Thursday continued ….Yao Tan sat listening to the pa.s.sionate speech of his friend. He paused taking on board Hou Yi"s words and considered what Amanda would say if if he took the law into his own hands. While she was a corporate lawyer, the law was the law. Hou Yi was right, Amanda would not accept him disrespecting the law, regardless of the situation, even if it was for Alecia.
His shoulders slumped and Hou Yi knew that his words had hit home. He had taken from Yan Tan what seemed to be the one thing keeping him going presently.
"Tan, let us focus on what we can achieve. In three weeks, we have pulled together nine of the other biggest companies in the country to refuse to do business with Lu Corporation and encourage other businesses to do the same. I have already had contact with fifteen other CEO"s of major companies in the country who are joining the boycott of Lu Corporation. I know you have been the front, but the two of us have been the driving forces behind this."
"We will bring them cras.h.i.+ng down and leave nothing left to support them. Lu Corporation, despite the Lu Family owning just over forty percent of all shares, is a public company. Five percent is held for Lu Jinhu and Yang Lin"s future children. The Yang family control another fifteen percent."
"However, from what I have heard certain members of the Yang family are disgruntled given Yang Lin has been dragged into the situation given Lu Jinhu"s actions. There are rumblings if they want to remain aligned with the Lu"s."
"One thing you do not know, is that I have slowly on-market been purchasing publicly available shares. I already have fifteen percent, and deals that will finalise by tomorrow for another ten percent. They have been at lower than market price as the owners want out of a relations.h.i.+p with Lu Corporation due to Lu Jinhu. Plus I am targeting buying the remaining shares."
"If I get all those shares, I believe enough of the Yang Family members will opt to side with me to throw CEO Lu out and agree to an audit of the accounts. If what I suspect is correct there will be enough evidence of embezzlement."
"d.a.m.n it Yi, you can be ruthless when you want."
"Well I did tell you that day my wife ended in hospital that I was going to bring them down. It just takes time to do it and ensure that they cannot get back up. The only issue is the Lu Corporation Charter says that the CEO has to be a Lu Family member, but there is a possible internal candidate that the board will likely pursue. Once that is started, I will then sell down my stake."
"The money …"
"My wife is worth more than anything I am spending on this. As I said I am cutting out the financial underpinning behind the power the Lu"s have wielded which has generally s.h.i.+elded them and their behaviour. And the crazy thing is, my wife has no idea but I suspect that she will ultimately love what I am doing."
Hou Yi paused "Now, we are getting distracted. Let us move to more important discussions about the Entertainment company, given that is why we originally scheduled this meeting. That will, further undermine Lu Corporaiton, as presently their entertainment division is their largest revenue earner."
"Leaving the other shareholders vulnerable? d.a.m.n it Yi, that is close to insider trading."
"Stuff in Tan. I have been after those shares from the day after my wife was injured, before we decided to do this. Anyone who wants to run that argument, has to try and show that I was not, and I d.a.m.n well made sure there was enough of a paper and electronic trail and recorded all phone calls and face-to-face meetings. I have covered myself. For you to join it would be insider trading."
"I see that I am not going to win this argument. I hope you have covered yourself, as you know once you make your move the Lu"s will fire back with claims of insider trading."
"I have. People may think because of my calm demeanor I am not ruthless. But I can be, and only do it when I need to like now."
"I would hate to be on the wrong side of you."
"Tan, our wives would kill us if that happened."
With that then spent the next 2 hours discussing the new Entertainment company Hou Enterprises and XF International were forming, firming up the arrangements for Monday"s press conference.