Only by knowing oneself and knowing one's opponent can one not be defeated.

Since he became a rival in the bidding with Tata Motors, Han Hao asked someone to collect all the information that the other party could refer to.

The poor financing of Tata Steel's M&A case made Han Hao smell the limited strength of the other party. Originally, the Tata Group was using high leverage and the influence of the Indian government to make large-scale mergers and acquisitions, and in terms of financial strength, they could not compare with the Zhonghua Group, which is rooted in the booming China.

Now Ford is selling Jaguar and Land Rover as a package, which happens to inadvertently raise the bidding price, which is a good thing for the Chunghwa Group.

The only disadvantage of the Chung Hwa Group is that Tata Motors belongs to the Commonwealth cultural circle, and it is easier for the local government and workers to accept it as a British brand to India than to sell it to Chinese.

With the cooperation of Ford Motor, the international M&A team of Zhonghua Group conducted due diligence on the two major brands of Jaguar and Land Rover, and not only found that Ford owed the two companies nearly $2 billion in pension services, but also found that the two companies had nearly lost their hematopoietic function with little investment in R&D expenses in the past two years, and at least owed 600 million yuan in R&D expenses as promised.

This made Goldman Sachs, which valued the two major brands at 5.5 billion at the beginning, suggest that Han Hao lower the offer and set the amount at about 4 billion US dollars. Because the current Jaguar and Land Rover are completely two major burdens for Ford, which are constantly dragging down the overall business.

In addition to the sharp reduction in quotations, it also asked Ford to make up 2 billion workers' pension benefits after the aftermath, so that Zhonghua Group was willing to take over the Jaguar and Land Rover brands.

Based on his trust in the M&A team and his own analysis, Han Hao agreed with this suggestion.

Chunghwa Group officially submitted a bid to Ford for the two major brands, Jaguar and Land Rover, with a valuation of $1 billion for Jaguar and $3 billion for Land Rover.

This round of bids is only the next shortlisted bid, and Ford will select three bidders from all the bidding companies for a comprehensive comparison before selecting the preferred bidder.

Of course, the $4 billion price is not the final offer, but a kind of sincerity, and the two sides will negotiate more closely, and the transaction price will still change.

Ford spent $5.4 billion on Jaguar and Land Rover that year, and after years of additional investment of no less than $10 billion, it was valued at less than $4 billion when it was sold. This is also a helpless thing, selling assets under the economic downtrend will definitely have to be discounted to sell.

After Chunghwa Group first submitted an offer, Tata Motors, which was considered its biggest rival, did not follow up in time.

Since the problems that can be found by the due diligence of the Chung Hwa Group, the Indians will naturally be able to understand it, and their quotations are estimated to be discounted.

In contrast to other consortiums of funds that participated in the bid, only Chunghwa Group and Tata Motors were the two bidders specializing in car production, and Ford preferred to choose the preferred bidder between the two brands in line with its responsibility to the two brands.

At that time, BMW abandoned Rover Motors and let it be taken over by the Phoenix consortium, which resulted in a lot of chicken feathers, so that Ford did not want to repeat the mistakes of the past and affect its image.

Mercedes-Benz is breaking up with Chrysler, and according to credible market rumors, Chrysler will be sold to a private investment fund called Cyprus for $7.4 billion. The fund has an American background, and Mercedes-Benz, like BMW, chose to sell the company that it had worked so hard to acquire and then be ruthlessly pitted by itself, and finally sold it back to local capital.

It is very obvious that the Cyprus fund company will only see Chrysler as an investment, and sooner or later they will look for a home for the company.

Three generations of a nobleman, as the head of the Ford company, Bill Ford at least has his own integrity. Even if Ford were to abandon Jaguar and Land Rover, he would not want to sell them to private investment funds, but would like to find a good home for them.

In similar bids, Ford prioritizes synergies such as Chunghwa Group and Tata Motors over the rhetorical consortium of funds.

Han Hao can now use no less than 8 billion US dollars of his own M&A expenses, and no less than 5 billion US dollars of financing as a backup, including bank bridge loans, interest-free loans promised by the Hujiang municipal government, etc.

In other words, this acquisition of Jaguar Land Rover, Han Hao can swallow it with only his own funds, and does not need external financing. This is also the biggest advantage of the Chunghwa Group, as long as Ford nods, the billions of dollars in bidding fees will be received the next day, and it does not need to be as complicated as the financing package proposed by Tata Motors.

Now it was Han Hao's turn to ring, and he saw that it was Tata Group boss Ratan calling.

"Tell him I'm in a meeting and ask him to call back in an hour. ”

Han Hao instructed the secretary that he intended to dry Ratan to dry in order to grasp the initiative between the two.

It is very obvious that Tata Motors must have been in some trouble for a long time when it did not make an offer.

An hour later, Ratan called on time again, it seemed that this phone call was very important, and then Han Hao picked up the phone in a hurry.

"Han, my old friend, I have a good suggestion for your reference. The joint acquisition of Jaguar Land Rover that you mentioned earlier, after considering it, I was very interested.

If the two of us join forces, we will be able to win Jaguar Land Rover smoothly and avoid competition with each other. ”

Of course, in terms of the final ownership of the brand, Land Rover, a brand that continues to make profits, belongs to you, and we only need Jaguar, which has been losing money. ”

Without too much nonsense, after a brief greeting, Ratan said what he meant.

After internal assessment by Tata Motors, they really cannot compete directly with Zhonghua Group, the most important thing is that there is a problem with funds, and they can only give priority to ensuring the completion of the merger and acquisition of steel projects, and the automobile side can only be delayed.

Ratan knows that Land Rover is worth more than Jaguar, but Jaguar is still in the mainstream of the market in the sedan field, and Jaguar is not that expensive. In the current context, Tata Motors can get a piece of the pie, and getting the Jaguar brand is already the best choice.

"Originally, I was quite interested in your proposal under the previous circumstances. But Ford has already said that it will sell Jaguar Land Rover together, and it is estimated that your proposal will not pass their review, and Jaguar is also a brand that I am quite optimistic about, so we will not consider this plan for the time being. ”

By this time, the Chunghwa Group had clearly gained the upper hand, and Han Hao was no longer considering joining forces with Tata Motors.

His goal is to swallow Jaguar and Land Rover in one bite and build his own line of luxury high-end models.

Everything in the world is constantly changing, and each decision can only be made based on the current optimal situation, so the contrast between Tata's rejection and agreement is also helpless.

After Han Hao's side hit the soft nail, Ratan had no choice but to submit a bidding offer to Ford Motor Co., Ltd., and their valuation of Jaguar Land Rover was a head lower, only $3.5 billion.

In fact, even if it is an offer of $3.5 billion, they can only come up with less than $2 billion in financing, and the funding gap is very large.

Just as Ford has always emphasized, the offer is not the decisive factor in the final victory, and they will take into account the true strength of each bidder to find a satisfactory home for Jaguar and Land Rover, so Tata Motors is not out of the competition and they are still on the shortlist.

For Chung Wah Group, there is a lot of off-site work to be done in addition to the offer.

For example, welcoming the trade unions of Jaguar and Land Rover to visit and inspect Zhonghua Group is one of the important public relations means. With union support, there will be much less resistance to bidding.

But before meeting with a delegation of British trade unions, Han Hao found time to meet with another person who had also traveled thousands of miles back to China.

The "China Night" held in Detroit has already spawned many sub-venues, which can be seen in Europe, South Korea and Japan, and other automotive powerhouses, and the Chunghwa Group is searching for available talent in the automotive industry around the world.

Germany also held a special "China Night" to attract talents from the automotive powerhouse to work in China.

It was after participating in the "China Night" that Zhang Fan strengthened his belief in returning to China for development.

Generally speaking, a person like Han Hao, who is busy with work, basically does not meet with talents returning from overseas alone, and usually takes time out to hold multi-person symposiums in batches. As the company gets bigger and bigger, he has less time to do everything himself, and more time to focus on the formulation of the group's grand strategy and external communication and coordination.

However, Zhao Quanfu, director of the Automotive Research Institute, strongly recommended the other party to let Han Hao and Zhang Fan meet, after all, the Chinese who can make a name for themselves in the Mercedes-Benz Design Center are the first Chinese, and Zhang Fan's joining can greatly enhance the independent design ability of Zhonghua Group.

It is precisely because Zhao Quanfu promised to give Zhang Fan a platform to take charge of his own affairs when recruiting, and the other party will happily return to China to join the China Group.

However, China Automobile has Zhao Chunlei, who has created "water droplet ripples", and Ma Xiaofei, who has the design language of "Beacon Great Wall", where is Zhang Fan's platform?

The answer was revealed in Han Hao's meeting with him.

"We are ready to build a hard-core mid-to-large off-road SUV in addition to urban SUVs. If there is a benchmarking target, it is flagship products like the Fengtai Prado and the Land Cruiser.

SUV is the blue ocean field we have always been optimistic about, after the urban SUV, the competition for the hard-core off-road market is the next strategic direction. ”

Han Hao met with Zhang Fan in the office.

This young designer, who is about his age, wears glasses and looks suave, which is in line with his expected image.

Although urban SUVs are selling very well, the corporate brand image has to rely on hard off-road SUVs such as all-terrain to improve.

For example, Toyota has a Land Cruiser, Jeep has a Wrangler, BMW has an X5, etc., and Zhonghua Group also needs to concentrate resources to build a flagship SUV of its own.

"It was a big surprise and a big test. You must know that our Chinese automobile companies have never set foot in such a field, and it is really surprising that you have entrusted me with such a task.

I want to know, what kind of work do you want?"

When Zhang Fan heard this, he immediately felt a heavy burden on his shoulders.

"Products that suit our Chinese interests and are built around the local market. ”

Han Hao knew that it was impossible to eat a fat man in one bite for such a flagship SUV, so he could only rely on the local market to digest it.

Compared with the price of the overlord and the Land Cruiser, which are often five or six hundred thousand, Han Hao hopes that the flagship products of domestic SUVs can be controlled at about 250,000 yuan.

When I heard Han Hao's request, it seems that there is no requirement, but in fact, it is precisely the most difficult place, there is no ready-made answer to the products that Chinese like, and Zhang Fan needs to lead the team to find it carefully.

The entire project gave a budget of 1.2 billion, and the time was controlled within 48 months, which was enough for Zhang Fan to show his strength.

"I want to build a new car that makes Chinese proud!"

Pressure is the driving force, and Zhang Fan returned to China to realize his ambitions, so he said such heroic words when the project was established.