Chapter 301： [Lan Crawford Department Store Acquisition Battle One]

Chapter 301 [Lan Crawford Department Store Acquisition Battle One]

In two months, Fu Hongru completed the integration of Baiyou Group's companies, which made Wu Guangyao impressed!

Baiyou Group’s headquarters has been moved to the office building in the Yangtze River Center, occupying four floors in total.

In the chairman's office, Wu Guangyao, Lin Yueru, the private advisory group of four, and Fu Hongru are discussing how to acquire Lane Crawford.

There are three points discussed:

First, is it all acquisitions or more than 50% acquisitions?

Second, what is the value of Lane Crawford?

Third, how should the acquisition be made, and who should start with?

"In order to avoid spending too much money and prevent some shareholders from sitting on the ground and raising the price, my suggestion is to buy 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 look for us to trade. !" Jonas, as an M&A expert, gave a plan!

Naturally, Wu Guangyao wants to buy wholly-owned, so as to save trouble afterwards, and he is 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 that you can buy the remaining shares in full;

In this way, the remaining shareholders will see you want to buy in full, and they are bound to sit down and raise the price.

Instead of being slaughtered in this way, it is better to acquire more than 50% of the shares;

After the company is incorporated into the Baiyou Group system, those shareholders will inevitably worry about the operating conditions, and 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, Wu Guangyao also nodded in agreement!

"Morse, tell me, at what price should I propose the acquisition?" Wu Guangyao said to his financial adviser.

Wu Guangyao’s private team are all world-class talents. It is a waste to acquire a small Lane Crawford; however, they usually have a lot of work. For example, from their point of view, Wu Guangyao’s companies have loopholes, or What is a good development strategy.

Morse said: “Currently Lane Crawford has three stores on 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 low. I value the prices of these three commercial buildings. 16 million Hong Kong dollars; plus Lane Crawford’s own value. I think it’s more appropriate for us to acquire 28 million Hong Kong dollars.

Wu Guangyao suddenly felt that it was expensive when he heard it, but after another thought, isn’t it the three commercial buildings that are expensive?

The big companies in this era are not popular in renting houses. They basically build their own houses, so basically larger companies have their own properties.

"I second. Baiyou Group has recently organized a valuation of Lane Crawford, which is probably between 25 million Hong Kong dollars and 30 million Hong Kong dollars." Fu Hongru said.

Wu Guangyao nodded, did not hesitate, and said: "Just buy at 28 million Hong Kong dollars. The acquisition company cannot care about the gains and losses of one city and one pool, but must consider long-term development. Many acquisitions are because the price has not been reached, and I will regret it in the future. And. Now that we have confirmed it, don’t care about the price that comes and goes a little bit."

Wu Guangyao remembers a classic joke from Yahoo!

[In 1998, Yahoo had the opportunity to acquire Google. Google was asking for $1 million, but Yahoo gave up after thinking about it. After four years, Yahoo thought it was better to acquire Google. Under the circumstances at the time, it offered a price of $3 billion. Google bargained 5 billion, thinking that its market value is more than that, and there is still a lot of room for appreciation. Yahoo eventually gave up;]

[In 2006, when Facebook was in its infancy stage, Yahoo aimed at Facebook’s youth and proposed to acquire Facebook for US$1 billion plus stocks. This coincided with Facebook’s launch of new features that were not accepted by users and suffered internal and external troubles. Yahoo took advantage of the trend and reduced the price to 750 million. Dollar, Zuckerberg is young, but enthusiastic 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 $50 billion offer to acquire Yahoo, because Google’s monopoly in the search and advertising markets at the time caused both headaches, but Yahoo’s senior officials believed that their market value was underestimated, and internally After months of discussion, Microsoft's proposal was rejected. However, in 2016, Yahoo sold to Verizon for only $4.8 billion. Then in 17 years, it was acquired by Verizon Telecom at a price of 4.48 billion U.S. dollars. 】

Wu Guangyao doesn't want to be like Yahoo. He does things sluggishly and eventually becomes a joke!

The last question was discussed. Which shareholder should we start with this acquisition?

At this time, Lane Crawford is not in charge of the major shareholder, but only three shareholders;

The major shareholder fled back to London and basically ignored Lane Crawford’s operations;

Although the third shareholders are in power, the second shareholders also want to seize power;

Only the support of the major shareholders is behind the three shareholders, and the second shareholders can do nothing for the time being.

There are a dozen minority shareholders in the rest, scattered in the hands of various foreign banks!

What makes Wu Guangyao more curious is that such an intriguing company is actually in good financial and operating conditions, so that Huazi Department Store bowed its head.

But it was quickly relieved that Huazi Department Store’s global sourcing and high-end goods are still far behind!

Plus, people on Hong Kong Island generally admire the ocean!

"The Tony family, the major shareholder of Lane Crawford, has been frightened since World War II and moved all the Far East industries back to London! From this perspective, the Tony family definitely wants to throw away their Lane Crawford shares. So, we should first get the shares of the Tony family, and then intervene in Lane Crawford's acquisition with great fanfare!" Jonas said.

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

British-owned foreign companies have a rule, that is, the shares are very not concentrated;

This is because at the beginning of the establishment of these foreign banks, they were pooled fund-raising operations;

Coupled with the later fund-raising, the shares have become more dispersed.

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

The Keswick family, through the support of several commercial banks in London, purchased all the shares from the Jardine family, and then truly became the owner of Jardine.

"The Tony family supports Freddy, the current head of Lane Crawford, is there a deep relationship between the two?" Wu Guangyao asked.

"As far as I know, not! It's just because the Tony family and the second shareholder, the Charlie family, were a little unhappy, so Freddy successfully took the position with the support of the Tony family. But Charlie is not a fuel-efficient lamp, and has joined many small shareholders. At Lane Crawford and Freddy are evenly matched!" Jonathan said.

It seems that Jonathan has worked a lot on this recently. Of course, the reason why such information was collected so smoothly has something to do with Jonathan being an American!

It should be noted that after World War II, the British general psychology, the United States has become the world's hegemon, replacing the British position.

Lane Crawford has three major shareholders and more than a dozen minority shareholders; the minority shareholders will not consider it for the time being, and they will directly quote the price later. Many people want to sell!

Freddy does not need to think about it, because he is already in power of Lane Crawford, and it is impossible to hand over the rights in his hands!

So, we can only start with the major shareholder and the second shareholder!

Judging from the current situation, the major shareholder is indeed the best strategy, because he may want to cash out, and then clear the relationship with Hong Kong Island!

This situation is normal in the foreign capital circle of Hong Kong Island, because there is a sleeping dragon next to Hong Kong Island, which may wake up at any time!

In addition to 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 to withdraw from Hong Kong Island!

For example, the minority shareholders of Jardine Matheson have asked Jardine Matheson to go public, so they can cash out and leave!

The two shareholders, the Charlie family, are still vying for the dominance of Lane Crawford, so it's a little bit difficult!

Since he decided to start with the major shareholder, Wu Guangyao immediately sent his own legal adviser Hollande, financial adviser Morse, and M&A adviser Jonathan to head to London to take down Lane Crawford shares in the hands of the Tony family.

(End of this chapter)