After staying in Saudi Arabia for a few days, Baron thanked Walid and his wife for their hospitality and invited them to give him the opportunity to play host to them next time they came to England.
Then Barron took Alia and other entourage on a Gulfstream G450 and took off from Riyadh Airport, heading for Hong Kong, China.
Although Penguin Technology is about to be listed in Hong Kong, Barron's main reason for coming here this time is not because of this.
The last time Barron attempted to acquire Standard Chartered Bank, he had already come to Hong Kong and met with local tycoons including Li Chaoren, and bought some Standard Chartered Bank shares from them.
When he arrived in HK this time, Barron also received invitations from several wealthy people, and they would hold a cocktail party to welcome him.
After all, in addition to Barron's status as a British aristocrat, he is also ranked at the top of the Forbes rich list, and his assets at this time are even higher than those of Hong Kong's richest man, Li Chaoren.
And after acquiring Standard Chartered Bank, his business became increasingly closely related to these local families.
But before that, Barron first came to Standard Chartered Bank's HK headquarters in Central - Standard Chartered Bank Building.
Currently, Standard Chartered Bank is headquartered in London, its Asia-Pacific headquarters is located in London, and its Hong Kong headquarters is mainly responsible for Greater China business.
Here, Zeng Jingxuan, the newly appointed CEO of Greater China, reported to Barron, the chairman of Standard Chartered Bank, about some of the business of Hua Xia:
"We are in the process of negotiating the specific terms of this in-depth cooperation with Bank of Communications. According to your request, we will show the greatest sincerity while considering our own interests..."
Zeng Jingxuan, 47, has served Standard Chartered Bank for 12 years since joining the bank in 1992 and has extensive financial experience.
The reason why Barron chose her as CEO of Greater China after acquiring Standard Chartered Bank was certainly not just because of her elder brother, but also because she did have the corresponding abilities.
"I am very optimistic about the future development of Huaxia. Previously, Huaxia had many restrictions on foreign investment in the financial industry. Now they are transforming the bank into a commercial one and need our international experience. This is a great opportunity."
Zeng Jingxuan also agreed with Barron's words.
Starting this year, China has initiated the shareholding reform of state-owned commercial banks and promoted the establishment of a modern financial enterprise system - based on Barron's previous life experience, this is a very important reform.
In fact, since the new central bank governor took office last year, he has begun to lead the shareholding reform of state-owned commercial banks and decided to adopt the model of foreign exchange reserves for capital injection.
For this purpose, Huijin Investment Co., Ltd. was established at the end of 2003, which injected US$22.5 billion into China Construction Bank and Bank of China respectively, starting the process of shareholding reform of the four major banks.
In 1999, after the Big Four banks divested 1.4 trillion yuan of non-performing assets to the four major asset management companies, by the end of 2002, measured by the five-level classification standard, the non-performing loan ratio of the Big Four banks was 26.1% - except for the China Construction Bank with a non-performing loan ratio of around 15%, the others were all above 20%. The Agricultural Bank of China had a non-performing loan ratio of 36.6%, and more than one-third of its loans were non-performing loans.
At that time, many foreign people believed that China's banking industry had been "technically bankrupt."
But Baron knew that after this reform, China Merchants Bank's scale and profitability would soon rank first in the world.
For example, in his previous life in 2018, the top four of the world's top ten institutions announced by the British magazine "The Banker" were China's four major banks, which was very difficult.
Bank of Communications is the fifth largest bank in China, ranking only after the four major state-owned commercial banks, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China and China Construction Bank. It currently has 2,700 branches and outlets. What is even more attractive to Barron is that most of these branches are located in the wealthiest cities in China.
Earlier this year, once the news that Bank of Communications was going to introduce strategic investment was announced, it immediately caused a huge response at home and abroad. They immediately attracted many investment intentions and were crowded with people.
At that time, banks including Citi, HSBC, Standard Chartered and some other investors took the initiative to visit, understand the situation and express their sincerity in investing.
After Barron became a major shareholder of Standard Chartered Bank, he immediately asked them to start negotiations with Bank of Communications with all their strength.
Their biggest competitor at the time was HSBC, and Baron also knew that in his previous life, HSBC was the bank that ultimately emerged victorious among many competitors.
But Barron, knowing the importance of this cooperation, was naturally unwilling to give up the opportunity to participate in the commercialization reform of Hua Xia Bank. He not only relaxed Standard Chartered Bank's initial cooperation conditions, but also used his many connections in Hua Xia - especially the official channels in Zhejiang Province and Shanghai, where the headquarters of Bank of Communications is located.
Finally, with the approval of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, in early April, Bank of Communications began exclusive negotiations with Standard Chartered Bank, which means that Standard Chartered Bank temporarily won the competition.
After Zeng Jingxuan took office as CEO of Standard Chartered Bank Greater China, she was responsible for the negotiations of this cooperation.
"In December last year, the China Banking Regulatory Commission decided to increase the shareholding ratio of a single foreign institution in a state-owned commercial bank from the original 15% to 20%. Before and after the announcement of the decision, the chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission also expressed his welcome to foreign institutions to participate in the equity of Hua Xia Bank on many different occasions..."
Zeng Jingxuan took out the relevant documents and said to Barron:
"According to your opinion, we have been willing to set the shareholding ratio in this cooperation at 19.9% from the beginning, which is close to the upper limit of foreign banks' shareholding. Among all competitors, only we and HSBC are willing to cooperate with this shareholding ratio, so they were our biggest competitors before."
As early as 2001, HSBC successfully acquired 8% of the shares of Shanghai Bank.
Compared with them, Standard Chartered Bank has lagged behind slightly in its cooperation with Hua Xia Bank.
However, in this competition, Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC can be said to be evenly matched.
Standard Chartered Bank is one of the oldest foreign banks in China. It came to Shanghai from England in 1858.
For nearly a century and a half, Standard Chartered Bank has never left Shanghai. After the establishment of New China, the Chinese government at that time only retained four foreign banks, namely HSBC, Bank of East Asia, Overseas Chinese and Standard Chartered, to continue operating in Shanghai.
Later, Standard Chartered Bank became the "designated bank" of the People's Bank of China to conduct foreign exchange business, and assisted in opening up the financial situation at the time at the request of the government.
Therefore, it is not surprising that both Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC are cooperating with Bank of Communications this time. The two can be said to be evenly matched.
In the end, it was through more relaxed conditions and Barron's own strenuous efforts - he is not only the Duke of England, but also a world-renowned wealthy man, and he had many investments in China before, so his efforts would naturally be taken seriously.
"Other conditions can be relaxed appropriately, but the clauses to prevent share dilution must be upheld."
"This was also agreed by the other party, and they seemed to hope that we could maintain our 19.9% shareholding ratio."
Barron was not surprised by what Zeng Jingxuan said.
The main purpose of Bank of Communications' cooperation with foreign capital this time is capital and experience.
Standard Chartered Bank is willing to acquire a relatively high proportion of shares, which is also welcomed by them - this will enable BoCom to obtain more funds, and it will also be beneficial for Standard Chartered Bank to deeply participate in BoCom's management and reform, thereby helping BoCom to learn from the other party's advanced management and operating experience.
At the same time, Standard Chartered Bank is very familiar with the Chinese market and culture, which will be conducive to the success of future cooperation.
In addition, Standard Chartered Bank is also willing to provide cooperation solutions in the bank card field, which is very practical and urgently needed for Bank of Communications.
It is also because of these factors that the cooperation between Standard Chartered Bank and Bank of Communications is based on these factors.