Chapter 201 Comprehensive Acquisition
Negotiations on price will not be completed overnight, and Liu Zhicheng certainly will not do it himself in Allentown.

That day, Liu Zhicheng returned to his hotel in Philadelphia to rest.

The next day, the hotel in Philadelphia welcomed an unexpected guest.

"Hello, Mr. George, long time no see!" The man was George, the vice president of Citibank.

"Mr. Liu, it's been a long time." George said with a smile.

Liu Zhicheng took a sip of coffee and said with a smile, "I don't know what brought Mr. George to Philadelphia today. Is there anything you want to talk to me about?"

"Of course I have something to say. I dare not disturb Mr. Liu for no reason."

"Please speak frankly, Mr. George." Liu Zhicheng had a hunch that there must be someone with capital that took a fancy to something in his hands.

"Haha, then I'll be frank. An investor has taken a fancy to the Walmart shares held by Mr. Liu, and I wonder if he's willing to sell them." Qiao Ye asked with a smile.

"Could it be Citibank?" Liu Zhicheng asked with a smile.

Sam Walton will become the richest man in the United States this year, and Walmart's market value will reach 100 billion US dollars.

But by 1990, the market value would have increased 25 times compared to when he bought it, and he would have maximized his investment benefits.

Someone is trying to rob us!

"NONONO, don't get me wrong, Mr. Liu. Someone really found us and wants to take over your shares. It just needs to be kept confidential, so I can't tell you the client's name." George explained hurriedly.

Now the cooperation between Citibank and Liu Zhicheng is an all-weather strategic partnership, and the interest that Citibank earns from Liu Zhicheng is in the billions every year.

Citibank would not dare to offend Liu Zhicheng, a super VIP customer, easily.

Liu Zhicheng began to fall into deep thought, and George was willing to give him time to think. After all, this was a difficult decision.

This issue must be taken seriously. This is in the territory of the United States, and capital controls everything.

There is no way but to cut the losses. Now that I have been targeted by the jackal, it would be unwise to turn the table and leave.

How can we maximize benefits?
"Mr. George, what are their bargaining chips?" Liu Zhicheng asked tentatively after a moment.

"They used a market price agreement to transfer it, so Mr. Liu's interests are still protected. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here today." George replied.

Liu Zhicheng nodded and said with a smile: "Mr. George should also know the purpose of my visit. If they are willing to help me take over Mark Company, I am willing to transfer half of Walmart's shares."

Out of protectionism in the United States, Liu Zhicheng originally only wanted to acquire the technology, but now that the opportunity for a complete acquisition is before him, he cannot miss it.

To put it bluntly, this is an exchange of interests.

"Mac Truck!" George saw that Liu Zhicheng's expression was serious and knew that he was making conditions.

George frowned and thought for a while, then continued, "I know this company is one of the top ten heavy truck manufacturing companies in the United States. How did Mr. Liu come up with the idea of ​​acquiring a truck company?"

Liu Zhicheng smiled and said: "Diversification is what any company should do. I can't go against the trend. Although the oil crisis has occurred in recent years,
The major car companies around the world are having a hard time, but the economy will eventually recover, and I have to plan for the future.”

George smiled and said, "Mr. Liu, if you are interested in car companies, how about acquiring one? We at Citi can coordinate and give you the best advice."

Liu Zhicheng asked with a smile: "Is Citibank unwilling to help me acquire this truck company?"

George shook his head and said, "It's not impossible for a truck company, but even without the oil crisis, the truck industry is not optimistic.

The ceiling of this industry is too low, far from that of family passenger cars. I am just giving Mr. Liu a friendly reminder.”

"What you said is indeed realistic. The market of family car industry has broad prospects, but the competition is also fierce.
And this also means competing with the giants in the United States. I don’t want the Wal-Mart incident to happen again.” Liu Zhicheng shook his head and smiled.

Liu Zhicheng smiled and said, "I understand Mr. Liu's worries. You can rest assured this time. We are recommending a car company that never sets.
I wonder if Mr. Liu has heard of Leyland Motors, an automobile group owned by the British Empire that has been intending to privatize since Margaret Thatcher came to power.

Mr. Liu is from Hong Kong. If he can invest in the British mainland, I think they will be very welcome.”

"I'm not interested in investing in British Auto." Liu Zhicheng refused directly.

The automobile industry, on which the sun never sets, is a huge pit, and there is no way Liu Zhicheng could jump into it.

In the 70s, in order to expand and strengthen the automobile industry, the British government forced Rover, Land Rover, Triumph, Jaguar, Austin, etc.

A total of 30 automobile brand companies merged to form the Leyland Motor Group.

Before its rebirth, there were many well-known car brands here. If you study it carefully, you will find that none of them is a brand under the Leyland Motor Group. They all rose again after being sold and restructured.

Now the company is just large in scale, but it loses hundreds of millions of US dollars every year. It is impossible for Liu Zhicheng to be the one to take over.

In the past, BMW acquired Rover and then lost US$30 billion, and Ford acquired Jaguar and also lost US$20 billion.

Moreover, the companies that acquired these companies are all century-old automobile companies with strong technology. As a novice, Liu Zhicheng's losses will be even greater.

How could Liu Zhicheng jump into this trap when the cards were clear?
"How about this, Citibank can start working as an investment institution for the acquisition of Mack Trucks, and I can even transfer Apple's shares to them."

Liu Zhicheng first threw out the bait. After all, when there is the possibility of more profits, the capital of the United States will pay more attention to its own affairs.

Liu Zhicheng had to deal with Apple shares first because Steve Jobs was about to leave Apple and the big crash was about to begin.

"That's no problem." George nodded and said, "I'll arrange for someone to communicate with them right away. As far as I know, although Mark's profits have decreased in recent years, if Mr. Liu wants to acquire it, it will cost about 23 billion US dollars."

Liu Zhicheng nodded and said, "Don't worry, Citibank. The market value of my Walmart and Apple stocks is much higher than this price."

"I am naturally confident in Mr. Liu's financial resources, but if the diesel engine production technology of Mark Auto is transferred to foreign capital, it needs to be reported to the Foreign Investment Committee of the Ministry of Commerce for approval, which will be a bit troublesome." George explained.

Liu Zhicheng smiled and said, "I believe in Citibank and their capabilities."

George nodded and said, “I understand what Mr. Liu means, then I will arrange it immediately.”

Afterwards, George left with Liu Zhicheng's opinion that there would definitely be no problem with the transfer of Mark Company.

Because this GJ is controlled by them, the transfer of a small Mark company can definitely be settled.

Due to the change in acquisition strategy, Liu Zhicheng remained active in Philadelphia and had in-depth exchanges with some people from Mark Company.

And began to visit the local government and the union leaders of Mark Company to deepen mutual understanding.

Liu Zhicheng even promised that once he acquired Mark Company, he would never lay off employees.

Moreover, more funds will be invested to upgrade the industrial technology to make Mack trucks more internationally competitive. A few days later, Liu Zhicheng flew to New York to visit Orange Technology's R&D center in North America.

"Boss, welcome to North America." Steven Sassen stood at the door of the research center and welcomed him with a smile.

"Shasen, you're so polite. I heard that our digital camera has been launched, so I came here specially to take a look." Liu Zhicheng said happily.

Liu Zhicheng has been working hard for ten years and his investment has exceeded 300 million US dollars.

If this money is invested in the Hong Kong real estate market, the profit will be multiplied several times.

Now digital camera technology has finally made a breakthrough. This is his son, the hope for the future, so of course he has to come and see him.

"Of course I won't let the boss down." Sassen was also very happy today. He did not disappoint his boss' expectations. The laboratory finally had a digital product that could be commercialized.

Afterwards, Steven Sasson began to take Liu Zhicheng to visit the laboratory, although it was a cursory tour.

But Liu Zhicheng was delighted to find that half of the researchers inside had yellow skin faces. They should be researchers sent from Hong Kong.

If half of them could return to Hong Kong, the research strength of the headquarters would see a qualitative leap.

After a tour, we went to the conference room to listen to Shasen's report.

In the conference room, Shasen picked up a camera and handed it to Liu Zhicheng, saying, "Boss, this is our digital camera."

Liu Zhicheng happily took it in his hand and began to look at it. It looked like a digital camera from his previous life, just a little bigger.

"The technology of our camera is comparable to that of Sony, and it is also equipped with three lenses: standard zoom, medium focal length, and telephoto," Shasen introduced.

In 1981, Sony launched the Mavica, the first truly digital camera, equipped with three lenses.

As for the SLR cameras of the previous generation, it would take several years for them to appear.

As for the quality of the lens, there is no unified standard yet. As long as the technology remains at the same level around the world, Liu Zhicheng will not care about these issues.

"How many photos can our digital camera store?" Liu Zhicheng asked.

"Boss, our memory chip is TI DRAM 4K chip, which can store photos."

"Yes." Liu Zhicheng nodded and continued to ask: "How do I export this photo?"

"We have developed a matching photo printer that can be connected via a data cable for direct printing." After saying this, Shasen handed Liu Zhicheng a photo printer device.

Due to the limitations of memory chips, current digital cameras cannot store many photos.

Liu Zhicheng remembers that digital cameras in the past developed rapidly only because they were used in conjunction with computers.

"Can we import the photos into a PC via a data cable?"

"Boss, theoretically it is possible, but we haven't done the corresponding development yet. I think it should be very simple." Shasen thought for a while and replied.

"Well, just press on. I won't make any special requirements. As for memory chips, we also need to speed up our research. You need to cooperate with the chip research center." Liu Zhicheng said slowly.

"I know, please rest assured, boss."

After Sassen left, Liu Zhicheng had a brief communication with Wang Xingqin, the Chinese head of the chip research center.

Currently, Orange Technology's chip research work in the beautiful country is fragmented. There are some results, but it has always lagged behind others.

Liu Zhicheng knew that this work could not be rushed, and only by slowly laying a solid foundation would there be a possibility of soaring to great heights.

…………

A month later, Citibank finally brought good news.

After Citibank and Liu Zhicheng reached a consensus, they immediately began to contact several major shareholders.

Mack Trucks has been in business for more than 80 years, and after several major recessions and subsequent economic fluctuations, Mack's shares have long been dispersed.

The largest holding institutions are basically some large pension funds and union funds.

After entering the 70s, as high-tech companies in the United States emerged rapidly, funds naturally became more optimistic about technology companies and began to care less about traditional companies.

Faced with Pacific Investment's 30% premium acquisition, several major funds are naturally willing to sell their shares and invest in higher-profit technology companies.

On January 1986, 1, Citibank announced that Pacific Investment Fund would fully privatize Mack Truck Company for US$18 million.

At the same time, it will assume its debt of 6000 million US dollars. On the same day, the Foreign Investment Committee also announced its approval of the acquisition.

Although truck engines are high-tech products, they are still far behind some military weapons, semiconductor technology, aviation technology, etc.

Citibank and the capital behind it also have strong public relations capabilities. After Liu Zhicheng signed a non-proliferation agreement on several core technologies, the Foreign Investment Acquisition Committee successfully approved the acquisition.

In fact, it is impossible for Liu Zhicheng to spread these technologies, which are the core competitive capabilities of Mack Trucks.

He acquired the company in order to make money, and naturally hopes that the company will be able to maintain its competitiveness in the future.

With the assistance of the law firm, Pacific Investment successfully took over all shares of Mark Company.

From this acquisition, we can see how strong the capital behind it is.

Afterwards, Liu Zhicheng felt a little sad that he was lucky he didn't overturn the table and just walked away.

After taking over Mack Trucks, according to the agreement with the management, the first US$5000 million in R&D funds has been transferred into Mack's account.

The funds will not only be used to develop new heavy-horsepower engines, but also to reuse existing technologies to design new light-duty trucks and passenger vehicles that are easy to maintain and rugged.

All the preparations made by Liu Zhicheng are aimed at the development of the Asian market.

In addition, 5% of Walmart's shares were valued at US$5 million and 16.6% of Apple's shares were valued at US$3.2 million, and the agreements were transferred to third-party institutions.

Apple had begun its final capital frenzy due to the departure of Steve Jobs, and Liu Zhicheng was eager to get rid of it, so he transferred it at the price when it was first listed.

Anyway, I have already made a lot of money, so the price doesn’t matter.

(End of this chapter)