Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Trading Floor!
With the British Capital Group officially entering the fray and going all out to repurchase shares of New Territories Warehouse, Li Yi knew his hand had been revealed.
Without hesitation, he bared his fangs and formally entered the fray against the British-owned group’s team to vie for New Territories Warehouse Center shares.
Knowing that the British Capital Group’s funds were limited, Li Yi began driving up the share price of New Territories Warehouse Center from the very start.
Under his relentless assault, the previously sluggish stock price of New Territories Warehouse Center shot up as if injected with adrenaline, surging to HK$88 in a short time—a gain of HK$12 per share.
Faced with Li Yi’s blunt and aggressive assault, Smith and his team had no choice but to grit their teeth and call his bets.
However, they were also worried that Li Yi would do exactly as he had before: build up the momentum, drive the stock price up, and then immediately liquidate his entire position.
So, although Smith and the others kept up with Li Yi’s pace, constantly raising their bids to compete for New Territories Warehouse shares, they remained cautious, keeping a close eye on Li Yi’s every move.
What unsettled them, however, was that this time, Li Yi didn’t seem to be aiming to break even and profit from the price difference after driving up the stock price; instead, he was genuinely targeting New Territories Warehouse.
This was evident from the way they kept driving the stock price higher!
On November 27, the share price of New Territories Storage Center officially broke through the HK$90 mark.
Less than a day later, the share price surged again, breaking through the HK$100 mark in one fell swoop.
At this point, after several days of frenzied bidding, Li Yi had once again snapped up 8.2 million shares of the publicly traded stock.
By this point, their holdings in New World Warehouse had reached a staggering 44%, leaving them just 7% short of the 51% required for a controlling stake!
However, it was precisely this 7% that posed a bit of a dilemma for Li Yi.
Upon investigation, they discovered that the Jardine Group had also snapped up a 7% stake from the market in recent days. Combined with their existing holdings, their total stake had reached 29%.
The remaining 37% was scattered among dozens of shareholders, both large and small, as well as retail investors. Seeing the stock price climb relentlessly, these investors were simply unwilling to part with their shares.
In their view, as long as neither Starry Company nor the Jardine Group secured a controlling stake, the stock price would keep rising.
Consequently, over the next few days, New Territories Warehouse Center’s stock price continued to climb, yet trading volume steadily declined.
This situation was extremely unfavorable for Li Yi and his team!
On the one hand, the British Capital Group had limited funds and could not afford to sustain the drain; if retail investors were willing to sell their shares, the British Capital Group simply could not outbid them.
But now, those retail investors and small shareholders were absolutely unwilling to sell their shares, which gave the British-funded group some breathing room.
Once they had mobilized sufficient funds, it would be much harder to wrest New Territories Warehouse Center shares from their hands.
On the other hand, Li Yi still had unfinished projects in New York. Compared to those projects worth tens of billions of dollars, the situation on Hong Kong Island was clearly no match.
Therefore, he must resolve matters here quickly and decisively; he cannot afford to get bogged down in a prolonged struggle.
But things didn’t go as planned; the more he rushed, the slower the progress became.
In the VIP lounge, Li Yi was studying the report handed to him by Pang Feiyan with a grave expression.
After a long moment, he asked in a low voice, “We’ve already raised the price to 125 Hong Kong dollars per share. Is there still no one willing to take the bait?”
“No. We’ve only managed to acquire 200,000 shares this morning, and trading volume for New Territories Storage Center has been pitifully low for most of the day!” Pang Feiyan replied.
Lan Xinming immediately suggested, “Boss, the stock price of New Territories Warehouse Center is already close to doubling. Raising the price further might not work. Why don’t we look for a solution outside the market?”
“You mean we should look for a breakthrough among those small shareholders?” Li Yi asked.
“Exactly. Compared to retail investors, small shareholders hold more concentrated stakes. As long as the price is right, I don’t think it’ll be hard to acquire the remaining shares,” Lan Xinming explained.
However, Li Yi shook his head and said, “I don’t think so! We’ve already courted every shareholder we could. Two-thirds of the shares we hold were acquired at a high price from those small shareholders!”
“The remaining ones are either people from the British-owned group, who are dead set on sticking with those foreigners to the bitter end, or they’re insatiable, wanting the stock price to keep rising.”
“Given their reluctance to sell, they probably won’t part with their shares easily—unless…”
“Unless what?”
“Unless we break through that mindset!” Li Yi said.
“But… how do we break it?” Lan Xinming asked, puzzled.
Li Yi replied immediately, “We must make those retail investors who are hoarding their shares realize that the current stock price has reached its limit and can’t possibly rise any further. Once they do, they’ll liquidate their positions to cash out.”
“We understand the logic, but how exactly do we go about doing that?” Lan Xinming asked.
Li Yi glanced at his watch and saw that there was still an hour and a half left before the market closed.
With that in mind, he immediately turned to Pang Feiyan and said, “Feiyan, raise the price to 130 Hong Kong dollars per share right now!”
“Yes!”
Shortly after Pang Feiyan left, Li Yi issued another order: “Yang Qian, sell off a portion of our New Territories Warehouse Center shares immediately—start by offloading 2 million shares to test the waters!”
“Yes!”
Although Yang Qian didn’t quite understand Li Yi’s purpose, she carried out the order immediately.
The 2 million shares were released and quickly snapped up by investors.
After all, the stock price of the New Territories Warehousing Center had skyrocketed by roughly 100% over the past few days, allowing many investors to make a killing.
More importantly, since the showdown between Starry Sky Corporation and the British Investment Group hadn’t yet been decided, everyone believed that New Frontier Warehouse Center’s stock would continue to rise.
That’s exactly why the 2 million shares Li Yi dumped were snapped up in the market without even making a ripple.
However, what no one expected was that these two million shares were just the beginning; over the next half hour, massive sell orders were continuously dumped on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. dxmbang
It started with sell-offs of 2 million or 5 million shares, but eventually, 10 million or even 20 million shares were being dumped at a time.
At first, as soon as someone sold, someone else snapped them up—whatever was sold was immediately bought.
But soon, when massive orders of tens of millions of shares hit the market, all investors on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange were stunned.
They soon realized that market manipulators were cashing out, and everyone simultaneously thought of Starry Company.
It was the same old story, just like how they had scammed the British Investment Group a few days earlier.
The tactic was the same: first drive the stock price to an extreme high, then quickly dump the entire position, leaving the buyers stuck holding the bag at the peak.
Once they realized this, the investors who had been so confident just moments ago were all taken aback.
Soon, some investors who were not particularly resilient began to crack.
Most of them were speculators, not as well-capitalized as Starry Sky or the British-owned conglomerate; if they got stuck at high prices, they simply couldn’t afford the losses.
Moreover, New Territories Warehouse Center’s stock price remained extremely high at the time, so selling now would still yield a substantial profit.
Consequently, some retail investors began following Li Yi’s lead and dumping their shares.
However, Star Company was not only refusing to buy but was actually dumping large quantities of shares itself. Seeing this, Smith and his associates dared not rush into a buyout—after all, the precedent set by Hang Seng Bank was still fresh in their minds.
With the two major market makers both sitting on the sidelines, the market was suddenly flooded with New Territories Warehouse shares waiting to be sold.
Just moments ago, the shares were unsellable; now, they were priced but had no buyers!
Under these circumstances, retail investors desperate for cash began slashing prices in an attempt to break even.
Consequently, New Territories Warehouse Center’s stock price plummeted rapidly, dropping from a high of HK$130 to HK$105 in less than half an hour—and it continued to fall.
As for Star Company, not only did they not accept every offer as they had before—buying as much as anyone would sell—
Instead, just like those retail investors, they kept placing sell orders on the market, continuously dumping their shares of New Territories Warehouse, giving the impression that they were about to liquidate their entire position.
This move not only terrified the retail investors and small shareholders looking to profit from the chaos, but also startled Smith and his team, who were tasked with countering Li Yi.
The shadow of their previous experience—manipulating Hang Seng Bank’s stock only to get trapped at the peak—resurfaced in their minds…
………