Suburbs. Castle Manor!
The spacious conference room was already packed with people. Aside from Smith, the rest were all familiar faces—key members of the British Capital Group.
Just an hour ago, they had suddenly received a call from Smith, instructing them to come to the Castle Estate immediately for a meeting to discuss important matters.
In truth, as soon as everyone arrived, they knew exactly what the meeting was about.
At the moment, the only thing capable of mobilizing them on such a scale was likely that big shot named Li Yi and the Starry Sky Company behind him.
Seeing that nearly everyone had arrived, Smith immediately stood up and left the conference room!
Before long, the sound of heavy footsteps echoed from outside.
Hearing the sound, the group—who had been whispering among themselves—gradually fell silent, and the conference room, which had been as noisy as a marketplace, slowly quieted down.
“Squeak!”
As the conference room door swung open, the leader, Dolsen, strode in, flanked by four or five people.
When everyone saw the people accompanying him, they were all slightly taken aback.
Besides the former leader, Sir, there was a man and a woman.
They recognized both of them: the one with her head held high and an air of arrogance was the Governor’s granddaughter, and the man beside her was Pang Bo-teng, the Governor’s chief secretary!
Seeing these two figures of such high standing attending the meeting, everyone couldn’t help but speculate: what on earth was going on?
Some sharp-witted individuals had already surmised that Dalson must be planning something major; otherwise, the Governor’s Office wouldn’t have sent these two distinguished figures to attend.
For a moment, the attendees whispered among themselves, buzzing with speculation!
Dawson and his party paid no heed to the commotion; they entered the conference room and took their seats without delay!
Then, Dolsen cleared his throat and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, before we begin, please allow me to introduce a distinguished guest. Seated next to me is Miss Su Li, the Governor’s most beloved granddaughter. Please give her a warm round of applause!”
“Clap, clap, clap!!!”
Hearing the applause, Su Li merely nodded slightly, not even rising from her seat—a gesture that left many feeling rather displeased.
After all, those eligible to attend this meeting were all prominent figures from British-funded conglomerates—every single one of them worth over a hundred million.
So what if Su Li is the Governor’s granddaughter?
Governors come and go every few years; while in office, they do hold some power, but once they step down, they’re just ordinary old men—let alone their granddaughters.
Fortunately, everyone present was shrewd. Though they harbored some resentment, none of them showed it on their faces, and certainly no one stepped forward to accuse her.
They all shared the same sentiment: it wasn’t worth offending the Governor’s Office over such a trivial matter.
After introducing Su Li, Dolsen spoke again: “I’ve invited you all here today primarily to discuss several matters. First, based on our investigation, that young man from Starry Sky Corporation has joined forces with Chinese families such as the Lis, the Hos, the Baos, and the Luos to establish a group similar to our Chinese Capital Group, intended to oppose the Alliance. What are your thoughts on this?”
No sooner had he finished speaking than an elderly man in his sixties stood up and said, “These yellow-skinned monkeys, no better than swine, are making a massive provocation against the Alliance. We absolutely cannot stand idly by—we must make our stance clear!”
“Exactly! We absolutely cannot let them form this Chinese Capital Group, or else we’ll be in a very bad situation!”
“I understand Mr. Mai’s position—we cannot let them form this Chinese-funded group. Absolutely not!”
“This is something we cannot tolerate; we must resolutely oppose it…”
Hearing the crowd’s indignant outcry, Dolsen was very pleased with their reaction.
Of course, all of this was exactly as he had anticipated.
After all, the people before him had all benefited from the Alliance. Over the past two or three decades, relying on the Alliance’s existence, they had reaped considerable advantages, both openly and covertly.
Put simply, in Hong Kong—and indeed throughout East and Southeast Asia—they belonged to the privileged class of the business world. How could they possibly allow another alliance to emerge?
“Ding, ding, ding!”
Dawson tapped the table lightly and said, “Since we’re all in agreement, let’s move on to the second item: how to stop them from establishing the Huazi Group!”
Before anyone could speak, Dolsen continued, “According to our intelligence, the proposal to establish this Chinese Capital Group came from Li Futao of the Far East Association. However, the driving force behind it is Li Yi of Starry Sky Company. Therefore, the most effective way to stop them is to bring down Starry Sky Company—and Li Yi!”
No sooner had he finished speaking than someone interjected, “Although Starry Sky Corporation hasn’t been around long, it’s already massive in scale. Plus, they’re sitting on a huge amount of cash. We’re all worried they’ll use that massive cash flow to launch a hostile takeover against our companies in the stock market. How could we possibly have the capacity to bring them down?”
“That’s right. I heard Star Company raked in tens of billions in just six months. With that kind of money, no matter which one of our companies they target, we’ll be completely powerless to fight back!”
“As things stand, it would be extremely difficult to bring down Star Company…”
Just as everyone was chiming in with their opinions, Durson’s voice rang out again in the conference room: “Under normal circumstances, given their massive capital reserves, it would be very difficult for us to bring Starry Sky down. However, I’ve received very reliable intelligence that Starry Sky is planning to distribute dividends to all investors and shareholders!”
“Dividends?”
“That can’t be right. The company’s only been around for a short time—why would they be in such a hurry to pay dividends to shareholders?”
“Exactly. That doesn’t make sense. Don’t all investment firms wait until a year has passed or the contract expires before distributing dividends to investors?”
“Even if they really do pay dividends to shareholders and investors, it won’t be much. As long as it doesn’t deal a fatal blow to them, we won’t stand a chance…”
……..
“Quiet everyone. The amount Starry Sky is distributing to investors and shareholders this time exceeds 20 billion Hong Kong dollars!” Dolsen said, dropping a bombshell.
“Whoa!”
Everyone present couldn’t help but gasp in astonishment!
Just as everyone was speculating on the accuracy of this news, Dolsen’s voice rang out again: “Don’t doubt the accuracy of my information—there’s no need to. Starry Sky just held another press conference moments ago to announce this news!”
“As for why they’re doing this, we’ve analyzed it. On one hand, that young man needs the money—after all, he still owes the Jardine Matheson Group a massive 2.3 billion, which needs to be repaid soon.”
“On the other hand, a significant portion of that money belongs to the government across the strait, so they need a legitimate reason to withdraw the funds and hand them over!”
After hearing Dolsen’s explanation, everyone nodded in agreement.
This explanation made perfect sense; otherwise, Starry Company wouldn’t have been in such a rush to distribute dividends to investors and shareholders.
“Mr. Dolsen, what should we do now?”
Dawson replied immediately, “We’ve received intelligence that in recent days, the Far East Association has raised 1 billion US dollars in cash through various channels. That money has now been delivered to the Wan Chai Pier controlled by the Blue Dragon Club, and barring any surprises, it will be shipped across the water!”
“Therefore, I have already coordinated with the Governor’s Office. We will intercept their cash transport vessel on the waterway leading to the other side and seize the funds!”
Upon hearing this, the reaction in the conference room wasn’t as enthusiastic as one might expect; a significant number of people wore expressions of worry and panic.
Stealing money from the government on the other side—is that something an ordinary person would dare to do?
Dawson sensed their reservations and immediately said, “Miss Su Li and I have reached an agreement: we will split the intercepted funds fifty-fifty with the Governor’s Office.”
“As for the five hundred million dollars we’ll receive, I intend to distribute it to you according to the same investment ratios you used when shorting gold, to compensate for your previous losses.”
“Whoosh!”
At these words, the crowd in the conference room instantly grew excited.
That’s 500 million US dollars—nearly 4 billion Hong Kong dollars. Though it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the nearly 20 billion Hong Kong dollars they’d lost earlier,
But the previous losses had been so devastating that many were now struggling to make ends meet; any compensation would be a welcome relief.
In an instant, the crowd—who had been hesitant just moments ago—began voicing their support for Dolsen one after another!
Seeing this, Dolsen flashed a sly smile and proceeded to reveal the true reason he had invited them all there…
………
PS: There will be another chapter before 11 PM!