Chapter 741 New Game: "Chinese Cube"

Chapter 741 New Game: "Chinese Cube"

Chapter 741 New Game: "Chinese Cube"

Connaught Building:

Yang Wendong was standing in his office on the top floor of the building, looking at the rainy Victoria Harbour in the distance. When the sun was not shining, the scenery of Hong Kong was quite different;
"Mr. Yang, six of Hutchison's suppliers have formally sued the company in the Hong Kong High Court." Fang Xianming reported after walking in.

Yang Wendong smiled and said, "Okay, tell Changxing Media not to interfere, but arrange for other media to publicize this matter so that the whole of Hong Kong knows about it."

"Okay, no problem." Fang Xianming agreed and said, "I have also found a number of Hutchison shareholders. Together they own 10% of the shares. These people have agreed to work together to apply for a shareholders' meeting at the time we request."

According to Hong Kong law, whether it is an individual shareholder or a group, as long as they have a total of 10% of the shares, they can apply to hold a general meeting of shareholders, which the company cannot refuse;

Of course, it is not held randomly, and there are other restrictions in this regard.

"Well, OK." Yang Wendong nodded, and then asked: "How many stocks do we have in hand during this period?"

Fang Xianming replied: "Currently, there is a total of 23%, mainly purchased from many shareholders. Hutchison's stock price has been too bad in recent years, and its debt is extremely heavy. During this period, other stocks have begun to recover, but Hutchison's is still falling. Many shareholders and investors are also eager to sell their shares."

Yang Wendong smiled and said, "Okay, continue the acquisition. 23% has exceeded the proportion of shares I held at the beginning, but if we want to acquire Hutchison, we still need a little more."

Fang Xianming said: "I understand, but the shareholders we acquired in the early stage were those who held a large number of shares and had their own businesses. They had a small number of shares and a large number of shares, and I also gave them other benefits, so they agreed to keep the matter secret;

But for subsequent acquisitions, we can only go to the secondary market or contact many small shareholders. Once we do this, unless we do it very slowly, like Hutchison Whampoa did back then, it will be difficult to hide this matter from outsiders, and Qi Dezun may also know about it.

Once the public knows about this, Hutchison Whampoa’s stock price may actually rise.”

"Just know it if you know it, and just try to conceal it. Even if the public knows that someone is buying Hutchison shares, it's fine as long as they don't know it's us." Yang Wendong thought for a moment and said, "Control the news through the media first. If you can't control it, make up some overseas consortium to divert attention first.

As long as we can control it for a short period of time, we will have more than 33% of the shares in our hands, plus the cooperation of some other shareholders and Qi Dezun’s failed management over the years, we will have a good chance of winning at the shareholders’ meeting.”

Fang Xianming smiled and said, "I understand. Everything is being carried out according to our plan. Hutchison is now in a serious capital chain and debt crisis. Even if we don't intervene, I'm afraid it won't last long.
If we were not worried that the market would know our intentions and that this might increase the cost of our acquisition, we would have disclosed it earlier.”

"Well, that's about right. The more money we can save, the better," Yang Wendong nodded and said, "I might go to the United States later. When I come back, I can arrange a shareholders' meeting. But before that, if Qi Dezun finds out, we can have a talk. It's better not to make things awkward."

On the one hand, although the relationship between Qi Dezun and Yang Wendong has not been very good over the years, it is not bad either; on the other hand, his consortium’s repeated mergers and acquisitions of British capital will only make other British capital more cautious, so it is better to keep a low profile this time.

Fang Xianming agreed, "Okay, Hutchison's business is much more complicated than Wharf Holdings. If we can get Qi Dezun's cooperation, it will be much easier for us to take over."

"In fact, even if Qi Dezun continues to manage Huang, it's fine. There's no problem with his ability. It's just that his risk awareness is too poor and he's too bold." Yang Wendong continued.

Qi Dezun did put Hutchison into crisis, but it is undeniable that the scale of Hutchison was also created by him. Even without Yang Wendong's history, he successfully transformed Hutchison from an ordinary trading company to one of the four major foreign companies in a dozen years. This ability is beyond doubt;
With his ability, plus Yang Wendong's early foresight of risks, the combination is perfect. In fact, his own subsidiary also follows this model. With capable managers and him to control risks and strategic direction, it can smoothly develop into a giant in any field.

Fang Xianming thought for a moment and said, "Qi Dezun is indeed very capable, but the Hutchison Whampoa he controls also has the same problem as other listed companies, that is, his own company is constantly draining the listed companies. If we continue to use him, we have to pay attention to this aspect."

Why do so many companies like to go public?

On the one hand, after going public, you can easily use financial means to buy low and sell high, and make money from stockholders and small shareholders; secondly, after going public, the company will expand in size, but it will not be completely yours. At this time, you can arrange for your family's company to cooperate with the listed company, and then legally make money from the listed company;

This is also the reason why many major shareholders continue to dilute their shares, because doing so can expand the scale of listed companies and then suck more blood. However, after the shares are diluted, it is possible that others will compete for management rights. This is a balance between benefits and risks. However, many companies have been ignoring risks for the sake of profit for a long time, and they always have a fluke mentality. This is also one of the reasons why British giants will be acquired in the future.

Yang Wendong nodded slowly and said, "This is indeed a problem. If we negotiate with Qi Dezun, we have to hint at this aspect. I can ignore what he did before, but not later.
If he agrees to this condition and successfully helps me obtain absolute control of Hutchison, then we can hand over the management rights to him.”

In fact, no matter how it acquires, Hutchison Whampoa will eventually have to find professional management. Given that Hutchison Whampoa's senior management is all British, and the business is complex, the best solution at least in the short term is to find British people to take charge of the management, and give the Chinese management a buffer time to take over;

Then continuing to choose Qi Dezun is also an acceptable option, provided that the other party cooperates with oneself.

Fang Xianming said: "The benefit of doing this is that it will make it easier for us to acquire Hutchison Whampoa, but Qi Dezun is deeply rooted in Hutchison Whampoa. If he continues to control Hutchison Whampoa, I'm afraid he will not stop."

"Then let's continue the competition. Acquisitions are a form of gambling in themselves." Yang Wendong smiled and said, "And the most important thing is that Qi Dezun is about to turn 60, and he won't be able to do it for many more years." Age is a person's weakness. Even the founding emperors of ancient times could not escape the passage of time.
In the original history, Qi Dezun died in the early 80s, but no one knows how he died. History has changed in this life, and perhaps he will be like Li Xiaolong, but he will be older anyway.

Fang Xianming smiled and said, "That's true. When he reaches that age, we will have enough reasons to let him go at any time."

If you cooperate with me, then age is not a problem. If you don't cooperate, this is also a very good reason. After all, you are not the boss. When employees reach retirement age, they can naturally be retired "kindly" by the company, and they can even receive a red envelope or other benefits. These are all minor issues.

Yang Wendong said, "But we must also be prepared for Qi Dezun's refusal to cooperate. We need to select a suitable new person in charge from within Hutchison. Richard Xin seems to be suitable. I heard that he and Qi Dezun don't get along very well. It would be good to find a backup candidate."

The senior executives of several major foreign companies in Hong Kong are all British foreigners, so even if they want to find alternatives, they can only find foreigners. In fact, this is normal. The same is true on the Chinese side. Although there are many foreigners in Changxing Group, they are basically middle-level managers. The only exception is Wharf Holdings, which is also for the purpose of setting an example. However, the voice of Chinese management is still increasing.

However, in the future, Changxing Group will focus on overseas, and employing foreigners will be the norm, including in the top level of the pyramid, where there can actually be a few foreigners. It wants to become a true multinational company, not the British-owned foreign company that only knew how to operate within Hong Kong.

"Richard Xin? Okay, I will find a chance to communicate with him, but we have to wait until we have enough shares. I'm worried that if he tells Qi Dezun directly, it will affect our plans." Fang Xianming agreed.

Even if Qi Dezun knew about it now, it would not affect the final outcome, but it might affect how much money he had to spend, so it was better to keep it secret.

Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Okay, let's do this. When I come back from the United States, we can start when the time is right."

There are many foreign companies in Hong Kong, but only a few of them are worthy of his attention. After all, given his scale, there is no need to waste time on some medium-sized ones.
Under Qi Dezun's ten years of management, Hutchison Whampoa has many high-quality assets in its hands, which are in no way inferior to Wharf Holdings and much stronger than Hutchison Whampoa in its previous life. Especially now that Hutchison Whampoa is the major shareholder of HK Electric, once he acquires Hutchison Whampoa, HK Electric will have taken half of it.

On January 1, Yang Wendong came to North Point, Hong Kong, where Honor Electronics has a large research center;
This is a 6-storey industrial building with a single floor area of ​​more than 2.5 square feet. It is equipped with various advanced equipment and thousands of Hong Kong's most talented electronic employees, many of whom have been abroad, either as international students or have overseas work experience.

In this era, the whole of Asia, including Japan, still has great trust in international students from Europe and America;
Wang Zhiqun took Yang Wendong and his group on a tour of the research center and gave a detailed introduction;
After the group arrived at a conference room on the top floor, Yang Wendong said, “Honor Electronics now has dozens of products. Although this is the case for home appliance or electronics companies around the world, I think there are still too many types;
I am not asking the company to give up a certain business, but I hope that among these dozens of products, they can focus on a few of them and do them well, and do the others moderately. Don't think about doing all of them well, which is almost impossible."

In the past, the home appliance giants in the mainland, such as Haier and Midea, had hundreds of product categories, but each company only excelled in a few of them, and the others just lived by following the brand's reputation;
This is mainly because the home appliance market is too large and there are too many categories, so no company has enough energy to be the best in all categories.

"Understood, Mr. Yang." Wang Zhiqun replied: "At present, the company's main business direction is a few kitchen appliances and black and white appliances. We have certain advantages in the former, and the latter is also because the market is large enough;

For other home appliances, we basically do not do much research and development. Instead, we produce appropriately according to market conditions and make a small profit from existing channels. Unless there is very good feedback from a certain market, we will invest a certain amount of energy in it. "

"That's good. The market for black and white home appliances is so huge that we will never give up on it no matter what." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "When the opportunity is right, we may also acquire overseas large home appliance companies to directly obtain their markets and technologies. Only in this way can we develop the fastest."

Black and white home appliances mainly include color TV, air conditioner, refrigerator and washing machine. Before the emergence of electronic products such as computers and game consoles, these four items were the second most important industry after automobiles. Any industry that makes home appliances cannot miss them.
However, the competition in this industry is too fierce. Not only traditional brands from Europe and the United States, but also Japanese upstarts and even Samsung in the future will join the competition. Honor does not have much advantage in this regard, and in the future it will inevitably have to stimulate development through other capital methods, such as Best Buy and acquisitions of suitable targets.

Wang Zhiqun smiled and said, "That would be great. With the help of overseas brands, it would be much easier for us to develop."

"Well, I haven't decided on the goal yet. This also requires timing, so don't think about it in the short term." Yang Wendong added: "But in addition to home appliances, game arcades will also be our main products in the future. I came here today to organize the development of a new game."

"New game?" Wang Zhiqun's eyes lit up.

Yang Wendong said: "First call the technical engineers of the game department to the conference room, and I will talk to you all later."

"Okay, Mr. Yang." Wang Zhiqun agreed and hurried to get someone to help him.
Everyone was in one building, and after a few phone calls, more than a dozen people arrived at the meeting room within ten minutes;

After Yang Wendong asked everyone to sit down, he smiled and said, “Everyone, you are all elites who once studied at Intel and made several games after returning to Hong Kong. I can say that the previous games were just for practice;

But the next one is what I value very much. I believe it will bring very rich returns to our company, and so will you. "

"Mr. Yang, what kind of game?" asked an engineer.

Yang Wendong replied: "I plan to call this game "Chinese Cube", and the gameplay is like this"

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(End of this chapter)