When will I have a long tassel?

"Mr. Wang, I heard that you have a technical background. Let me ask you a question, if the Zhao Group acquires PATEO, will you be able to digest it?" Tang Zifeng asked calmly.

"We... uh, there will always be a way... right?" Zhao Xingwang responded hesitantly, and at the end of the sentence, he couldn't help but add a question word. Because he knew that Tang Zifeng's problem hit the Zhao Group's core.

In the early years, the Zhao Group started by copying the products of other companies. Later, although it merged with Xia Liang No. 1 Machine Tool Factory and made a great improvement in technology, the inherent shortcomings will not be made up for a while. In recent years, the Zhao Group has expanded rapidly, but mainly in the fields of real estate, logistics and other fields. The progress of the machine tool business has been very limited, and the distance from Linji, Danji and other major enterprises has become farther and farther.

Before Tang Zifeng set out, he discussed with his colleagues in the group. Everyone believed that if the Zhao Group acquired PATEO, it would basically be unable to digest PATEO's technologies. The only way for PATEO to maintain its original momentum is for the Zhao Group not to intervene in PATEO's daily operations and to retain all of PATEO's original staff, which is equivalent to taking over the ownership of PATEO and leaving everything else unchanged.

But if they really do this, the Zhao brothers may be out of their minds. PATEO is now in a state of total loss. The Zhao Group acquired PATEO. If it does not change its business model, it can only continue to lose money. No matter how much money the Zhao Group invests, it will be ruined by PATEO again. , this is obviously not the result that the Zhao brothers want.

Since they couldn't digest PATEO, why did the Zhao brothers acquire it?

According to Han Weichang's analysis, the Zhao brothers may have a machine tool dream and want to realize it through the platform of PATEO. This is the mentality of an enthusiast. He is willing to spend tens of thousands of dollars to buy a figure that can neither eat nor drink, but others are willing to do it. What can you do?

Regarding Han Weichang's view, the executives at Linji disagreed, especially Tang Zifeng, who didn't believe it at all. To win over PATEO, at least one billion euros will be needed, which is 10 billion if converted into RMB. The total net worth of the Zhao brothers is only around 10 billion. Would they spend 10 billion on gambling just for some hobbies?

The answer is of course no.

Since the Zhao brothers made an irrational choice to acquire PATEO, and they claimed to do so in a very high-profile manner, the real possibility is that they were actually bluffing, or they wanted to use this method to prove their strength in order to Get some benefits in the capital market or elsewhere, or simply show it to Linji Group and wait for Linji Group to come to discuss it.

Tang Zifeng came with such a judgment. When he saw Zhao Xinggen hiding and only sent a technical geek brother to come out to meet him, Tang Zifeng knew Zhao Xinggen's plan. He didn't bother to play tricks with Zhao Xingwang, so he directly exposed the other party's lies and forced the other party to show his trump card.

"Hahaha, it's Mr. Tang who's here. I'm really sorry. I was called by the city just now and couldn't welcome Mr. Tang at the first time. Please forgive me!"

After a burst of haha, Zhao Xinggen opened the door of the conference room and came in. Zhao Xingwang quickly stood up and gave up the middle position to his brother. Zhao Xinggen did not sit down in a hurry, but walked up to Tang Zifeng and stretched out his hands as if to shake hands with Tang Zifeng.

Zhao Xinggen can't help but show up. He heard from the surveillance video that Tang Zifeng bluntly asked the Zhao Group to withdraw from the acquisition of PATEO, and also bluntly said that the Zhao Group was unable to digest PATEO. He knew that he would only be humiliating himself by playing tricks with Tang Zifeng. , he might even offend this young state-owned enterprise boss who has the aura of a protagonist all over him.

Zhao Xinggen remembered clearly that Gao Jinsheng, the previous owner of Xia Liang No. 1 Machine Tool Factory, was easily punished by Tang Zifeng because he was against Tang Zifeng. The Jinsheng Group, which was once at its peak in Jinnan, has also declined due to this, and has now become a very inconspicuous small business. After that setback, Gao Jinsheng became disheartened and became obsessed with charity. For seven or eight months a year, he spent seven or eight months in the west providing free lunches to poor children in Hope Primary School, which actually earned him a pretty good reputation.

With the example of Gao Jinsheng before him, how could Zhao Xinggen dare to stroke Tang Zifeng's beard? His original plan was to use this excuse to make some deals with Tang Zifeng, but now he realized that if he used this method to catch Tang Zifeng's fish, he was more likely to be dragged into the water by Tang Zifeng.

After understanding this, Zhao Xinggen did not dare to pretend anymore, and hurriedly left his office and came to the conference room. He had previously asked Zhao Xingwang to lie to Tang Zifeng that he was going to the city, but now he had to pretend to be dusty in order to pull off the trick.

Tang Zifeng stood up and shook hands with Zhao Xinggen. The two exchanged brief greetings before taking their seats. After Zhao Xinggen sat down, he pretended not to know what happened before, looked at Zhao Xingwang who was sitting on one side, and asked: "Xingwang, what did you and Mr. Tang talk about just now?"

"We... talked about the acquisition of PATEO." Zhao Xingwang replied calmly.

"Oh, Mr. Tang is also concerned about this matter?" Zhao Xinggen turned around and asked Tang Zifeng.

Tang Zifeng smiled and said, "Mr. Gen, there's no point in going around this way. Just tell me directly. What conditions do you want me to agree to?"

"This..." Zhao Xinggen was a little embarrassed, "Where did Mr. Tang go? How dare I ask Mr. Tang to agree to any conditions. However, we really didn't know that Lin Ji was also interested in PATEO. If we had known earlier... …”

Tang Zifeng said: "At present, the situation in Europe is very bad. Portugal, Spain, Greece, Iceland and other EU countries are experiencing serious financial difficulties, and the unemployment rate has reached a new high since the war. Now it is time to go to Europe to buy bargains. It is a good opportunity for enterprises, but there is one thing, that is, we Chinese investors cannot compete with each other. If we bid ourselves, it is equivalent to giving the Europeans a discount."

"Yes, Mr. Tang is absolutely right." Zhao Xinggen said in agreement, "We have a company in Jingnan that wants to acquire a metal processing company in Italy. Originally, the good purchase price was 5 million euros, but other companies went for it. Bidding, now people say they won’t sell it if it doesn’t cost 10 million, so the price has doubled.”

"The situation of PATEO is the same," Tang Zifeng said. "The reported sale price of PATEO is 2.5 billion euros, or RMB 20 billion. We have found someone to evaluate it. Based on PATEO's current operating conditions, if we can If we adopt a unified approach and do not make private peace with it, it is very likely that we can win it within 10 billion yuan.

“Botai is currently speaking very toughly, pretending that it is not in a hurry to take action. But in fact, it has secretly found several public relations companies and traveled around the world to promote it, hoping to find a buyer.

"It is understood that many companies have verbally expressed interest in PATEO, but the only companies that are truly interested and capable of acquiring PATEO are Chinese companies. If several Chinese companies make acquisition requests to PATEO at the same time, PATEO will be 100% We will raise the price from the ground up and will not sell anything other than 20 billion yuan. What we have to do now is to avoid such a situation."

"So that's it. If Mr. Tang hadn't said anything, Xingwang and I would still have been kept in the dark." Zhao Xinggen said, pretending to suddenly realize. In fact, there is no need for Tang Zifeng to explain such a matter. Zhao Xinggen has been in the market for decades, so how could he not see the real situation.

Tang Zifeng was too lazy to expose Zhao Xinggen's lies. He continued: "I have contacted the National Development and Reform Commission and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission and told them about the situation. The National Development and Reform Commission and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission have also noticed this. They said that they will soon issue a Guidance: Investors who intend to go to Europe to acquire bankrupt companies must be given certain guidance. The most important one is that Chinese investors will never compete with their own people. If there is competition among several companies, they must discuss it privately. Negotiations will not leave opportunities for European companies to reap profits."

"Then..." Zhao Xinggen hesitated.

Tang Zifeng said: "We plan to acquire PATEO at the last opportunity. This is partly due to our own development needs, and on the other hand, it is also the request of the Science and Technology Commission. PATEO has mastered a large number of key core technologies, all of which we have needed for military production. Although we have developed some alternative technologies, there is still a gap compared with PATEO in terms of maturity and completeness of technology.

"So, this time when I heard that PATEO was interested in selling, the Science and Technology Commission specifically contacted us and asked us to seize this opportunity to acquire PATEO's technology. This matter is related to national defense secrets. I’m afraid it will be difficult for the Zhao Group to participate, so the state will not allow you to acquire PATEO.”

"I understand." Zhao Xinggen nodded. He really hadn't thought about it so much before, but now after listening to Tang Zifeng's words, he realized that even if he really planned to acquire PATEO, he might not be able to pass the national level. Investments worth tens of billions of yuan must be approved by relevant state departments. The state tends to allow the acquisition of PATEO to occur when the opportunity arises. If the Zhao Group comes up out of thin air to disrupt the situation, how will the relevant departments give it a good look?

Although he said he understood, Zhao Xinggen still looked at Tang Zifeng eagerly, with a tangled look on his face.

Tang Zifeng smiled: "Old Zhao, if you have something to do, just tell me openly. You won't be tired of playing tricks all day long. Let me tell you, don't expect to use Botai to negotiate terms with me. I have 100 ways to make you fly. If you have something to do, just say it directly. If it is a serious matter and it is based on the past friendship between our two companies, I will also help you to clear the air. But if what you want to do is not that You are fair and aboveboard, I think you should stop talking."