2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 829 Acquiring Proton (Seeking monthly votes!)
Hu Ge's activity at the booth lasted only half an hour, during which he sang a few songs and answered a few questions from fans before it ended.

However, the atmosphere at the scene was so enthusiastic that he stayed for another ten minutes or so.

When Brother Hu returned backstage, only Tan Jincheng was there. Brother Boatman gave a few interviews in front of Wei Lai's booth and then left.

"Mr. Tan, it's been a long time. I wish you a belated Happy New Year."

"Are you always so abstract? It's already February, what kind of New Year's greetings are you giving? Thank you for today."

In private, Hu Ge is quite funny, but his on-screen image is rarely serious. Li Xiaoyao is that kind of cynical character.

"Oh right, I haven't congratulated you yet."

"Not at all, I have to thank you, Mr. Tan, for giving me this opportunity. We in the industry all say that the spokespersons you personally choose will have a smooth career. It seems that last year was thanks to you."

These words surprised Tan Jincheng: "Huh? There's actually such a saying?"

"That's right. Look at the spokespeople for Flash, aren't they all like that? They may not be the most famous, but their careers are definitely very stable. I also hope to bask in your glory, Mr. Tan."

If something happens only once, people might think it's a coincidence. But if it happens again and again, then it can no longer be described as a coincidence.

The spokespeople that Tan Jincheng personally selected were not big stars at the time, only somewhat famous. However, their subsequent careers proved that they all developed quite well, at least their careers were relatively long.

Last year, we hired Hu Ge as the spokesperson for our flagship product, and he immediately had several hit dramas and his popularity skyrocketed.

There are quite a few superstitious people in the entertainment industry, so it's no wonder they overthink things.

"Haha, you're overthinking it, or rather, you've got the cause and effect reversed. It's precisely because of your self-discipline or respect that we've had such a long-term partnership. Otherwise, you could have changed your spokesperson at any time."

Saying this in front of the spokesperson is somewhat impolite, but some things should still be made clear.

Their superstitions are their business, but to take it so seriously and assume that any spokesperson personally hired by him will have a long-term contract is simply wishful thinking.

In fact, his products have changed spokespeople before; for example, GXG has changed spokespeople several times.

Clothing, as a fast-moving consumer good, is highly dependent on traffic and must keep up with traffic trends.

"I understand, I understand. It's just that's what everyone in the industry is talking about. Let's just treat it as an interesting anecdote to chat about."

Hu Ge's agent, Yao Yao, quickly chimed in, "This guy is a shrewd one. He just ran out to buy coffee and got a cup for each of the staff at the Weilai exhibition area, which earned him a lot of goodwill from the staff."

"We'll be doing a lot of promotion this year because of our New Year listing plan, so we'll need your help. Our president's office will send the schedule to Yao Jiji later, so please make the necessary arrangements."

Wei Lai has had a lot of events this year, but he hasn't really arranged for many celebrities to attend. If it weren't for Brother Boatman reminding them, Tan Jincheng wouldn't have remembered that Brother Hu will have two hit dramas this year.

At the peak of his popularity, he might as well make the most of it. Besides, in terms of commercial value, Brother Hu is still quite good.

Wang Baobao is very popular, right? He has a good public image, and his movies are box office hits. But in terms of endorsement value, he's not that high. Low-end products can't afford him, and high-end products don't want him. So his cost-effectiveness isn't very good.

Hu Ge and his agent Yao Yao exchanged a glance, and Yao Yao replied, "No problem, we will do our best to cooperate in any way we can help."

Mr. Tan owns many products. Just because he endorses a car brand doesn't mean he can't endorse others. If he can keep this strongest competitor to the richest man happy, how can he not make money?

In March, due to the annual reports of three companies, the three listed companies controlled by Tan Jincheng took turns rising. The most exaggerated was Shanchi Technology, which was preparing for a high stock dividend, and the company hit the daily limit for three consecutive days after the high stock dividend plan was announced.

FlashTech's cumulative gains exceeded 50% in March, pushing its market capitalization to 300 billion. In April, amid the backdrop of the Daily News proclaiming that "4000 points is just the beginning of a bull market," the Shanghai Composite Index surged across the board.

With the Shanghai Composite Index reaching a high of 4572.39 points and the ChiNext Index reaching a high of 2918.74 points today, the stock prices of the two companies with excellent performance also saw significant increases.

On April 30, Weilai Co., Ltd., a leading company on the ChiNext board, closed at 120.17 yuan with a market value of 261 billion yuan. Shanchi Technology Co., Ltd., which has completed a high stock dividend and expanded its total share capital to 10.2 billion shares, closed at 36.27 yuan with a market value of 37 billion yuan.

The 10-for-10 stock split was intended to drive down the stock price, but the A-share market was in its most frenzied phase, so the stock split was essentially a waste of money.

In addition, Orange Technology, which is listed on Nasdaq, is the one that can best feel the changes in capital. The battle with Ali at the end of last year brought Orange Products a huge amount of traffic, GMV and users, which were directly reflected in the stock price.

As of April 30, Orange Technology's stock closed at $105.09, with a market capitalization of $97.73 billion, equivalent to approximately 60 billion yuan.

Even without taking exchange rate fluctuations into account, the stock price has increased tenfold since its initial public offering. Even in the US stock market, which is generally in a bull market and has no shortage of top-performing stocks, Orange Technology's tenfold increase in seven years is considered an excellent investment target.

Even without considering other assets, the wealth of the Tan Jincheng family is an astonishing figure based solely on these three companies they actually control.

On Labor Day, amidst the frenzy in the A-share market, some financial media outlets compiled statistics on the various assets under Tan Jincheng's name, including the listed companies he actually controls and equity investments.

The Tan Jincheng family, who effectively control three listed companies, owns assets with a total market value of approximately 1700 billion yuan. In addition, their equity investments in Xiaomi are valued at approximately 475 billion yuan, Tesla at approximately 113.6 billion yuan, and Nvidia at approximately 69.17 billion yuan.

In addition, there are a series of investments including AutoNavi (valued at approximately US$15 billion), Bitauto, Orange Live, ByteDance, and a certain group share indirectly held through Flash Technology, as well as shareholdings in the secondary market, which have built up the Tan Jincheng family's enormous wealth.

These companies are either unicorns or star internet companies. Although their current market value may not be very high, their growth potential is quite good.

Based solely on the market capitalization of these listed companies and the assets of unlisted companies with specific valuations, Tan Jincheng and his family's assets may exceed 2500 billion yuan, making him the undisputed richest man in the country.

"Pay attention to public opinion, and also promote our investments in China more."

In Shah Alam, Tan Jincheng, dressed in shorts and a t-shirt and wearing sunglasses, lay on the hotel balcony. The news that he had become the richest man in China had been widely discussed since it was first reported by Sina Finance.

The news of a 29-year-old becoming the richest person in China with a net worth of 2500 billion yuan is indeed eye-catching, but the timing of the announcement and the media source make it seem somewhat unusual.

Mr. Tan's political sensitivity is still quite good. The news mentioned that he has a lot of overseas assets, and he happens to be abroad at the moment, so he can't help but think about it.

"With Mr. Tan's sensitivity, people would believe you work within the system."

Li Chunrong is a new general recruited by Tan Jincheng. He was formerly the deputy general manager in charge of sales at Dongfeng Motor Passenger Vehicle Company and joined Weilai last November.

Tan Jincheng has a deep connection with Dongfeng. They collaborated on the development of power batteries a long time ago, and he even recruited several of their engineers, who now hold important positions in Weilai.

Weilai Group's first customer in principle for power batteries was Dongfeng Motor, and Jinshidai was responsible for helping them develop power battery systems for buses.

The automotive industry's anti-FU movement made a major move in January of this year, but in fact, there had been moves for some time. Li Chunrong did not want to waste his energy on this endless struggle, but chose to join the young Wei.

Before becoming the vice president of passenger vehicle sales, Li Chunrong worked at Dongfeng Yueda Kia. At that time, he was also forced to leave due to a dispute between shareholders. Li Chunrong is also a person with a strong personality. During this period, he went abroad to study.

Li Chunrong, who is 51 years old this year, has the courage to leave the system and join a private company, which is quite admirable.

Speaking of joining Wei Lai, it was actually his own initiative; he had known Tan Jincheng for a long time and recommended himself to Tan Jincheng.

Tan Jincheng naturally welcomed this. The anti-corruption campaign by state-owned enterprises and central enterprises is not entirely anti-corruption. Many talented people will be affected in this process, which is also a good opportunity for private enterprises like Weilai.

It's not just Weilai; other domestic brands, including BYD, Geely, Chery, and Great Wall, have also been scrambling to recruit talent in the past few months.

There are truly talented people in state-owned enterprises and central enterprises.

After rotating through various positions within Weilai for several months and gaining an understanding of Weilai's structure, Tan Jincheng brought Li Chunrong to Malaysia. If Proton's acquisition was successful, Tan Jincheng planned to appoint him as Proton's CEO.

Within the existing domestic system, Li Chunrong wouldn't be able to get a good position, and a regular position would be a waste of talent. Sending him to develop overseas markets is indeed the best choice.

However, this is contingent on Proton being able to successfully acquire the company. If Proton fails, this guy will have no choice but to go to the UK.

"We have to be careful. The source of the news is Sina Finance, which is affiliated with Ali. I don't have a good relationship with Ali, and I don't believe they are doing this to make me famous."

After the Chinese New Year, Tan Jincheng was invited to visit the headquarters of Ali and posed for a few photos with Lao Ma for the media, but this was just for show.

"President Tan's caution is indeed necessary. Even if we have nothing to hide, there's no guarantee that someone won't sabotage us."

"That's right, if a rumor is spread enough, it won't be a rumor anymore."

His overseas assets are indeed substantial. His publicly disclosed equity investments in Tesla, Nvidia, and Apple are all traceable and there's nothing to criticize about them.

However, what the overseas company did, including their family's fixed assets in Hong Kong, is something that can be used to make a fuss, not to mention that they also have some cryptocurrency, which is not very valuable in China.

In addition, the actual controlling shareholder of ByteDance's advertising platform is still an offshore company, and it has also done some tricks in terms of asset isolation.

Furthermore, although the acquisition of Proton was approved and supported by relevant departments at every step, everything has two sides.

"Mr. Li, do you think we should try to secure that 0.1% stake?"

The difference between 50% and 49.9% is significant, but it is precisely because of this 0.1% difference that the two sides have serious disagreements that Tan Jincheng is really undecided for a while. As early as 2004, Proton had discussed acquisition matters with Volkswagen.

Afterwards, Proton also talked with Peugeot and even collaborated with Huatai, with both parties investing 50% each to build a factory in Ezhou, Inner Mongolia. However, Proton was fooled by Huatai that time. Huatai had neither the money nor the capability to build a factory in Ezhou. It simply used Proton's reputation to fraudulently obtain loans and mineral resources in Ezhou, then sold the mineral resources with the loans and disappeared.

"From the company's perspective, it is indeed worth fighting for this 0.1% stake, but from the perspective of acquisition, it is not impossible to give up this 0.1%."

"How do you say this?"

“A 50/50 split would be advantageous for us in controlling Proton, but the other party is a Malaysian state-owned enterprise. They may not care who manages the company, but they certainly care about their reputation.”

"Otherwise, they wouldn't have said that if we could accept 49.9% of the shares, they would give us a price reduction."

That's right. Their current CEO is some kind of supervisor, and his rank is quite high. It's probably an honorary title, somewhat similar to dukes, marquises, or earls in ancient China.

"Then let's play it by ear during tomorrow's negotiations. If things don't work out, we'll just give up that 0.1% stake."

"Actually, we don't need to be too fixated on that 0.1%. Our goal is simply to use Proton to open up the Southeast Asian market. His so-called absolute control is not that important."

"Furthermore, Proton also hopes to open up our domestic market, and our cooperation is long-term. It is unlikely that they will try to play tricks on us."

State-owned enterprises, especially those with deep pockets, prioritize prestige to some extent. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to operate at a loss in a market with absolute monopoly. It's worth noting that Proton, which was initially established with state-owned capital, once held more than 70% of the Malaysian market share.

Shah Alam is the capital of Selangor, a state in Malaysia. Located in the central part of the west coast of the Malaysian Peninsula, it has a tropical rainforest climate and is a cultural and political center with a relatively developed economy and manufacturing industry.

Proton, Toyota and other automakers have supporting factories here.

Shah Alam has a tropical rainforest climate with stable weather year-round. The average high temperature is 31.9 degrees Celsius and the average low is 23.2 degrees Celsius. Heavy rains also occur from time to time. Tan Jincheng is quite unaccustomed to this climate.

Although Ningbo in May is already in early summer, the temperature is still quite comfortable, a world apart from this place.

"Hey, let's talk quickly. Once we've finished, let's head back. Mr. Li, you'll have to work hard then. You'll have to get through this awful weather eventually."

Li Chunrong gave a wry smile. This boss was very calm and decisive when he was calm. In April, he found out that Volkswagen was going to launch a price war, so he took the lead and acted decisively, which prevented Weilai's sales in April from being greatly affected.

In the new energy vehicle sector, the growth rate has been very significant due to preferential policies and interest-free policies covering all vehicle types, with a surge in orders for the Aion S and Aion Y models.

The monthly delivery volume of ES6 reached a record high of 1837 units this year, with orders surging during the Shanghai Auto Show.

But sometimes she acts like a child, complaining about the weather in Malaysia after only a few days here.

"I'm doing alright. When I was younger, I traveled a lot for work, and going abroad was quite common. Although I've never been here, I often go to Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand."

"That's good. Speaking of which, Mr. Li is the same age as my mother. I feel a little bad about sending you here at this time."

"Haha, Mr. Tan, you're joking. I'm very grateful that you don't mind my age and are still willing to entrust me with such an important task."

Acquiring Proton and becoming its CEO was a test for Li Chunrong by Tan Jincheng, and also a pledge of loyalty. For the gradually stabilizing organizational structure of Weilai, Li Chunrong, as a newcomer, had to achieve something to gain the recognition of the boss and management.

In addition, while living abroad is certainly arduous, not everyone is qualified to be a regional governor. Countless people within Weilai covet this position.

"Alright, let's leave it at that. We'll meet with their CEO tomorrow and talk it over. If it's about right, we'll give up this 0.1%."

Tan Jincheng has basically accepted Li Chunrong's explanation regarding the 0.1% share.

That makes sense. We just want to use Proton's platform to open up the Southeast Asian market for Weilai, and use their channels and production bases to develop Weilai's presence in Southeast Asia.

If it really becomes unplayable, then so be it.

"Alright, Mr. Tan, you should get some rest too."

The weather was indeed incredibly hot and humid. The rain didn't cool things down; in fact, it made it even hotter.

The night was dark, and the next morning Tan Jincheng led Li Chunrong and his group to Proton's headquarters to meet with Wei Lai's preliminary negotiation team.

"Boss, they said that as long as we can accept a 49.9% stake, the acquisition price can be reduced to 4.6 million Malaysian Ringgit, which is about 7.5 million RMB. In addition, we can also cooperate through a share swap."

The speaker was Zhao Xinyi, dressed in a dress.

After finishing the work at Leichi in the first quarter and finding a successor, Zhao Xinyi joined Weilai in April as the deputy director of the president's office. This was the first time Deputy Director Zhao had accompanied the boss to an important event since taking office.

Tan Jincheng stroked his chin and laughed, "So easy to talk to? You really are rich and powerful. 7.5 million is really not expensive."

Proton's overall valuation, including control of Lotus, is only 15 billion yuan!

Compared to the current severely overvalued domestic assets, this price is practically a steal. Putting aside everything else, even a company like Zhongtai, which can only sell around 10 vehicles a year, is worth more than 15 billion yuan.

Even if both are valued at 15 billion, the boss might not be willing to sell.

"The negotiation team has basically reached an agreement on everything that could be discussed in the early stages. The only point of contention is that they cannot make a decision on it; otherwise, you wouldn't be needed here."

"Alright, let's meet with CEO Mahathir first."

The headquarters of Proton, a brand hailed as a national treasure of Malaysia, is quite impressive. The arrival of the president of Wei Lai Group and his entourage was warmly welcomed. Among Wei Lai's team was a government official from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Therefore, the Malaysian government also sent officials of the corresponding level to participate in the reception, which was a cross-border acquisition that attracted much attention in both countries.

"Hi, Tan, I've heard so much about you, I didn't expect you to be so young."

Mahathir, dressed in a suit, looked at Tan Jincheng with an exaggerated expression of surprise.

"Mr. Mahathir, you flatter me. My youth perfectly represents the vibrant energy of our country, and I believe our cooperation will definitely be a win-win situation."

As a multilingual country, the Malay aristocracy speaks many languages, but Mahathir was still quite surprised by Tan Jin Cheng's fluent English.

He didn't know much about Tan Jincheng, and only obtained some public information after Wei started negotiations with Baoteng. The public information showed that this young tycoon came from humble beginnings and had a low level of education, but many miraculous things happened to him.

"Mr. Tan is right. We all hope to achieve cooperation with your country and your company to achieve a win-win situation."

Mahathir questioned Tan Jincheng's youth, but Tan Jincheng easily defused the issue and even gave him a very good way out, which made the accompanying Ministry of Industry and Information Technology official very happy.

While Proton may not have the same international recognition as Walmart, it is still a very influential brand in Southeast Asia, not to mention the luxury brand Lotus as an added bonus.

If Weilai can successfully acquire the company, wouldn't that be a testament to national strength?

Mahathir put away his exaggerated expression: "Of course, we also hope to successfully reach a cooperation agreement with you."

At such a young age and from humble beginnings, it's no easy feat to have reached this level. I've heard that he's now the richest man in mainland China, with a net worth exceeding 400 billion US dollars, placing him among the world's richest people.

Tan Jincheng was already prepared to make concessions, so the negotiations between the two sides were relatively easy, and Mahathir breathed a sigh of relief.

Proton appears strong on the outside but is weak on the inside. Although it has the support of state-owned assets, it desperately needs a partnership. The previous collaboration with Zhongguo enterprise Huatai, which resulted in them being scammed, was a reckless act when they were in a hurry to open up the market.

They were initially very cautious about this collaboration with Wei Lai, thinking they had encountered another swindler. However, after fully understanding Wei Lai and the involvement of the Chinese government, Proton was finally able to put their minds at ease.

4.6亿马币，其中现金1.7亿马币，剩下的2.9亿马币（约合4.75亿人民币）以435万股尉来集团股份的方式支付。

The price is equivalent to 109.2 yuan per share. Although there is a discount, the price is relatively fair.

In the long run, a stock priced at around 100 yuan is definitely cheap, but the current stock price is indeed a serious bubble; the A-share market has risen way too crazy.

In addition, Wei Lai will also invest 200 million yuan in Proton.

Excluding the 435 million shares of Weilai, Tan Jincheng spent less than 5 million yuan to acquire 49.9% of Baoteng's equity and 51% of Lotus's equity.

It's a great deal, an absolute steal! He's itching to spend money everywhere to avoid being constantly reminded that he's the richest man, but he can't just spend money abroad without a plan.

2015年5月18日，在位于莎阿南市的宝腾总部，宝腾CEO与尉来总裁檀锦程在各方人士的见证下草签下合作协议，尉来集团以4.6亿马币的价格收购宝腾汽车49.9%的股份以及路特斯51%股份。

"We'll have to rely on Mr. Li for the rest."

At the signing ceremony, Tan Jincheng instructed Li Chunrong that Proton would be handed over to Wei Lai for management, and that Mahathir would step down as CEO after the transition was completed, with Li Chunrong taking over.

"Understood, I will do my best."

Li Chunrong looked radiant; he had drunk quite a bit of alcohol today.

(End of this chapter)