I want to be a giant of Hong Kong Island

Chapter 301 [Lan Crawford Department Store Acquisition Battle [-]]

In two months, Fu Hongru completed the integration of the companies under the Baiyou Group, which made Wu Guangyao look at him with admiration!

The headquarters of Baiyou Group has moved to the office building in the center of the Yangtze River, occupying a total of four floors.

In the chairman's office, Wu Guangyao, Lin Yueru, a group of four personal consultants, and Fu Hongru were discussing how to acquire Lane Crawford Department Store.

There are three points discussed:

First, is it the entire acquisition, or more than 50% of the acquisition?
Second, how much is Lane Crawford worth?

Third, how should the acquisition be done, starting from which shareholder?
"In order to avoid spending too much money and prevent some shareholders from sitting on the ground and raising prices, my suggestion is to acquire more than 50% of the shares first! When we stop the acquisition, within two or three years, the remaining shareholders may take the initiative to find us for transactions !" Jonas, as an expert in mergers and acquisitions, gave a plan!
Naturally, Wu Guangyao wanted to buy it wholly, so as to save trouble in the future, and he was not short of money!

But what Jonas said is very reasonable, Lane Crawford is not listed, even if you buy 50%, there is no legal requirement for you to buy the rest of the shares in full;
In this way, the remaining shareholders will inevitably raise the price when they see that you want to buy it in full.

Rather than being slaughtered like this, it is better to acquire more than 50% of the shares;
After the company is included in the Baiyou Group system, those shareholders are bound to be worried about the business situation, and they will have to take the initiative to come to the door in one or two years and ask to trade the shares in their hands.

Jonathan's opinion was unanimously agreed by everyone, and Wu Guangyao also nodded in agreement!
"Morse, tell me, at what price should I propose the acquisition?" Wu Guangyao said to his financial advisor.

Wu Guangyao's private team is all world-class talents, it is a bit wasteful to acquire a small Lane Crawford; however, they usually have a lot of work, for example, from their point of view, there are loopholes in Wu Guangyao's company, or What is a good development strategy.

Morse said: "At present, Lane Crawford has three stores in Hong Kong Island, and each store is its own five-story commercial building. These commercial buildings are located in prosperous areas and the prices are very high. 1600 million Hong Kong dollars; plus the value of Lane Crawford itself. I think it is more appropriate for us to acquire 2800 million Hong Kong dollars.

When Wu Guangyao heard this, he immediately felt that it was very expensive, but on second thought, isn't it the three commercial buildings that are most expensive?
It is not popular for large companies in this era to rent houses. They basically build their own houses, so basically larger companies have their own properties.

"I second that, recently, Baiyou Group also organized a valuation of Lane Crawford, which was probably between 2500 million Hong Kong dollars and 3000 million Hong Kong dollars." Fu Hongru mentioned.

Wu Guangyao nodded without hesitation, and said, "The acquisition is based on 2800 million Hong Kong dollars. The acquisition company should not care about the gains and losses of a city and a pool, but should consider the long-term development. Many acquisitions are because the price has not been reached, and there is no regret in the future." And. Now that we have decided, we don’t care about the price of a little bit.”

Wu Guangyao remembered a classic joke in the later generations of Yahoo:
[In 1998, Yahoo had the opportunity to acquire Google. Google asked for US$100 million at that time, but Yahoo gave up after thinking about it; four years later, Yahoo thought it would be better to acquire Google. Under the background at that time, the price was US$30 billion. Google counter-offered 50 billion, thinking that its market value is more than that, and there is still a lot of room for appreciation, Yahoo finally gave up;]

[In 2006, Facebook was in its infancy stage. Yahoo aimed at the youth of Facebook and proposed to acquire Facebook with US$10 billion plus stock. It coincided with Facebook’s launch of new features that were not accepted by users, and encountered internal and external troubles. Yahoo took advantage of the situation and shrunk the price to 7 million Although Zuckerberg is young, he is passionate about his career. He tore up the agreement submitted by Yahoo in public on the board of directors, and the acquisition fell through. 】

[In 2008, Microsoft made a bid of up to US$500 billion to acquire Yahoo, because Google’s monopoly in the search and advertising markets at that time caused headaches for both companies, but Yahoo’s senior officials believed that their market value was underestimated. After months of discussions, Microsoft's proposal was rejected.Yet in 2016, Yahoo was sold to Verizon for just $48 billion.Then in 17, it was acquired by Verizon Telecom for $44.8 billion. 】

Wu Guangyao doesn't want to be like Yahoo, who drags his feet and turns into a joke in the end!
Discussing the last question, which shareholder should start this acquisition?
At this time, Lane Crawford is not in power, but only a third shareholder;

Major shareholders fled back to London, basically ignoring Lane Crawford's operations;
Although the third shareholder is in power, the second shareholder also wants to seize power;
It's just that the three shareholders have the support of the major shareholders behind them, and the second shareholder can't do anything about it for the time being.

There are a dozen or so small shareholders scattered in the hands of various foreign firms!
What makes Wu Guangyao more curious is that such a company that is scheming against each other is actually in good financial and operating conditions, which makes Huazi Department Store bow its head and bow its head.

However, it was soon relieved that Huazi Department Store was still far behind in terms of global procurement and high-end goods!
In addition, people on Hong Kong Island generally worship foreigners!

"The Tony family, the major shareholder of Lane Crawford, was scared out of their wits after World War II, and basically moved all the industries in the Far East back to London! From this perspective, the Tony family must want to throw away their Lane Crawford shares. Therefore, we should get the shares of the Tony family first, and then intervene in the acquisition of Lane Crawford with great fanfare!" Jonas said.

Although I don't know how many shares the Tony family owns, everyone guesses that it will not exceed 25%!

There is a rule of British-funded foreign companies, that is, the shares are not concentrated;
This is because at the beginning of the establishment of these foreign firms, it was a partnership to raise funds;
Coupled with the later fundraising, the shares have become more dispersed.

For example, in Jardine before 1958, there were dozens of shareholders, large and small, and even the major shareholder was not the Keswick family, but the Jardine family.

After the Keswick family bought all the shares from the Jardine family through the support of several commercial banks in London, it became the real owner of Jardine.

"The Tony family supports Freddie, the current head of Lane Crawford. Do they have a deep relationship?" Wu Guangyao asked.

"As far as I know, no! It's all because the Tony family had some disagreements with the Charlie family, the second shareholder, so Freddy took the position with the support of the Tony family. But Charlie is not a fuel-efficient lamp. He united many small shareholders, In Lane Crawford and Freddie are evenly matched!" Jonathan said.

It seems that Jonathan has put a lot of effort into this recently. Of course, the reason why this information was collected so smoothly has something to do with Jonathan being an American!
It should be noted that after World War II, the general psychology of the British people was that the United States became the world hegemony and replaced the British position.

Lane Crawford has three major shareholders and more than a dozen small shareholders; the small shareholders will not consider it for now, and will report the price directly at a later date. There are many who want to sell!

Freddy doesn't need to think about it, because he is already the person in power at Lane Crawford, and it is impossible to hand over the rights in his hands!

Then, we can only start with the major shareholders and secondary shareholders!

Judging from the current situation, the major shareholder is indeed the best strategy, because he may want to cash out, and then get rid of the relationship with Hong Kong Island!
This situation is normal in the foreign capital circle of Hong Kong Island, because next to Hong Kong Island is a sleeping dragon, which may wake up at any time!

Coupled with a series of events such as World War II, the Hong Kong Island crisis, and the Korean War, many British people on Hong Kong Island have the idea of ​​​​withdrawing from Hong Kong Island!
For example, those small shareholders of Jardine Matheson have requested Jardine Matheson to go public, so they can cash out and leave the market!

The Charlie family, the second shareholder, is still fighting for the dominance of Lane Crawford, so it's a little difficult!

Now that he has decided to start with the major shareholder, Wu Guangyao immediately sent his legal advisor Hollande, financial advisor Morse, and M&A advisor Jonathan to set off for London to take over the Lane Crawford shares held by the Tony family.

(End of this chapter)