Chapter 575: Plan!

“A fight broke out? Shen Hao’s got that much guts? Taking on his whole family single-handedly?” Liu Yutong was genuinely surprised.

She’d known for a long time that Shen Hao didn’t have the best relationship with his family, but she’d never imagined it would deteriorate to this point—to the extent that it had come to blows.

On the other end of the line, Gu Yebai said:

“Not exactly. It wasn’t an actual physical fight—Shen Hao completely cut ties with his family. Shen Hao got a bit impulsive this time. He tried to seize power by winning over company shareholders, but his family found out about his plan, so it naturally failed. Later, unwilling to accept defeat, he leveraged himself to the hilt and started buying up shares on the secondary market. But just when his holdings reached 4.9%, someone dumped a massive amount of stock, crashing the price. The kid was completely blindsided and lost a huge pile of money.”

“Later he found out it was all orchestrated by his two younger brothers. One of them was manipulating the market from behind the scenes, while the other pretended to support him by his side, but was actually extracting information to set a trap for him.”

At this point, Gu Yebai couldn’t help but laugh.

“Shen Hao really got carried away. A publicly listed company isn’t that easy to take control of, especially when his family’s company has a poison pill plan.”

As the name suggests, this poison pill plan is an extremely ruthless defense strategy.

Once someone attempts a hostile takeover by acquiring shares without board approval, the poison pill can be triggered. The company can issue massive amounts of new shares at low prices to all existing shareholders except the acquirer, instantly diluting the acquirer’s equity stake and voting rights, and dramatically raising the cost of acquisition—enough to scare off any external predators.

Back in the day, when a certain capital group tried to swallow up Xinlang, Xinlang used this exact move to defeat the acquirer.

However, this tactic isn’t entirely advantageous—it’s the type that kills a thousand enemies while losing eight hundred of your own. Because it damages the interests of all shareholders, nobody resorts to it unless absolutely desperate.

After listening to Gu Yebai’s account, Liu Yutong pondered for a moment, then asked, “Where is he now?”

On the other end of the line, Gu Yebai replied, “Where else? In his private apartment, drinking himself into a stupor. I heard his father came back and chewed him out, saying that if he didn’t stop his reckless scheming, he’d disown him and kick him out of the family.”

“Big Sister Yutong, can you help him? I’m just afraid he’ll act impulsively again and demand back the money he invested in Yunshan Capital, then throw it all into the stock market in a reckless gamble. That would be a complete disaster.”

“I’ll think of something. Tell him not to act rashly. And tell Silin that if Shen Hao tries to withdraw his shares from Yunshan Capital, refuse him directly! Tell him it’s my order!”

“Understood!”

Liu Yutong exchanged a few more words with Gu Yebai before hanging up.

By now, Ma Da had nothing else to do either. He said his goodbyes and left first.

Afterward, Liu Yutong went upstairs and took a comfortable bath. Seeing that Yaya was already asleep, she returned to her bedroom and turned on her computer to look up information.

One of Shen Hao’s family’s main assets was a publicly listed company named Qiming Electric.

Qiming Electric was a leading enterprise in the domestic home appliance industry, primarily manufacturing and selling air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, and other white goods. It had a comprehensive sales network across the country, with its export business accounting for the highest proportion among domestic peers. Its current market capitalization was approximately 28.5 billion yuan—over 10 billion less than six months ago.

This market cap was actually quite unhealthy, or rather, severely undervalued.

There were two main reasons for Qiming Electric’s depressed stock price.

First, this year’s financial crisis had caused market panic to spread, and many companies’ stock prices had fallen.

Second, Shen Hao’s family was intentionally suppressing the stock price. Even if Shen Hao hadn’t impulsively tried to seize power, the price would have continued to decline.

Under normal circumstances, major shareholders certainly want the stock price to be as high as possible—a low stock price doesn’t benefit major shareholders. The reason Liu Yutong judged that Shen Hao’s family was suppressing the stock price was that she had also been following Qiming Electric, naturally because of Shen Hao.

As a key figure working with the Yunshan Society members, Liu Yutong couldn’t afford to be completely ignorant of his background.

Combined with the information she’d just found, she confirmed that Shen Hao’s family was indeed deliberately suppressing Qiming Electric’s stock price. One data point supported her view: Shen Hao’s family currently held approximately 19% of shares, while that number had been 15% just a month ago—a 4% increase in a short month.

Keep in mind that China has always followed the principle of one share, one vote—the higher the shareholding ratio, the greater the say. A 15% stake is actually quite low. Even with a poison pill as a defense, there’s still a risk of being swallowed up by certain financial sharks.

Shen Hao’s family had clearly recognized this problem, and with the financial crisis breaking out, they began scheming to quietly buy back shares at low prices. This foolish kid Shen Hao could be said to have walked right into his own family’s line of fire.

However, Qiming Electric’s current stock price was completely disconnected from its true value. What they were doing also harmed the interests of other shareholders.

Beyond this, Liu Yutong speculated that there must be another reason why Shen Hao’s family was so impatient to buy back stock.

She opened the calendar on her computer and checked the date.

The deadline for the nation’s announcement of the “Four Trillion Stimulus Plan” and the “Home Appliances to the Countryside” policy was not far off.

Liu Yutong guessed that the other party had probably also gotten wind of this.

“What a brilliant scheme,” she thought, letting out a cold laugh.

The Shen family was indeed sophisticated in their capital operations and tactics. They had simultaneously solved internal problems, consolidated control over the company, and positioned themselves to make a killing off national policy.

However, they seemed to have overlooked one thing: there’s always risk in putting a gold mine up for sale as scrap iron.

After thinking it through, Liu Yutong personally called Shen Hao. The call lasted nearly an hour.

Then she contacted Zhu Silin and arranged a meeting time. That finally brought this stage to a close.

After finishing everything, Liu Yutong shut down her computer and walked to the massive floor-to-ceiling window.

At this moment, the night’s view of the residential complex outside her window transformed into a chessboard in her eyes. What the Shen family thought was a brilliant strategy was, in her view, riddled with holes.

The Shen family’s approach was itself illegal. With an inside man to help gather evidence, she could use this as leverage to completely neutralize their poison pill plan. Then she could sweep through the secondary market, then stake her claim! Stake it again! And again!

Until the regime changed hands!