Laggards will be candidates for the chopping block. If Morrison succeeds in his quest for profitability, he could put the Jardine group at the forefront of a wave of downsizing and refocusing among Asian companies, similar to what Corporate America went through in the 1980s. Jardine is one of two hongs, or trading companies, still run by the British, and even now its operations employ 51,000 in Hong Kong alone.
Trading volume is so thin that few stock analysts follow the company any more.
Jardine is a company that needs to be fixed fast, or somehow broken up, to realize its true value. And rumors persist that Hong Kong magnate Li Ka-shing wants to do just that in order to grab Hongkong Land, the Jardine empire's crown jewel. The family, which declined interview requests, has used this tiny stake as a base on which to erect formidable antitakeover defenses. Ever since Britain agreed in 1984 to hand Hong Kong back to China, the group under Henry and Simon Keswick has been hobbled by management missteps and misguided acquisitions, including the takeover of British construction giant Trafalgar House PLC and various retail chains in Europe. These forays were part of the Keswicks' strategy to protect their empire before China took charge of Hong Kong in 1997.