The Industrial Giant Reborn.

Chapter 475 Preliminary Progress
Chen Zhiwen himself doesn’t know much about professional matters in the automotive industry. He only knows the future development direction of the entire automotive industry, so he can make decisions on which technologies to focus on, such as turbocharging, automotive electronics industry layout, and comfort. Sexual automobile configuration, investment in the mainland automobile industry, etc.

As for specific technology, market analysis, financial status, brand value, etc., Tian Xuecheng, a professional, still needs to be responsible.

In the next two hours, these two people mainly exchanged information about mini. Chen Zhiwen was just listening, not studying, but it would be good to know more.

And this is just the beginning of the negotiation. The two are just discussing the future cooperation framework. If they really negotiate with Mini, they will need various professional business teams.

There are specialties in the technical field. As the boss, Chen Zhiwen does not need to know too many detailed technical fields. He only needs to make decisions on major decisions, investments and other matters.

……

Although the scale of the mini car company is not very large and is far less than that of AMC at the time, it will not be able to make a decision in a short time, especially when it comes to the coordination of employment, technology, quality, market and other aspects as well as future acquisitions. Various subsequent cooperation policies, etc., can be finalized within a few months, which is considered to be extremely fast.

Tian Xuecheng also got into a busy state. After testing with Standard Chartered Bank, Mini Company agreed to make preliminary contacts, so he led the AMC team and people from Standard Chartered Bank to visit Mini Company. Naturally, the first thing about the acquisition was not It is better to discuss the price immediately, but to have a sufficient understanding first. After all, the various information and materials before were only obtained through various peripheral means, which is far inferior to going directly to the other party's company to understand clearly.

Because it was a good-faith cooperation, and the British government seemed to be interested in promoting it, the three parties signed a strict confidentiality agreement, and then they could inquire about some internal information about mini.Of course, the core thing is still not possible. Then we have to wait until the acquisition develops further and the memorandum of understanding is signed before we can get in touch with it.

After Chen Zhiwen learned about this progress, he no longer paid attention to it. He only needed to wait for a while to report. As long as this period of time, no other automobile giant brands would intervene, and there would be no external competitors. , the acquisition should be no problem, it just depends on the final acquisition price and the various conditions negotiated by both parties.

There is also a possibility that Leyland Motors, the British state-owned enterprise behind Mini, will use its own acquisition price to find other car brands. In this way, the introduction of new competitors will definitely be beneficial to the acquired party, which is also a lot The normal situation in an acquisition case is that anyone can ride a donkey and look for a horse.

However, it is still the mid-80s, and the global economy has just emerged from the shadow of inflation. Most people's willingness to change cars may only be slightly stronger than in previous years. The various automobile giants have not yet reached the stage of rapid expansion. Historically, large-scale sales of British car brands had to wait until the late 80s and early 90s. I can say that I was too early.Of course, this possibility cannot be completely denied.

Everything is still left to the negotiation teams of both parties. When the entire group has developed to this day, various branches should also have the ability to self-generate and develop themselves. Chen Zhiwen can at most provide guidance, or when encountering some golden opportunities, Just use the power of capital to intervene.

After a group of company executives and their families from Hong Kong visited London, they went to Birmingham and Manchester, the second and third cities in the UK. Shopping is naturally indispensable, and the same goes for traveling around the city. The group rented several bicycles The city's luxury bus also traveled to every corner of the city in a few days. When it encountered interesting places, it came down to have fun.

More than half a month later, Chen Zhiwen and others returned to London again and received a quote from Leland Company.

"1.6 million pounds? Are you treating us as a super fat sheep?" Chen Zhiwen said with a smile after seeing Leland's quotation.

"Not only this, but there are also many conditions such as ensuring employment, not interfering with management, and injecting 5000 million pounds a year. They are simply treating us as idiots." Tian Xuecheng said.

"Then implement plan B first. Send a team to Italy to find a suitable brand from Fiat. They have not been having a good time recently. As long as the negotiation is good, there will definitely be a suitable one." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

Plan B has actually been prepared for a long time. Although the British government has proposed to sell the car brands in its hands, when anyone, including those automobile giants, proposes to acquire it, there will inevitably be a lot of wrangling. This is the most normal business transaction. In the past, Ford’s acquisition of Jaguar Land Rover, Volkswagen’s acquisition of Rolls-Royce (first acquired by Volkswagen and then transferred to BMW), BMW’s acquisition of Mini, etc. all took a long time.

If the lions on the British side open their mouths, they will naturally not be able to retreat immediately. They will definitely continue to talk, but they must also prepare to start backup plans and look for similar types of similar ones in other parts of Europe. If they really can’t negotiate with the British side, then Just consider Plan B. If we can negotiate with the UK, it can also be used to lower prices, coordinate, etc.If given the choice, Chen Zhiwen actually hopes to acquire Mini. After all, this brand is very easy to promote just by its name. Just like Jeep, although in the next few decades, many brands will also launch their own "mini" models, but basically All of them have failed. Perhaps the Wuling Mini, which has a completely different positioning and is also a tram, is more successful.But that was decades later.

"Okay, that's no problem. I immediately sent someone to contact Deutsche Bank, and they will release the news. However, after contacting Leland's senior management during this period, I feel that this may not be useful." Tian Xuecheng said with a frown.

He naturally knew about Plan B. When it was first formulated, it was necessary to find other brands similar to mini cars through large European investment banks, thereby putting pressure on the British side. However, when the plan was formulated before, there was no contact with British Leyland. , and after this period of contact, I discovered that the efficiency of this group of state-owned enterprises is really low, and they don't care about anything. It may be because no matter how poor the company's performance is, at most they can just ask the government for money. If you want to acquire my company brand, whether you like it or not.

"So, we can only communicate properly with these people. The one who really makes the decision is Buckingham Palace. Even if there are people in the parliament who object at most, they will not come up with real ideas. So, next, you With Standard Chartered, we need to communicate more with the British government." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

"Okay, I understand." Tian Xuecheng nodded and said.

"Where's Rolls-Royce?" Chen Zhiwen asked again. This brand is actually just for hobbies. At his current level, doing business will not just be for future returns, because it is no longer purely based on numbers. No matter what, buying something he likes more can satisfy at least part of his preferences for a short time.

Luxury cars are out of reach for many people. Acquiring such a company will give you a certain sense of accomplishment. At the same time, to a certain extent, it can also increase the reputation of your own car company, although the effect is not very great. big.

At present, Britain's Rolls-Royce still includes Bentley. In the future, one of these two luxury brands will belong to Volkswagen and the other to BMW. But now they are still together. They are among the top five business luxury car brands in the world. They can win two at once. This may be the only chance.

As for future technology, the problem is actually not that big. Handmade auto parts are very different from industrial production. And this kind of luxury brand does not even need to consider whether it can be profitable to a certain extent. It only needs the support of the parent company. .This is not to say that I have too much money and no place to spend it, but because of the inherent characteristics of this high-end brand, the higher the high-end, the harder it is to make a profit, because the research and development costs simply cannot be spread evenly over a sufficient number of cars.

"Same as Standard Chartered Bank's prediction, they just dealt with it and had a very bad attitude towards us." Tian Xuecheng replied.

"I guess the British government is too happy to give money, so they don't care." Chen Zhiwen said with a smile.

"Rolls-Royce is a British brand symbol and will definitely support it fully," Tian Xuecheng said.

"Well, there's really nothing you can do about this kind of thing, just try your best." Chen Zhiwen nodded and said.

Traveling to Hong Kong, many of his acquisitions were basically timed, such as Hutchison Whampoa, Land, Wharf, etc. The same goes for some acquisitions or investments in Europe and the United States, such as Costco.Basically, these are all acquisitions started when one is extremely advantageous. Whether it is with good intentions or malicious intentions, the success rate is very high.

But now that the scale of my capital has increased, all business acquisitions cannot be as confident as before. For example, when Disney was acquired in the United States, although Disney was already heavily in debt internally, the United States was not optimistic about its future. But even under such circumstances, it is a bit difficult for foreign investors to acquire it. Fortunately, Disney is essentially an entertainment company. With the full help of local super investment banks like JPMorgan Chase, the acquisition was finally completed.

This time in the UK, the targeted acquisitions are actually similar. The companies he selected are all companies with some operating difficulties, but the other parties are state-owned enterprises with a somewhat hard backend. Even if they are short of money, they can still ask the government for it, so they will not be like Disney and AMC were on the verge of bankruptcy.

Whether it can succeed or not depends on whether the local investment banks can help. However, this time is a little different. He is not absolutely targeted. Even if the UK does not succeed, Europe is so big that he will always find other suitable targets. , whether it is an ordinary brand or a luxury brand.

(End of this chapter)