futao, He Dongying, and “Ship King” Bao personally stepped forward to praise Li Yi.
Mainly because Li Yi’s performance this time was simply staggering: a profit of 6.5 billion pounds—that’s a whopping 110.5 billion Hong Kong dollars.
Even without counting the profits from Hong Kong Island alone, the return on this investment reached a staggering 185%.
More importantly, Li Yi was only taking a 40% commission this time—the remaining 60% all went to them.
By rough estimate, this meant they had doubled their investment in just three months—and that was after taxes.
After listening to the commotion for a while, Li Yi felt it was time to wrap things up. He stood up, pressed his palms together in a gesture of respect, and signaled for everyone to quiet down.
Everyone showed great respect for Li Yi, their “God of Wealth,” and the conference room, which had been bustling with noise just moments before, quickly fell silent.
Seeing this, Li Yi spoke again: “Ladies and gentlemen, although the investment in London is nearly complete, a portion of the funds is still being settled. That is precisely why those foreigners have suddenly launched an attack on the companies under the Chinese Chamber of Commerce!”
“But rest assured, everyone. We’ve brought back ample funds this time. Once we’ve repelled those foreigners’ attacks, we’ll distribute dividends to you all.”
Hearing Li Yi’s promise, the conference room erupted once again in enthusiastic applause!
As the applause died down, Li Yi spoke again: “Who would like to give an update on the current stock market situation?”
“I’ll take it!”
As he spoke, Li Futao stood up and looked at Li Yi, saying, “Dorson and his group returned to Hong Kong Island on the 24th of last month. As soon as they got back, they spread the word that they had made over 37 billion Hong Kong dollars on this trip to London and had distributed both principal and dividends to all investors, causing quite a stir!”
“And on the very day they distributed those dividends, a massive influx of capital poured into the Far East Stock Exchange and the Gold and Silver Securities Exchange—both of which are where the major companies of our Chinese Chamber of Commerce are listed.”
“Immediately afterward, a large number of foreign investment teams appeared and began launching massive short-selling attacks on the stocks of our various companies.”
Li Yi nodded and asked again, “Which company has suffered the heaviest losses so far, and what’s the current situation?”
“The company under the heaviest attack is our Li family’s Chinese Estates. They used their financial advantage to snap up large quantities of the company’s stock in an attempt to seize control. After failing, they resorted to violent market manipulation, driving the share price down from HK$22 per share to the current HK$13, causing the company’s market capitalization to plummet by roughly half.”
Li Futao continued, “The He family’s companies have also suffered heavy losses. Since the He family’s shares are more widely dispersed, the battle between the two sides has been fierce, and no clear winner has emerged yet!”
“Furthermore, the Bao family’s Wharf Holdings and Star Investment’s New Territories Warehouse have also come under attack from those foreigners, and the losses are significant.”
After hearing Li Futao’s words, Li Yi immediately declared, “You are all members of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, and our chamber’s mission is to help and support one another. So I promise you all here: no matter which company is under attack, we will do everything in our power to come to their aid!”
“Clap, clap, clap…”
After a round of enthusiastic applause, “Ship King” Bao asked loudly, “Vice President Li, we’ve investigated this thoroughly. Just like Dolsons, that bunch of foreigners all come from the Sassoon family in Europe, and they’re currently living with Dolsons.”
“But the British-funded group has signed a coexistence agreement with us. Can we use this situation to request arbitration from the British Hong Kong government, have them rule against Dolsen, and order Huifeng Bank to compensate us?”
“No!”
Li Yi immediately explained, “It’s true that the Sassoon family is attacking us, and it’s true that Dowson comes from the Sassoon family, but that doesn’t necessarily mean this matter is directly related to Dowson. Therefore, the Governor’s Office won’t rule against Dowson.”
“Then how should we respond to them using their financial advantage to repeatedly manipulate our stock price?” He Dongying asked in a grave tone.
Li Yi replied immediately, “No problem. I’ll handle this personally and make sure they end up losing more than they gain!”
Li Yi had plenty of experience dealing with speculators who weren’t aiming to seize control of the company.
As long as he maintained control of the company’s shares, they would be powerless against it. As long as the company had sufficient capital, whether the stock price was high or low didn’t matter in the slightest.
Li Yi decided to have a proper meeting with these foreigners tomorrow and test the waters!
Just then, however, he saw Zhang Ziqiang push open the door and walk in, striding quickly toward him…
……..
PS: My kid’s been sick these past few days, and my wife isn’t home either—I’ve been running around like a headless chicken!