Chapter 478: Misfortunes Never Come Alone — The Collapse of Jardines Matheson Securities
"Mr. Taipan, Mr. Henry, what we're most concerned about now is that with the start of the new workweek, many of our business operations will face a crisis of having no one to manage them," General Manager Martin's voice echoed in the conference room.
"For example, our core securities brokerage business — we barely have any brokers left. There's no way we can meet the demands of our massive client base.
Additionally, in areas like asset management, securities investment consulting, financial advisory, funds, and futures, most key staff have also resigned. The few employees remaining are simply too few and too weak to handle such a heavy workload.
We've already reached out to major headhunting firms, hoping to recruit more people quickly, but in the short term, it's nearly impossible to hire critical core personnel in large numbers. After all, our previous scale was built up over many years," Martin finished.
The conference room fell into a heavy silence.
Henry Keswick furrowed his brows, his expression filled with deep frustration and helplessness.
Beside him, Simon Keswick, the current taipan, remained silent.
The mass exodus of employees was a devastating blow to the company, and for now, there seemed to be no effective solutions.
In the past, during Jardines Matheson's heyday, such issues wouldn't have concerned them much — they could have simply reassigned staff from other subsidiaries.
But now, Jardines Matheson's operations in Hong Kong had been almost completely devoured by Lin Haoran.
In such a situation, where could they even find people to transfer?
As for overseas employees, Jardines Matheson hardly had any financial subsidiaries abroad, making that option worthless.
"Could we possibly ask Hui Fung Bank to lend us some personnel? Hui Fung Bank is a major shareholder of ours. Now that Jardines Matheson Securities is in crisis, they ought to lend a hand!" Martin suggested.
"Forget it, Mr. Martin," Simon Keswick replied with a bitter smile. "I already asked Mr. Shen Bi for help, but they flatly refused. In their view, they're eager for Jardines Matheson Securities to collapse — that way, Victory Company will rise to become the industry leader."
Indeed, when Bao Yugang had fought Jardines Matheson over the control of Wharf Holdings, Hui Fung Bank had chosen to support Bao Yugang, not Jardines Matheson. Their goal had always been to crown a Chinese enterprise as Hong Kong's number one.
Now, faced with another chance for Victory Company to ascend, why would Hui Fung Bank lift a finger to help Jardines Matheson Securities?
Just as the situation grew more desperate, a panicked voice came from outside the office door.
"Several of our important fund products are experiencing sharp declines in net value! Investors are beginning massive redemptions, and the funding pressure is huge!"
This announcement hit like a thunderclap, making the already tense atmosphere even heavier.
A large wave of redemption requests meant they were facing a severe liquidity crisis.
It was a case of misfortunes never coming alone.
"How can this be?" Henry Keswick exclaimed in disbelief. "Our fund performance has always been stable. How could there suddenly be so many redemption requests?"
"I don't know, Mr. Henry," the head of the fund division replied bitterly. "I've already sent people to investigate, but we have no concrete findings yet."
"Regardless of the reason, we must respond immediately," Simon Keswick said grimly. "Martin, organize an emergency team to handle these redemption requests. Also, strengthen communication with our clients — we need to stabilize their emotions and prevent the situation from worsening."
"But we simply don't have enough people," Martin said, forcing a smile.
The director of the financial advisory department also shook his head helplessly. "Due to staff shortages, our financial planning services are delayed. Some clients are already considering moving to other firms."
"Our stock price is plummeting since the market opened. In less than twenty minutes, our market cap has dropped below five hundred million Hong Kong dollars. At this rate, we might face a complete crash! I suggest we urgently apply for a trading suspension with the four major stock exchanges to stabilize the situation," the head of the market division anxiously reported.
"Our business is hemorrhaging. Some clients said they've already moved with their original brokers to Galaxy Securities!" another manager rushed in with more bad news.
"Our account balance at Hui Fung Bank has fallen below three hundred million Hong Kong dollars. That amount isn't nearly enough to handle the flood of redemption requests. Once that dries up, we'll lose all access to funding. Hui Fung Bank has also officially stopped providing us loans," the head of banking relations said grimly.
One disaster after another left the executives scrambling in chaos.
Every sign pointed to the reality that Jardines Matheson Securities was collapsing.
Meanwhile, in Hong Kong's four major stock exchanges, the atmosphere was bustling.
As the new trading day began, investors gathered excitedly, eagerly awaiting market movements.
However, some shareholders wore grim expressions — they still held Jardines Matheson Securities stocks.
In Hong Kong, the four major securities firms formed a competitive balance. Many large companies listed on multiple exchanges simultaneously to maximize liquidity.
When the market's opening bell rang, it didn't take long for people to notice Jardines Matheson Securities' stock price plummeting.
Just last Monday, the company's market value had been around 1.5 billion Hong Kong dollars.
But after rumors surfaced that Jardines Matheson Securities might be sold off by Jardines Matheson, fears about the company's future triggered widespread selling.
By Friday, the company's market cap had already halved to less than 800 million.
Over the weekend, more damaging rumors spread about the mass employee defection.
Although Jardines Matheson publicly promised they wouldn't sell Jardines Matheson Securities, they made no meaningful moves to save it.
Thus, most investors realized: Jardines Matheson Securities' stock was basically doomed.
Within an hour of the market opening, the stock price had plunged by more than half again, with the company's market cap now under 400 million Hong Kong dollars.
The reason was simple: the market was flooded with sell orders, but there were no buyers.
Every trade made represented a new low price.
Most ironically, despite the massive price drops, trading volume remained low — few were willing to catch a falling knife.
Panic continued to spread among shareholders.
By 10:00 AM, there was a collective sigh of relief.
The four major exchanges had received Jardines Matheson Securities' request to suspend trading.
The exchanges responded quickly, beginning the review process.
If approved, the trading suspension would at least temporarily stop the freefall and buy the company time to assess the situation.
Just then, another explosive piece of news spread like wildfire:
Jardines Matheson Securities now had fewer than one hundred core employees remaining — the vast majority had jumped ship to the newly established Galaxy Securities Company under Land Corporation.
The news sent shockwaves through the investor community.
If Galaxy Securities were a listed company, its stock would have soared on such news.
However, Galaxy Securities was fully owned by Land Corporation, so there was no way for outsiders to profit from the situation.
At 11:00 AM, Galaxy Securities made another announcement.
They publicly declared that they would fully take over Jardines Matheson Securities' brokerage, asset management, securities investment consulting, financial advisory, and other services, promising to provide even higher quality and more efficient services to clients.
This bombshell spread rapidly through Hong Kong's financial sector.
Not only had they poached Jardines Matheson's people, now they were even hauling away their furniture and appliances!
In effect, Galaxy Securities had inherited Jardines Matheson Securities' core assets and clients.
This move exerted even greater pressure on Jardines Matheson Securities, which was already struggling due to massive employee loss and business attrition.
Meanwhile, in the Concordia Building, the atmosphere inside Galaxy Securities' office was electric.
Two hours after their official launch, everyone had already dived into their busy new routines.
New employees were rapidly familiarizing themselves with operations, connecting with clients, and processing customer data transferred from Jardines Matheson Securities.
They knew very well: to establish themselves in this new company, they had to perform impressively.
Winning over former clients was the simplest and most direct path to success.
By doing well, they wouldn't just secure their positions — they could achieve impressive results too.
Lin Haoran sat in the General Manager's office of the former Jardines Matheson Securities, gazing out at the bustling scene outside the window, a smile playing on his lips.
At this rate, it wouldn't be long before Galaxy Securities fully replaced Jardines Matheson Securities as the leader of Hong Kong's financial sector.
Previously, Huanyu Investment Company's business had been too narrow. Even though Lin Haoran had used it to quietly acquire various enterprises, it remained a tiny firm incapable of touching broader financial markets.
Now, having swallowed the essence of Jardines Matheson Securities, the situation had completely changed.
In the future, as Hong Kong's status in the global financial industry solidified, the value of Galaxy Securities would only soar higher and higher.
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