Unlike Zhong Huazhi, who had small twists and turns, but successfully acquired GLP Asia's assets by virtue of his first-hand arrangement and general pressure, the situation of the "second battlefield" opened up by Jiagu International in Australia is undoubtedly more complicated.

CSR is a multinational group with diversified businesses, including building materials, sugar, aluminum, property, new energy and other fields.

During the subprime mortgage crisis, housing prices fell across the board, as did commodity prices, and the CSR Group's operations were greatly impacted.

Although there was no official announcement, rumors of CSR Group's intention to sell its sugar and renewable energy assets to focus on building materials and aluminium were already spreading, and the Australian offices of Kagaku's "intelligence agency" Information Department quickly picked up the information and sent it back to headquarters.

The Strategy Department of Jiagu has been keeping a keen eye on CSR Sugar, a subsidiary of the CSR Group, as it is Australia's largest producer of raw sugar and the world's second largest exporter of raw sugar, with seven sugarcane crushing plants producing 2.1 million tonnes of raw sugar per annum, and three refineries in Australia and New Zealand producing 970,000 tonnes of refined white sugar per annum.

If you want to establish a whole industrial chain system from the source to the table in many food industries closely related to people's livelihood such as "rice, noodles, oil, meat, and milk", the sugar industry is an existence that cannot be avoided.

But this is the first time that Jiagu has not entered an industry from China.

In recent years, China's sugar production has begun to grow, and the supply seems to be able to make up for the gap in domestic demand, and sugar imports have also declined.

However, in the long run, sugar is widely used, and the gap in domestic demand may further increase, and there is little room for growth in domestic sugar production, which can only be made up by imports.

The best way to do this is to establish a base upstream overseas.

For a long time, Jiagu International, which is interested in expanding its layout in the sugar industry, has been investigating the upstream resources of the overseas sugar industry and extending the food industry chain.

Now, here's your chance.

Jia Gu International first tentatively expressed its intention to acquire the other party's sugar assets to CSR Group at a price of up to $1.5 billion, but shortly thereafter CSR rejected the takeover offer on the grounds that it was advancing the spin-off of the sugar business.

However, Jiagu International did not give up, on the contrary, since CSR Group revealed its plan to spin off the sugar business, it proves that its intention to sell is not groundless.

As a result, Jia Gu International went ahead with a takeover offer of $1.6 billion – and this time CSR Group did not refuse.

I rubbed it, and the feelings were too low.

Is CSR Sugar worth the price?

"Compared with China, Australia's sugarcane planting level and sugar production technology level are very high, and we can copy advanced technology back to China to support our development in the domestic sugar field. Sugarcane is the main raw material for ethanol, and CSR Sugar increases the production of sugar when international sugar prices rise, and converts it into ethanol production when sugar prices fall, which not only expands the industrial chain, but also reserves renewable energy to form a complete sugarcane industry chain, which is in line with our strategy of comprehensive utilization of agricultural products. Wang Yuye is targeting sugar not only in Australia, but also in renewable energy.

Qi Zheng flipped through the information and nodded in agreement.

In fact, he is more interested in another point: CSR Sugar also has 1,250 kilometers of dedicated railways for the transportation of sugarcane, which can transport sugarcane directly from the farm gate to the crushing plant or port, which has a great advantage in terms of logistics, and produces the lowest cost of white sugar in the world, which has a competitive advantage compared to white sugar produced in Brazil.

CSR Sugar is the largest giant in Australia's sugar industry and the largest outlet for Australia's sugar industry to "go global".

Whoever can master the CSR sugar company will be able to firmly grasp this outlet to the sea, just like holding the seven inches of a big snake - this is more strategic for Jiagu International, which is really stepping out of the country for the first time.

But the question is, this is the first time that Jiagu system has operated overseas to acquire a leading agricultural enterprise with a complete industrial chain and an absolute advantage in the industry, and there is not much experience at all, who can take on this important task?

"I'll personally lead the team over, how to say, this is also a 'cross-industry' strategic acquisition attempt. Wang Yuye took the initiative to ask.

The management of Jiagu breathed a sigh of relief. In the whole group, Wang Yuye has the highest means of M&A management.

This is a merger and acquisition case that affects the entire sugar industry pattern in Australia and even the world sugar industry pattern, and it has always been a lot of missed acquisitions by domestic companies in Australia, and it cannot be taken too seriously.

So Qi Zheng sat in the headquarters, and general manager Wang Yuye led a team to Australia to acquire CSR Sugar Company.

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As soon as Wang Yuye arrived in Australia, he received the latest survey results from the Ministry of Strategy.

Wilmar International is also interested in CSR Sugar, which has been in contact with CSR Group for a long time, although it has not yet made a takeover offer. And, presumably, this is part of Wilmar International's plan to develop its sugar business, which also includes the establishment of a sugar plantation in Indonesia.

Wang Yuye immediately gave this potential opponent enough attention.

In Wang Yuye's view, the takeover war is another form of information warfare, rather than the usual sense of who has more money. The biggest fear is information asymmetry.

As a result, Jiagu International has always preferred to keep a low profile during the acquisition process.

Acquisitions are too high-profile, and it is easy to disclose the intention and price of the acquisition too much and prematurely, which will provide potential acquirers with acquisition targets and save search costs, and second, give competitors the initiative to set prices.

In the same way, you must not take your competitors lightly.

Especially an old rival like Wilmar International.

As a world-class grain and oil company, Wilmar International has a wide range of business segments, and its business in China is represented by "Yihai Kerry", and the "Arowana" brand is from its subordinates, and it is also the main competitor of Jiagu Group in the grain and oil market.

With the pace of Jiagu's global expansion, Wilmar International and Jiagu will inevitably become more and more confrontational, and the M&A story surrounding Australian sugar companies may be just the tip of the gunsmoke.

Coincidentally, Li Licheng, who is in charge of the merger and acquisition of Australian sugar companies at Wilmar International, also thinks so.

Jiagu saw the demand gap in the domestic sugar market, and extended the industrial chain in a targeted manner, until the grand layout far overseas, with the ultimate goal of serving the domestic market.

This is also seen by the opponents.

Wilmar International is also known as the "Singapore Sugar King" because its sugar business is almost monopolized in Singapore. However, the markets of Malaysia and Singapore are too small, so what is the significance of being the "sugar king" in a small place? Naturally, they have set their sights on the vast Chinese market.

As a direct competitor, of course, it will not sit idly by and watch Jiagu rise at the front end of the industrial chain.

Upon his arrival in Australia, Lee made a takeover offer of $1.65 billion to CSR Sugars, which was supported by the CSR Group board.

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