Rebirth in 1985

Chapter 842: Targeting Wal-Mart

Lu Shaohua asked Chu Lei, Lu Jiahui, Liu Mingzhang, Li Yunqing and Qin Sichen to stay. As for what they wanted to say, Lu Shaohua did not rush to tell them. Instead, he waited until everyone else had left the meeting room and the door was closed before he motioned for them to sit down and prepared to speak.

"I have something else to talk to you about. Please sit down." Lu Shaohua waved his hand and paused for a while. After everyone was seated, Lu Shaohua went straight to the point and said, "Walmart, I believe everyone is familiar with this name. Yes, this group company is the hegemon of the global retail industry and is also the property of the Walton family. They have branches in Hong Kong and China. In fact, they are our Phoenix Supermarket's competitors."

Lu Shaohua first talked about the Wal-Mart Group, and after a moment's silence, he continued, "I want to acquire Wal-Mart. As for how many shares I want to acquire, I haven't decided yet, but the only thing I can be sure of is that I want to try to gain absolute control."

Lu Shaohua has been planning to target the Walmart Group for a while, but he has been busy with other things for some time and has not mentioned this matter. Today, taking this opportunity, Lu Shaohua said it all out.

Of course, this is also because Phoenix Supermarket wants to enter the overseas market, otherwise Lu Shaohua would not have brought it up so early.

"It's very difficult." Li Yunqing was the first to speak. After he finished speaking, he glanced at Lu Shaohua. When he saw that the latter didn't react much, Li Yunqing knew that Lu Shaohua also knew that it was very difficult. However, Lu Shaohua's eyes were very clear, that is, he wanted him to continue speaking, so Li Yunqing didn't hesitate and continued. "Regarding Wal-Mart Group, I have studied it before and planned to make a long-term investment, but I gave up in the end. The reason is simple. When I was investigating, I found that Wal-Mart is almost the private property of the Walton family. Most of their shareholders are family members. There are very few stocks circulating on the stock market, which is not worth investing in."

At this point, Li Yunqing paused for a moment, took a breath, and then continued, "It may not be easy for us to acquire their shares. As for acquiring more than 51%, that is even more difficult. Unless we can force the Walton family members to sell their shares, we cannot complete the acquisition."

What Li Yunqing said was true. Most of the shares of Walmart Group are held by members of the Walton family, who hold more than 60% of the shares. In addition, the Walton family itself has sufficient financial resources, so it is extremely difficult to acquire its shares.

In previous acquisitions, Lu Shaohua always adopted two methods. One was to use some tricks in the stock market to suppress the stock price and then buy up the shares. After buying up enough shares, he would move to small shareholders and buy up the shares from them to make up the amount.

The second method is to negotiate directly and offer a price to buy out the largest shareholder's shares, which is a bit like a merger. However, Lu Shaohua rarely uses this method, and only used it when acquiring Yahoo and Alibaba.com. Others all choose the first method.

It is obviously impossible to acquire the Walmart Group openly because it is the private property of the Walton family. Although they are a listed company, the entire group is under their control. It is almost impossible to make the Walmart family give up.

As for the first method of suppressing the stock market first, using tricks, and finally completing the acquisition, it is not very realistic because the shares controlled by the members of the Walton family together account for too large a share.

Lu Shaohua knew all this. When he was setting his sights on the Walmart Group, Lu Shaohua asked Li Zhijie to collect intelligence on the Walton family. The results showed that the current head of the Walton family held 37% of Walmart's shares, and another 23% of the shares were in the hands of several other members, totaling just 60%.

This is the result of the data, and there is also another side of the intelligence. It is interesting that the Walton family is not as harmonious as it seems on the surface, and there are also conflicts, but they have always been united to the outside world, and the outside world thinks they are very united.

However, who knows that where there are people there will be the underworld, especially for a family like the Walton family, where the direct members are all blood relatives, but when they fight, they don’t have any sense of family at all, it’s a fight to the death.

This is Lu Shaohua's opportunity. Lu Shaohua can start from this aspect, do some small tricks to cause chaos in their family, and then secretly acquire the remaining 40%. As long as he acquires 40% of the shares, Lu Shaohua will be the largest shareholder.

Then, Lu Shaohua poached some more and acquired another 11% from members of the Walton family. Wouldn't that mean he would have 51% of the shares?

This was Lu Shaohua's plan, but Lu Shaohua was also very clear that it was easier said than done. There were many difficulties involved, especially in the later stages, when it would be a huge challenge to acquire 11% of the shares from members of the Walton family.

However, Lu Shaohua was not worried, because even if he failed in the end, it was good enough to hold 40% of the shares of Walmart Group. He was the second largest shareholder anyway, and he had achieved his goal, because the second largest shareholder had a lot of say in the group.

Lu Shaohua wants the right to speak. As long as he has the right to speak, Lu Shaohua is sure that the Walton family will have no intention of dealing with Phoenix Supermarket's entry into overseas markets. Without a major obstacle, Phoenix Supermarket will directly face Carrefour, the second largest giant in the retail industry.

In a one-on-one situation, Lu Shaohua has never been afraid of anyone. Moreover, Carrefour will not be facing only Phoenix Supermarket at that time. Lu Shaohua, who holds 40% of the shares of Walmart Group, can definitely stand up and attack Carrefour. Even if he cannot stop it with all his strength, he can still create some trouble.

But then again, it is not easy to acquire the 40% of shares other than those held by the Walton family. After all, Walmart Group's performance is good and keeps rising. Can those who hold shares in Walmart Group just sit back and sleep and wait for death?

If Lu Shaohua had not founded the Phoenix Group and developed it, I believe Lu Shaohua would have chosen to hold some shares of companies with good performance and wait for death. Lu Shaohua, a reborn person, has this mentality, let alone others.

But, is there really nothing Lu Shaohua can do?

No, since Lu Shaohua dared to take action against Walmart Group, he has the means to deal with those shareholders and make them give up their shares willingly. As for how to deal with them, Lu Shaohua plans to use official means.

There is no doubt that the Walton family is very powerful, but the Walmart Group has a shortcoming, that is, their group has not established a trade union, a seemingly unofficial organization. However, no matter which country the law is in, it is clearly stipulated that a company, especially a larger company, must establish a trade union, an unofficial organization.

If Lu Shaohua starts from this point, then the Wal-Mart Group will be finished. With so many branches around the world, it would be a huge expense to ask them all to set up unions. Add to that the official punishment, and it would be even worse.

For a company, especially a listed company, if there is any turbulence in the company, then the stock price will definitely plummet. This is an immutable law. Moreover, it is Lu Shaohua who is causing trouble. How can he miss such a good opportunity?

Once Lu Shaohua takes action, the stock price will be even worse. It is possible that the stock price of Walmart Group will plummet in a short period of time. If a takeover is launched at that time, there is no guarantee that those shareholders will hold on to their shares and wait to die.

People in Western countries are very realistic. They only care about money. If they see the shares they hold shrinking, how can they not take action?

This is Lu Shaohua's opportunity.

Lu Shaohua also told everyone his plan one by one. As for what kind of official means he would use, Lu Shaohua did not say. However, everyone knew that it was too easy for Lu Shaohua to do this. After all, Lu Shaohua's power was amazing.

Chain reactions happen all the time. The father of Lu Shaohua's wife, Zeng Aimin, is the secretary of the Shenzhen Municipal Committee and holds great power. It just so happens that Walmart also has a branch in Shenzhen. As long as Shenzhen takes action, I'm afraid all the provinces and cities in China will be involved, and then Walmart will have a headache.

If we take action domestically and then leak the news, it will affect Europe and other regions in a short period of time. There is no guarantee that the governments of European countries will not be jealous. After all, the fines can be directly paid into the national treasury. Who would miss such a good opportunity?

This is exactly what Lu Shaohua wanted. He wanted people to smell the blood and then pounce on him to take a bite. By then, no matter how strong Walmart is or how powerful the Walton family is, they will not be able to hold on.

"I know the Walton family holds the majority of the shares, but their holdings are too dispersed. This is our opportunity. As long as we seize a breakthrough point, we will have the chance." Lu Shaohua said lightly, and then his tone became gloomy. "I will create a huge crisis for the Walton family. Then you can directly acquire it. Well, you can acquire as much as you can. It would be best if you can acquire 51% of the shares. If not, you should become the second largest shareholder."

Lu Shaohua's last words fully revealed his true intention. If he could acquire 51%, he would try his best to acquire it. If not, he would step back and there would be no problem in becoming the second largest shareholder. Well, this was also Lu Shaohua's bottom line.

"Understood." Liu Mingzhang obviously understood Lu Shaohua's true intention, and nodded heavily before saying, "I will try my best to raise funds and be prepared."

"Yes." Lu Shaohua nodded, and finally couldn't help but say one more thing. "Be careful when mobilizing funds, don't waste time, the group needs money in many aspects now."

Come to think of it, if Lu Shaohua wants to acquire Manchester United, it will cost several hundred million pounds, which is equivalent to 700 to 800 million US dollars, or several billion RMB. In addition, advertising also requires a large amount of money. Lu Shaohua's future plans also require money. Anyway, there are too many places that need money, and Lu Shaohua can't help but be careful.

"I will."

……