Chapter 787 - Interfering the Acquisition

Translator:

_Min_

Editor:

Caron_

Shenzhen, SF Express headquarters.

Sitting at the desk, Wang Wei meticulously read the files on the table.

As the president of SF Express Group, Wang Wei, was as legendary as the company he led. He was only 22 years old. With a start-up capital of only 100,000 CNY, he had grown from a startup company with a total of six people to SF Group with a market value of over ten billion dollar today.

Even Jack Ma expressed deep admiration for him.

However, today he was obviously a little absent-minded. This situation was very rare. He put the pen aside and rubbed his sour brows.

Recalling the past, the last time he experienced this kind of anxiety was still in 2002.

At that time, SF faced a severe test of the right to retrieve power from franchisees. If successful, SF Express would become the first logistics company to get rid of the affiliate system and achieve direct management of the company’s network.

There was no doubt that this attracted the interest of the franchisees. However, in the process of retrieving power, Wang Wei had a tough stance and he even made it clear that by the deadline, they either had to sell the company’s shares to him or leave SF.

It was because of this tough attitude that brought Wang Wei death threats. Some franchisees actually put a bounty to hunt Wang Wei. This incident left a deep scar in his life – even today, he always had 4-6 bodyguards with him.

At this time, his subordinate Li Dongqi pushed open the door and swiftly walked in.

Wang Wei didn’t blame him for not knocking on the door but hurriedly asked, “Did Future Group agree?”

Li Dong had a bitter smile and shook his head.

“No, they gave me the impression that their ambitions for this market aren’t small.”

Wang Wei didn’t seem surprised by the answer.

With the control of VRstore that generated a huge amount of traffic, Future Group even possessed the momentum to command the field of e-commerce. Now, many people developed the habit of experiencing the virtual yet realistic shopping experience, including Wang Wei himself. Every time he put on a helmet, he couldn’t help but admire the ingenuity of the VRstore designer.

...

With such a unique advantage, it would be strange if Jiang Chen wasn’t interested in logistics.

After a few moments of deliberating, Wang Wei said, “Tomorrow I’ll personally visit Xin. If I can meet Jiang Chen, I’ll convince him in person.”

“No, he’ll probably be here by tomorrow.” Li Dongqi sighed.

Wang Wei took a moment to process before his eyebrows twisted together.

This was a bit difficult to handle now.

While SF felt difficulty in making progress, Jiang Chen also felt resistance. Otherwise, he wouldn’t make a personal trip here.

The company selected by Xia Shiyu was STO, and for the 11% premium offered by Future Group, the proposal to purchase 51% of STO’s shares for 1.7 billion US Dollar received satisfaction from several major shareholders.

Future Group wanted to invest in STO. That was a good thing! Even if it was based on its resources in the VRstore that could favor STO even by the slightest margin, their shares would more than double the current value, not to mention Future Group also purchased at an 11% premium!

As long as they gave up a portion of the stocks, the rest of the stock could be more valuable. It would be foolish to reject such an offer.

However, they encountered resistance in the last stage of the acquisition.

As soon as he was about to sign, the original shareholders who agreed to sell their shares changed their positions and refused to sell their shares. No matter how Future Group persuaded them, they seemed to have their minds made up.

Future Group inquired for the rationale and they discovered it wasn’t the shareholders, but it was the government that began to intervene.

This caught Jiang Chen off-guard, but when Shi Xiyu heard the news, it didn’t seem to surprise her.

For mutual acquisitions between small companies, the government’s attitude was often based on the criteria of “according to the laws of market economy development.” However, when it came to large companies, the government’s attitude was more cautious.

A typical case was Coca-Cola’s acquisition of Huiyuan Juice Group in 2009, which was rejected by the Ministry of Commerce under antitrust. This situation not only occurred in Hua. Huawei’s repeated setbacks in the UA could be attributed to the fact that since 2008, the UA government had systematically prevented the company from acquiring UA assets. This caused Huawei to suffer repeated setbacks when it entered the UA telecommunications industry.

What had to be pointed out was that if Future Group was registered in Shanghai, and not a small Western Pacific country that has no international influence, but held strategic signifiance to UA, perhaps the Phantom helmet wouldn’t be available in the UA.

Jiang Chen originally hoped the Liu family could offer some help, however, Elder Liu’s answer left him with nothing to say.

The Liu family did have influence at the very top, but this matter wasn’t something that he alone could decide. After all, the political power of the Republic was more than the Liu family. The government was overwhelmed by the fact that Future Group became too involved, and they weren’t interested in drone logistics.

Reducing 400,000 jobs to 50,000 might seem tempting to other companies, but from the government’s standpoint, weren’t they lowering the employment rate?

Many times you’re not brought in because you’re advanced, unless the country can’t survive without you.

For example, quantum communication satellites were not available in market because of the potential impact on the “Telecom Big Three” in the oligopoly market.

“When we were in the conference, the Liu family voted against the proposal to intervene in the acquisition. I can’t help you too much in this matter. However, I can reveal to you the bottom line in this acquisition.” At the end of the call, Liu Xiangguo smiled mysteriously.

“Oh? What is it?” Jiang Chen asked.

[You took so much money every year and now you should do something?]

“Equities,” Liu Xiangguo gave an abstract word. “Future Group can expand into the market, but it can’t monopolize the market. Do you understand what I mean? If you want to buy STO, you can only hold 30 percent. This is the bottom line. Or you start your own logistics company.”

In the end, the old man’s tone was mixed with deeper meanings.

“What about drones?” This was Jiang Chen’s main concern.

“The drones ... we certainly hope you can cooperate with domestic logistics companies. After all, this drone technology is very good!”

Judging by the first half of the sentence, it was clear that Hua wouldn’t make a fuss about the upcoming drone management bill, but the latter half of the sentence was somewhat unclear.

However, since he already asked about the answer, Jiang Chen stopped chatting with the old guy. Just before hanging up the phone, he suddenly thought of something then asked another question.

“By the way, have you ever heard of an organization called Freemasonry?”

Liu Xiangguo’s narrowed eyes opened slightly as he frowned. His tone became unpredictable.

“Freemasonry? How did you get involved with them?”

“They came to find me.”

“Oh, then you ran into a very troublesome opponent.” Liu Xiangguo smiled gloatingly. “How about this? Do you want to come back to the country? They can’t do anything in the country.”

“I’ll pass. I’m very comfortable on the outside.”

After hanging up the phone, he immediately went to see Xia Shiyu. The two exchanged opinions with each other.

The resulting answer was also very clear.

The profits of the logistics market were quite large. In the past decade or so, the logistics industry had seen exponential growth. According to data from 2015, the annual volume had already exceeded 20 billion pieces, and the total industry revenue also reached 200 billion.

If things worked out, the market alone on the Hua side would bring about billions in profits to Future Group each year!

Although there were some problems with the policy, they could still work to resolve the issues in front of them.

If they couldn’t do so directly, then they would flank from the back!