2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 587: The attitude of daily life (asking for monthly ticket)

On the evening of September 1, Changfeng Group, which had suspended trading, issued an announcement to convene an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders, sparking much speculation in the market.

"Looks like the acquisition is really happening. Damn it, these young people have no sportsmanship at all."

"The investors who profited from this are in for a treat; they'll break even this time."

Before the formal acquisition, the company needs to hold a shareholders' meeting, other shareholders need to waive their preemptive rights, and a letter of intent to acquire must be signed before that.

During the meeting today, both parties formally signed a letter of intent for the acquisition.

The acquisition was jointly completed by three companies: Flash Group, Weilai Auto, and ByteDance Engine. Tan Jincheng was finally at ease when the two parties signed the letter of intent for the acquisition.

A verbal agreement is just that—a verbal agreement. If they don't acknowledge it, there's nothing you can do. Only after a formal letter of intent for acquisition is signed can the next step of the process begin.

Since it involves state-owned assets and is a listed company, the process is quite complicated.

The conditions offered by Tan Jincheng were quite generous, except for the ratio of shares to cash that was still undiscussed. Furthermore, since someone from higher up had intervened, there was really no reason for the Hunan province side to disagree.

The only thing they regretted was Flashpoint Technology's backdoor listing. These days, listed companies are very rare in various regions, and after Flashpoint Technology went public through a backdoor listing, it became a listed company in Beicang.

In some places, local governments even prevent companies from being used as shell companies for this reason, even if the company is on the verge of collapse.

After all this rambling, it turns out that someone from above intervened. Otherwise, Hunan Province wouldn't have paid any attention to Tan Jincheng. Selling a subsidiary to save himself is fine, but acquiring the entire company is out of the question.

Speaking of this, it can be considered as the accumulation of Tan Jincheng's reputation over the years, especially his performance during the two disasters this year, which made some people look at him with new eyes and feel that this young man is a man who gets things done.

Secondly, it also coincided with a good time. The automotive industry is about to undergo a major transformation, and the government intends to encourage mergers and acquisitions within enterprises. Flash Motors' acquisition of Changfeng Group can be regarded as an early pilot project.

If the results are good, it can be implemented on a large scale later.

The acquisition was made possible by having the right timing, location, and people.

"4.86 shareholders, 61.22% more than the previous quarter; hey, these big-time individual investors and institutions have sold all their shares to retail investors, that's really ruthless."

"We also bought 1.2% ourselves. The distribution of stocks in the secondary market is too scattered. Will this have any impact?"

ByteDance is also one of the major shareholders of Changfeng Group, and they are entitled to attend the shareholders' meeting. Today, Tan Jincheng and Gu Qingqing are attending the shareholders' meeting, and this is the first time they have seen the latest update on the number of shareholders of Changfeng Group.

Meanwhile, Tan Jincheng's shareholding was also exposed, and the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) issued a list of related accounts, all of which were registered under the name of ByteDance Investment Co., Ltd.

Upon seeing the report, Tan Jincheng felt much more relaxed. Fortunately, Cheng Linfeng had adjusted his strategy in time and not reduced his holdings last time; otherwise, this would have been a dark history, and it was uncertain when he would be held accountable.

As for increasing holdings, it's easier to explain. You only need to make an announcement once you reach 5%. There are no special regulations requiring shareholders holding more than 5% to make an announcement before buying.

The 5% stake had grown to 6.2%, and Li Jianxin's expression was priceless when he received the report.

Recently, he also inquired about Tan Jincheng's work style within the industry, and according to people in the industry, it was "dog-like and shady."

Buying stocks secretly on the secondary market, isn't that just underhanded and despicable?

"It's nothing. These retail investors can't hold on either. After two limit-up days, they'll start worrying about whether it will fall and whether they should sell. In the end, it will still go back to the institutions."

Tan Jincheng had been a victim of stock market manipulation himself. He knew that if a stock he was stuck with kept falling, it was like it was just pretending to be dead. But if it suddenly rose by ten or twenty points, he would feel anxious and uncertain.

Of the nearly 50,000 shareholders, it would be considered good if 20-30% of them actually made money.

"Speaking of which, we do have priority purchase rights, hehe."

ByteDance is currently the fourth largest shareholder of Changfeng Group. The top three are Xiangcheng State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, Changfeng Group, and Mitsubishi. The top two shareholders will definitely not exercise any preemptive rights. As for the third, it is a foreign-funded enterprise and has no right to control the company.

It was called an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders, but in reality it was just a formality.

Li Jianxin always felt that this kid was taking things step by step. The first time he shamelessly paid a high price to "beg" for 5% of the shares, it now looked like he was preparing for this acquisition.

"If the policy hadn't been relaxed, I guess Mr. Tan would still be secretly buying on the secondary market, right?"

The extraordinary general meeting of shareholders approved the acquisition plan of Flash Group. After the meeting, Zhou Kai stared at Tan Jincheng with a smile and said that he had the same idea as Li Jianxin. He also felt that the previous 5% share was intentionally done by Tan Jincheng.

In the absence of a sound system, Tan Jincheng could buy shares of Changfeng Group through various accounts, and even if he bought more than 10% without making a public announcement, it wouldn't cause any problems. Even if he were caught by the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the maximum loss would be only a few hundred thousand yuan.

"No, it's just that we lost too much money and bought more shares. Actually, when we first bought that 5% stake, besides the idea of ​​cooperation, we were also thinking about when we could make some money."

Tan Jincheng would certainly not admit it, and Zhou Kai knew he wouldn't either; he was just saying it casually. Li Jianxin's current attitude towards Tan Jincheng was the same as his attitude towards Ni Jie back then. Initially, because of his age, reputation, and polite demeanor, he thought this young man was quite good.

But now I've discovered that this guy is really difficult to deal with. In business, he's not afraid of ruthless people or those who don't follow the rules. Anyone who doesn't follow the rules will be taught a lesson by someone who doesn't follow the rules even more.

However, the most difficult people to deal with are those who have no problems with the procedure but are also petty and rude.

"Next, let's talk about the cash and share exchange ratios. We need to agree on this before we can submit it for approval." Li Jianxin was too lazy to waste any more words with him.

"What did President Zhou say?" Tan Jincheng asked Zhou Kai.

"I definitely have no objection. It's good to get it done as soon as possible."

The extraordinary general meeting is scheduled for Friday, September 5th. Just yesterday, global stock markets plummeted, with Hong Kong and US stocks experiencing record-breaking declines. Meanwhile, the Shanghai Composite Index has fallen for five consecutive trading days in September.

With the index at 2202 points, more and more stocks are falling below a market capitalization of 10 billion.

Exports have been affected. Although the subprime mortgage crisis in the US has not yet fully manifested in the market, many investment institutions are already aware of it, as evidenced by the recent surge in short positions on US stocks and even globally.

Gold has risen to 180 yuan per gram, and the price of crude oil is also fluctuating significantly. As the head of an investment institution, Zhou Kai couldn't possibly be unaware of these things.

Generally speaking, such tender offers come with a premium. If this continues, let alone a premium, Flash may even abandon the acquisition.

Tan Jincheng wanted things to be done quickly, and Xiangcheng City Investment also wanted to complete the transaction as soon as possible. Both parties were keen to complete the transaction quickly, which could be considered a mutual attraction.

However, the restructuring of the major shareholder is one thing, while the integration and restructuring of Changfeng Motor itself is another. No matter how Changfeng Motor restructures itself, it cannot bypass its technology partners and its third-largest shareholder, Mitsubishi.

At this critical moment, Mitsubishi's attitude is crucial.

At today's extraordinary general meeting of shareholders, Mitsubishi's representative agreed to the acquisition method, but did not speak, and their attitude was very ambiguous.

That night, Tan Jincheng held another video conference at the hotel.

The participants included executives and major shareholders of Flash Group, Flash Technology, ByteDance Engine, and Weilai Auto.

“Mitsubishi will definitely withdraw from Changfeng Motors, otherwise Weilai Motors will not be able to cooperate with them.” Tan Jincheng said firmly.

Even though Xiao Rizi's cars are no longer as good as they used to be more than 10 years later, Xiao Rizi's brand influence was really strong back then, and it had an absolute advantage in the field of gasoline cars, especially Mitsubishi engines.

Many car companies use Mitsubishi engines in their advertising to fool uninformed consumers.

Of course, the technology of modern cars is definitely superior to ours, and we must admit that. Currently, the general situation of domestic cars is overcapacity, low technology level, and weak market competitiveness.

We have virtually no territory in the mid-to-high-end market; we can only compete with each other in the low-end, low-profit segment.

"In that case, we'll need to prepare more money. Mitsubishi probably won't accept FlashTech's shares, so we'll have to use cash to acquire Mitsubishi's shares."

"Of course, even if he wants it, I don't want to give it to him."

FlashTech's future valuation of tens of billions is definitely not a problem. We, the insiders, can enjoy the benefits of the share swap. It's unacceptable for ordinary people to benefit from it.

Cooperation is one thing, but there are certain benefits that we can foresee that we absolutely cannot give them away.

A foreign company can only have one joint venture partner in China. Therefore, Mitsubishi's withdrawal from Changfeng was necessary and beyond doubt.

Mitsubishi owns 14.59% of Changfeng Group's shares, which is worth 2.92 million yuan based on the market value at the time of the trading suspension.

It has to be said that Changfeng Motors, which has been cooperating with Mitsubishi since the 90s, has really made a fortune. Even though they can't even digest the chassis technology now, just one Pajero model is enough to give them a return on their investment.

“That would require an additional budget of around 3 million, I’ll arrange it,” Xie Hongjun replied decisively.

“Then we’ll do our part too; we can’t just take the money and not do anything.”

Wang Qinghua and Jin Chuanling also expressed their views. As major shareholders of Flashtech, they believe that the company's backdoor listing would only benefit them and not harm them. They believe that everyone must work together to overcome this challenge.

"Okay, thank you all. Let's celebrate when it goes public." Tan Jincheng didn't refuse; at this time, every additional person's help would be a greater asset.

They are all big bosses from various places, and they all have some resources.

(End of this chapter)