When will I have a long tassel?

As a family member of Linyiji, Huang Liting had heard of the Hegemann brand. However, it was a few years ago that she really paid attention to Hegman.

When the global financial crisis broke out, Tang Zifeng talked to Huang Liting and said that the global economic structure would undergo major changes, that there would be a large number of merger and acquisition opportunities in Europe, and that Chinese companies would usher in a major opportunity to "go global."

At that time, Tang Zifeng had discussed with Huang Liting several types of industries that could be considered. In addition to the retail industry and luxury goods industry related to Lijia Supermarket business, the machinery industry was also mentioned. Among them, Hegeman was mentioned by Tang Zifeng. One of the companies that can be pocketed.

When Tang Zifeng first talked about the acquisition of Hegeman with Huang Liting, Hegeman's status was still at its peak. Huang Liting basically regarded Tang Zifeng's words as a long-term plan. For example, when celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of Lijia Supermarket, she bought Hegman in to commemorate the founder, which is a good story. Huang Liting would not dare to think about acquiring Hegemann in her lifetime.

Although she felt it was impossible, Huang Liting still remembered Tang Zifeng's words. In the past few years, Huang Liting arranged for people in the company to start collecting various intelligence on the European market, including Hegemann's operating conditions.

Here we need to talk about the characteristics of the machine tool industry first.

The machine tool industry provides production tools for various departments of the national economy. If industrial enterprises want to produce, they need to use machine tools. But machine tools themselves are durable tools, and it is okay for a company not to purchase new machine tools for ten years.

When the economic situation is good, new companies will continue to appear on the market, and establishing new companies requires the purchase of machine tools. In addition, some old companies will also regularly update their equipment, creating a certain demand for machine tools. But when there is an economic crisis in society, investors are afraid to start new companies, and old companies will postpone equipment updates due to financial difficulties, and the demand for machine tools will drop off a cliff.

This is exactly the situation in the West. The financial crisis that began in 2008 quickly spread to Europe and turned into a more serious European debt crisis. Investment in the whole society has dropped sharply, and the equipment industry has been hardest hit.

In the past few years, the European and American machine tool markets have shrunk significantly, and European machine tool companies have under-operated. As a supplier of machine tool accessories, Hegemann is also unable to survive alone. Last year, Hegeman suffered a loss of more than 100 million euros on its books, and its market value shrank by more than half. This made Huang Liting see the possibility of acquiring Hegeman.

but……

"Zifeng, it's not a good time to acquire Hegeman now." Huang Liting reminded.

"Tell me about it." Tang Zifeng picked up the tea in front of him, took a sip, and said with a smile.

Huang Liting said: "The machine tool market in Europe is still sluggish. Our company's investment staff analyzed that it will take at least three years for Europe to get out of the debt crisis, and it will take five years for the European machine tool market to revitalize. During this period, Hegemann's market value will further decline, and if we postpone the acquisition for two years, we can save at least two to three hundred million euros, which is a lot of money."

"But now Hegeman is choking our necks, hindering our overseas expansion. If we don't get Hegeman, we won't be able to push companies like PATEO and Heimsaert to the edge. Once they slow down After a while, it will be very difficult for us to acquire them again," Tang Zifeng said.

"Do you still want to acquire PATEO?" Huang Liting asked in surprise. She had also heard of Botai and knew that it was a very good old machine tool company. If the acquisition of Hegman is a fantasy, then the acquisition of PATEO is like wandering the earth. It is very mysterious and science fiction...

Tang Zifeng nodded and said: "We will definitely acquire several old European machine tool companies. As for whether it is PATEO, Heimsaert, or others, it depends on the opportunity. European machine tool companies have been in business for a hundred or two hundred years. They have a good brand, goodwill, and mature sales channels. It is too difficult for us to compete with them.

“Acquiring several European companies, directly taking over their sales systems, and obtaining the technology patents they have accumulated is very necessary for us to enter the international market.

"Botai already suffered serious losses last year. Now we are competing with it in the US market. If we win the US market, it will be impossible for Botai not to go bankrupt. By then we will be able to eat it at a very low price. .

"The broken ship still has three thousand nails. Botai has a lot of good things in hand, which we have always wanted to get. Being able to take this opportunity to get them will be of great benefit to both the country and our Linji Group. "

Huang Liting understood and asked: "So, Zifeng, you just said that Hegeman is choking your neck. What's going on?"

Tang Zifeng told Huang Liting about the Chicago exhibition and Hegeman's cessation of confession. Huang Liting has been working in shopping malls for many years, and of course she understands such things immediately.

She thought for a while and said, "In other words, the acquisition of Hegeman is actually not that urgent. The main thing is to allow Hegeman to resume supply to Linji and ensure that Linji can squeeze out PATEO in the U.S. market. That's it. ?"

Tang Zifeng said: "It's okay to say that. However, it is also a good thing to be able to acquire Hegeman. We also need to get the machine tool accessories ourselves. It is not good to be blackmailed by Hegeman like this."

"But it's really not worthwhile to acquire Hegeman now." Huang Liting said, "Lijia can actually spend 10 billion in cash to acquire Hegeman. According to the current situation, it is estimated that 6 billion to 7 billion can be fully purchased. . But after buying it, we will not be able to recoup our investment in the short term, and if the 6 to 7 billion capital is invested there, it will be very detrimental to the development of the supermarket.

"Now our supermarkets are also preparing to go global. Some chain stores in Europe, Japan and the United States have suffered serious losses. I am planning to allocate a sum of funds to acquire these chain stores to expand Lijia's overseas influence."

Huang Liting said this not to confront Tang Zifeng. As a business partner, she has the obligation to analyze the pros and cons of something clearly to Tang Zifeng to prevent Tang Zifeng from making wrong decisions. If Tang Zifeng still asked her to acquire Hegman after understanding these situations, she would naturally do it. At least at this time, Tang Zifeng's decision had been carefully weighed.

Hearing Huang Liting's analysis, Tang Zifeng smiled and said: "Sister Huang, don't worry, I don't want Lijia to enter the machine tool industry. There are specialties in the technical industry, and Sister Huang is a genius in the retail industry. If I care about Hege Man, it may be about to overturn. By the way, if Cai Gong is allowed to go to Hegeman as the general manager, there may be a chance."

Hearing Tang Zifeng talk about her husband Cai Yue, Huang Liting burst into laughter. While laughing, she waved her hands and said, "Our Lao Cai is not the material to be the general manager. He is just a nerd. However, I definitely can't care. What a factory, I’m just a woman from the countryside, so I don’t know anything about industry.”

"As a country woman with a net worth of several billion, Sister Huang is not afraid of offending the public when she says this?" Tang Zifeng laughed, then returned to the topic and said: "My consideration is that Lijia Supermarket will show up to make the acquisition, and wait for After taking over Hegeman, they can then sell it to domestic machine tool companies. You can also find a large company to take over, or you can attract more than a dozen companies to raise funds for the acquisition.

"Hegeman will lose money in Europe, but if it falls into the hands of a Chinese company, it will definitely make a profit. Of course, profitability is only one aspect. The key is that if we solve the bottleneck problem, we will be able to go all out to compete internationally. The benefits that the market can bring are immeasurable.”

"But..., oh, I understand."

Huang Liting reacted halfway through her words. She originally wanted to ask why Tang Zifeng didn't directly recruit several machine tool companies to acquire Hegman. But then she thought about it and it seemed that it would be more appropriate for Lijia Supermarket to take over the acquisition.

Lijia Supermarket is in the retail industry and has nothing to do with the machine tool industry. Lijia Supermarket came forward to acquire Hegemann, which gave people the impression that they had some money and wanted to cross-border to pick up the slack. If Hegman dares to ask for a high price, Lijia Supermarket can walk away and show that he is too lazy to pay attention to the other party, thereby gaining a psychological advantage in negotiations.

On the other hand, if Linji Group comes forward to discuss the acquisition with Hegeman, Hegeman will understand that the other party is stuck in his neck and wants to use this method to get out of the trap. Since he was the one being threatened, Hegeman could calmly deal with it and wait for the price.

Huang Liting has acquired many local small supermarkets in recent years and is very familiar with various techniques in mergers and acquisitions.

"This is just one aspect." Tang Zifeng said, "We can't spend 6 billion to acquire Hegman right now. Our goal is PATEO. If the funds are trapped by Hegeman, we will wait for PATEO to step in in the future. When the bid is drafted, we won’t be able to get the money out.

"My idea is to let several other machine tool companies jointly take over Hegeman, or find a private company that makes machine tool accessories to take over. But now it is too time-consuming to contact these companies, so I thought of Sister Huang. Who makes you the richest person I know?"

"Ha, I knew you never cared about your sister, you only cared about your sister's money." Huang Liting pretended to be angry and said, which was somewhat ambiguous.

Tang Zifeng smiled and said: "How can it be possible? In fact, the main reason why I asked Sister Huang to do this is to give Sister Huang a chance to show her face. Sister Huang must also know that Hegeman's accessories are not only useful to us. Timing is very important, and it is also very important to the military-industrial companies in the Committee of Science and Industry system. The acquisition of Hegeman is actually helping the Committee of Science and Industry. The significance of this matter to the country is far greater than its significance to us.

"If a leader knew that Sister Huang spent a lot of money to acquire Hegeman, and even lost the opportunity to expand the supermarket, would the leader say to Sister Huang that she 'knows what is right'? This would also be helpful to you, Sister Huang. It’s of great benefit, right?”

"Is that true?"

Huang Liting's eyes lit up, and she suddenly thought of many possibilities.