章節 1375: Chapter 1375: The wolves devour the tiger
The living room of the Mellon family.
A group of Mellon family members gathered here, totalling fifteen people.
There were Paul Mellon, the four brothers Leonard, Timothy, and others, as well as James Mellon and some other family members.
Among them is James Mellon, a cousin of Paul Mellon, whose grandfather was a brother of Paul Mellon's father.
James Mellon is now the chairman of Gulf Oil Corporation and represents the family in running this family business that has been passed down for nearly a century. Of course, he does not hold much of the equity, less than 1%.
This is also the current situation of the Mellon family's holdings in various companies: family members hold very little of the equity in each company, and most of the equity is in the family's charitable or management funds.
The interests of the fund belong to everyone, but the family head has the ultimate authority.
'James, what's the situation at Gulf Oil?'
'Is it really at a critical juncture in such a short period of time?'
A family member asked James Mellon.
James Mellon nodded with a grave face and said to the crowd, 'The situation is really bad. The key is that Mesa Oil's announcement was too inflammatory.'
'Gulf Oil is our family business, and normally the other shareholders would be on the same side as us because they can make money with us.
'But over the years, the company's business has deteriorated, repeatedly disappointing the shareholders. Discontent has been building for many years.
'In 1980, the company's turnover reached 26.483 billion US dollars, and its net profit was 1.915 billion US dollars, with a net profit margin of at least 7.23%.
'Last year, the company's turnover reached 31.537 billion US dollars, but the net profit was only 728 million US dollars, and the net profit margin was only 2.3%.'
'Not only that, although we have cleaned up our assets overseas, a large part of the funds returned were used to repurchase shares to stabilise the stock price. This did work at first, but now with the fall in international oil prices, the company's stock price has fallen again, and the market value has shrunk by more than 2 billion US dollars since the beginning of the year!'
'Although I hate to admit it, the truth is that I have made a series of poor strategic decisions on behalf of the family. As a result, most of the shareholders feel that their interests have been seriously damaged. Not only has the annual dividend fallen year after year, but the value of the shares has also continued to shrink.'
'So now the shareholders have lost confidence in us and are unwilling to believe in long-term gains, preferring to believe in Mesa Petroleum instead.'
After hearing this, everyone present looked grave, knowing the seriousness of the problem and being able to understand the mentality of the other shareholders.
Leonard Mellon asked, 'James, our family now controls 38.6% of the shares, which is 11.41% short of a majority. Do you think there are still shareholders who are likely to vote with us?'
A few years ago, the Mellon family's control of Gulf Oil's equity was only 26.5%, but thanks to Richard King Mellon's acquisition of equity, Gulf Oil's repurchase of equity, and Shaya's offer of 4.85% of the equity as a marriage gift in May this year, the Mellon family's equity holding has rebounded to the level of the 1960s.
James Mellon shook his head regretfully and said, 'We have to prepare for the worst. Now that Uncle Richard is ill, people who were previously intimidated by him are stirring. Shareholders may not be willing to continue to go along with us. We can absolutely rely only on ourselves.'
'Mesa Petroleum has voluntarily announced that it owns 10.2% of the shares, but no one knows exactly how much control it has.'
'Right now we can still refuse to let him join the board, but once they call for an extraordinary shareholders' meeting and rally a majority of shareholders, then according to the Articles of Association, it is really possible for them to realise their claims.'
'Now that it's just happened, we must decide quickly what to do. The longer we wait, the greater the uncertainty will become.'
As soon as he had finished speaking, the others looked at each other before one of the clan members spoke up: 'The best solution is naturally to increase our stake. As long as we control the board of directors and the shareholders' meeting, Mesa Oil will have no choice but to withdraw, and there is nothing anyone else can do.'
'However, just based on the current situation, once we increase our stake, the share price will definitely rise. A conservative estimate is that we will need to come up with 1.2 to 1.5 billion US dollars.
'This is a lot of money, but it's not a lot of money. Judging from the current situation, the family should be able to easily come up with it, but I'm afraid that something else will go wrong later, and a large sum of money will be urgently needed.'
'After all, it is equivalent in importance to Gulf Oil, and there are even more important companies.'
Everyone else continued to be silent, but James Mellon shrugged and leaned back on the sofa.
He returned to the family for this purpose. Personally, as the chairman of Gulf Oil, he definitely hoped that the company would remain stable and be run by him.
However, he had no money, so the family had to make the decision.
While patriarch Richard King Mellon was still in a coma, no one could make a decision unilaterally for the time being, so the clansmen of each lineage would discuss and vote together.
The attitude of the majority represented the attitude of the family, and whether it was right or wrong, he did not have to bear the responsibility.
'Tonight, everyone should think about it, talk to the other clans, and then we'll have another meeting tomorrow morning with everyone who couldn't make it to make a final decision.'
Seeing that no one had expressed an opinion, Paul Mellon also expressed his understanding. He was the eldest and most powerful person present, so he made the decision directly.
Then, he continued to urge everyone, 'Now that the family has been put on high alert due to Richard's illness, I suspect that the sniping of Gulf Oil will not be an isolated incident, and there will definitely be many more vicious incidents waiting for us.'
'Everyone is responsible for raising funds. An adequate flow of funds is our ammunition for defence and retaliation.'
'You must also be on your guard and pay close attention to the movements of your respective companies at all times. Once you notice anything, report it to the family immediately to avoid being caught off guard.'
'James, you still have to work hard tonight and be responsible for contacting those shareholders, finding out their attitude, and stabilising them first.'
James Mellon nodded: 'Okay, Uncle Paul.'
...
The next morning, dozens of members of the Mellon family gathered. After discussion, none of them were willing to let their family's flagship company in the oil sector weaken or be taken away, and all supported increasing their shareholding.
Even though the international crude oil price had fallen from its peak in July to below 20 US dollars, the company's revenue, net profit and assets were all set to plummet in the next year or two!
Just as the Mellon family had made up their minds and started to increase their shareholding,
how could David Rockefeller, who wanted to take over Gulf Oil, remain indifferent in the face of this situation?
Having already obtained secret information, he immediately let it be known that the Cleveland consortium was secretly acquiring shares in the steel company owned by the Mellon consortium.
Once the news was released, it spread like wildfire.
Douglas MacArthur and Reginald Haner, among others, could not help but curse when they heard.
They were originally happy that the Mellon Consortium had spent some of its funds, reducing the pressure on their side later, and now they could secretly acquire shares and catch the Mellon Consortium off guard.
But now they were forced into a corner, and the Mellon Consortium's attention was definitely attracted.
Douglas MacArthur and the others were also decisive.
Since they cannot hide it, they will simply show their cards and immediately launch a takeover bid against the four steel companies of the Mellon consortium.
It is quite a race to the finish.
Suddenly, all the predators eyeing the Mellon consortium perked up, secretly thinking that their chance had come.
Without having to communicate privately, these people seemed to have an unspoken understanding and all set their sights on the companies under the Mellon consortium, although most of them were just making low-key acquisitions.
But when everyone is moving together, no matter how low-key it is, the news cannot be kept secret.
What's more, shareholders who hold equity in a company also want to sell their shares at a higher price, so how could they possibly help the acquirer cover up the news?
As a result, chaos immediately broke out in the American business community.
A huge wave quickly formed, pressing down on the Mellon family!
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